Quote:
Originally Posted by DavidTrap
Baz,
You might be getting yourself into a whole world of pain if you're trying to use a very long focal length scope with an 8300 chip. The pixels are very small, so your arcsec/pixel will be very small as a consequence. You could bin it at 2x2, but there are problems with the 8300 chip when binning.
I understand budget is a significant factor for yourself. Why are you after a 12inch RC?? Aperture fever??? What sort of imaging do you want to do?? I've heard you mention community outreach stuff quite a lot - would you do better with a large newtonian for a brighter image through the eyepiece??
I've recently gone through the mental exercise of planning a school observatory (not sure if it will get the go-ahead or not) - and after getting all excited about putting in a large OTA, I realised most of the objects they'd be interested in would be more than adequately imaged by a 4 inch refractor. Much lower costs and much less headaches when it comes to guiding & focusing.
I'm not trying to be rude, but you don't seem to be abreast of the issues with heavy-duty deep sky imaging (based on some of your questions). Are you trying to bite off more than you can chew by buying a 12 inch RC??? Would you do better using your existing 120mm refractor and learning how to do monochrome imaging first, before taking the leap to a longer focal length?? All of the expensive upgrades that people are suggesting are correct - you'll have a lot of headaches if you try to cut costs.
Happy to chat to you by PM if you prefer.
DT
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No that's fine David, happy to air it out here mate.
I intend to keep the smaller refractors I have along with a range of cheap scopes I already have to pop out on the lawn for community outreach viewing nights.
I used to own a 12 inch SCT which was way ahead of me at the time, but having images widefield for a bit I must confess I desire to go deeper. I've imaged a few distant galaxies with the Starshoot on the 120mm but I have to crop the heck out of them to fill the frame at the end of the day.
I may have bitten off more than I can chew, but I like to buy things I can grow into.
If the 8300 chip is too large for the RC300, then perhaps you guys can educate me on the optimal camera for the job.
I eventually want to get into narrowband imaging down the track and I don't want to have to keep buying more and more equipment. I'd rather get the lot in one hit then go to work on the steep learning curve. I understand it will be frustrating, but you can probably guess from my past and present projects that I have a great deal of patience.
So please, if you guys have suggestions for a total package to go on the RC300 and EQ8 I would love to hear what, why, how much and how.
Budget is a factor for now but it may not be that way for long...
Cheers!!
Baz.