Thread: Hello and wow!!
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Old 26-05-2015, 02:50 PM
julianh72 (Julian)
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Kelvin Grove
Posts: 1,301
You probably need to really sit down and think about what you are trying to achieve - what you REALLY want to do, and what you would LIKE to do.

If you want to get into long-exposure astro-photography seriously, then you NEED a good mount (such as an EQ5) first and foremost, and a good OTA to suit. I suspect that is the basis od Astro Pete's advice.

You started off looking at a Mak and a Newt on a more modest EQ3 mount, and a Dob. The two cheaper EQ3-mounted scopes would probably be fine for basic astro-photography, using either a DSLR, a modified web-cam, or a telescope eyepiece-astro-cam, but would limit your ultimate potential if you get serious. The Dob is an excellent visual telescope, but isn't really suited to astro-photography (apart from lunar and / or planetary shots).

Note that "serious" astro-photography requires a big investment of time (and money!) in equipment, processing software, and technique - it's not something that you can expect to just buy all the gear and be getting good results in a week. Personally, I'm having a lot of fun with a $280 ZWO camera in either my 90 mm Mak or 130 mm Celestron SCT. I'm limited to exposures of about 20 seconds or so using my rig (before tracking errors and / or vibrations ruin the shot), but there are plenty of targets for me to have fun with!
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