Which to buy?

[TheCrazedLog]

In a few months, after I get my dream job, I plan to reward myself with a little telescope purchase :D

At the moment I have a BT252 10" Dob... which is great. But as I see it thats sort of an entry level telescope? I'm looking to get into things a bit more... photography would be fun, but so would normal looking.

What am I looking at? DSO, solar, lunar, some random satellite that has rudely interrupted my viewing, and locating that damn Coel bird that sits there of a day going WHOOO-WHOOOP for hours on end. For the purpose of termination.

I would prefer an equitorial mount, because I prefer to do things myself. I work in IT (well.. not at the moment :D) and much prefer to do things manually.

So... I have a choice:
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6883
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=6884
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=7150
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=7155

Now I haven't done a lot of research, in fact, all I've done is have a wander through the bintel site and picked out ones that look interesting.

Of those, I would lean towards the LXD75, the LX200R or the LX90GPS, and of THOSE, I would be going towards the LXD75.
Why?
- It has an equitorial mount, I've never used one of those before and would like to get the hang of it. I'm a very firm believer in do it the hard way first, then learn the easy way, after you've earned it :D
- Its got computer guidance, so I can do exposures if I wish.
- Lets face it: It looks cool!
- The reason I would shy away from it is that its an 8 inch: Thats a loss of two inches on my current scope... I'm not sure I could deal with that :P

- The LX200/90GPS are 10 inches, but they have a tuning fork for a mount and that teaches me stuff all :P
- Besides... it costs 5 grand!

- The lightbridge is tempting by virtue of its gi-bloody-normus size.

Whats the masses opinion? Any others I should consider?

Thanks!

Anthony

[[1ponders]]

How about getting one of these
http://www.myastroshop.com.au/products/details.asp?id=MAS-043b
and putting and ED80 or 8"-10" f/4 Schmidt-Newt with guidescope on it.

If you want to do DSO then you will need to spend another $900 on a wedge for a fork mount scope. The EQ6 has better carrying capacity than the LXD75

[TheCrazedLog]

Well see I'd be open to getting a EQ6 and putting my BT252 on it... 10inch dob. I'm told I'm pushing it for that though... any thoughts?

[Aster]

Works fine for me;)

[TheCrazedLog]

(classical english accent) Good heavens man! Thats a bloody plinth!

Mind you, it looks like it has about 80 kilos of counterweights there...

Whats the feasibility of eq6 tripod with the 252?

[Kal]

If you want to do photography then the most important thing to consider is the mount. Then consider the camera you want, and last, consider the telescope to match the camera/mount (I read that recently, was it here on IIS??)

The EQ6 that 1ponders mentions is a great mount and would be a good starting point ;)

[Aster]

302 Bintel on Tripod very touchy

30kg counterweights, visual and lunar/planetary imaging no problems.
DSO imaging, Yes/No, hands of Auto Guide Maybe.

Works fine on the pier where the 250 is sitting on. So the 250 on EQ6 Tripod should work.

[Stephen65]

I've used an f/5 10" Newt on an EQ-6 and it comfortably handles it.