Skywatcher explorer 130M EQ newtonian

[gabs]

32 minutes ago, Carastro said:

First of all I don't think the telescope and tripod you posted up are suitable for imaging.  You can get a fairly cheap good telescope for imaging in the form of a Skywatcher 130PDS £229. 

(Make sure it is PDS or you won't get focus with a camera).  Assuming you are happy to collimate it regularly.  People swear by this imaging scope. 

 

Then look separately for a mount.   Some people seem to manage on an EQ5 but I would not get anything less. 

 

Secondly I would not shop on Amazon, or Ebay or any such like retailer, but either a proper Astro retailer.

 

I would suggest trying on this site for second hand equipment most of us use it.  Skywatcher stuff is hard to get new at the moment due to the effects of the pandemic etc.

 

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/

 

 

In principle I agree to all the above comments and feedback and I am glad to see that the scope I posted is not good for what I need because that was my suspicion.

the Amazon link was just to show what I found and searching into the web I saw some reviews with people using the 130M for AP.That is why I asked to myself how it can be good for AP if it’s just 200 £? 
with the intention to buy an equatorial motorised mount soon i don’t want to waste my money in something useless and just to watch the moon ( which I still love do it).

i just want to understand if, for example buying an equatorial mount like a sky watcher I can use the optical tube I own and whether or not it need additional pieces ( for example tube rings etc). In the mean time .. I am trying to make a DYI wedge for my tripod.

 

I called it “ mouse trap” ... once I finished it I will post it here 😀

 

[Carastro]

I have used de-forked ETX scopes in the past for planetary imaging.  (ETX 100 and ETX 125). 

They were mounted on my NEQ6 and HEQ5 with a dovetail.  

 

They are really too slow for Deep Sky imaging with a high focal ratio, but I guess you could give it a try.  However that will leave you with the tripod and mount unusable and probably unsellable.  

 

So you would need to remove the telescope from it's forks and find some mounting rings on which to mount it.  I believe there was on one of the models I had a bolt hole underneath the scope which enabled me to add a dovetail.

 

Yes put your energies and cash into getting the mount.  You can use the camera widefield until you can afford a Deep Sky imaging scope as well.

 

Carole 

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Carastro

[gabs]

1 minute ago, Carastro said:

I have used de-forked ETX scopes in the past for planetary imaging.  (ETX 100 and ETX 125).  They are really too slow for Deep Sky imaging with a high focal ratio, but I guess you could give it a try.  However that will leave you with the tripod and mount unusable and probably unsellable.  

 

So you would need to remove the telescope from it's forks and find some mounting rings on which to mount it.  I believe there was on one of the models I had a bolt hole underneath the scope which enabled me to add a dovetail.

 

Yes put your energies and cash into getting the mount.  You can use the camera widefield until you can afford a Deep Sky imaging scope as well.

 

Carole 

 

Thanks Carole

I will definitely follow that way ... mechanical tracker .. dslr and lots of fun ! Then if my mouse trap above works .. I can consider myself like I won the lottery!😀

[Carastro]

The thing is with the better mounts you can do something called guiding.  This is a 2nd small telescope (you can often convert the finderscope), and small camera which centres on a star and if the mount deviates slightly, it corrects the tracking so that you can do really long exposures, 5,10,20 minutes with perfectly round stars.  If you buy a mount that simply has a motor to make it track it is likely not to be capable of guiding.

 

Even those better mounts will not enable those really long exposures without guiding. 

 

Look out for a guide port (autoguider) on any mount you think about purchasing.

 

 

 

Carole 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Carastro

[gabs]

4 minutes ago, Carastro said:

The thing is with the better mounts you can do something called guiding.  This is a 2nd small telescope (you can often convert the finderscope), and small camera which centres on a star and if the mount deviates slightly, it corrects the tracking so that you can do really long exposures, 5,10,20 minutes with perfectly round stars.  If you buy a mount that simply has a motor to make it track it is likely not to be capable of guiding.

 

Even those better mounts will not enable those really long exposures without guiding. 

 

Look out for a guide port (autoguider) on any mount you think about purchasing.

 

 

 

Carole 

That is very good advise Carole!

[ribuck]

Hi Gabs, May i offer some advice from a person who has tried imaging with just about every scope type possible on the planet.

 

Newtonians aren't ideal as first imaging scopes, they require a lot of precise collimation and cheap mass produced newt's are not ideal as their mirrors can move a lot due to poor build quality / design.  When starting out in astro Imaging you need something small, light and with a short focal length, such as 80mm-100mm Refractor as they are pretty much plug and play and you dont need to worry about back focus and are far easier to guide.

 

Imaging with any type of reflector tends to be a lot more difficult / complex that using a refractor, and with that comes an awful lot more frustration and pain.  With a newt, if you are lucky you will spend 50% of your time fighting it and 50% imaging and with a refractor - it's 95% imaging and 5% problems.  These frustrations also apply to other reflectors such as SCT's, RC's etc.

 

There are a whole bunch of other reason, but i wont bore you with them, but trust me when i suggest you start with a small refractor.

 

With astroImaging also keep in mind it's a whole different level of investment, as you suddenly need a much better mount which tracks well, you need a camera and filters depending on which route you go, then you'll need Focal Reducers or coma corrects, then you need to upgrade focusers in most case with the exception of small fracs, then you will want to motorize your focuser -it get real expensive really quickly.

 

Rich.

Edited May 6, 2021 by ribuck

[gabs]

9 minutes ago, ribuck said:

Hi Gabs, May i offer some advice from a person who has tried imaging with just about every scope type possible on the planet.

 

Newtonians aren't ideal as first imaging scopes, they require a lot of precise collimation and cheap mass produced newt's are not ideal as their mirrors can move a lot due to poor build quality / design.  When starting out in astro Imaging you need something small, light and with a short focal length, such as 80mm-100mm Refractor as they are pretty much plug and play and you dont need to worry about back focus and are far easier to guide.

 

Imaging with any type of reflector tends to be a lot more difficult / complex that using a refractor, and with that comes an awful lot more frustration and pain.  With a newt, if you are lucky you will spend 50% of your time fighting it and 50% imaging and with a refractor - it's 95% imaging and 5% problems.  These frustrations also apply to other reflectors such as SCT's, RC's etc.

 

There are a whole bunch of other reason, but i wont bore you with them, but trust me when i suggest you start with a small refractor.

 

With astroImaging also keep in mind it's a whole different level of investment, as you suddenly need a much better mount which tracks well, you need a camera and filters depending on which route you go, then you'll need Focal Reducers or coma corrects, then you need to upgrade focusers in most case with the exception of small fracs, then you will want to motorize your focuser -it get real expensive really quickly.

 

Rich.

Thanks Richard all the above makes perfectly sense.

would you be able to tell me if my Meade 80 mm refractor f5 so 400 mum legit would be a good starting point ? Obviously it needs to be on a equatorial mount.

 

gabs

[AstronomyUkraine]

There is a lot of excellent advice in this thread Gabs. My contribution, buy the best mount you can afford, then worry about getting a good scope. Learn how to accurately polar align, do star alignments, find targets and how to guide. Master these 4 things, and you are well on your way to taking good images.

[gabs]

3 minutes ago, AstronomyUkraine said:

There is a lot of excellent advice in this thread Gabs. My contribution, buy the best mount you can afford, then worry about getting a good scope. Learn how to accurately polar align, do star alignments, find targets and how to guide. Master these 4 things, and you are well on your way to taking good images.

Thank you all!

[ribuck]

Gabs an 80mm Refractor is a very good starting point, as it will be easy to guide and balance on your mount.  For  imaging with Refractors be aware there are several different types :-

 

Achromatic (No good for imaging)

doublet (Semi-Apo) - these are fine, but require more time to process images due to colour imbalance

Triplet (Apo)  - ideal perfect choice as they have no colour imbalance.

 

Ideally if you can buy a triplet, then that would be the best option, but it comes down to cash. You will also need a Flattener or you will get elongated stars at the edge of your images.

 

And finally as other have said you need to think about your mount - Starting out an EQ5 class mount will be great, but think longer term as if you want to get bigger scopes in the future this will not be ideal, so buy the best you can afford.

 

Now onto the guiding - for short refractor you dont need worry as much and, but you will need a guide scope - something small like a 50mm guide scope will be great and of course a guide camera. I recommend getting a camera suited for planetary imaging as they make great guide camera and at a later date you can use them to image the planets.

 

Out of interest - what are your intended targets for imaging ?

Edited May 6, 2021 by ribuck

[Nightspore]

I've just realised you have an 80mm, f/5 Meade, which I assume is an achromat. This is basically the same as an ST80.

[Padraic M]

I wouldn't rate that Meade 80mm for AP, given the issues you have with the focuser, which probably can't be resolved. Take a look at this thread on upgrading the focuser on the ST80: 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/234392-st80-focuser-upgrade/

This would give a much better result.

[MarkAR]

Some very sound advice here.

If it was up to me I would finish making the wedge for the fork mount and use the 80mm F5 as a guide scope.

 

[gabs]

2 minutes ago, MarkAR said:

Some very sound advice here.

If it was up to me I would finish making the wedge for the fork mount and use the 80mm F5 as a guide scope.

 

Yep I think I agree with that.

before getting something new I want to how far I can go with the “ mouse trap “ wedge and yes the focus won’t be brilliant I am aware of that. 
If nothing work then I will get a different and better mount to start.

thanks you guys! 

[Carastro]

I'd agree with Ribucks comments about a newtonian, even though I suggested one to you earlier, but I suggested that because I knew you were on a tight budget.  But ideally a small Apo refractor is the best thing for you to start with, far less to go wrong.

 

Carole 

[gabs]

On 5/6/2021 at 8:26 PM, ribuck said:

Gabs an 80mm Refractor is a very good starting point, as it will be easy to guide and balance on your mount.  For  imaging with Refractors be aware there are several different types :-

 

Achromatic (No good for imaging)

doublet (Semi-Apo) - these are fine, but require more time to process images due to colour imbalance

Triplet (Apo)  - ideal perfect choice as they have no colour imbalance.

 

Ideally if you can buy a triplet, then that would be the best option, but it comes down to cash. You will also need a Flattener or you will get elongated stars at the edge of your images.

 

And finally as other have said you need to think about your mount - Starting out an EQ5 class mount will be great, but think longer term as if you want to get bigger scopes in the future this will not be ideal, so buy the best you can afford.

 

Now onto the guiding - for short refractor you dont need worry as much and, but you will need a guide scope - something small like a 50mm guide scope will be great and of course a guide camera. I recommend getting a camera suited for planetary imaging as they make great guide camera and at a later date you can use them to image the planets.

 

Out of interest - what are your intended targets for imaging ?

Thank you,

I am quite interested to get some nice nebulas as first approach. So far I managed to get a decent Orion Nebula with my scope which I posted here some weeks ago.

 After that just some tentatives but the weather didn’t help me a lot to be honest. 
 

I hope to get better skies soon! 

[gabs]

51 minutes ago, Carastro said:

I'd agree with Ribucks comments about a newtonian, even though I suggested one to you earlier, but I suggested that because I knew you were on a tight budget.  But ideally a small Apo refractor is the best thing for you to start with, far less to go wrong.

 

Carole 

Thanks Carole ,

 

first of all I need a better mount to start .. anything else will come after that.

 I will keep searching 

 

gabs

[AstronomyUkraine]

8 minutes ago, gabs said:

Thanks Carole ,

 

first of all I need a better mount to start .. anything else will come after that.

 I will keep searching 

 

gabs

There is an HEQ5 Pro mount on Ebay. Current bid is £96 with 6d 18h to go. Could be a bargain if the bids don't go too high. There is only one bidder at the moment.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363387576744?hash=item549b9661a8:g:0WsAAOSwZE5glU-M

[gabs]

2 minutes ago, AstronomyUkraine said:

There is an HEQ5 Pro mount on Ebay. Current bid is £96 with 6d 18h to go. Could be a bargain if the bids don't go too high. There is only one bidder at the moment.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363387576744?hash=item549b9661a8:g:0WsAAOSwZE5glU-M

Yes I saw I am following the item is not GoTo but I guess in the last hours the price will increase badly . 
Cambridge is not too far by train from my location.

if I will miss it I will wait couple of months save money and get a new one.

 

thank you 

[AstronomyUkraine]

5 minutes ago, gabs said:

Yes I saw I am following the item is not GoTo but I guess in the last hours the price will increase badly . 
Cambridge is not too far by train from my location.

if I will miss it I will wait couple of months save money and get a new one.

 

thank you 

If it is an HEq5 Pro, which it appears to be, it will be a goto. Plus it has the hand controller.

[gabs]

Just now, AstronomyUkraine said:

If it is an HEq5 Pro, which it appears to be, it will be a goto. Plus it has the hand controller.

That makes the items more interesting . It doesn’t mention in the description but I can contact the seller... 🤞

[gabs]

3 minutes ago, gabs said:

That makes the items more interesting . It doesn’t mention in the description but I can contact the seller... 🤞

I need also to understand whether or not I can install my scope on it. But I guess it should be possible. 

[AstronomyUkraine]

1 minute ago, gabs said:

That makes the items more interesting . It doesn’t mention in the description but I can contact the seller... 🤞

If you look at the bottom of the listing, it mentions that it comes with a Synscan Hand Controller. Meaning it is definitely a goto.

[gabs]

12 minutes ago, AstronomyUkraine said:

If you look at the bottom of the listing, it mentions that it comes with a Synscan Hand Controller. Meaning it is definitely a goto.

Yes You are right I didn’t see it before .

I will keep my eye on it.

 

thank you!

Edited May 7, 2021 by gabs

[Carastro]

It looks the same as mine, I just messaged the seller to confirm is is a GOTO synscan and whether it has a guideport.

 

If yes to both, just check it is in OK working condition, and if so it is a real bargain.   They are just over £1000 new I think these days.

 

Carole