Skywatcher 127/1500 goto

[obiwan]

Hello everyone

Thankyou for having me

I am a newbie to the hobby, I have a 13y/o girl who is into space and I would like to foster this hobby, I myself am into looking at the stars and am interested in getting a scope

My/her interest would be planets, moon, maybe if possible deeper clusters etc, and some short exposure astrophotography (I realise a lot more is required for this but I have a budget and have seen other photos that look ok from this model, and want something light and portable, i live in sydney so will have light pollution and will only get out of the city every now and then (I am trying to be honest)

After chatting to store owner in Sydney, forums, research, I have been thinking about the SKYWATCHER MAKSUTOV 127/1500 GOTO

I understand that deep space stuff will be too dim due to less FOV but the ohter stuff should be ok? I have a budget of about 1200, first scope ever and it seems a lot but reviews have been good for this model and it will foster my interests?? not sure? am i spending too much?

Any ideas, alternatives, or thoughts?

I tried to find other threads but came up short, sorry if I am wasting time, but seriously after 4 weeks of research I feel like I know less than when I started to look, it is a minefield out there and honest opinions are appreciated

Thanks for your time

[Wavytone]

Hi Gino,

As a Sydneysider who has been involved in and off for 40 years...

From suburbia using a small scope you can usefully see the sun, moon, planets - even Neptune and Uranus - as well the brighter clusters and nebulae. Galaxies... well there are a few you can get a glimpse of but nothing you'd write home about.

In this respect a 100mm refractor or 125-150mm Maksutov or Schmidt-cassegrain like the one you identified is an ideal start and you should get many happy years of use.

The other question is a mount to put it on, and eyepieces - with that budget in mind yes the scope you have in mind is fine, and you could use a few eyepieces; I'd suggest three - around 30mm, 15mm and 8mm.

A larger aperture say 250-300mm reflector (usually a dobsonian) is needed to get a good view of galaxies but that's only warranted IMHO if you have the time to travel regularly to a dark sky site 2 hours drive out of sydney - and that's limited by the moon phase and weather.

Suffice to say many here don't get the chance more than a couple of times a year and frankly I don't bother anymore. Hence have downsized to a 130mm refractor.

[obiwan]

thanks so much for your prompt reply wavy tone, i think the mount is supplied and it is a goto skywatcher, i have read that the goto is hard to set up for a beginnner ie getting the correct stars aligned etc?

Is this the case?

The dobs look too big and I will not be getting out of the city too much, just trying to find dark spots around here

Thanks again for your time my daughter is getting pumped

[Wavytone]

I'm using a GOTO altaz mount.

IMHO it's easy however you will need something that easily identifies the bright stars and planets and there are two solutions:

A) a planisphere, which is a plastic disk bearing a star chart; set the cursor for the date and time and look up, use the map to identify the bright stars for alignment; buy one for a few $ from Bintel;

B) use a smartphone or iPad, with an app like Sky Safari or StarMap Pro to do the same.

I usually try to use a star low in the east/west near the horizon, and another on the meridian near the zenith (ie overhead).

If the mount is levelled and you have set the location date and time, even a 1-star alignment is sufficient for goto to work well enough. In this case a star near the horizon works best; choosing a star high up does not.

In the meantime if you have an iPhone/iPad, get the app "Emerald Chronometer" from Emerald Sequioa. If you have an iPad, there's also the Emerald Observatory app which is a beautiful astronomical clock.

[raymo]

The Go To mount you mention is easy to set up, you can use any bright stars,
and you don't need to know their names. The first time will be an easy learning curve, and after that you should be up and running in 10 minutes or
a bit less. The Mak scope is very slow photographically, but fine for lunar
or planetary imaging.
raymo

[guipago (Geoff)]

Download a program called Stellarium, shows what's in the sky now & can be fast forwarded to show what's going to be in the sky that night for pre planning, does a heap of other great stuff as well & free.

[obiwan]

Thankyou so much gentleman for such quick and detailed replies, so awesome feel supported

Thanks Raymo for the info on the imaging, so what would be better out of these two scopes then for my needs of viewing, lunar, planetary, (deeper stuff that i know will be hard to see with these scopes) and some basic photography

https://www.bintel.com.au/product/st...y-pro-127-mak/

https://www.bintel.com.au/product/ce...5se-telescope/

From my understanding the mounts are both altax goto, however the celestron is totally motorised and the skywatcher can be used manually

The selling point of the celestron is it has a wedge on the mount for astrophotography? however I have seen photos taken with the skywatcher that look ok, is the wedge necessary, i will not be taking photos for national geographic

On the mak, i have read that they take time to cool down or acclimatise? does this mean it takes an hour or so before viewing?

One last question please, I have seen on other beginner forums refractor lenses being suggested to the first time beginner such as myself, and research shows they are built for astrophotography

Am i better going down this path for visibility and then getting further into the hobby?

I cannot see any refractors with goto systems

Thanks again, i want to pull the trigger on the scope but parting with the deniros I want to be sure i get the closest to what i want

I really appreciate your time and valued opinions

Cheers Gino

[Wavytone]

Gino, cooling down time is only an issue with larger maks and SCT's. On a 127mm it won't be an issue.

Personally I'd suggest you forget about imaging unless you're going to triple your budget so that you can buy equatorial mount and a faster and larger aperture scope.

Where it gets interesting is with say a 100mm f/6 ED APO refractor with field flattener, a 70mm guidescope and autoguider on say an EQ6 mount though that kind of set up will be north of $4k new.

Unless you're going to commit to spend the $$$ for an imaging rig what you buy now will not be of much use for imaging.

Personally I made a decision not to bother as there are so many others doing it, it seems pointless, the opportunities to visit dark sky sites are very few (for me) and of those the weather has conspired to wipe out most of them. So such a scope could be a bit of a white elephant.

[raymo]

Answering your questions: The Celestron has two advantages over the Mak
as far as imaging is concerned. It is somewhat faster photographically,
and it has a wedge. Without a wedge you will be limited to very short
exposures, around 15 secs or so, any longer and the stars become
misshapen due to a phenomenon known as field rotation. With a wedge, and the scope properly polar aligned, you should get unguided exposures up
to 30-40 secs. These exposures will only be sufficient for the brightest
DSOs. Wavytone is right on the money for most DSOs, but you should be able to get some half decent lunar and planetary pics, especially if you stack short videos in Registax or similar.
For purely visual of the Moon and planets, the Mak has the edge.
raymo

[obiwan]

Thanks to raymo and wavy tone and all who have responded, super information

appreciate the call on celetron v skywatcher, celestron seems a little more versatile although the skywatcher mount has the manual rotation

will sort it out this weekend with confidence and hopefully come back with questions that involve actual looking at up at yonder instead of talking about it

Thanks again for your time, invaluable

have a great xmas and new year