Quote:
Originally Posted by 3moryArchT
Hi All,
My may concern is the the ability to see Deep Space.
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For that, aperture is king. Buy the widest aperture dobsonian you can afford, 25-30cm is good to start with. Plenty of galaxies and nebulae will be within the grasp of that.
If you want to automate it, add some encoders, motors, the ServoCat controller which handles the computations position and controlling the motors, connect that to SkyFi, and add an iPad running SkySafari. This will give you a nice setup where pointing to an object on the iPad, the scope will slew to it and track. Or if you push the scope around, the map on the iPad will show where/what you are looking at. Pretty much the ultimate in convenience for visual observing. In addition the ServoCat computer will compensate for the ways in which a dobsonian telescope flexes (dobsonians are mostly made of wood, thin metal and not very rigid).
Alternatively buy a Schmidt cassegrain, the Meade 10" ACF or Celestron 11" EdgeHD are about the limit for most to lift single handed; if you're a big beefy gorilla you could opt for the 12" ACF from Meade.
Forget about astrophotography until you really understand why you want to do this, and what you want to photograph, for several reasons:
a) A scope that is optimised for visual use (deep sky or planets) is not optimal for astrophotgraphy, and vice-versa.
b) Most here are either astrophotographers or visual observers, few few attempt both.
c) There are so many people already doing astrophotography - many with very lavishly equipped setups and permanent observatories - that it has become a pretty pointless exercise if you are limited to portable equipment, and aren't prepared to plunge at least $15-20k on the equipment.
There are so many taking countless over-processed shots of the usual bright pretty things in the sky that frankly I'd have to say why bother when you can download the same from the internet. The last thing the world needs is yet another photo of the Orion nebula.
