Quote:
Originally Posted by outwestwa
Could anyone suggest good ED80 to buy or perhaps another scope? To be used mainly as a guide scope for DSLR astrophotography with some wide field photography, planetary & lunar Observing
I really want to get this right from the start this time. I’m seeing some good prices on sky watcher PROED80 setup (Tube Rings, Dovetail, 90 Deg Diagonal, 9x 50mm Finder scope 20mm and 9mm eyepieces aluminium carrying case ) or is there some better options I need to be looking at.
Laurie
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Hi Laurie
It really depends on what your main imaging scope setup is and whether you want to use the guide scope for wide field shots as well. I have a LX200R 10" and have been using a meade 80mm apo as a guide/imaging scope for quite some time. I recently bought a williams optics zenithstar 66 ($595)to use as guide scope as it weighs about half as much as the meade and is about 1/3 the size. It operates at F5.9 which is close enough to the F6.3 I usually use. Turns out the scope has very nice optics as well and I will try some wide fields with it when this cloud buggers off. If you are using it for guiding alone then any acromat will do as long as the focal ratio is not too much different then the imaging scope. There is a small skywatcher 80mm acromat that sells cheapley and would do the job. Equally the pro 8o ED would do very well and could double as an imaging scope as well. I have seen some great images from these scopes when mated to a DSLR.
I lived in Tom Price for a while back in the early 1990's. I have always wondered what it would be like to observe the stars from the top of that bloody great hill that overshadows the town. Will have to try it one day
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Ciao Mark