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Old 29-12-2015, 01:12 AM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Post Help me to choose my first imaging scope&mount!

I did some images with my celestron cpc925, and it's terrible(alt-az seems only work if the exposure under 5 sec ).

So I start to searching information about scope and a eq mount. My time with the scope will be very limited since my first kid just born, so I passed reflector because the weight/collimation/size may requires more time before I can actually start shooting. I locked my target on 80~100mm APO refractor then.

The Sky-Watcher Esprit 100 looks very attractive to me, It includes field flattener/ring/finder/hard case, etc. but I'm a little worried about the quality control of SW, I found a guy post a thread(forgot where exactly, should be in US) said that he had a esprit 80 with bad collimation and ended up exchange a new one from SW, the whole process took him around 3 months. I also didn't find anyone showed an images from this scope, the review of the scope is very limited as well.

My second option is TAKAHASHI FSQ-85edx(I remember fsq 85edx won't need field flattener because of its design, not sure if I'm right), which is kind expensive for me atm, but at least I dont have to worry about the quality and performance of it.

If anyone had the experience of either optics, could you please share with me : ) If the SW Esprit 100 F5.5 performance excellent, I would be very happy to grab the pack with 3k compare to TAK fsq 85 f5.3 cost 4k for optic only. But if the sw 100 performance just OK or bad for its price. I'd rather spend 4k on TAK safely.

For the mount that can carry a 80~100mm refractor tracking accurately and light weight,I called bintel for help. They suggest me SW HEQ5 pro goto and Losmandy GM8 S(price is 3k, and I found it $1940 on
telescopes-astronomy.com.au, Not sure why they set such high price for this mount, stuffs in Bintel normally are the same or $100~300 more than other store, but not $1000 more).

I'm going to pass the HEQ5 mount anyways, SW kind of scare me tho.I leave myself Losmandy GM8S and Ioptron ieq 30 to choose. The reputation of losmandy seems not bad, and I saw people got amazing image with ieq 30. I didn't do much research on other mount brand,some are either too expensive or too heavy.But if anyone got any good light mount cost $2500 or less with nice accuracy,I'd be very happy to learn : )

At the end, thanks for anyone take time to read my long thread, and please leave what you think of the optics and mount I mentioned above will be better for imaging. You are also welcome to share your experience with any other optics and mount, I don't have the time to do all the researches on all the brands, so your experience will save me a lot of time and be very helpful.

Happy new year!
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Old 29-12-2015, 05:21 AM
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Allan_L (Allan)
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Hi Leon,
Welcome to IceInSpace

I am not going to comment on the other mounts/scopes you mention, because I have no experience with them.

However, are you aware that you can convert your CPC mount into an Equatorial by adding the appropriate wedge. I believe others have obtained good results with that setup.
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Old 29-12-2015, 10:05 AM
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multiweb (Marc)
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Hi Leon and welcome to the slippery slope of astro-imaging.
I think you're right on the money when looking for a small refractor. You'll keep it for years to come. Get an ED80 or similar second hand. You can't go wrong. Check the classified here. An HEQ5 is a good mount for it. With a bit of TLC they work perfectly. How hands on are you? Are you part of a club yet? First, have a night out with the guys, talk to them, see the gear on display and when you're ready make your decision.
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Old 29-12-2015, 12:31 PM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by multiweb View Post
Hi Leon and welcome to the slippery slope of astro-imaging.
I think you're right on the money when looking for a small refractor. You'll keep it for years to come. Get an ED80 or similar second hand. You can't go wrong. Check the classified here. An HEQ5 is a good mount for it. With a bit of TLC they work perfectly. How hands on are you? Are you part of a club yet? First, have a night out with the guys, talk to them, see the gear on display and when you're ready make your decision.
Hi Marc,

Thanks for your reply, I used to join a lot star parties when I lived in Canada, I didn't have my own scope. But I had a lot of fun by borrow the scope from others and talk to them with their build, I had the knowledge and really enjoy it back then . Now I'm in Australia, and probably gonna to stay here for least 5 more years, I will consider to join a club after my child grow a little bigger so I can take her with me, but right now, I think the best option that will let me stay with stars is my back yard, my wife got light depression after the child was born, I need to stay with her as much as I can, and the only time I can leave home alone is grocery shopping. Hopefully she will be recovered next year.

As for your suggestion, I will seriously consider the heq5 then, and could you please explain what's TLC is? It's a little difficult for me to recognize abbreviation since I'm pretty new in this field.thanks
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Old 29-12-2015, 12:47 PM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Allan_L View Post
Hi Leon,
Welcome to IceInSpace

I am not going to comment on the other mounts/scopes you mention, because I have no experience with them.

However, are you aware that you can convert your CPC mount into an Equatorial by adding the appropriate wedge. I believe others have obtained good results with that setup.
Hi Allan,

Thanks for your reply! Yes, I already got a wedge on the my cpc 925, but the problem right now is I really don't want to move it anymore , it's so heavy. I'm lazy, so I never disassembly it, every time I carry it around, it was with tripod, alt-az mount, 925 sct, losmandy mount plate with a ed80 doublet on (should be more than 60 kg or 75 kg with wedge), and it doesn't have good handle on it, and there are 8 stairs from my house to back yard. That's why I only want to go with light refractors, otherwise newtonian might work better with the same money.
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Old 29-12-2015, 01:22 PM
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Camelopardalis (Dunk)
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Leon, I own an Esprit 100 and couldn't be happier with it. I'd suggest an EQ6 for one as by the time you add a guide scope and camera you're looking at 12kg or more.

PM me if you'd like more information as I'd be happy to share some of my raw image data.
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Old 29-12-2015, 09:20 PM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis View Post
Leon, I own an Esprit 100 and couldn't be happier with it. I'd suggest an EQ6 for one as by the time you add a guide scope and camera you're looking at 12kg or more.

PM me if you'd like more information as I'd be happy to share some of my raw image data.
Hi Dunk,

Thanks for sharing your image with me, I also found out that on sky-watcher website, there are 2 version of esprit 100( triplet and quintet), I never see any supplier mention which version of the scope they are selling, they all just marked as SW Esprit 100,
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Old 31-12-2015, 09:32 AM
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From what I understand, the quintuplet never got beyond testing stages, but someone forgot to tell marketing

The Esprit 100 is a triplet, with a doublet field flattener included.
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Old 31-12-2015, 08:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Camelopardalis View Post
From what I understand, the quintuplet never got beyond testing stages, but someone forgot to tell marketing

The Esprit 100 is a triplet, with a doublet field flattener included.
Thanks for explain it to me, you been very helpful for my research on the esprit 100. Now I feel horrible after I mentioned that my wife is gonna to buy me the tak 106 as my birthday present.. Feels like I was wasting your time, and you are so kind and patient to answer all the question I got. so sorry man.
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Old 31-12-2015, 09:52 PM
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Wow mate, no worries, if your wife is going to buy you a 106 go for it those opportunities don't come around often for most of us
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Old 31-12-2015, 11:26 PM
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jenchris (Jennifer)
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Your wife sounds as nice as me.
Perhaps she wants you out from under her feet....
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Old 01-01-2016, 05:33 PM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Originally Posted by Camelopardalis View Post
Wow mate, no worries, if your wife is going to buy you a 106 go for it those opportunities don't come around often for most of us
Ye, I will sure take the opputinity, just paid it, Claude said it's gonna to take 5~6 weeks, not as long as I thought it would be. Now, I'm consider the AZ-EQ6 mount you mentioned since I still have the budget, The AZEQ6 price in BINTEL seems good right now, $2499. After purchase the mount, I still got around 4k left, guess I have to save the money for the expensive TAK accessories, I didn't know the price is so hot lol, the 0.72x reducer cost over 2k.
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Old 01-01-2016, 05:47 PM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Originally Posted by jenchris View Post
Your wife sounds as nice as me.
Perhaps she wants you out from under her feet....
Hi Jennifer,

I can imagine how nice You are My wife is kind enjoy to see that I'm doing something I love. Since I need to stay at home for maybe few month more with her, I guess she want me get out and do something I enjoy most, at least in my backyard lol.
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Old 01-01-2016, 07:03 PM
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don't forget the camera, guide camera, OAG and any filters you need!
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Old 01-01-2016, 07:36 PM
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LeonConstantine (Leon)
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Originally Posted by rustigsmed View Post
don't forget the camera, guide camera, OAG and any filters you need!
marked, thanks for remind
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Old 01-01-2016, 10:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeonConstantine View Post
After purchase the mount, I still got around 4k left, guess I have to save the money for the expensive TAK accessories, I didn't know the price is so hot lol, the 0.72x reducer cost over 2k.
Great stuff, welcome to the wonderful world of Tak
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