Best DOB under $1500 in Australia?

[astroboyz]

Kana,

I've been researching 2 months for my first telescope and learnt a lot from the forums. Like you, I was looking for something that can do both visual and imaging, but trust me, you'd find your budget growing larger to satisfy both worlds. So in the end, you need to decide what you really want to do and focus on that priority.

Many observers use Dobsonian since they are reasonably cheap, even with GOTO system, fairly easy to set up, but difficult for transport with large tube. The cheapest one under $1,500 is 8" & 10" Orion from Bintel, I did search oversea market, but the P&H + GST and warranty would make the price less competitive. The DOB would satisfy the observation, some experienced people said they could do some planetary imaging with this, but for Deep Space Object and long exposure the DOB may hit some limitation in tracking (please kindly correct me if I'm wrong :-) )

The accessories is the killer, you need more than what come with the scope, good eyepieces have different prices and types (Plossls, Panoptic, Nagler etc), but according to my research and advice from the forums, $40 - $70 per piece will get you a reasonable one (50 deg to maybe 66 deg); and you need a few of these, and maybe a barlow as well, so say another $200 - $300.

Filter !!! you need at least the moon filter, about $20 each, a light polution filter (maybe UHC), then again the price is ranging between $70 - few hundreds, I have my eyes set on the Baader 2" UHC-S, about $140, but I think Celestron or Skywatcher is about half price.

For astrophtography, you need T-ring for your DSLR camera (if you already have one), T-extension tube or adapter depending on your need .... so about $60 for both. ... I heard prime 'focus' is going to be an issue, I don't know how people overcome this without using the low-profile focuser for Newtonian tube .... the low profile focuser would set you back another $200 at least.
An alternative is to do eyepiece projection with barlow or low power eyepiece .... but I heard coma being an issue with the Newt tube, so you need coma corrector, and that is another $100 - $300

If you have not had a DSLR camera, CCD camera is also popular ammong astro-imagers, and that has a wide price range, but couple hundreds at least I would say !! .... then you may need different kind of filters for your CCD imaging, and guess what, they are not cheap !!!!

For a bit more serious in imaging, people advised to get a EQ mount, and that opens up a whole can of worms .... :-) Large tube for observing, put lots of demand on the EQ mount for imaging/tracking .... so you need to go for a strong mount .... HEQ5 Pro would handle 8" + accessories ok, for 10" you need NEQ6 Pro or similar.
HEQ5 Pro is about $1,200, NEQ6 Pro is around $1600 - $1,700 .... for the mount only. You need to pay extra for the tube and accessories as mentioned above.

From all the feedback from the forums, I'd say you may want consider the observing first !!! For imaging, please don't just take my words for it, search the forums !!!

Good luck !!!

[raymo]

I've never needed a moon filter, just look at the moon from about 6"[150mm] from the eyepiece, move in to the EP over 10secs or so, and the eye has already closed down enough to be comfortable. The Skywatcher Dobs with their slightly odd 2"/1.25" adaptor arrangement
have no problem with prime focus; you just need the appropriate T-ring.
raymo

[kana]

Right!

NEQ6 + SW F4 carbon fibre 10" locked and loaded - thanks so much for everyones help, bloody excited to see where this is going! After so much reading and a lot of peoples advice + field testing I hope this serves as a good example of getting good guidance on an astrophotography setup, even though I was way off track with the DOB request.

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Did you get a CCD too, or are you starting on the DSLR route?

[kana]

Canon 60Da with the T ring Barry?

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Sounds like a great one to kick off with. You can get Backyard EOS to control it too - one thing I miss with my NEX is the lack of control software.

[Satchmo]

Originally Posted by kana

Right!

NEQ6 + SW F4 carbon fibre 10" locked and loaded - thanks so much for everyones help, bloody excited to see where this is going! After so much reading and a lot of peoples advice + field testing I hope this serves as a good example of getting good guidance on an astrophotography setup, even though I was way off track with the DOB request.

Kana - You will want to grab at least GSO Coma Corrector too for visual observation . Coma is a linear aberration - it does not just occur at the edge of the view . It starts to bloat your star images away from the immediate centre and gets worse as you look nearer the edge . I don't know how good the GSO is but I have heard the specs that with a Paracor star images are on average 3 X tighter in an F4 with Paracor than an F5 without . Food for thought . Most of the time people report a really bad edge on an eyepice it is actually a strong mx of coma and much worse astigmatism due to the eyepiece design and the fast f ratio.

[opensea64 (Chris)]

I have a 10" Meade Lightbridge and its great. I think I wouldnt want anything larger , the view through a 10 is pretty nice. Was well under $1500.