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lu2fly3
member
Reged: 04/14/07
Posts: 42
Loc: Central Michigan
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I am new to hobby of astronomy and am very interested in getting into Astrophotography. I purchased an Orion 10" Dob Intelliscope back in Jan and am having such a great time seeing everthing I can that I now I've caught the bug and want to be able to image what I'm seeing well. My main interest would probably be DSO's, but I'd love to also do a little lunar and planetary imaging as well.
I've been looking at the scopes people suggest and seem to see a lot of reference to the Meade LXD75 SN-8AT 8" Schmidt-Newtonian as a great option. I'm curious general thoughts on that choice vs other options. Maybe there is a better and less expensive option. From what I can tell the cost of that scope comes in quite a bit under many others on the market, but maybe there is a better option in that price range. I would like to use whatever I purchase for general viewing as well, and want the tracking ability of a motorized mount to do so. In fact, I'm the director of a children's charity and want to be able to use whatever I purchase to show objects to the kids I work with. My 10" Dob works great, but doesn't track. For planets and the moon, that would be a great thing to have when showing something to 15-30 kids.
So my first question is, with what I described my intent is, would the LXD75 SN-8 a good choice or are there better options in that price range $1000-$1300?
My next question...I have a Canon Rebel XTi already. Would I be better to use that camera or purchase an imager like the Meade DSI? I see Meade is offering a special on the DSI if you purchase a scope like the LXD series scopes.
Any thoughts and suggestions would be much appreciated.
Lars
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lu2fly3
member
Reged: 04/14/07
Posts: 42
Loc: Central Michigan
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Anyone have any thoughts?? I sure would appreciate any insight before I purchase anything. Thanks in advance.
Lars
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oldsalt
Astro Philosopher
Reged: 02/12/05
Posts: 7958
Loc: Pa - between starparties
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The SN-8 should fill the bill nicely, and stick with the Rebel for now, as it can fill two uses.All you need it a T ring and adapter to get going.
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Patrick
Postmaster
Reged: 05/16/03
Posts: 6788
Loc: Franklin, Ohio
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Hi Lars,
The SN8 OTA can make a nice imaging scope, but I would seriously consider mounting it on a beefier mount if you want to do longer exposure AP. For short exposure photography it should do well. For AP a lot of people are using 80mm APO refractors. The advantage is that they don't require a really beefy mount. Also, for AP a large aperture OTA is not as important as it is for visual use since you will be taking longer exposures and accumulating light. The f/ratio and focal length are the most important attributes in an AP OTA. The nice thing about the SN8's is the fast f/ratio which cut the exposure times down considerably.
The focal length is the other important spec since that is what gives you the image scale in your photographs.
Of course the most important component of an AP setup is the mount itself. You want to get a setup that will have low periodic error and be extremely stable.
Patrick
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Discovery 10" f/6 Split Tube Dob
Celestron C6 SCT
Denk Binoviewers
AT66ED Refractor
Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Binocular
475B Geared Tripod & 501HDV Head
Oberwerk 9x60 Binocular
Celestron Regal 8x42 Binocular
Canon 30D DSLR
Mini EQ1
My Astronomy Pages
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Patrick
Postmaster
Reged: 05/16/03
Posts: 6788
Loc: Franklin, Ohio
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Quote:
So my first question is, with what I described my intent is, would the LXD75 SN-8 a good choice or are there better options in that price range $1000-$1300?
My next question...I have a Canon Rebel XTi already. Would I be better to use that camera or purchase an imager like the Meade DSI? I see Meade is offering a special on the DSI if you purchase a scope like the LXD series scopes.
Lars,
Here's a couple more thoughts for you. Regarding the Rebel XTi, there are a lot of imagers who are using that camera successfully. Here's the thing though...if you want to do longer exposure imaging using an autoguider, you will need a second camera like the DSI and a second scope as well. In addition to that, you'll need a laptop computer with you at the scope to autoguide with.
If your intention is to image without guiding, you will be limited to exposures of about 1 minute before star trailing and mount errors start showing up.
A good book you can get online is A Guide to Astrophotography With Digital SLR Cameras. Another book that looks good but I haven't read yet is Introduction to Digital Astrophotography.
Patrick
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Discovery 10" f/6 Split Tube Dob
Celestron C6 SCT
Denk Binoviewers
AT66ED Refractor
Oberwerk Ultra 15x70 Binocular
475B Geared Tripod & 501HDV Head
Oberwerk 9x60 Binocular
Celestron Regal 8x42 Binocular
Canon 30D DSLR
Mini EQ1
My Astronomy Pages
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jgraham
Postmaster
Reged: 12/02/04
Posts: 5370
Loc: Dayton, Ohio
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Like anything else learning a new skill is a stepwise process of getting the basics, learning how to use them, and growing from there. The LXD75 SN8 sounds like a perfect match for what you want to do; image deepsky objects and general visual work. For visual-only work a larger telescope would be nice, for imaging-only a smaller telescope would be useful, so the SN8 sits right there in the sweet spot between the two. The SN8 is also a very good match for the LXD75.
As for a camera; I'd start with what you have already. You should be able to do some very good work with that camera and in the process learn enough to tell what you'd really like in an astronomical camera. Also, just to get your feet wet, you might consider starting out taking wide field shots by mounting your camera piggy-back on your imaging telescope (even narrow-field shots using telephoto lenses would be fun) and once you've mastered that you can tackle moving the camera onto the telescope itself.
Imaging is a fun hobby. Start with good equipment and enjoy the journey.
-John
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-John
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Homebuilt scopes from 4.25-16.5"
Meade LXD75-N6/SN6/SC8, DSX-90, ETX-60BB, ETX-125PE, DS-2130
Orion StarBlast, BinoViewers, Coronado PST
Rebel XT/XTi, DSI Pro (I & II), DSI, LPI, Electronic Eyepiece, Phillips SPC900NC
Tasco 60mm Refractors
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