Hello everyone,
In recent times I have bought myself a new (old) EQ6 Pro from a member here, bought a new (old) CCD from a member here. Now I feel like I need to upgrade a telescope!
I have been doing near solely visual astronomy for a decade or so now and I have more recently caught the AP bug. Definitely NEVER going to give up on VP but I do want to begin to focus more on AP.
To help fund this I am planning on selling some more telescopes. SW 100ED will most likely go, as with the 16" Meade Lightbridge (as fantastic as it has been at my dark site, just don't get used often enough) and then there is the el'cheapo SW 10" F/4.7 Newt (blue). I guess it even really depends on what telescope I choose to go with in the future depends on whether I keep the trusty and faithful LX200 GPS 10" ACF. It's half decent for AP but it does suffer from more field curvature than I would like and i don't think it is correctable within an already "corrected" SCT.
As for my actual budget, not 100% sure! Gotta wait and see what the taxman is going to be giving back
Really though, I am unsure what path I want to go down. Refractor, reflector? Currently have a ST2000XM with 7.4 micron pixels but I am thinking about moving to something with an 8300 in the future, its a sensor that's all the rage!
A part of me wants to spend that bit extra and get a Skywatcher Esprit 150ED Triplet. $7,000 as is and it's probably starting to encroach on the 20kg limit after accessories. I have Hence, for a refractor I am probably stuck at the 120-130 range. With the shorter focal lengths I guess I can drizzle more resolution out when doing photometric studies.
On the other hand I could get a carbon fibre RC-8 F/8 and get it all upgraded for ~$4,500. Of course, then there is the thermal tube currents to contend with that do not appear with a refractor as much. Plus there is the 50% central obstruction and the spider veins messing up with my nice pristine airy disk and giving those nasty diffraction spikes (don't mind them at times but prefer not to have them if I can help it, I mean, they can be added later
).
Not really sure how well the Celestron's Aplantic-Cass compares to the Meade ACF SCT, so my hype coming from both of them, never know who to believe. I do like the idea of the Fastar/Hyperstar, seen some great images come out of them but I am just waiting for the "BUT". Almost seems a little too good to be true. "Works great for deep at F/10-11... But wait! You can also do F/2!"
There is a good chance I'll probably just end up keeping my eyes on the second hand market and see what pops up. Just hoping to get some ideas on a direction to head towards from people that have practical experience. Technically I am an astrophysicist so I should really just go with an RC simply because that is what the "big boys" use
I am open to suggestions
