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Well, after visually viewing planets etc. most of my astronomical life, & now after breaking into the photography side of things I can now see both sides of the coin.
I have a few high power eyepieces that I can only use when the seeing is close to perfect which seems to be pretty rare where I live. I've spent years worrying about the concept of getting a better view of the planets & hence upgrading to supposedly better...& more expensive EPs. My most expensive EP is the 5mm LV vixen. $300 3 years ago. Quite frankly, my little 5mm ortho .965 does just as good on the planets. It was only 2 months ago I was dertermined to get a nagler or a pentax to get the best possible views! Now I'm not so sure I'll be doing that!
Since getting into astrophotography I've often pulled myself up saying "you haven't done any visual observing for awhile!?" I did some observing last night actually just to see what I've been missing....looked at mars with the LV 5mm plus refractor. Did I miss looking at mars visually?? The answer is no. I can see more detail on mars by photographing it!! I looked at M42. Did I miss looking at it....yes, cos' I can't photograph it nicely yet.
Once I can photograph everything in the sky, I can honestly say I could spend the rest of my life photographing thru a telescope rather than looking thru it.
I just worked out I've spent very close to the same amount of money on eyepieces as telescopes! Getting a toucam has totally changed my way of thinking..This is more exciting & fullfilling to me: to spend 3 or 4 hours capturing/processing etc etc & then to see the final image! I don't get the WOW factor these days visually, to do that, I need to keep getting better EPs. Nope...I'll be getting the WOW factor by getting better at imaging from here on in.
Not sure what to suggest to you Dave. If your only going to visually look once in a blue moon, I wouldn't suggest go out and buy a nagler!
That money would be better spent towards tracking mate. You have all the gear ready for great photos except that one vital component...tracking! For DSO work it needs to be ACCURATE too (as you know)
I'm at the dark side now, & here I will remain. I'm not going to rush out & flog all my EPs off though. Already I view them as family heirlooms or things that should be kept in a nice safe place away from prying eyes...sacred objects! LOL!!
I have no doubt I'll have another 'swing around' in 10 years time & go back to visual but at present, astro has me by the short N' curlies & I couldn't just give up toucamming if my life depended on it! It's a real break thru for me, to see better detail on mars by photographing it...I just can't see detail visually as good...even with a $300 dollar EP! That goes for the rest of the planets too. I just can't imagine upgrading to a $1000 EP is going to make much difference?
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