Our forever, amateur plug and play GOTO scope

[gibovski]

It was this time last year that I asked similar questions and got some great answers from this forum. This time my wife has received a small inheritance and want's to spend some of it on getting a quality telescope that she will think fondly of her grandmother when she uses it and explores the universe.

We don't want to become experts, we just want to have a device we can quickly get out on the good nights to see and maybe photograph the pretty things. Mostly planets but with an ability to see some deep space phenomena.

I'm thinking Celestron 6-8SE.
https://www.ozscopes.com.au/cassegrain-telescope-celestron-nexstar-6-se.html

I'm also thinking to start with smart phone photography, and if we want more down the track to upgrade to either a DSLR or a dedicated scope camera.

So my questions are.
1. How different is the quality of viewing between the 6 and 8 inch models.
2. How different is the portability between the 6 and 8 inch models.
3. Is a dobsonian a better option, keeping in mind that we want portability between home, our onsite caravan and potentially a mobile caravan in the future.

Any thought and experience is appreciated.

[raymo]

You have a bit of a problem. The 6SE would be a good choice for visual, having a reasonable aperture, and being portable, although it's great focal length would prevent you from framing the entirety of some of the larger nebulae. The negative aspect of this scope is that it is photographically
quite slow, meaning that it requires long exposures [minutes] to obtain decent pics of most deep sky objects other than the moon, sun, or planets,
and it's alt/azimuth mount is not really suitable for long exposures due to a
phenomenon called field rotation.
Dobs are popular for visual, and the collapsible ones with GOTO are easily
portable, but the base is quite bulky, especially in models over 6". Dobs are
also alt/azimuth mounts, so are also not suitable for long exposures. They
are however much faster at around f4.7 to f6, so can produce worthwhile images using far shorter exposures than the 6SE , especially in the case of the larger ones [8" or larger ].
raymo

[gibovski]

Thanks @raymo.
I can deal with not being able to frame some of the larger nebulae. We want to seem most of the pretty things and can deal with not being able to see all of them.

This issue with the long exposure, can it be worked around with software that stacks shorter exposures and or video frames?

I understand that both the scopes I mentioned have certain limitations, is there another option that you know of in the sub $3k range that could tick more of our boxes. GOTO is not negotiable. We want to spend our time looking, not finding and tracking which has been our experience with our 70mm refractor when looking at planets at high magnifications.

[Dave882]

All this is very subjective but I’ll give my 2c from using a variety of scopes from 3” up to 14” on various mounts…
- 8” aperture I’ve found to be a bit of an entry point to satisfying deep sky observing. Below this there are less targets visible and in far less detail.
- 8”-10” I’ve found to be entry point to satisfying planetary viewing. That’s when you start getting some nice colour and detail visually.
- Above 8” portability starts being a big issue. IMO 8” is still very portable and easy to setup. 8SE is a very easy to use scope but the mount is getting a bit wobbly. The CPC series or LX200 (Meade) is much more stable but also heavier and more bulky.
- the small visual FOV of a SCT has never bothered my (even with my c14) as you can just slee around. Also, a 0.63x reducer works very well even for visual. For AP though the fov can be quite limiting.
- Regarding GOTO, I’ve had lots of fun with and without GOTO, but get much much more time on target with GOTO.
- BY FAR the best push-button GOTO experience is with Starsense Autoalign. Dead easy to set up and start observing quickly.
- All of these AltAz mounts will not be ideal for astrophotography BUT are still ok for short exposure EAA or planetary imaging. If you’re on the road I doubt you’ll be doing multi-night imaging on single targets so this may actually be ideal for you. Having said this the more stable the mount the better the experience.

Hope some of that helps.

[raymo]

You can stack lots of short exposures in Deep Sky Stacker or other software.
An 8" collapsible GOTO Dob would be good for visual, and has enough aperture and photographic speed to allow stacking of subs of around 15 seconds or so, which would produce nice pics of the brighter deep sky objects.
If an 8" is too bulky and/or heavy, a 6" would do, but obviously you would
see less visually, and it has only about 55% of the light gathering power
of an 8", which is a quite a handicap for photography.
raymo

[gibovski]

Is this the kind of collapsible dob that you guys are suggesting may be appropriate for my requirements?

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=202689

I think it may be a bit expensive as it's the same price as a new one with a 5 year warranty, although the second hand one has a fair few eye pieces and filters.

I'd probably prefer the warranty and shop support for peace of mind for a noob.

[raymo]

Yes, the same model range, but the one in your link is a 10"; an 8" version
is quite a lot cheaper.
raymo