Which telescope?

[Tant]

I'm not too sure if this is the right forum for this but I thought I'd give it a go....first of all, I hope this doesn't sound too nerdy, but for a while I have been pretty interested in astronomy. I'll soon be moving to a place right out in the country with very little light pollution, and I want to buy a decent telescope to set up in a summer house I am going to build in the garden. The only thing is, which one? I want something decent, that I can link up to a digital camera and get good photos of the moon, but also photograph stars and take those long time exposures of star swirls. I've got a bidget of about £500 in mind, so I know it won't be the hubble, but a good one would be fun..

Any help appreciated

Cheers

Ant

[Frik]

There's a few threads on here if you have a search but to summarize:

For your budget, and with the requirement for a powered mount (to track the earth's movement and get decent exposures) your optics won't be terrific but you should be able to capture something halfway decent.

Have a look at somewhere like Telescope House. Nice chaps who are always willing to impart advice.

Edited by Frik on Sunday 12th October 22:55

[Tant]

Good stuff mate, ta for the link...I'll have a butchers on there.

Ant

[VxDuncan]

Avoid the cheap ebay 'scopes. Most are pretty nasty. Buy an astronomy mag, and if the brand ain't popular in there, don't buy it! There skywatcher range are good.

Photographing the moon needs lots and lots of focal length, the stars and "deep sky" lots and lots of diameter but not too much length. Both need a good mount (phnar). I wouldn't go for anything less than an EQ5 mount, with whatever you can get on top, possibly a 150mm or 200mm reflector.

It's not a cheap hobby. Astrophotography is incredibly challenging (in my mind the most difficult of all the forms of photography), just finding the objects in the first place can be nigh on impossible. It's very worth while, but there are a load of scopes sat around in sheds and conservatories.

[bilko2]

Firstly, get a pair of 10x50 binos and learn your way around the sky. I have 2 pairs and never felt the need to go beyond that. I was tempted for sure but it would have beeen £500 down the drain. Really, start with the binos and build from there. You can dream and look stuff up in the meantime.

You want a mount that you can upgrade to motorized for the astro photography later.
Use this to give you a rough idea of what you will see with different telescopes and eyepieces. http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

Use this to see which sort of telescope you want. http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=88...

The rest of the 'primers' on this page will tell you Everything you need to know to get started. Before long you will be looking at lists of websites like this: http://obs.nineplanets.org/obs/obslist.html
To see what dome you can afford when you are 50.

Predictions for the international space station over the next ten days.. http://www.heavens-above.com/?lat=51.44963&lng...

I think that will be enough to get you started `read those primers and save yourself a bundle.

Edited by bilko2 on Sunday 12th October 23:47

Edited by bilko2 on Sunday 12th October 23:51

[Zad]

To be fair, if the OP wants to take astro photos, a pair of bins, even a £500 one, isn't going to get the juices flowing. £500 should see you get a very respectable machine, it is a very busy segment of the market. Be sure to check it has a motorised equatorial mount though, otherwise you won't be able to take long exposures.

[bilko2]

Zad said:

To be fair, if the OP wants to take astro photos, a pair of bins, even a £500 one, isn't going to get the juices flowing. £500 should see you get a very respectable machine, it is a very busy segment of the market. Be sure to check it has a motorised equatorial mount though, otherwise you won't be able to take long exposures.

Are you being serious?
You really didn't understand what i was saying?