What next?

[iceman (Mike)]

I'm thinking about my next purchase, hopefully coming up soon, as i'll sell the Nikon 5700 I just bought, since the Sony was found and is still in working order.

My wish list (in no particular order):

For astrophotography:
- Laptop (!), maybe a second hand one (> $500)
- Logitech QC Pro 4000 (~ $120) or Phillips Toucam Pro (~$200)
- Steadypix adapter for my digicam (~$80) (if I don't get either of the above 2)
- a better quality barlow (maybe an orion shortyplus or something)

For visual use:
- Telrad (~$100)
- A set of Burgess/Owl GSO SV wide angles EP's (~$200-250 for the set)
- Astronomik UHC filter (~$200)
- Colour filters for planetary viewing (~$15-20 each)
- White light off-axis solar filter (~$120-$180)
- a better quality barlow (maybe an orion shortyplus or something)

What would be your recommendations for order of priority?

I'm torn between visual and astrophotography.. I want to be able to take better photos of planets and moon, but I know the limitations of my setup.

[Starkler (Geoff)]

How useful a telrad is to you will depend largely on how dark the sky is where you normally use your scope. Do you see a LOT of stars with the naked eye from your backyard? If you cant see many, then a telrad wont help that much. Having said that, I wouldnt be without my rigel

A good quality barlow is money well spent, imo you dont want to skimp on this as with planetary viewing contrast is everything!
I find the shorty plus barlow, with an eyepiece of around 12-14mm gives me the perfect magnification for viewing the planets.

As for the cheapy widefield eyepieces, my advice would be to buy one and see how good it really is at f5 before shelling out for the whole set.

Did you get that cheshire collimator? I would put that at #1, the barlow at #2 telrad #3.

P.S. I have a Celestron Ultima 12.5mm thats surplus to my needs after buying the pentax xl's. I paid $240 for it last year from york Optical and if interested you can have it for $150.

p.p.s. Whats this sites policy on advertising items for sale?

[iceman (Mike)]

I haven't got the chesire yet, I definitely need to, as I know my scope is not collimated correctly now.
Where to ge them from, and how much are they?

How much is the orion shorty plus? Where do you get it from? Would it be cheaper to order it from the US?

Is the Celestron Ultima good? I haven't read much about them..


re: advertising, go for it.. If these forums help people sell 2nd hand gear to each other, all the better.. I wish Australia had something like astromart.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

between the logitec and the phillips touCam the general opinion seems to be that the Phillips has the edge

I have also read somewhere that the Logitec may have the same model number but a different CCD chip depending on country. I dont know if this a furphy but still should you go the Logitech route worth double checking before you buy

The other alternative is a low lux video cam

something like

http://www.allthings.com.au/Catalogu...%20camera.html

these cams go by various names -Stellcam, Mintron etc I think

If you have a Dob and no tracking this may be an option worth considering..I have seen some great work done with these.

Mind you I have no personal experience and have only seen stuff on the net.

I did buy a board B &W security cam from Dick Smiths-cost about 30 $ I think-and about 20 $ for a regulated 12 V power supply- and removed the lens and glued a cut off film canister on it.

I got some really good images of the moon in particular and also Saturn which I usually watched on TV. I also observed the triple moon transit of jupiter earlier this year on TV using this rig and my 5 inch reflector

It actually worked allright-especially considering the price- but as my primary interest is deep space objects I moved on to an Atik 1 c, which is a modified Phillips Tou cam

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Originally posted by iceman
I haven't got the chesire yet, I definitely need to, as I know my scope is not collimated correctly now.
Where to ge them from, and how much are they?

Bintel will have them, probably something between $50-$80.

How much is the orion shorty plus? Where do you get it from? Would it be cheaper to order it from the US?

About $200 in Aus, again from Bintel.

If you ever want to buy Orion stuff, Joe O'Neil in Canada is a great bloke to deal with. I bought an orion shorty plus and the 9x50 RACI finder from him.

http://www.oneilphoto.on.ca/

Is the Celestron Ultima good? I haven't read much about them..
[/B]

Well known in Astro circles as a top quality fully multicoated 5 element design with similar characteristics to plossls.
Comparable to Televue plossls and some prefer the Ultimas to them.

[iceman (Mike)]

I collimated my scope yesterday by eye, I used a film cannister with a hole in the end as my collimating cap.

I followed some instructions I had, it looks to be fairly centered by eye.. my mirror is centre spotted already which made it easier.

I'll do a star test tonight or tomorrow morning if the clouds part, but i'll still keep an eye out for the cheshire.

I'll take a look at that site, thanks for the link.

I won't buy the ultima just yet, i'm still trying to decide on my shopping list for xmas and I think i'd prefer to get a couple of useful things rather than just 1 premium EP.

I'll add a "buy,sell,trade" forum so people can get in touch with each other to buy and sell 2nd hand gear.