one eye

[OneEye]

Hi
Looking for some advice on purchasing new equipment.Thinking of buying a Meade 10" F/8 ACF tube on an Skywatcher AZEQ6 mount. I believe the F8 would be better than the F/10 for astro photography. I also wonder if I really need the AZ option as I will mostly be using the setup for astro photoghaphy. I need a setup that one person can handle.

Also can someone suggest a suitable spotting scope camera for guiding. By the time I've bought the new equipment, there won't be much left, but no point having good equipment with poor guiding.
Regards
0ne eye

[billdan]

With a 2 Metre focal length a guide scope is going to give you a hard time with differential flexure. You would be better off with an OAG which will be more accurate with guiding.

Also add up the weight of the OTA, cameras etc, to make sure it is well within the mounts capacity. For imaging you shouldn't go over 70% of its recommended total payload.

[el_draco]

Hi Evan, you'd do well to read the beginners threads where these questions are discussed regularly. The imaging side of it can be really addictive and specific telescopes work better on specific targets. You'll learn/save a lot by reading before you buy.

[glend]

If i was starting imaging i would look at fast scopes which are more forgiving; say like an 8" imaging newt, or a wide field f5-6 APO refractor. AP requires an EQ mount, AZ is nice to have but un-necessary for imaging, and visual in my opinion. I would not buy a spotting scope as a guide scope, there are better choices. Have a look at the ZWO guidescope, cist effective and they work fine. Of course you will need a guide camera, but you could start out shooting short subs where guiding is not necessary.
As mentioned below, inaging at the Meade's long focal length requires some experience and more specialised equipment.

[The_bluester]

The altitude jackscrew arrangement on the AZEQ mount is a vast improvement on the EQ6 mounts. A quick search will find you any number of tales of bent alt adjustment bolts on the EQ6. I think they probably work better at latitudes near the equator (So you might be OK at the Sunshine Coast) but the setup on the EQ6 is very basic and once you try to adjust into the 40 degree latitudes they develop a fair amount of bending force on the bolts.

The other advantage of the AZEQ is the dual encoders. I use mine (The orion version of the same mount, just paint it black) exclusively visually but even for AP there are advantages to being able to release the clutches and slew by hand without upsetting the star alignment.

That is another thing to look at, when I bought mine I bought the Orion as it was hundreds of dollars cheaper than the Skywatcher version of the same thing, I don't know if that is the case now.

[OneEye]

Thank you all for your contributions
Oneeye