What to get?

[Cactusstar]

Ok here is my dilemma, I live in Turkey and there are not many options on where to but from apart from online. Also there are no clubs near me and without any shops to look at equipment prior to purchase I am reliant on research, reviews and first hand experience.

The online shops tend to stock equipment by manufacturers such as lizer, omegon, barride optics, orion , skywatcher and celestron. Now I can't find a lot about the first three but of course the others I can.

One other thing to mention that prices here are quite a bit more than in the UK anything from 50-100% I have looked at the possibility of importing and the duties payable are about 22.5% plus the shipping costs also add in the fact that I would probably have a journey of up to 5 hours to the nearest custom port should their be any difficulties in getting it released so I have given up on that idea.

So I am looking at three skywatcher telescopes and have small reservations about all three so if anyone can offer advice on any or all of them please help.

Skywatcher Heritage 130p - a great scope by all accounts but at some stage I know I will want to put a modified webcam or p&s camera and don't think the focusser mount is up to it.

Skywatcher Explorer 130/900 - again seen some good reports on this and am not worried about the setting up of the eq mount but is it stable for this scope?

Skywatcher 130p Supatrak. - quite a bit more that the other two, so is the tracking az mount worth the extra?

Would the last two allow me to mount my dslr onto them with the correct t-ring etc?

Thanks in advance

John

[OleCuss]

You could connnect a DSLR to any of them with the right adapters, but there is a pretty good chance you will not be able to achieve prime focus with any of those telescopes.

None of those telescopes will track well for astrophotography. The SupaTrak will track well enough for visual use and should be quite adequate for imaging the brighter planets with a webcam - and there is a pretty good chance you will be able to achieve prime focus with a webcam.

With a point and shoot camera you could get a contraption to attach the camera to the focuser/eyepiece and get some shots of some of the brighter targets. Most of us don't end up liking to do this kind of astrophotography for very long for some reason. This contraption is pretty popular for this purpose: Orion SteadyPix Deluxe Camera Mount | Orion Telescopes

[sxinias]

Like OleCuss said, you will not be able to achieve focus with the 130mm Newtonian telescopes you mentioned. One telescope, if it is available in your area, that will work for very short exposure AZ mount astrophotography is the SkyWatcher Star Travel 102mm f/5 refractor. The scope will do well for visual work aslo.

[milanpicard]

I have skywatcher Heritage. It's great for DSOs for such a low budget. It has no goto and I don't think it's camera-friendly, like you said. But if I wanna look at a photo I just google. If I wanna look at the real deal, I use my Heritage. But that's just me.

[mstar74]

You can take wide field pictures of the night sky with a DSLR and if you have a telephoto lens you can zoom in on DSOs. This might be the best alternative for you given the costs of a decent telescope and mount that is suitable for astrophotography. If you go this route, you can pick up a small mount or mount plus scope that tracks - e.g. SKY-WATCHER HERITAGE-90 CASSEGRAIN TELESCOPE: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics to which you can connect your DSLR through an L-bracket. There are a lot of tracking mounts on the market now designed for cameras or small scopes. You don't need to buy one with a scope attached.
Here is a guide to using DSLR without scope: How To Guide: Astrophotography with a DSLR » Geartacular

Here is the scope sxinias mentioned: Sky-Watcher STARTRAVEL-102 (EQ1) 102mm (4") f/500 REFRACTOR TELESCOPE - Optical Vision Ltd
You can buy a motor drive for it.

Here is the same scope in alt-az goto: Sky-Watcher STARTRAVEL-102 SynScan™ AZ GOTO 102mm (4") f/500 cOMPUTERISED REFRACTOR - Optical Vision Ltd
I've seen it on sale for 299 pounds at one site - Astronomy telescopes - discover astronomy, starter telescopes, refractor

Skywatcher Newtonians with 'P' in the model number may or may not come to focus with a DSLR. Those with 'PDS' in the model number are designed for astrophotography and will focus a DSLR:
Dual-Speed Parabolic Imaging Newtonian Reflectors - Optical Vision Ltd

[Cactusstar]

Thanks for the replies so far, I didn't realise I could do so much with my dslr on it's own and have been busy reading up on this. Have taken some moon shots in the past.

image.jpeg

Thus was taken with my 70-300 at 300mm with a crop and some pp in photoshop.

So leaving the photography aside I presume that the heritage will give me the best views for the least outlay.

[mstar74]

That's a pretty good photo of the moon.
The Heritage certainly has a good price and based on the following review it seems to be very good optically:
https://telescopereviewsuk.wordpress...ian-telescope/