Hi All,
I am new to the forums and need some help choosing a telescope. I am new to astrophotography and till date have been taking shots with my wide-angle Tokina 11-16 2.8 and Canon 70-200 2.8 (1.4x extender) and took some not bad shots of our galaxy and the Orion nebulea. I decided to move to the next level and purchase a telescope. I have a HEQ5 Pro mount that I borrow and would like to purchase a telescope which I will be using for planetary and DSOs (mainly).
I have decided to go for either of these telescope and my budget is ~$450
SkyWatcher Black Diamond 150mm F/5 OTA
https://www.bintel.com.au/product/skywatcher-black-diamond-1…
BRESSER MESSIER NT-150S/750 HEXAFOC OTA
https://www.bresser.de/en/Astronomy/BRESSER-Messier-NT-150S-…
I would appreciate any help you provide help me choose my first telescope and I am open to any recommendations.
BTW SkyWatcher is on sale for $399 @ Bintel.
Thank you very much for your advise/comment
I preface this by saying I am a very amateur astronomer, and even more basic astro photographer. But I have been fooling around for 25 years, so I can repeat what I have picked up along the way.
As you will see if you look at the prices, the real cost in astro photography is in getting a precision mount. This provides accuracy and support so there is no play in the image so you can focus closely.
Assuming you can keep borrowing the good mount, marrying it with a tube assembly becomes about replacing your camera lens with a massive external telescope lens. Same as a normal lens, you want to gather the most light ( a wide aperture, or large mirror diameter) is the key thing here. This allows a shorter exposure, reducing opportunity for distortion via movement or star trails etc.
I think a 150mm will disappoint if you have any interest at all in naked eye observation. I have a 150mm that I use for observation and it is not wide enough for effective visual obs. I can see a tiny Saturn and rings, and other planets (it is spectacular with the moon). I tried some basic astro photography years ago and got poor results, largely due to a poor mount and probably some sloppy preparation on my part.
These days with image stacking software allowing short exposures, it might be better, so I wouldn't write it off.
My ozbargain senses would suggest spending a month or two looking on ebay or gumtree. A $1000 telescope resells for about $150. I have seen 10in and 12in OTA (well, dobsonians, which is about the same) for well under $1000. I have seen 150mm OTAs for $100. But none of them come up that often.