Thanks Max,
You raised some good points there. Maybe you can help further.
Right or wrong, I thought that the best solution would be a collection of tools that are able to function extremely well within a set of pre-defined parameters for the purpose.
1. targets - helicopter to airplane size targets
2. distance - a few kilometers (say 10km), up to 1000km from the earth.
3. magnification - able to place the above target at above distances, within the eyepiece for recording, taking up 25%+ of the FOV.
4. This will not be an astronomical kit - more like a long to extremely long range spotting scope!
In my research for a solution, I thought of investigating real examples from others in order to gain an understanding of what can be achieved.
I was particularly impresed by the following examples showing he ISS at roughly 500Km from the earth:
1. Takahashi FS 128 (5'') refractor with Tele Vue 3x (focal length extended from 1040 to around 4200mm) (piggy-backed on a 12" LX200 Classic) @x (Digital Camera: Lumenera's SKYnyx2-0 VGA CCD - Lucam Recorder Software Gain 5.0 / 1/100s / 20fps) (Satellite Tracker Software)
2. Meade LX-200 10" @f20, ToUCam & Automatic tracking :
(The following clips are made by Mike Tyrrell and Phil Masding the guys from the BBC 4 special called 'The Satellite Story'. [link2]webite,
http://www.astrospider.com/[/link2])
3. Celestron C8 with f.6.3 focal reducer - Manual tracking (using a 80ED Scope) (Camera: TIS DMK 31AF03.AS)
The most impressive of all is of course the Takahashi FS 128 (5'') refractor. You will notice that even though this was mounted on a 12" LX200 SCT, he instead chose to record images from the refractor (guess he used the LX200 just for the autoguiding). Does this tell us something? We can directly compare results with the second example of the LX-200 10''.The Celestron C8 is very similar to the 10'' Meade with slight loss in resolution.
I would like to hear some opinions on the type of scope suited specifically to this application (and whether it can hopefully be mounted on a mount that works with OpticTracker like Celestron SE or CPC series & Meade LX200 mounts). This is secondary though).
Cost is always an issue but I think $2000 for a scope & mount is reasonable.
Your opinions are invaluable bearing in mind that I have absolutely no prior experience in this field even though I have been reading up on it.
Thanks
Telis