beginner imaging setup - opinions?

[beefking]

I'm toying with getting into imaging, and I've been considering a skywatcher 100ED black diamond on an HEQ5 Pro mount, using a DSLR to begin with.

from what I can gather it should be pretty capable, without being outside my budget. I guess I'm wondering a couple of things:

Will the HEQ5 will be a stable enough mount or should I consider an EQ6? I can forsee adding a guidescope to the setup.

Will that imaging setup have a reasonably gentle learning curve, or am I trying to scale Everest without having attempted Kosciuszko?

Where have people sourced battery packs from?

thanks.

(and of course if anyone is willing to try steering me away from this particular money pit they are welcome to try, as I have no wife or girlfriend to do that for me)

[gbeal]

Beef,
man, you do need help, no wife or girlfriend to steer you, but mind you there are plenty here to fill in.
The rig you suggest is good, but if the money was similar I would opt for the EQ6 instead, and look at the ED80 if cash was tight.
The mount is THE single most important piece of the puzzle, apart from the bottomless pit your wallet will soon look like.
Gary

[dpastern]

I wholly agree with Gary here - go the better mount and the ED80.

I'd recommend reading a lot of the posts on IIS in the imaging section, you'll learn a lot. I'd also recommend "The new CCD Astronomer" by Ron Wodaski. It's a very comprehensive volume.

Dave

[Hagar]

Hi Nathan I agree totally with Gary, The single most important piece of kit required for imaging is the mount. Of course a camera is required but without a very stable platform which has the ability to carry the load EASILY, guide with a guide camera and track and point with reasonable accuracy, you will not be able to take reasonable images.
An EQ6 has a much greater carrying capacity and is overall much more stable. My recommendation has to go to the EQ6. The rest is up to you and your budget. The EQ6 also has a much better resale value should you decide to sell it at any point in the future.

[bmitchell82]

What all of these guys said, Mount is very important.

but do not forget the guiding setup, if you are wanting to do astro photography and don't want to buy a 6,000 mount buy a guiding system straight away! just like the mount, if you cannot keep your camera fixed on one spot your images will always be bad, faint detail will not come though as it will be smudged/blurred by movement/drift. a bit of a guideline

ED 80 (Skywatcher)
ST 80 (orion)
Orion guide camera or an old Meade DSI 1
EQ6Pro/ NEQ6 Wide with the latter being the one to go for.

[alfi]

hi guys
im new here, but have been lurking around some time before registring.
i have a heq5 pro synscan, but after a very short time, i found, after bying a guidescope, a duomount, a guider, etc., that it was stretch a bit, so after 2,5 months, i ordered a eq6 pro synscan.
so i think the tips people give on going for the eq6 is good advice.
just my toughts, since i have been there, done that.

regards
alfi

[beefking]

Thanks for the comments everyone, they've been really helpful.

I was a bit unsure about the heq5 but it sounds like the eq6 is worth the extra dough.