Scope Upgrade Choice

[thorsdad]

I've been learning a few of the constellations and planets, and been viewing with the 10 x 50 binos and my son's 60mm refractor. Caught a nice view of Jupiter last week, and we could even see 4 moons which was a buzz.

I've been looking at upgrading to a reflector, and have been considering a 150/750 reflector on an eq mount, or even a 200/800, probably GSO like. Would love to take photos of what we see, so I understand a solid mount is a good idea, hence a reflector on eq mount rather that a dob, with motor drive would be good, single or dual axis??. Also, we'd like the scope to be reasonably portable to take away to dark sky places, so some 10 to 12 inch monster is probably a bit big. Been looking at different focussers, and it seems that the Crayford type 10:1 microfocus ones are pretty good. Suggestions for eyepieces sizes and 1.25 or 2", barlows, filters, your choices?

Using the cheapish refractor I can see some of the bad points with this scope. The alt-az mount with wooden legs takes a good few seconds to settle after moving the focus. The focus is fairly coarse, not allowing for much movement before going out of focus. Cheap plastic rack and pinnion type. Erecting eyepiece tube or long 3x barlows seem quite cumbersome and will move about a bit in the eyepiece.

Thanks.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I would be looking at slightly longer focal lengths than the ones you've quoted there, at least a 200/1000 (eg an 8" f/5) as a minimum. If you like looking at Jupiter you're going to want to have more flexibility in the range of magnification than the shorter focal lengths will give.

Yes, a 10" can be too big sometimes, although there's bound to be a few people come along and tell you to go that big!

Do get a sturdy mount, what ever you do! The steadier it is the happier you will be!

[acropolite (Phil)]

Welcome to IIS Rob. A dob would make an excellent first choice, the bigger the OTA the more you will see. Unfortunately as far as mounts go, there are really no cheap options, particularly if Astrophotography is of interest.

[MortonH]

An 8" GSO Dob is the way to go. Excellent views, fairly lightweight and very easy to use. Cost you less than $600.

Morton

[KG8]

Originally Posted by thorsdad

Would love to take photos of what we see, so I understand a solid mount is a good idea, hence a reflector on eq mount rather that a dob

Yes a dob is of no use to you, perhaps an SCT? A second hand one even. These are very versatile as you can mount a camera on top "using the camera's own lens" or stick the camera up it's tailpipe. The latter can be a bit of a problem on the fork-mount scopes but is not an issue on the german mounts like the EQ5. If you have a few grand to play with you could get a nice setup indeed but ring around. A scope can vary 10~30% depending on which shop you go to. With a motor driven equatorial you will also be able to spend you time "looking at" rather than "looking for" things.

Do a lot of investigating before you get into photography though, snapshots can be done cheap but you will need to spend BIG bucks to get high quality photos. the difference starts with the mount and a good mount for hi quality photography will set you back $6000, $8000, etc. But like I say, this is for hi quality. Have a look around the deep space section here, compare the photos with the scopes in the signatures and you will get an idea.

Frank.

[iceman (Mike)]

You make the decision more difficult and more expensive if you want to do astrophotography.

An 8" or 10" dob is great for visual observing, cheap aperture, easy to use, easy to transport, great anywhere. But not good for photos.

An 8" or 10" newt on an EQ6 (for example) is a combination of the two. You get the aperture of the 8" or 10", but being on the EQ mount means you can use a webcam to take photos of the planets or moon, or a CCD/DSLR for images of deep sky.

The problem is, an EQ mount is heavy, harder to setup, more expensive, and the eyepiece can get in weird positions for observing. An EQ mount properly aligned with GOTO can give you a database of objects to select from so you don't need to worry about trying to find them yourself.

Frank is correct also, than an 8" SCT might be a good option for you. A good mix of observing and photographic capabilities. Check IceTrade - I think there's some second hand ones for sale now.

[Hagar (Doug)]

If you ask a hundred people in here which scope to buy you will probably recieve a hundred differing answers.

First you have to decide what you want to use the scope for. If you want to use it for photography, the most important part of the purchase would have to be the mount. You realy need an equatorial mount with at least an RA drive motor to allow you to track images well. This type of mount will take some setting up each time but the benefits far outway the learning curve required. The scope for this type of mount will then be a matter of budget. A small ED refractor say 80mm will give some great results with a camera attached as will an eight inch newtonian.

If you require basic photography and tracking for visual use a fork mount SCT of eight inches will be great and will also give you a goto feature. Be aware that a SCT will probably require a focal reducer to get reasonable DSO photography.

All in all your budget will dictate the scope you eventually purchase. Just remember a Dob will give great visuals but will not allow photography without modification and an equatorial platform of some kind.

PHOTOGRAPHY REQUIRES AN EQ BASE OF REASONABLE QUALITY.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

An 8" GSO Dob would fit the bill for visual. If you want to dabble in astrophotography as well, I'd opt for an ED80 on EQ5 or better + DSLR alongside the Dob. For astrophotography you don't need a big scope and small scope will be lot easier to work with.

[thorsdad]

Thanks for all your suggestions guys. As I said, I was thinking along the lines of an 8" newt on an eq mount. Didn't really think much about the scts. They do seem more portable ie tube length, but maybe a bit heavier. I see a few people have even started out with an 8" dob, and later mounted it on an eq mount.

Interesting.

[thorsdad]

Just wondering what you guys think of the Andrews GSO 150/750 scope.
The GS-500 M-CRF Deluxe version has a Crayford style 10:1 micro-focuser, polar alignment scope and four Plossls for $599.00. Plus looking at $150 for single axis drive.
Do you think this is a good deal, good scope for viewing, reasonably portable, and maybe some basic astrophotography. Or am I kidding myself??

Cheers

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by janoskiss

An 8" GSO Dob would fit the bill for visual. If you want to dabble in astrophotography as well, I'd opt for an ED80 on EQ5 or better + DSLR alongside the Dob. For astrophotography you don't need a big scope and small scope will be lot easier to work with.

You took the words straight from my mouth Steve!

Thorsdad, an ED80 is one of the finest cheap Astrophotography scopes out there!

Plop it on an EQ5 (which comes with GoTo these days) and you have a nice lightweight EQ GoTo Astrophotography kit, all at a good price.

If you end up wanting to take loooooooong exposures of more than about 2 minutes you may need guiding, but that's off in the future.

[thorsdad]

Thanks Ken for your thoughts on the ED80. I didn't really think much about refractors, probably because i don't like using the cheap Tasco 60mm refractor I've got, but it's worth thinking about.

Anyone got any feedback on the GSO newts from Andrews??


Cheers.

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

There is no comparison btw the ED80 and the 60mm Tasco achromat. The ED80 is a wonderful telescope and great value for money. A bigger scope is a lot harder to drive than a compact one yet will produce no more spectacular images than a small one. Unless you specifically want to image small objects, ie small bits of sky, such as planets or smaller DSOs, you will get more enjoyment and better results from the smaller scope IMO. Heaps of stunning images out there from ED80s. One example: http://www.machunter.org/hap_alnitak_close.html

Re the 6" f/5 Newt, I have no experience with that particular one, but it is probably an okay scope (as long as the mirror is parabolic - I doubt it would be anything else). But the mount it comes with will not be good enough for astrophotography. And it's a fast Newt which means if you are planning on using a DSLR coma will probably be an issue. Should be okay though with imagers using small CCD chip, eg DSI.

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

Re the 6" f/5 Newt, I have no experience with that particular one, but it is probably an okay scope (as long as the mirror is parabolic - I doubt it would be anything else). But the mount it comes with will not be good enough for astrophotography. And it's a fast Newt which means if you are planning on using a DSLR coma will probably be an issue. Should be okay though with imagers using small CCD chip, eg DSI.[/quote]

I have recently bought one of these with an EQ6 dual axis drive mount S/H here on IIS and am very pleased with it. The only niggle was slop in the rack and pinion focusser, but a bit of brass shim of appropriate size fixed that. Previously bought a 150 x 1400 newt on ebay with a mount roughly equivalent to an eq2 and found problems with shake and difficult focussing. The mirror proved not to be parabolic, is made of some sort of composite material and, until I received my laser collimator from Bintel today, darn near impossible to collimate. Avoid these at all cost.
These are my first reflectors, having used my trusty 60 x 1000 refractor for the last 15 years, and while they are a bit more fiddly for set up, I wish I'd got one years ago ( but asked these guys here for some advice first )