Quote:
Originally Posted by higginsdj
These rent a scopes wouldn't exist if they didn't pay for themselves. This sort of implies that they do what they advertise! Most will have introductory packages (lower rates). Try it out and see.
Frankly, for the pretty picture taker who only goes out now and then, the Rent-A-Scope option is, in my opinion, your best option (unless you like fiddling with hardware). For most of these people, a Rent-A-Scope is going to produce better and more reliable results far quicker and with less hassle than you will be able to achieve with your own gear.
If you are taking a lot of images over a great many hours then in the long run, it will be far cheaper to set up your own observatory.
Cheers
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I see you title yourself "the lazy astronomer." A man after my own heart.
let me just say that fiddling with hardware in the dark, damp and cold is certainly not my cup of tea.
To give you an idea of just how lazy I am, let me tell you this:
I admire the crocodile, not for its killing efficiency, but for the fact that it spends most of it's time lying around doing nothing, at a resting heartrate as low as 6 bpm.
I eat soup (when I bother to eat at all) so I don't have to waste time and energy chewing.
If they ever held a competition for laziness, I'd win, if not for the fact that I wouldn't bother to turn up.
But you've basically captured what I was trying to find out. For basic images on the (relatively) cheap, I was thinking GRAS might be an ok idea.
I'm not looking for astronomy publication quality (yet), but I figured that instead of spending thousands on a setup I'd hardly use (read: lazy), I could take some reasonable quality snaps for not much cash.
That said, maybe one day in a fit of madness I might have the time, energy and money to get into astrophotography and do it properly with my own gear.... but I doubt it.
