Hi all,
I'm new to this area and have been doing as much reading as I can on the subject to get myself up to speed. I'm nearing the "commit" stage in purchasing some equipment but I thought I would put it out there for some feedback as I haven't found a lot of stuff on the internet in particular about the mount and it's capabilities for astrophotgraphy with I guess a mid-field scope.
The scope I'm looking at is the TSapo65q
http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/...eld-diam-.html
Some of the sample shots I've seen are pretty amazing and so far mostly positive reviews other than some issues with the cold.
The mount I'm looking at is the Skywatcher EQ3 synscan
http://www.skywatcher.com/swtinc/pro...1=3&class2=304
It is significantly cheaper than the EQ5 equivalent (about $160) and I am wondering ifthe EQ3 would suffice at this stage for what I want.
The EQ3 load raiting is well over what I would have for my initial startup (2.8kg for the scope and my sony Nex camera is only ~0.3kg so I am not so concerned about that, but one of the issues that has been brought up is that the accuracy of the drive / mount may not be good enough for the scope?
At the moment, my budget has already gone above what I originally wanted to spend cause I figured I would get a good scope to start with. On top of this, I will need to get at least a 90 degree star diagonal and at least a couple of eyepieces, plus the T2 mount so it's adding up price-wise! I've also found that it is a lot cheaper to buy this stuff in Germany and have it sent over than it is to purchase here. For the EQ5 + scope I'm getting around au$1300 shipped compared to $1135 for the EQ3 + scope. I realise it's not a huge difference, but I am already over budget.
Thanks for looking,
Matthew