Comments on: Which telescope is best for astro photography?

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:08:46 +0000

You can make a portable 14+” telescope.

Exoplanets are not found with optical telescopes.

Unless you have hundreds of thousands of dollars, for good telescopes of the size you want you will have to make them yourself.

Refractors are good for looking at the Moon and nearby planets. For faint objects you need the light-gathering that a reflector can give. Mark

By: Geoff G

Geoff G — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 22:07:33 +0000

Whoa! Back up a bit!

Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner’s telescopes:

For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington’s Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).

You’ll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:

Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don’t buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:

I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy.

Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley). Geoff G

By: Starrysky

Starrysky — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:43:24 +0000

An apochromatic refractor of 106mm or greater on a very solid GEM for about $9300 or more from Takahashi should do just fine.
You could get a 210mm Mewlon cassegrain type from same place for about $6500
You could get a Klevtsov modified Mangin cassegrain of 200mm from TAL and put that on a Celestron CGE mount for $4000.
There are some short focus nice Newtonian reflectors on GEM mounts that are fairly solid, but stay under 200mm size for $2000-3000
The best is an RC cassegrain of 200mm or larger, all the way up to 500mm size if you have more money. The mount can be a Celestron CGE for small ones but should be really solid if you go large size, like the Software Bisque Paramount. Figure $10-50K for that and a good camera.
Oh, we forgot the camera. Good digital CCD ones for astrowork, including guider, filter wheel, etc. That will be another $3K to $30K, depending upon type and needed accessories.
To get into exoplanet detection, you will need a 1000mm diameter reflector scope or larger with a spectrograph of best quality in a nice observatory. Figure $800K to get started, build up from there.
There are some specialty design relay lens reflectors that do very well for high magnification work, but those are custom units, more expensive. Also, an off-axis parabolic reflector from DGM is fantastic for planets and Moon, a 160mm one is only $2300, mount is extra.
Good luck to you Starrysky

By: Nyx

Nyx — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:56:08 +0000

What’s your budget?

Decent systems can run several thousands of dollars, even for small ones. This would include, the mount, camera and scope.
Here’s a company that sells a one stop solution - Nyx

By: Cirric

Cirric — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:57:45 +0000

Hi. The type of optics do not matter as much as the tracking. I have a Meade Schmidt-Newtonion with a 6″ mirror but excellent powered tracking. Exoplanets? Not in your budget (or at least not in mine!). Cirric