Recommend Me Do (GOTO or CCD)

[andys]

So I'm thinking about spending some money on some astronomy kit and need some advice.

Currently have a motor driven eq3 with a 6 inch newtonian and a 350D. I'm pretty happy with the newt, the mount is ok. I've done some prime focus imaging with reasonable results. I still have had no success with drift aligning, though I'm ok at getting a reasonable direction based on estimating the position of the tripod. I'm hoping to crack it over the next few months now the nights are warmer. Also I'm pretty useless at finding stuff that isn't blindingly obvious.

Do I

1) spend money on a goto mount (HEQ5pro or EQ6pro or something else) - theoretically this should help me reduce setup times and be able to find stuff quickyl, but from what I understand, it doesn't solve my alignment challenges.

1a) upgrade my EQ3 to goto with the new kit - not wholly convinced this is worth doing

- or -

2) spend money on a CCD, eyepieces, etc and whatever else so that I can start doing some planetary and deep space imaging.

Ultimately, in a few years I'd quite like to have a full computerised setup.

Your wisdom appreciated.

[Phil]

If it where me i would look at upgrading your mount without a good mount it is going to make things harder for you. The no:1 rule of astrophotography is a good mount.
Phil

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

I totally agree with Phil.

You can buy the best CCD camera in the world, but if your mount is lacking, then you still won't get good images.

You already have an excellent astro camera with the 350D, so I'd suggest to get atleast a HEQ5 GoTo, or even better, an EQ6 GoTo.

[Tamtarn]

Hi Andy

We started our imaging journey with an 8" Newtonian and Pentax DSLR mounted on an EQ5. Although we were quite happy with the results with this combination we wanted to improve our images with longer exposures and even better tracking, eventually moving on to auto guiding.

Taking into account advice received from members of this forum, we purchased an EQ6 Pro GoTo with Synscan.

This mount has been our best equipment purchase to date with the GoTo making it so easy to find objects and a big improvement in tracking resulting in better images already and we haven't even started auto guiding yet.

If you are looking to upgrade what you now have I would recommend that you buy the best mount that you can afford.

I would not spend the money upgrading the eq3 to goto.

You can check out images taken with the EQ5 & EQ6 Pro GoTo on our webpage below.

Hope this helps

David

[Alchemy (Clive)]

ditto to tamtarn