Best setup for $3k

[NewToStars]

Ok. at the moment i'm looking at the 10" LX-200 in the for sale thread which is being sold as a astrophotography setup.. everything is included.

If i had a budget of $3000 to spend and i went new. how good can i get. (not including webcam or digital camera)

Obviously the EQ6 mount will be the choice mount to get which then leave me with the scope.

I've been told apature isn't king here, but i want something with a focul length of around F5.

I've also been told that a refractor would be more suited than a reflector.. but... what if i went the eq6 and mounted a 10" dob ontop of it.. i would then be left with $$$ left over for a camera or web cam.

the question is. with my budget, what would be the best way to go to do this properly and remembering i want this for astrophotography work later.

thanks

[bmitchell82]

thats my path that im currently going down now.

The questions that you need to ask yourself are.

F# the meade your looking at is a long f# narrow FOV, I use the lx200R meade at f#10 and on a SBIG 402-me i have a FOV 7min 5min. very small.

if you bump it down to a refractor your looking between 5-10 and a reflector well.... sub f#2 but generally 4-6.

As for price well... you get what you pay for, and now that the price of eq6's has sky rocketed a 10" dob ontop of a eq6 wouldn't leave much change out of 3k where as it used to give you 1k spare change keep your eyes out for second hand or drop down to a 8" and put it onto a HEQ5 mount.

as for imaging, depends on what you want/can afford, im going the Canon Eos 350/400/450D route, and utilizing something like a EoN/WO ED 70-80mm refractor guide scope. but do remember its not totally relegated to the guiding side, you can swap over your imaging and use the 10" as the guide scope and take nice wide fields with the refractor totally upto you.

Also one thing to be aware of and from personal experience the 12" meade mounting system is very average when it comes to keeping the OTA steady. im not sure if this is still valid for the 10" version but it put me off meade mounting systems compleately. For an idea, a gentle breeze would render anything under 10 seconds useless for photography. in saying that visually it would not matter!