Dougal1
newbie
Reged: 08/09/08
Posts: 4
Loc: UK, South West England
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Hi All!
I'm new to this forum but a fairly seasoned amateur astronomer with 35 years or so experience of astronomy. Can anyone recommend a good budget priced telescope suitable for deep sky photography. By budget priced I mean in the range of £300 - £500, I'm well aware that you get what you pay for, i'm just interested to find out what others think of current telescopes in this price range in terms of suitability for guided deep-sky photography.
Thanks in advance,
Dougal
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Equipment
Celestron C6 - SGT XLT,(just purchased, not yet seen 'first light', so I cant wait for the first clear night!)
8.75" Dobsonian 'Eye on The Universe' (Home Made)
6.3mm, 10mm, 20mm, 32mm Plossls, Lumicon UHC Filter
Casio QV5000
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RAKing
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 12/28/07
Posts: 803
Loc: Virginia
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Dougal,
Welcome to CN and I hope you get lots of great answers to this and any other questions you ask.
Since you asked this question in the Cat section, I'll point you toward the Celestron C6 SCT. I have seen some outstanding work done with this scope, especially using the Celestron f6.3 Focal Reducer/Corrector.
I liked the pictures so much, I went out and got one for myself. 
Take care,
Ron
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Time spent looking at the stars is added to your life.
"Hi Def" TV-102
C925-CF SCT "Time Machine II"
Orion XT10i / Moonlite CR2
GM-8 GEM / A-P Portable Pier
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RogerRZ
Whatta you lookin' at?
Reged: 01/09/06
Posts: 2133
Loc: West Collette, NB, Canada
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Do you have any other equipment? With the amount you set aside as a budget, if you don't already have a camera, guide scope, guide camera (or reticle eyepiece, if you want to do it manually), you might face a daunting task...
At 529GBP, the C6-NGT looks to be your best choice, IMO.
Welcome!
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-Roger Pitre-
1 X 7 binocular
Meade 2080 LX10
5" Celestron SCT
Skywatcher Equinox 66
Starblast OTA
EQ6 Pro mount (spiffed up with ADM stuff)
8X42 Bushnell binos (pretty decent for 25$)
Canon Rebel XT (AKA 350D)
Starshoot autoguider
Tolerant Spousal Unit (AKA The Lovely Mrs. RogerRZ)
----------AJP Observatory----------
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sang33ta
professor emeritus
Reged: 07/08/08
Posts: 539
Loc: UK
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Just check out ebay a scope bought new loses a lot of value. The weather and light pollution is so bad in the UK it's not worth spending a kings ransom 
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Hioptic 152mm f12.5 Maksutov
Celestron Advanced CG5-GT Mount (Mr Noisy!)
Meade 4000 Super Plossl Set
Casio QV-2900UX
Got fed up of waiting for Meade ETX-150 so put this together for £500/$1000 
Edited by sang33ta (08/11/08 09:01 PM)
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RogerRZ
Whatta you lookin' at?
Reged: 01/09/06
Posts: 2133
Loc: West Collette, NB, Canada
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If you're to even consider Ebay, BE CAREFUL!
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-Roger Pitre-
1 X 7 binocular
Meade 2080 LX10
5" Celestron SCT
Skywatcher Equinox 66
Starblast OTA
EQ6 Pro mount (spiffed up with ADM stuff)
8X42 Bushnell binos (pretty decent for 25$)
Canon Rebel XT (AKA 350D)
Starshoot autoguider
Tolerant Spousal Unit (AKA The Lovely Mrs. RogerRZ)
----------AJP Observatory----------
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Patrick
Postmaster
Reged: 05/16/03
Posts: 6778
Loc: Franklin, Ohio
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If you're looking for a scope/mount combination, I'll think you'll be hard pressed to find something for guided AP in your price range. If you already have scopes, etc than a Celestron CG-5 is a possibility. As you probably already know, despite all the hype about astrophotography these days, it still remains an expensive and time consuming part of the hobby...maybe a little easier than in the film days, nonetheless still challenging.
If you don't care about guiding, then a simple barn door style mount with a DSLR and a wide angle lens can get you started relatively inexpensively. Even a cheap EQ1 or EQ2 mount can hold a DSLR. I took these Milky Way shots (first three) with a DSLR sitting on a photo tripod. The key there is very short focal length (17mm) and dark skies.
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
Edited by Patrick (08/12/08 07:00 AM)
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outlash
member
Reged: 06/16/07
Posts: 74
Loc: Cambridgeshire, England
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TBH, the mount is more important than the scope as it doesn't matter how good your scope is, if your mount cannot track properly then your images aren't going to be great.
(I know this is in the cats section so don't shoot me!) IMO, for your budget, a Skywatcher ED80 would be a great choice, like this one: http://firstlightoptics.com/proddetail.php?prod=pro80ed1ota . Good optics, not overly slow and dead easy to use (no collimation, no cool down time etc etc). Loads of people have taken fantastic shots with these scopes and it'll leave you plenty of change for all the other bits you'd need. Believe me, it gets VERY expensive!
I wouldn't touch Ebay with a bargepole unless you REALLY know what you're doing. I'm not saying everyone on there is a scammer, but there's a lot of rubbish listed and people do get ripped off.
Tony..
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Resident of cloudy Cambridgeshire, UK.
Celestron C8N
William Optics Zenithstars 66 & 110
Intes MK66
EQ6, AZ3, Hyperion EP's and a load of other bits & bobs .
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Al Canarelli
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/06/07
Posts: 1540
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Cats are not exactly budget telescopes, so I assume that you posted here by mistake. A budget telescope and a Dob are synonymous terms. You should be looking at a Dob, but since you live in the UK, I don't know what is available there. I suggest that you move your post to the reflector forum.
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yg1968
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/26/04
Posts: 1714
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You can't realistically image with a DOB. But if you are looking for an SCT. The C6 SCT from Celestron is almost in your price range. If you are also looking for a mount, it is sold with the CG5 goto mount (which would make for a good imaging combo with a DSLR and either a Meade or Celestron .63 reducer). If you already have a mount, you can buy the C6 SCT as an OTA. The C-6 SCT with the CG-5 Goto mount is almost the cheapest workable imaging setup you can get.
P.S. I found this link but since I am not from the UK, I don't know if it's a good store or not (the price of 760 pounds is slightly above your budget but the difference is worth it):
C-6 XLT
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Dougal1
newbie
Reged: 08/09/08
Posts: 4
Loc: UK, South West England
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Thanks for all the replies so far . . .
My Dob gives me great views, it's also especially pleasing to use and make 'discoveries' because I made it!
However, I want to expand into worthwhile telescopic deepsky photography and so a decent mount is going to be essential. Following everyone's advice I am very interested in the Celestron C6 SGT XLT even though a little over my planned budget. It would seem it has a good, solid German mount and high quality optics. Can anyone please give me some advice on the pros/cons of SCT's over Reflectors for deepsky photography? I know that in an ideal world a refractor would be the instrument of choice but I think a decent refractor is going to be outside my price range!
Dougal
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Equipment
Celestron C6 - SGT XLT,(just purchased, not yet seen 'first light', so I cant wait for the first clear night!)
8.75" Dobsonian 'Eye on The Universe' (Home Made)
6.3mm, 10mm, 20mm, 32mm Plossls, Lumicon UHC Filter
Casio QV5000
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Kolenka
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/01/08
Posts: 593
Loc: Seattle Area, WA, USA
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Pro: SCTs are a little more portable (assuming a similar mount) than a Newt at the same aperture.
Con: SCTs are slower than a Newt of the same aperture, and will require a focal reducer to get a similar field of view.
Those are the two obvious ones off the top of my head.
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Meade 10" LX200R
Orion 80ED
Nagler 7T6, 9T6, 13T6, 17T4, 26T5
Canon XSi, TIS DMK 31AF03
Northwest Astro Photoblog
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yg1968
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/26/04
Posts: 1714
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The main advantage that I can think of is that the SCT is smaller and usually lighter. The other advantage is that SCT can be used fairly easily with a focal reducer. This is more difficult with a reflector. The other issue is that you would need a 2 inch focuser with the reflector in order to use a DSLR. But if you are able to find a reflector that has a 2 inch focuser that is not too heavy, a reflector would also be a very good choice. The advantage of getting the CG-5 mount is that you can later decide to get another scope but use the same mount. The main disadvantage of an SCT when imaging is mirror shift.
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Joe Aguiar
professor emeritus
Reged: 02/10/07
Posts: 707
Loc: Toront,Ontario
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As for size for deep skiees it should be min 8"
Joe
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Patrick
Postmaster
Reged: 05/16/03
Posts: 6778
Loc: Franklin, Ohio
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Quote:
Can anyone please give me some advice on the pros/cons of SCT's over Reflectors for deepsky photography? I know that in an ideal world a refractor would be the instrument of choice but I think a decent refractor is going to be outside my price range!
By reflectors I will assume that you mean a Newtonian. Speaking from a practical perspective, I'd say the biggest difference is the size. With a smaller mount like the CG5 it's important to keep the weight and moment arm to a minimum. Hanging a camera off the end of a Newtonian is a lot different from hanging one off an SCT. The C6S on the CG5 mount is pretty much rock solid.
Regarding the C6S itself, with an f/6.3 focal reducer the focal length is about 960mm. That's a pretty good focal length for capturing a lot of the larger moon sized DSO's. The other part of the equation is that the CG5 is capable of handling that focal length pretty well.
There is one other practical consideration for you to think about. Are you planning on trying to take images without guiding or are you going to make some provision for guiding? At 960mm focal length, without guiding, you will probably be very limited in how long your exposures can be. On my CG5-GT I've found that at 320mm focal length I'm limited to about 1 minute of unguided exposures without star trails. Going to longer focal lengths just makes matters worse.
So, if you're not planning on guiding, I think it would be a very good idea to stick with very short focal length instruments. That could be something like a DSLR with a 100-300mm camera lens or a small telescope like the AT66ED (320mm with focal reducer/field flattener).
Considering your budget, that might be a good place to start. You can build your imaging rig one piece at a time as funds allow. I'm sure there are multiple paths you could follow, but here's one possible way to put together a setup: Mount+DSLR+Camera Lens to start imaging(start with the big deepsky objects), then add a C6S and autoguider camera for longer DSLR/Camera exposures. After that add a second scope (refractor?) to both image thru and autoguide with. That way you can start imaging thru the C6S for smaller objects and autoguide thru the second scope, or vise versa. Try to keep the focal length of both scopes different to add versatility to your setup.
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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yg1968
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 01/26/04
Posts: 1714
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I agree with Patrick. You can start out with the C6 XLT and eventually get a small scope such as the WO 66SD or the very similar AT 66ED. An even better option would be the Skywatcher Equinox 80ED. This would give you a pretty flexible setup. The advantage of getting the C6 first is that the C6 comes at a modest price if packaged with the CG-5 goto mount.
Another option would be to get a cheap guide scope such as the Orion ST-80. Although getting the guide scope by itself is relatively cheap, getting rings and a guiding camera for it makes it more expensive. Getting all of this other stuff can be done later.
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Dougal1
newbie
Reged: 08/09/08
Posts: 4
Loc: UK, South West England
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Thanks again everyone for all your advice so far, its great to know there are so many people willing to share their knowledge and experience to help people like me before I spend my money on the wrong equipment!
I like Patrick's idea of building up a system of bit-parts, I could start out with the C6 SGT XLT on the CG5 mount, a reasonably priced combination. Then, as my funds allow, I can get a guidescope/2nd scope to ride piggy-back. My camera is a Casio QV500 for which I have the adaptors to take pics with a 1.25" focusser. The max exposure setting on this camera is 60 seconds so I will be stacking images when I get to the stage of taking pics! Eventually having two scopes with different focal lengths sounds like a good idea, it gives me plenty of room to experiment in the future!
I'll be back on the forum later today hopefully, thanks again everyone for your help so far!
Dougal
--------------------
Equipment
Celestron C6 - SGT XLT,(just purchased, not yet seen 'first light', so I cant wait for the first clear night!)
8.75" Dobsonian 'Eye on The Universe' (Home Made)
6.3mm, 10mm, 20mm, 32mm Plossls, Lumicon UHC Filter
Casio QV5000
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