Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffkop
Hi Blake
I can remember being in this EXACT position and I went the Skywatcher 180 MAK with an HEQ5PRO way ... absolute disaster !!!! ... Well I will qualify that .. imaging wise nothing could have been more disheartening.
I sold that gear and bought a G11 and a TSA102 ... did nothing different setup wise ... got instant results.
Basically .. forget totally .. long focal length equipment at this stage .. it will just make your job 100x more difficult.
My advise .. (if you dont want to go the Dob way) .. there have been plenty of items similar to this advertised here .. especially G11 with Gemini Goto .. $5000 will get you some pretty neat stuff 2nd hand at the moment .. take advantage of that.
A decent mount and a refractor will = more success and much more enjoyment .. Good Luck
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Thanks for the advice! I'm tossing up between the Orion ED80 CF apo refractor, and the SkyWatcher 250mm CF f/4 imaging newt. Pretty certain I'll pick either one of them, possibly a cheaper newt if I decide to save a bit of coin. I'm leaning toward the newt cause of the large aperture and fast focal ratio, but the ED80 has got a good reputation and will be easier to balance and mount.
Deciding between a SkyWatcher EQ8 or the AZ-EQ6 GT for the mount, it's a pretty expensive jump in price and weight between the mounts, but there's also the bonus capacity and precision of the EQ8 with expandability in the future. I feel like the AZ-EQ6 GT might be pushed a bit with the newt mounted on it.
I roughly priced up a set up with an EQ8 and the SkyWatcher f/4 newt and a ccd camera, autoguider, collimator, etc. and came out in the 5 figure price range haha

I may have to make some compromises.
What's the general consensus on ccd vs dslr imaging? There's a tonne of different opinions. I looked in to dslr because of the ability to use it as a normal camera as well as for night-scape shots, high megapixel imaging, and to live view (with the Canon Eos 6D in particular), but then there's filter mods that might have to be made, and a bunch of filters to buy.
It's such a massive topic with so many options out there and things that work better with particular set ups than others. Why don't I just buy an 8 inch go-to dob, some nagler eyepieces, and a dslr? haha