Quote:
Originally Posted by kingy2511
Hey guys, so I got a couple more questions after a big weekend!.
So I purchased a eq6 and now am looking for scope to go with. There is a couple for sale on the forum. The first is a Skywatchers 150mm F9, second Vixen ed120 F7.5..
Should I be going for a Shorter Focal length? And is F9 too narrow field of view for astro-photography?..
Cheers
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Nathan,
Great to see that you are taking an interest.
Like you, I started pretty much down the same path, made heaps of mistakes along the way too. That is the learning process I guess.
When you say you want to do astrophotography, what do you exactly mean by that. Its a broad term these days and it comes in all shapes and sizes.
What sort of photographs do you want to take, moon, nebulas, galaxies etc?
The reason for asking is that the choice of OTA will limit what you can and cannot photograph. Wide field refractors like the ED80 will pretty much limit you to just that, widefield photography of objects like the moon and some of the large nebulas like M42 (Orion Nebula) and Eta Carinea. Its also probably one of the best places to start as an astrophotgrapher IMO. Widefield is far more forgiving and provides you with a very solid learning foundation once you decide to climb the focal length ladder.
Longer focal length telescopes are much harder to master for serious astrophotography as the margin for error is very small.
One other thing I found as a must in this hobby, you need to be very computer savvy. To get your mount tracking precisely, you will need a guide scope ( A second scope purely designed to track a star and convey corrections back to the mount). This requires a computer and software. Its another learning curve to master, but its necessary.
I still use a widefield scope to this day for astrophotography. I have seen too many people start at high focal lengths and quit soon after due to frustration but mostly through getting themselves into the deep end from the start.
My opinion, would be to start off with a small refractor, a cheap guidescope and guide camera and go from there.
Wish you all the best!
Mark