30 odd years later I bought an old Meade 2080 SCT to test the waters and have enjoyed using it. I have done some planetary imaging with my Philips SPC900 webcam and have now bought a Canon 350d DSLR. I would like to do some astrophotography of DSO´s and it would be nice to get a more capable scope. I live in a fairly light polluted area and I have to set the scope up every time I use it in my garden or travel 30 minutes to a reasonably dark sky site (so no big scope on piers are in my immediate future).
It would be nice to have a scope with Goto + better tracking + better guiding, i.e. motors for both axes + better image quality. The 25 year old Meade is OK but it is basic in terms of electronics and the optics have endured some abuse). I have gradually sold the idea to my wife and she has now given me the go-ahead to buy a new scope
(budget around 2000 euros= about 3000 US dollars but they don´t buy as much here in Europe).
The trouble is all the different options keep going round and round in my head.
The most sensible thing seems to be to get another SCT as I already have some SCT specific equipment (the right focal length eyepieces/ focal reducers..etc). Hence a celestron C8 would seem a good idea. They are relatively cheap here at the moment (980 Euros for the OTA). The prices really seem to shoot throught the roof after 8". But then I read that the quality control is not so good and 10% have bad image quality. Also the focal length is quite long and not ideal for astrophotography (but you can use a focal reducer). Also a statistical analysis of winning images here on CN seems to show that SCT´s in general are not producing the best DSO images.
Then there are the Newtonians but they are relatively big and cumbersome compared to the SCTs (better mounts needed) and need lots of tweaking (maybe wouldnt get used as often). Also there are, of course the focussing issues for astrophotgraphy in that they don´t always have enought travel. But they seem to statistically produce more winning DSO images. I was looking at the Orion UK Newtonians and they are quite light and compact for Newtonians.
I sometimes toy with the idea of a refractor but they are so expensive and it is hard to give up aperture so that seems to be out.
As for the mount I seem to be moving towards a GEM although I have never used one. I quite like the fork mount of the Meade I have now (I have a wedge) but to buy a new one (e.g. a Meade LX200) would involve additionally buying a new wedge (which seems to be necessary for astrophotography) and this adds to costs significantly. Also with the fork mounted scope you seem to be hostage to the electrical system. Any problems with that and the whole scope is useless (I get the impression from reading many posts that the repair possibilities are not so thrilling). The celestron CAM therefore seems to be a possibility or the HEQ5 with Goto. These look more modular than the fork mounted scopes. I don´t know which would be better though.
This is a crucial time- a fork in the road that will determine my future in astronomy- Basically I seem to be going in the direction of C8 on a CAM or an HEQ5 Goto mount. I would greatly appreciate hearing anybody else´s experiences or tips.
