I finally got my first telescope after about a week of research. Initially when I was writing about choosing a telescope I was thinking to get a 10″ Dobsonian, but it appeared that it is really tough (read: too much money required to upgrade it) to get pictures with such telescope, so I end up buying a different one.
I decided to get somewhat better mount, so I can upgrade optical tube later. My wife already has a good digital camera, so I didn’t have to buy one, just couple adapters to hook it up to the scope. For those who are interested in exact details:
Mount: Meade LXD-75, it is an equatorial mount with auto tracking capability.
Optical tube: William Optics Zenithstar 70 ED Doublet OTA. It is a 70 mm apochromatic refractor with a 2 speed focuser.
I am sorry if anyone reading this does not know some terms being used, I will do a special post soon about choosing equipment for astrophotography, where everything will be explained in simple terms. I hope it will save some time for those who are looking for their first astrophotography scope. There are so many options available, so it is really a difficult choice (I am glad there were not too many telescope stores available nearby ;-)
Why did I chose astrophotography over eye observing? Because I believe that pictures you can shoot are much more colorful and good looking than those you can see with your eyes (sorry, eyes, CCD wins!).
This is me and my first telescope.
Too bad I wouldn’t be able to see how LCROSS crushes on Moon this fall, but you guys will tell me how it looks, right?
Tags: astronomy, Astrophotography, backyard astronomy, Stargazing, telescope
July 17, 2009 at 1:18 pm |
Congrats! I love my LXD75 – it should be plenty of mount to drive that scope and it should be great for imaging. Good luck and post your results!