New beginnings advice...

[NathanK25]

After a few years of being out of the observing game, I'm wanting to get back into it again. I have a Celestron Advanced Series C8-SGT which I have loved over the years. However, I travel so much these days I need something more portable. I also got the C8-SGT for astrophotography, but I'm a father now and don't have the hours of sleep to spare for those long exposure sessions!

I want to sell the C8-SGT and use the proceeds to downgrade to something more portable and with a slightly easier set-up. I'm thinking in the vicinity of $1500 - $2000. So far I'm leaning towards a Celestron Nextstar Evolution 6. I'd be really grateful for any views on the Ev6 or any other advice on other options in this class (particularly reliability of inbuilt wifi and life of the battery).

Cheers

Nathan

[Ukastronomer]

Personally I don't buy kit according to what the manufacturers say I have to buy, I chose the mount that best suits my needs and for the future, hence my most used setup is a 72mm ED on goto, and a Gitzo tripod when I really want simplicity

This allows visual, AND Ha with a Daystar when needed and photography, the SINGLE fork mount also means you can swap scopes unlike dual fork mounts, even easier SkyTee T mount

[sil]

I agree. the tripod and mount is the single key component that is vital to get right. Then you can put what cheap garbage OTA on top to look through that you want, or something from an array of whatever expensive OTAs you have a collection of. the ota (optical tube assembly) is not even essential and certainly not tied to a specific mount. You can put a dovetail bar on a regular camera and use that instead, even for manual star alignment.

I do planetary astrophotography with a celestron skyprodigy 6 but wide field and deep space AP its just a DSLR on a stable camera tripod, no tracking or anything.

define more what you want and why your 8" is unsuitable and look for an alternate mount for travel. There should be options now that will take your existing OTA so you dont need to downgrade.

[NathanK25]

Thanks very much Sil and Ukastronomer. You've give me some things to think about. I would very much like to keep my existing OTA if possible. My main reason for wanting to change is portability and ease of set-up. As I don't really see myself getting back into AP any time soon, I think an Alt-Az mount is the way to go. I had my eye on a Celestron Evolution 6 package because I liked the internal rechargeable battery, inbuilt wifi, releasable clutch, goto and hand holds on the mount. By all accounts, Celestron doesn't sell its Alt-Az mounts separately. There seems to be limited options out there otherwise though, I've been looking at the Skywatcher Discovery mounts, but they don't look to be able to handle anything above 5kg (my C8 is 5.67kg).

I'd be very interested in any views or advice you might have.

[Ukastronomer]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thum bsup:

[Ukastronomer]

THEY DO sell them separately you just have to order them, I bought the package though as I wanted a SC, to find these two sites took me seconds, have you googled "Celestron Evolution Mount" as I did

https://www.highpointscientific.com/celestron-nexstar-evolution-computerized-mount-and-tripod-12091-mount

https://grovers.biz/optics/home/7518-celestron-nexstar-evolution-6-8-mount-tripod.html

[NathanK25]

Thanks for the steer...

[Wavytone]

Jeremy there is a tendency for multinationals to geo-block Australia. Sure you can buy them as separate items in the UK, but not here. What’s more the international freight on large items is prohibitive to the point that shipping anything that size is effectively impossible.

It’s not confined to astronomy products either - it’s rampant across the many industries where the international freight costs for shipping one-offs are exploited by companies as a means to justify jacking up local prices here often by 2-3X what the sane item costs elsewhere.

Both EBay and Amazon have tasted the profits to be had by geoblocking to the extent it’s now it’s impossible for us to order anything from their uk or us sites - only the local versions.

[Ukastronomer]

That is as annoying as it is here, you are NOT alone, the 120mm Esprit comes with the £250 field flattner in the US but NOT the UK