[Zuts]

Hi All,

As a recent newbie (6 months) to astro-photography i offer the following observations.

I initially got a Nexstar 11 GPS (thanks Jase) and had great fun with it looking at all sorts of things. Unfortunately I live 3km from the center of Sydney and basically it's just too bright for me. After a few trips to dark sky sites I basically lost a lot of interest dragging the scope out under light polluted Sydney skies. I wont sell it though as for dark sky its great.

So, I thought i would try astrophotography and got a second hand cheap DSLR. I got some images of planets and a few DSO's but of course the DSO's on a alt az mount were horrible. So I got a wedge. Maybe I should have perservered but as an utter newbie trying to get a decent image at 2700mm on a shonky celestron wedge while learning what drift alignment was ...well forget it. Fortunately I gave that idea up.

Next purchase was a meade ed80 series 5000. The photos were a bit better but again piggy back on a Nexstar 11 with a hard to adjust wedge well.. again very difficult for a newb.

Next purchase was an EQ6. I wanted a G11 but after my previous efforts wasnt sure i could ever do astro photography and didnt want to waste 5,000 on a G11 that i wasnt sure i could use properly. I thought about a G8 but again didnt want to be limited to my 80mm refractor. The price of EQ6's dropped from 2400 AUD to 1900 AUD so i got one.

It took me ages to learn how to drift align but eventually i did. Guess what, my photo's were better. A bit of star trailing if i went over 1 minute, but under one minute no problems.

Next purchase was a 70mm achro of ebay for 70 bucks and an LPI for 100 bucks as a guider. Fantastic, now i could go for 5 minute subs with no trailing.

Still i wasnt happy with my photos. Why? Field curvature. So i got a televue reducer. Not a great match with the ED80. Field curvature gone but severe vignetting.

Next purchase was a Televue 85. For a newb i thought my photos had improved out of sight. No trailing, no field curvature, no vignetting. Was i happy. Of course not. Why? Because my camera is not modded and so i get horrible Ha response.

My next purchase will be proper astro cam. After that maybe a C9.25 OTA and after that who knows, maybe a G11 or better.

My point.

For a newb yes a mount is very very important. But on a limited budget IMHO the most important thing is a decent mount for the FL. The original poster has a C8 and may be able to stretch to an ED80. An EQ6 will be all he needs to hone his imaging skills on a C8 with 0.63 reducer. Next IMHO is the scope and a C8 is a decent scope so he has that already. Next IMHO is a better camera before a better mount; and he can always sell the EQ6.

Decent mount plus decent scope plus decent camera = decent pictures.

A better mount would not make for significatly better pictures at his focal length. If he wants to go longer in the future he can get a G11 or better. If he doesnt he would be better of getting a better camera.

At the end of the day he has a budget of 2000 AUD. For what he is attempting to do I see no problem with him getting an EQ6 and if he perserveres he will take nice photos.

For all we know he may take up planetary imaging and for that an EQ6 is definately adequate.

This will probably be my last post on this topic. I made it this long because i just cant help feeling that except for a few posters the OP is not getting serious answers to his question, with respect to his stated budget.

One poster said 'great thread except for the noise'. That is fine and i am glad he is getting something out of it. However he is not the one asking the original question.

Paul