Help im lost, or stupid?

[Insane Climber]

Hello im fairly new to this astronomy. But im just starting to get bord of photographing the moon and have been looking out for a mount that can track. Trouble is im a dumb ass noob and im getting lost here. anyways can someone please suggest a mount for me. I have a 200 x 1000 skywatcher Newtonian that weighs about 8kg, from what i have read about astrophotography so far i think i would like to use auto guiding. and most inportant i realy do not want to spend a fortune on a mount that has goto as i just don't need it.

[batema]

Jason I managed to buy from Andrews communications an EQ6 Pro for 1499 a few months ago. I know you don't want go to but I cannot fault this mount. Andrews has them sold out at the moment and I don't know the current price but on the only one occasion that I used go to I can see the benefits. I asked the mount to go to half a dozen objects and each time took a one minute 1600iso shot to see how accurate it was and on all occasions the object was dead centre. If I had a really faint object i woulf find this feature invaluable. Good luck. Advice I received when looking for a mount. Spend the money on the mount first, then everything else second.

Mark.

[Insane Climber]

Thanks for the reply, I think you have confirmed what i was dreading. Im just gonna have to spend alot of money. Darn it. Its a good thing im addicted to buying toys, "ahem" i mean technical equipment.

Jason

[leon]

Jason, as you have stated in your post you are new at this game, slow down mate, and first try your hand at finding stuff in the sky.

Totally forget about auto guiding and imaging for now, that is a very hard task, and expensive.

Enjoy your astronomy, uses your bino's, and your scope for visual stuff first.

And in the mean time have fun. ;)

Leon :thumbsup:

[rmcpb]

Jason, listen to Leon's advice. Learn the sky and practice visual observing for a while before going past the afocal photography. Otherwise, you will end up with a lot of expensive paperweights.

[Insane Climber]

I hear you guys, i have been trying to hold off a bit. But im sure you've all been there befor. All i want is everything, and i only want it now? Damn i sound like a 5 year old. In the mean time i haven't even made it to a dark site yet.

[Glenhuon]

The guys are right. Having just entered into the minefield of imaging myself its a lot more complex than it may seem. Get a good mount first, use it with your 200 for a while and learn your way around. Goto is fine, then you need a laptop to save the images, and an imaging camera, then a second scope for guiding and a guide cam, and so it goes on. Can get pricey and the learning curve can get pretty steep and frustrating. Make haste slowly.

Bill

[Insane Climber]

Hey all, in my quest to find a mount in my price range i have found that the Celestron CG5 computerized mount is cheaper. What do you all think of the Celestron mounts. Are they good for imaging? or would i be better off to sell my body and just get the eq6 pro.

Jason

Sick of cloud cover:mad2:

[dannat]

the cg5 is pretty close to a eq5 in terms mass carrying ie not in class of eq6

[Garyh]

Dan is right there..A EQ5 would be ok for a nice 80mm ED or other small scopes but.....
Don`t even think of putting a 8" newt on a EQ5.....big trouble!
For imaging I wouldn`t look at anything less than a EQ6 with a 8" scope.
cheers

[matt]

I bought my 8" SkyWatcher newt as part of a package with an EQ5...and the mount handled it just fine.

However....for imaging, the old adage applies...buy the best mount you can afford.

I agree with Leon, however. Try to ease into the hooby. Take your time and enjoy the ride:thumbsup:

[bmitchell82]

Ahhh heed the words of wisdom, spend your money's wizely. I have had the lucky chance to have a university foot my obsession so far, although this is great things are sometimes slow and arduouse...

From experience you can get away with some of the other things like guide scopes and what not. But if you are in the city and cannot make it to dark sites often like i always say... get a GOTO because i live in the suburbs of Perth, and i can tell you now there isn't a star in sight where the taranchula neb is and to boot its a bright nebula that can be spotted in dark skies by the naked eye/binos. Try finding it with no stars to guide you with... hard.

In saying that I use the meade 12" and the major thing that has let the system down is its Mount.!!! you can deal with Light pollution, and mediocure equipment. but when you have blurry pictures to show for it you could have the worlds best telescope/DSLR/guiding system and it means nothing unless your scope is rock solid.!

So heed the words of the guys who have done it for a long time and remember to set yourself up ready to go astro photograpy path you will not get change out of 5k if your starting from scratch, and thats just the start, with something like a ED80, a small CCD cam ,guidescope/CCD guider,a little EQ5 and a budgo laptop. but you wont get change out of about 10-15 if you want to do it right!!! a good DSLR is looking in the 2k+ region! :D. Start at the bottom and work your way up. overkill is better than underkill.