Pharian
21-01-2016, 11:22 PM
Hullo chaps and chappettes,
Thanks for the great community here. I've been having a bit of a read and there are some fantastic people, articles, and information. Wish I found you guys months ago!
Basically I am coming back to amateur astronomy after about 25 years. My last scope, when I was about 14, was a soul destroying Tasco toy my parents bought me. It would take about an hour to line the thing up on the moon, and then if you coughed you’d be looking at another hour with the finderscope trying to locate the most enormous thing in the sky again. Jupiter was my nemesis. It would take hours to get the most fleeting glimpse of that patience eating monster, and then it would be gone, vanishing into heavy handed focus (or perhaps an ant had walked onto one of the scope legs, the weight variable on that horrible thing being enough to put it off kilter).
It was torture, and quickly the only thing the scope was used for was looking at hot girls in the surf (hey, I was 14 and lived on a beach, go figure), and then quickly after that it was relegated to the scrap heap of history (to steal a well stolen quote) and I got an actual girlfriend, joy.
Anyway, I continued to be very interested in astronomy and all things space but in the years following the trauma of that evil Tasco real scopes that could see real things cost the same as a car / house / national debt of a small nation. There was just no chance of seeing anything truly awesome, so no real point in pursuing it as a hobby (in 18 year old me’s opinion).
These days though, with 25 years of progress on an exponential curve, suddenly real scopes are within reach! So I’m back dreaming of the stars again, and with online communities what they are now what better place to get advice than in my friendly neighbourhood stargazers forum. Chin chin!
The main thing is, obviously, I want to see some of the cool stuff that's up there. Where the moons of Jupiter used to be the pinnacle of realistic amateur astronomy, now people are knocking on the door of nebulas, binary stars, and galaxies. How cool is that? That’s what I’m talking about, and what I have been dreaming about since I was a kid. I want to look deep out there and see the weird and wonderful. Jupiter, pft, my old nemesis is now chicken feed. It’s time to see some real DSO’s, blankets of stars, local galaxies, and simply the beauty of the skies. I want to be able to do some good AP to see the deep stuff, but also do some reasonable local planet watching (Jupiter you bastich) and general looking about… but AP is going to be important because I want to see what’s out there, and there are only so many times you can line up Jupiter and curse it on behalf of your childhood self.
Anyway, I am currently wading through the outrageously complicated business of planning a new scope and getting into some stargazing and beginner AP (and also bringing my 3 year old son along for the ride, at least for the 3 minute attention spans he can manage). I have the go ahead from the better half for enough outlay to get what I think should be a reasonable setup (although I am not permitted to hold it, cuddle it, or whisper sweet nothings at it until after my birthday). To make sure I get The Right Stuff I am talking to lots of people in lots of places for some solid old-hand advice before making final purchases.
I live on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, but I will be doing most of my serious viewing down the south coast of NSW at a tiny beach shack my father has which is in the middle of a national park. It’s Dark there, or rather DARK (worthy of serious capitalisation) so I am pretty optimistic of getting some good stuff out of a scope down there. It does mean it needs to be somewhat portable though, so no chunky piers and 12” tubes for me. It doesn’t need to be grab-and-go but it does need to fit into a SUV without poking out the back.
I do like a challenge, and I generally jump into things for the long haul, so I am biting off a pretty big mouthful. I don’t want to get a scope and then find that it’s too basic and I need to now drop another wad of cash on something that will actually see out there. So I am shooting pretty high here, perhaps higher than most recommend, but that’s pretty standard for me. I’ve been researching this setup for the last few months, on and off, with a few online buddies who know their stuff. Still a few months to go before birthday purchase time, but I am currently starting to settle on the following kit:
- NEQ6 Pro mount (nabbed one second hand pretty cheap, though I haven’t paid for or picked it up yet, but I am committed to the sale). That’s the only bit I have bought so far.
- Bintel 8” RC Astrograph (GSO RCA-200 f/8 Astrograph, the rebadged Astro Tech ones.. weight is pretty much perfect for the NEQ6. Also I have been told the solid construction and low number of moving parts RC’s have is good for transporting it, especially on the dirt track to the shack)
- FF/FR focal length reducer (or Bintel .75x RC Reducer for RC scopes, CCDT67)
- Orion Short Tube 80 (for use as guide scope, though also some lazy moon views)
- ZWO ASI 120MC Colour Camera with built in ST4 autoguiding port (primarily as autoguider, but also for some unguided planetary shots) Note colour because I’m going to start with DSLR AP for wide angles and I don’t want to have to buy filters right off the bat for use with this little camera.
- EDIT: couple of eyepieces eg 15mm Superview recommended, and maybe a 22mm? What do you recommend for a 8" RC?
- Star diagonal
- Stock focuser, or if I am cashed up at the time I might jump in on a moonlight focuser.
- Canon 450D or 600D DSLR camera for AP (gonna mod the crap out of it with a big ol’ heatsink)
- Canon T piece
- Spacers (no idea what I need there but surely I’ll need a couple)
- Bayer filter (although if I’ve modded it enough maybe I don’t need that?)??
- Laptop running EQmod, PixInsight/Deep Sky Stacker, USB cables or Wifi/BT connector
- collimator for an RC scope?
- Any other equipment people think I will need (well spirit level, compass, and star atlas sure, but I mean on the scope :P)
Anyway, I would dearly value any advice people might have. Am I completely insane??? Although please let me preface this request by asking that you please don’t say “oh I recommend you get an 80mm APO or a dob on a dob mount”, if you do I will throw stale Cheezels at you. I went through the whole 80mm APO / Celestron 8” Edge HD or SC / Big Ass Dob (BAD) scenarios but they either didn’t excite or had some sort of problem or limitation (not least the limits of cash). Some may like stale Cheezels though, and may also have good points, so hell... fire away.
It is clear that it is very easy to get waaaaay too carried away here and drop your credit limit in a matter of minutes. I have tried to work a scope here that will see deep and take on a lot of what’s out there to see, as well as be able to keep me interested for years to come with some great AP capabilities. I realise it’s not the easiest setup but I’ve never been one to do things by halves.
For a while I was tossing up between AP and video. Real time nebulas would be the stuff of legend, but perhaps that’s a bridge too far and can wait until I’ve worked out AP with a DSLR first.
I look forward to any awesome advice people may have. Go easy on a beginner here please!! And cheers to many years of Ice in Space!
Thanks for the great community here. I've been having a bit of a read and there are some fantastic people, articles, and information. Wish I found you guys months ago!
Basically I am coming back to amateur astronomy after about 25 years. My last scope, when I was about 14, was a soul destroying Tasco toy my parents bought me. It would take about an hour to line the thing up on the moon, and then if you coughed you’d be looking at another hour with the finderscope trying to locate the most enormous thing in the sky again. Jupiter was my nemesis. It would take hours to get the most fleeting glimpse of that patience eating monster, and then it would be gone, vanishing into heavy handed focus (or perhaps an ant had walked onto one of the scope legs, the weight variable on that horrible thing being enough to put it off kilter).
It was torture, and quickly the only thing the scope was used for was looking at hot girls in the surf (hey, I was 14 and lived on a beach, go figure), and then quickly after that it was relegated to the scrap heap of history (to steal a well stolen quote) and I got an actual girlfriend, joy.
Anyway, I continued to be very interested in astronomy and all things space but in the years following the trauma of that evil Tasco real scopes that could see real things cost the same as a car / house / national debt of a small nation. There was just no chance of seeing anything truly awesome, so no real point in pursuing it as a hobby (in 18 year old me’s opinion).
These days though, with 25 years of progress on an exponential curve, suddenly real scopes are within reach! So I’m back dreaming of the stars again, and with online communities what they are now what better place to get advice than in my friendly neighbourhood stargazers forum. Chin chin!
The main thing is, obviously, I want to see some of the cool stuff that's up there. Where the moons of Jupiter used to be the pinnacle of realistic amateur astronomy, now people are knocking on the door of nebulas, binary stars, and galaxies. How cool is that? That’s what I’m talking about, and what I have been dreaming about since I was a kid. I want to look deep out there and see the weird and wonderful. Jupiter, pft, my old nemesis is now chicken feed. It’s time to see some real DSO’s, blankets of stars, local galaxies, and simply the beauty of the skies. I want to be able to do some good AP to see the deep stuff, but also do some reasonable local planet watching (Jupiter you bastich) and general looking about… but AP is going to be important because I want to see what’s out there, and there are only so many times you can line up Jupiter and curse it on behalf of your childhood self.
Anyway, I am currently wading through the outrageously complicated business of planning a new scope and getting into some stargazing and beginner AP (and also bringing my 3 year old son along for the ride, at least for the 3 minute attention spans he can manage). I have the go ahead from the better half for enough outlay to get what I think should be a reasonable setup (although I am not permitted to hold it, cuddle it, or whisper sweet nothings at it until after my birthday). To make sure I get The Right Stuff I am talking to lots of people in lots of places for some solid old-hand advice before making final purchases.
I live on the Northern Beaches in Sydney, but I will be doing most of my serious viewing down the south coast of NSW at a tiny beach shack my father has which is in the middle of a national park. It’s Dark there, or rather DARK (worthy of serious capitalisation) so I am pretty optimistic of getting some good stuff out of a scope down there. It does mean it needs to be somewhat portable though, so no chunky piers and 12” tubes for me. It doesn’t need to be grab-and-go but it does need to fit into a SUV without poking out the back.
I do like a challenge, and I generally jump into things for the long haul, so I am biting off a pretty big mouthful. I don’t want to get a scope and then find that it’s too basic and I need to now drop another wad of cash on something that will actually see out there. So I am shooting pretty high here, perhaps higher than most recommend, but that’s pretty standard for me. I’ve been researching this setup for the last few months, on and off, with a few online buddies who know their stuff. Still a few months to go before birthday purchase time, but I am currently starting to settle on the following kit:
- NEQ6 Pro mount (nabbed one second hand pretty cheap, though I haven’t paid for or picked it up yet, but I am committed to the sale). That’s the only bit I have bought so far.
- Bintel 8” RC Astrograph (GSO RCA-200 f/8 Astrograph, the rebadged Astro Tech ones.. weight is pretty much perfect for the NEQ6. Also I have been told the solid construction and low number of moving parts RC’s have is good for transporting it, especially on the dirt track to the shack)
- FF/FR focal length reducer (or Bintel .75x RC Reducer for RC scopes, CCDT67)
- Orion Short Tube 80 (for use as guide scope, though also some lazy moon views)
- ZWO ASI 120MC Colour Camera with built in ST4 autoguiding port (primarily as autoguider, but also for some unguided planetary shots) Note colour because I’m going to start with DSLR AP for wide angles and I don’t want to have to buy filters right off the bat for use with this little camera.
- EDIT: couple of eyepieces eg 15mm Superview recommended, and maybe a 22mm? What do you recommend for a 8" RC?
- Star diagonal
- Stock focuser, or if I am cashed up at the time I might jump in on a moonlight focuser.
- Canon 450D or 600D DSLR camera for AP (gonna mod the crap out of it with a big ol’ heatsink)
- Canon T piece
- Spacers (no idea what I need there but surely I’ll need a couple)
- Bayer filter (although if I’ve modded it enough maybe I don’t need that?)??
- Laptop running EQmod, PixInsight/Deep Sky Stacker, USB cables or Wifi/BT connector
- collimator for an RC scope?
- Any other equipment people think I will need (well spirit level, compass, and star atlas sure, but I mean on the scope :P)
Anyway, I would dearly value any advice people might have. Am I completely insane??? Although please let me preface this request by asking that you please don’t say “oh I recommend you get an 80mm APO or a dob on a dob mount”, if you do I will throw stale Cheezels at you. I went through the whole 80mm APO / Celestron 8” Edge HD or SC / Big Ass Dob (BAD) scenarios but they either didn’t excite or had some sort of problem or limitation (not least the limits of cash). Some may like stale Cheezels though, and may also have good points, so hell... fire away.
It is clear that it is very easy to get waaaaay too carried away here and drop your credit limit in a matter of minutes. I have tried to work a scope here that will see deep and take on a lot of what’s out there to see, as well as be able to keep me interested for years to come with some great AP capabilities. I realise it’s not the easiest setup but I’ve never been one to do things by halves.
For a while I was tossing up between AP and video. Real time nebulas would be the stuff of legend, but perhaps that’s a bridge too far and can wait until I’ve worked out AP with a DSLR first.
I look forward to any awesome advice people may have. Go easy on a beginner here please!! And cheers to many years of Ice in Space!