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mcbbcn
member
Reged: 03/10/07
Posts: 74
Loc: Portland, OR
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Hi all,
I'm a newbie, and I own a 40D Hutech camera, and I'm about to buy my first mount, probably it will be a Orion Sirius with GOTO.
I would like to have a guide scope that I can use for autoguiding with the mount, but at the same time, I would like to be able to set the mount to PEC, and then use the guide scope and webcam to take planets video-clips for Registax.
My question is: What is the smallest guide scope that I could still use for solar system? I don't want to buy something that is great for guiding, but too small for planets, but at the same time, I don't have a permanent location, and I will be taking this equipment around, and due to space constrains, I don't want a huge guide scope either. What is the happy medium scope for both purposes?
Any thoughts??? 
Thanks for your help,
M.
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iceman
Post Laureate
Reged: 03/07/04
Posts: 4334
Loc: Gosford, Australia
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Hi M
Most guide scopes are around the 80mm mark, and they're refractors. The minimum aperture you'd want for imaging planets is an 8", either an SCT or a newt.
So I'm not sure you're really going to be able to do what you want there. What will your imaging scope be?
And what imaging camera/guide camera are you going to use?
I do use my DMK21AU04 for both guiding and planetary imaging, but I don't use the same scope. I use a side-by-side ED80/80mm refractor for deep-space imaging (guided with the DMK), and then a 12" newt for planetary imaging, using the DMK + filters.
--------------------
Mike
. mikesalway.com.au - Astronomy and Photography by Mike Salway
. IceInSpace - The Australian Amateur Astronomy Community
. My Bio | My Jupiter 2007 Gallery | My Image Gallery
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mcbbcn
member
Reged: 03/10/07
Posts: 74
Loc: Portland, OR
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Hi Mike,
I was thinking about using an Orion 80ED or something smaller like a 70mm.
For guiding and imaging, I was thinking about using a Toucam or a Meade DSI.
I was thinking about not doing autoguiding when using the camera for imaging, and just using the PEC guiding through the mount.
What are your thoughts?
M.
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mcbbcn
member
Reged: 03/10/07
Posts: 74
Loc: Portland, OR
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Any thoughts anybody? What is the smallest scope that you can still do decent Solar system imaging?
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gordianknot
sage
Reged: 09/04/05
Posts: 442
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Small aperture guide scopes are not ideal for solar system imaging. In solar system imaging, bigger is better (not necessarily true for DSOs). I had a nice "planets with small scopes thread" a while back where some people posted some good images, but all the fabulous imagers (and iceman is one of the best) use large scopes.
I would suggest considering an 8" Celestron SCT if portability is a concern. You can buy it packaged with the Sirius from Orion. Unfortunately, its long focal lengths means that it's not an ideal DSO scope, but could probably work for guiding and imaging smaller DSOs.
Keep in mind that resolution is directly proportional to aperture. So a 4" scope will have half the resolution of an 8". The 80ED is about 3", so it's got about 1/4th of the resolution of the scopes the 11"+ scopes that are relatively common in planetary imaging.
Edit: fixed typo
Edited by gordianknot (08/12/08 04:48 AM)
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George Bailey
member
Reged: 08/10/08
Posts: 20
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No one I know uses a guide scope for planetary astro web-cam imaging - the image is on the computer screen in real time, and the drive corrector can be tweaked to keep the image in the center of the screen for the few minutes of the exposure. So in effect, the telescope-webcam-computer IS the guide scope!
I also agree with the others - the telescope aperture is the most critical parameter - just compare images on this forum to verify this! Now-a-days, my C8 is a small scope in that regard, as 10+ inch scopes give far better images even at smaller f values! You might think about a 10" reflector.
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mcbbcn
member
Reged: 03/10/07
Posts: 74
Loc: Portland, OR
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Thanks everybody! It makes sense!
M.
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