Hi - will be looking for info on next purchase

[SnoMike]

Glad I found the forum, lot of great info. I currently own a 8" Meade LX200R but would like to upgrade in the near future to a 16" scope to do both viewing and eventually learn astrophotography. I intend to build a small observatory to house it in. I've got to do some research and would welcome opinions. Again, glad to be here.

[bladekeeper]

Hi Mike! Welcome to the forum and thanks for joining us!

[Gabby76]

Hello and welcome mike! Quite the monster scope in your future!

[Ozman13]

Learning astrophotography with such a large and long focal length instrument will be a daunting task indeed. It will be much, much easier to learn with a fast short refractor. The scope you describe would be something to EVENTUALLY work up to, but not something to start with. I highly suggest you do a LOT of reading and research before embarking on such a venture. Think about an 80mm APO on an AVX as a beginning set up.

[Macrob1]

Learning astrophotography with such a large and long focal length instrument will be a daunting task indeed. It will be much, much easier to learn with a fast short refractor. The scope you describe would be something to EVENTUALLY work up to, but not something to start with. I highly suggest you do a LOT of reading and research before embarking on such a venture. Think about an 80mm APO on an AVX as a beginning set up.

Hello Mike and welcome. I'm an observing newbie myself but from what I've read here from the astrophotographers, I think Ozman's advice is spot on!

[sdbodin]

I currently own a 8" Meade LX200R but would like to upgrade in the near future to a 16" scope to do both viewing and eventually learn astrophotography. I intend to build a small observatory to house it in.

Since I have both, maybe a little insight. I started imaging with my 8 for about 10 years before going to the 16, early years on film, no less. Not much of a leap with the learning curve after the apprenticeship on the smaller scope, the big Meade has smooth drives and imaging is easy at 4000mm. But, lots of big scope options out there now. Still, about a third of my imaging is with an 80 or even smaller lenses, need that wide field view too. The big scope mount does provide a very robust platform for hanging any small scope on.

You could always use the big instrument visually and learn the imaging process with a ride-along APO, this would eliminate many first time imagers' problems with tracking and guiding on less robust mounts, maybe 50% of the problems anyway. Unfortunately, the big scope is probably only 50% of the cost of getting deep into astrophotography.

Good luck,
Steve

[Braingasim]

Hi there Mike, Welcome to the forums!

[andrewsscope]

Hi Mike welcome to the forum.
Andy

[combat48]

Hello Mike! Welcome to the Forum!! Lots of great AP advice already.

Dave

[helicon64]

Hi Mike and Welcome to the Forum from another Mike!