Reflector or Refractor

[icytailmark (Mark)]

hi guys im looking at getting into DSO imaging. I have no experience at all. I currently own a Losmandy g11 g2 mount and i plan on using my Canon EOS 550 camera to start off with.

Which telescope shall i get an 8" reflector or a refractor?

[alocky (Andrew lockwood)]

Obviously depends on what you're hoping to photograph, but you have an excellent mount that will carry anything up to a 14".
The degree of difficulty increases with focal length, so perhaps you might want to consider starting with an ED80 or similar - see in the deep sky section for what can be achieved with one of these and a decent DSLR (which you also have). You will need to research drift aligning - I have the polar alignment scope on my G11 and it gets me well enough aligned for 5 minute subs through a 500mm lens within a few minutes. Others do not like them.
You might then consider getting a short tube 80 and webcam, or finder-guider package so you can run an autoguider, which frees you up for the more important aspects of stargazing (drinking, staying warm, visual observing...).
cheers,
Andrew.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The ED80 is the astro imagers work horse.
It has an excellent field of view and paired up with the 550D will give you some very nice images.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Yes I second that the ED80 is the AP's work horse as jjj says .
Great scope all round and if you decide to get a bigger scope in future the ED80 will make a good guide scope .
There is a couple in the classifieds now .
Brian.

[Keshdogga (Casey)]

If you want to get into imaging DSO's then you'll most definately need a guide scope or some way to guide. You can purchase another telescope completely, from which you run the guide scope. Here is a very inexpensive example of something that will get the job done.

http://www.telescope.com/Orion-Aweso...ge/p/24770.uts

You of course have to find a way of attatching the guide scope to the mount.

There is a cheaper alternative which i'm not entirely familier with called 'off axis guiding' where you buy this, http://www.telescope.com/catalog/sea...ff+axis+guider and from which you can attach both a DSLR and an autoguiding camera. This setup is good but your autoguider must be able to find a bright enough star to guide off while you are taking your image.

From there you learn to use some computer software that lets you polar align your mount. There's this really awesome program out now called EQalign http://eqalign.net/e_eqalign.html that really does all the work. Other than that there are plenty of guides on IIS.

-Casey