Quote:
Originally Posted by netrules  There's some nice telescopes shown here! 
On the topic of telescopes, i'm looking to get into the area of astro-photography but this is a completely new area for me, new venture for 2007 and all that! So i'm looking for a few views from the experts on what I should be looking for.
I've found Optical Vision have a dobsonian 8" Skyliner model which i've found the details for here Telescopes / Enthusiastic Amateur Reflector Telescopes - Skyliner-200 (8") f/1200 Parabolic Dobsonian Telescope which jumped out at me as it details having a direct SLR camera connection.
As this would be my first telescope I can't really justify spending more that £300 unless there's good reason to.
Does anyone have any experience with astro-photography? My background currently
is in photography rather than telescopes so this is a new area that i'm progressing into.
If anyone has any recommendations on telescopes, and indeed any pit-falls to avoid in this area i'd welcome the feedback.
Many thanks! |
If you intend to do astrophotography - DO NOT get a Dobsonian.
At the magnifications used by telescopes, the slow drift of the stars across the sky, is also magnified greatly - objects positively zip through the field of view at high power (a typical imaging cam, at prime focus, gives a similar field of view to a 6mm eyepiece - 200x magnification in that Dobsonian)
Problem with Dobs, is that they don't track the stars' motion, you have to push them by hand. This makes it impossible to do exposures longer than a fraction of a second - and even that is difficult, because it becomes difficult to aim it correctly, with a camera attached.
Best go for something with an equatorial mount, and a motor drive - A correctly polar aligned, motorised equatorial mount will track an object all night, once you have found your target.
Also - aperture isn't so much of an issue if you are gonna be taking photos, focal RATIO is much more important than actual aperture (for photography) - that Dob is 8", 1200mm - which translates to f/6.
For taking photos, you'd be far better off taking a slight drop in aperture and getting a 6", 750mm (faster f5 focal ratio) on an EQ mount.
SkyWatcher's Explorer 150, is about £220 and it'll cost about £85 extra for a RA motor (the one that tracks celestial motion)
If you are willing to pay a little more, you can get drives for both axes (RA and Dec)
I own that scope myself (and have also added motor drives) - and can vouch for it's image quality - been using it 3yrs, and still happy with it.
Alternatives....
Meade make some nice scopes, but tend to be expensive for what they are - also Meade make a lot of models with fork-style mounts (bad for astrophotography, unless you are prepared to pay EVEN more to put them on an equatorial 'wedge')
Orion and Celestron are owned by the same parent company as SkyWatcher (Synta) - so the optics in the various models are identical, made in the same factory - but for some reason the better prices (for equivalent scopes) in UK seem to be on the SkyWatcher brand.
Also, Celestron are a fairly recent acquisition by Synta - and although the optics are now identical, Celestron branded models are still using the Celestron-style mounts, which aren't as well put-together as the Synta mounts used by SkyWatcher and Orion.
You may also see 'Orion Optics UK' - this is a different company to Synta's 'Orion' - Orion Optics UK have even better optics, but are also more expensive
It's a minefield out there - but hope some of that may help.
PS - VERY important - Avoid brands you've never heard of on E-bay - mainly Seben, Optrons, Event Horizon, B&Crown.... (and they may be using other names by now) horrible things - I got to use one a while ago, and wrote my thoughts here....
ASTRO-CHAT - :: View topic - E-bay scopes - BEWARE!!! 
Linear Mode
