Quote:
Originally Posted by ryanjones
hi kilanya,
I'm going to go against the grain and not say learn the sky and study things first for the simple fact that it's not the way i did it either. As both carlton and alex have eluded to, you can start with what you have. Yes it will be harder and yes there are limits but it's a good starting point.
If it's galaxies and nebs you're after as was the case for me, you're going to need some sort of ability to track with the rotation of the earth so this will be in the form of a wedge for your current alt-az or and equatorial mount. The first 9 months of my ap journey was on a 4se alt-az mount with a wedge. Your 6se and for that matter most sct or mak scopes have long focal lengths and high f ratios. The long focal length means that tracking faults show up easily and the high f ratios means you're not going to let in a lot of light in short exposure times. Having said that, it also means you're going to have a greater magnification on galaxies and smaller nebs ( particularly planetary nebs ). Finding the tracking flaws will force you to learn how to be fastidious about your setting up.
If you are committed to moving the 6se on, it's really going to depend on budget as to what you buy. I can promise you that ap can be bank account emptier if you're not careful about considering everything that is involved. I will say for sure that a lot can be achieved on a relitively small budget.
A few pointers to help you make a decision on what to buy are these.
1. The longer focal length you go for, the more accurate your tracking needs to be before errors become apparent. Guiding is desirable but not impreritive.
2. Running your mount through a laptop has its advantages but in not impreritive.
3. Dedicated astro cameras are amazing but expensive. Your canon 80d will produce lovely images.
4. Focus is one of the keys to a good image. Get a bahtinov mask and learn how to use it really early on.
5. Shorter focal length telescopes with low f ratios tend to suffer from coma which gives you egg shaped stars around the edges. Factor in a coma corrector. It is not essential straight away but it will become desirable as your images start to get better. They will tend to give you more instant gratification early on though.
6. Scts are compact and great for galaxies but they are hard to learn with. Having said that, they will teach you to be accurate. The glass corrector at the front is a magnet for dew. This gets harder to manage as apature increases. Factor in a cheap dew shield. Dew heaters are advantageous but not essential.
If i was going to give you a package to start off with, and please bare in mind it is purely my opinion based on what i have in my collection, it would be a 5 or 6 inch f/5 newtonian telescope on a heq5 pro mount.
I hope this helps.
Cheers
ryan |
a1
I will say that whilst i do have automated scopes, my most used, and I really mean USED is a refractor on manual AltAz mount, nothing beats it for speed, simplicity and ease of use