Quote:
Originally Posted by thegableguy
Just to add my own experience...
I started my imaging journey with an ED80 atop a NEQ6. No guiding. It was an excellent place to begin - taught me all about alignment and various other tricky aspects of the game, all quite manageable with the small OTA and relatively simple setup.
I've recently upgraded to an 8" f/5 reflector and am now using the ED80 for guiding... and bugger me if it isn't all waaaaaay more difficult. If I'd started with this setup I doubt I'd have stuck with it. The two scopes together are much, much heavier and more unwieldy; though adding guiding seems like it would make life easier, it really just adds another bunch of factors that can go wrong! The end results will be better (or at least I'm seriously hoping so - haven't had much luck yet) but it's very much worth remembering that the more complex and sophisticated a rig is, the more opportunities for stuff to fail.
My strong advice would be to start simple. There are many excellent reasons why ED80s are such a popular choice for beginner astrophotographers. You could start with an 8" or even a 10" if you insisted, and you may well get good results straight away... but you'd be in a pretty small minority!
Let us know which way you choose to go. Always nice to see the different ways other newcomers (one of which I very much still am) start their adventures.
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Hi Chris,
I appreciate the advice and knowledge. There is a really nice bunch of people here. My first question was re polar alignment on a US based astronomy forum. The only response was to tell I had broken some posting guideline - just too old for that kind of thing nowadays so glad I found this place.
Anyway, I do appreciate your advice but have my heart set on a reflector and will go that route, but I am more inclined to go the 8" rather than the 10" after all of the advice in threads on this forum. I'm hoping for a bit of an all-rounder as I'm not sure at this point what type of astrophotography is going to interest me.
I will likely deserve an "I told you so"
from few people, but I'm sure, from what I have seen from this forum, it won't stop the help and advice will still keep flowing.
I hope by Christmas you will see a few my first attempts in the astrophotography forum.
Cheers
Mick