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Old 15-07-2020, 08:51 AM
RegArm (Reg)
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Advise needed in several areas (sorry long post)

G’Day fellow astronomers
My name is Reg, and I am just getting back into astronomy after a 20-year break, how things have changed, and yet stayed the same.
A bit about myself and my medical issues
I have spent 22 years in the Army and RAAF and a further 13 years of public service working for Defence. I remember a Defence member that post some fantastic photo he took of the various objects in the sky and I was envious of his prowess, Martin P I this his name is.
Anyway back to me (it's all about me lol). I was made medically unfit for work about 3 years ago, due to my major depressive disorder and the associated madness that goes hand in hand with it. Since then I have slowly been teaching myself Astronomy, have a few books, and online courses that I am going through. My brain capacity is not what it used to be; I was an Air Traffic Controller for the last 25 years of work.
So, what has this got to do with astronomy? Basically, like most of us, strapped for cash!
My wife and family recently (this week) bought me a telescope, must give a big shout out to Sirius Optics, my wife ordered the telescope late Sunday night and it was delivered to us in Gladstone QLD Tuesday afternoon. As far as I am concerned that is a fantastic service. And now I have been hooked again into watching our night sky!
The telescope is a Saxon 1309 EQ2 reflector. Set it up last night and had a good view of Jupiter, all be it not as clear or as large as my old telescope, and I had forgotten so much of viewing the night sky. I am grateful for my family buying me a telescope, but soon got frustrated with the EQ2 mount, kept moving every time you touched anything even lightly and take a long time to settle down. And another issue I have after last night's viewing is that I can hardly move today, due to pain in my lower back from standing and slight bend whilst viewing.
This is where you come in.
1. Is there a simple camera that I could attach to the telescope that I can then plug into a monitor for ease of viewing the night sky and that I can share with my family?
2. What type of mount should I get for this telescope, preferably one that is motorized and that I can control from my laptop?
3. I would love to start astrophotography, I am an amateur photographer, so understand photography well. What telescope, camera, mount, tripod, connections, and software would you suggest I get to be able to photograph deep sky images as well as our planets. And in this case having the setup, semi-permanent in my backyard and controlling it from my desktop and a comfy chair.
4. Like most, my dreams are big, but my budget is exceedingly small, $3,000 max for all the above.
Hope you can help and thank you very much for taking the time to read through this.
Happy Star Gazing
Reg
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Old 15-07-2020, 11:26 AM
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xelasnave
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Welcome Reg.
Your scope on an eq 5 mount with a DSLR will get you into astrophotography.
As to something to watch on screen with your current set up a small ZWO camera and Sharpcap may do it..you can live stack to show an image on your laptop and perhaps with short exposures build an image even though you are manually tracking..maybe..try and reduce wobble in your mount by adding weight to the tripod.
But start looking at an eq 5 and a cheap DSLR.
Probably first is to work out a seat so you can enjoy visual...
Alex
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Old 15-07-2020, 01:17 PM
RegArm (Reg)
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Hi Alex, thanks for the tips will look into it.
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Old 15-07-2020, 09:50 PM
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Kuz
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Hi Reg

Good to see another person from Gladstone on here .

I am with Alex and I would go a skywatcher eq 5 mount they retail for around $1400 . For a scope you could look at the skywatcher Evo Star ed72 around $600
You will need a field flattener. 085 for the scope for around $500
If you could pick up a second hand zwo air to control your camera and mount from inside your house with no leads .( You will have to use a ZWO camera though. )I think they are the best thing since canned beer. You can do your polar alignment through it as well .

You will be able to do some nice wide field photos over QAL with this scope hooked to a zwo camera . I personnel have never used the 72ed but they look like a pretty good package start with.
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Old 15-07-2020, 10:21 PM
sunslayr (David)
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Might be a bit pricey at $699 but a ZWO ASI178MC could be a nice beginner camera. If you have an android phone or tablet you could use that as a display to show the family with the ASICAP app. If you use a laptop polar alignment is easy with Sharpcap too.
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Old 16-07-2020, 05:34 AM
RegArm (Reg)
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G'Dau Kuz, thanks for your info will let you know how I go. Enjoy the cold lol
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Old 16-07-2020, 10:35 AM
RegArm (Reg)
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Hi David, thanks for the info gives me a good start
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