Quote:
Originally Posted by barx1963
Astro imaging is the purest form of a money pit outside of sailing known to man. $1000 is not going to get much in the way of an imaging kit unless you are keen on learning the joys of manual guiding.
On the other hand $1000 will buy a very nice Dob which will give years of viewing.
The little Go To scopes like the 6SE give OK views and you get the convenience of Go To, but you sacrifice aperture for convenience.
Malcolm
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I really beg to dis agree that astrophotography is a money pit! take a quick look at cars for a start.... what hobby can you resell your equipment for 80% of your purchase. sometimes more!?
Quote:
Originally Posted by koputai
But this will be totally useless for visual. The ED80, in fact most refractors are pretty useless for general visual use due to their small aperture.
I'd agree with Malcolm. The best first scope is an 8 inch Dobsonian. They are very easy to use, easy to transport, easy to set up, and have a decent aperture so your visual quality will be much better.
For under $1000 you can have a brand new 8 inch Dob, a colimator, and a couple of good eyepieces.
Cheap option totalling $560:
8" Dob $500
Basic colimator $60
Two average eyepieces that come with the Dob.
Excellent option totalling $990:
8" Dob $500
Glatter laser colimator $190
Televue Nagler 13mm Type 6 eyepiece $300
Cheers,
Jason.
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Glatter laser, any laser in that case is dangerous because your relying that its properly set up. plus it uses batteries.. for another 40 fun tokens you can have passive and in my honest opinion a far better setup with a proper cheshire and auto collimators...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poita
That's the thing, on that budget you need to choose between visual or photography really. I personally think an 8" dob is just as useless for visual, and would go to a 12" or stick to a small refractor and do some photography. That's why he needs to go look through some scopes, for visual use I find 12" to be the starting point and an 8" somewhat underwhelming. Another person will find an 8" spectacular. Others find almost all visual underwhelming and go for mallincams or photography. Don't spend any money yet, go to a star party, look at some scopes, make some friends and try to buy whatever suits you 2nd hand if you can, it will often come with many extras, advice and sometimes a new friend.
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Peter i think thats rubbish a 8" scope is fine for a beginner! easy to move around and gives great views! it wasn't that far off my 10" dob. Once you get used to what you have you can sell it off or keep it as a nice light astrophotography rig which is devistatingly better than a small refractor! Plus its only in the last 5 years that a 8" dob became a moderate scope and a 12" became affordable....... Sometimes bigger isn't better! and if you go for a 12" your going to have to pump out for a minimum of a G11 possibly bigger mount just to start your astrophotography journey.