[porthacking (Scott)]

Hi All,

Having been interested in astrophotography or over a decade, I am finally going to get on and do it. I have done quite a bit of research about what I think I would like to get.

In principal, I want a high quality set up that wont become completely redundant when I upgrade. I would like it to be forgiving and able to produce good images without too much head-into-brick-wall action. I am quite OK with steep learning curves and I'm not unfamiliar with most of the work flow.

I was thinking...
- Skywatcher Star Adventurer Pro 2 mount (on the matching tripod).
- This seems like it will be great for Milky Way photography too.
- William Optics SpaceCat/RedCat 51 + ZWO ASI 183MC Pro
- This seems like a good match according to reviews and the calculations.
- I am hoping that this scope should be fairly user friendly and low fuss.
- I'd prefer to not add the complexity of mono and filters to the learning curve at this stage.
- ZWO ASIAirPro for polar alignment, guiding, and automation.

I would like to use off-axis guiding so that I can also have a visual guide/finder scope. I don't think there is room on RedCat51 for a visual guide scope and autoguide scope but OAG should free up room for a visual guidescope. My concern is that without a visual scope as well that I will struggle to find targets, but that could just be because of the unknown. Should I just have a guidescope and be done with it?

Lumicon has a 2" easy guider for ZWO cameras but it doesn't have a helical focuser and the ZWO helical focuser probably isn't compatible with this. Does anybody have any recommendations on what I could use? I don't have to have a helical focuser but it would be nice.

I would also appreciate it if anyone can see any gaping holes or has any comments about the set up.

Thanks,

Scott