Quote:
Originally Posted by larry forman
I am a senior physics teacher wanting to put astronomy into the course. Iwould like to take photos of stellar bodies and have a budget of up to $3000 australian. I am seeking help in what to buy i have no knowledge and limited experience and students will also be using the equipment, so something simple to operate would be an advantage  |
Go for a newtonian on decent german equatorial mount (need not have GOTO) but dual axis drives are a BIG PLUS.
Will cost you more for the GEM than the optical tube assembly + a paracorr + some eyepieces.
Places to start looking are :
http://www.astro-optical.com.au/telescopes.html
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm GEMS
https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm Scopes
lot to be said for buying a Dob (a 10" or 12") and putting the optical tube on a good GEM , you could manage that for under $3k (and you'd get it tax excempt as a school too. (that money will buy the Paracorr coma corrector).
Even better get an assembled optical tube (Newtonian) no dob mount and a separate GEM.
If you want near as humanly possible to perfect tracking --- it's a hard call if your total budget scope + gem is $3k unless you get it all second hand.
For you I'd steer clear of refractors (too limited and way too easy for the children to nick).
There are low lux video sys's that can be put a prime focus or at the end of an eyepiece for eyepiece projection of magnified objects (planets, moon etc) for displaying images on multiple TVs or displays too - worth looking at for your science dept.
APERTURE APERTURE APERTURE ..... more the better.