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Old 02-06-2010, 06:08 PM
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renormalised (Carl)
No More Infinities

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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Townsville
Posts: 9,698
If you can pick up a SW ED80 second hand for that price, you'll be smiling. However, it's not the scope that's going to limit you. You'll need a good, sturdy mount to stick it on, and I wouldn't go any smaller than an HEQ5 Pro (or an EQ5 Pro with goto, at the very least). Try to skimp on the mount and you can forget about taking piccies worth the effort. That means, unless you can pick up one of these second hand as well, you're looking at $1099 for the HEQ5 or if your budget can't stretch that far, the EQ5 Pro for $899...at Andrews.

The ED80 scope will allow you to take great widefield pics of objects like M42 (Orion Nebula), the Eta Carina Nebula and other large objects.

You'll also need the a T ring adapter specific for your camera, spacers, extension tubes and such to allow you to bring the camera and scope into proper focus.

It eventually adds up. Astrophotography can rapidly become quite expensive.
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