new telescope system

[A23649 (Nathan)]

hi all,
as a young student with no money i couldn't pass up an offer recently made by my dad.he said that i should find a telescope that is larger than my current one but still under $1500. as the astropiccie bug starts to bite i looked at the Eq5 pro goto mount from skywatcher and the Orion 8inch f/4.0 Newtonian Astrograph Reflector OTA. in regards to the mount i have heard that if likend to cars, skywatcher is great wall. i would just like some conformation on if these are a good choice or not before i lock it in. any suggestions would be great, but not on spending more on the mount.

[A23649 (Nathan)]

anyone?...

[h0ughy (David)]

if you can get what you want for the price then yes, you will get some good results. to do some astrophotography you will need a guide scope and guide camera (or you could manually guide by eye) and a camera. either way what you have picked should be ok to wet the whistle. Enjoy your setup.

[A23649 (Nathan)]

currently saving for the guide scope and camera :-)

[Zincberg (Andrew)]

Hey Nathan,
Although some of the skywatcher telescope equipment seems to have a bit of a Stigmata to it, the eq pro mounts seem to get very good reviews. Every is based on a pricepoint of course, but if you are getting into basic astrophotography, I believe that the package you are looking at will suit you well.
As for the guidescope and camera, Im not sure that you need to rush into that side of things. The EQ5 goto has Periodic error correction built in, you should be able to get it to hold objects fairly still. Just be careful that the EQ5 is going to hold the weight that you are looking at putting on it. It is rated to hold about 15kg, and although the scope you are looking at is only about 8, by the time you put a diagonal and camera etc on it , you might find its getting close to its limit.
Look forward to seeing what results you get!

Andrew