|
Odille, as a novice I would stay away from an equatorial mount. The quality of mount on offer with budget scopes is not adequate for anything other than visual use and those in the package you mention aren't even motorised. The optics on GS scopes are usually of a high standard.
As a starter you would be better off to go for one of the dobs (andrews has the basic 8 inch model for $399). You can mate the OTA from the dob with a suitable equatorial mount at a later date when you have the funds. Equatorial mounts suited for astrophotography really start at the HEQ5 / EQ6 level; with hand controller and go to capability, these mounts list on the Andrews site $1499 and $1999 respectively for the mount only.
If you have the inclination to tinker, the HEQ5 and EQ6 are available without the Synscan hand control for around $500 to $600 less and can be controlled using the laptop (eqmod) with some minor additional hardware.
Last edited by acropolite; 28-02-2009 at 09:56 AM.
|