[netwolf]

Bang for buck imaging would have to be DSLR at present. You can get started and start capturing photons on a relatively low budget. Once you have mastered this then you can migrate those processing skills to dedicated CCD sensors. There is a lot of new imagers coming out at present and competition is healthy for this market. So hopefully in the near future we are going to have more choices in CCD range.

I would suggest a 80mm ED plus a 80mm achromatic guide scope. Or the 80mm combined with a 8" F4 Reflector. This on a Eq6 or HEQ5 mount would be a good start. Add a used modded 350D dslr and a Webcam or Qhy5 guidecamera and you are ready to go.

The mount is the key, get the best mount you can afford. The EQ6 is a good start a G-11 would be better and you can go up from there. The EQ6 has been used to produce some great results at shorter FL's. But at longer FL's it would need a lot more fine tuning to get equal results. This is due to the errors in the mount being larger. The effect of these errors at longer FL's is more noticeable than at shorter FL's. At shorter FL's the error can generally be guided out. Recently i have found a new respect for the Takahahi mounts, the offer a Low error with very small Gear's. The Losmnady, Mathis, AP and Paramounts seem to get there with Larger Gears. The Gear size increases usually proportionally to Load carrying capacity. But The Tak's seems to achive this with smaller Gear's, and hats of to them.

Hmm would a Tak gear and worm fit in a EQ6?


Regards
Fahim