Equatorial mount or Auto Tracking telescope?

Question

I am about to purchase my first telescope and am finding it difficult to decide which to purchase, I have decided to go for a 5" or 6" Newtonian Reflector but cannot decide which model and more importantly cannot decide whether to go for an Equatorial mount or and Auto Tracking one.

My budget is approx £300, am happy to buy one secondhand.

At some point in the near future i will also be buying an SLR camera so i can take long exposure pictures of the moon/planets etc so this needs to be taken into consideration as well.

Can anyone give any advise;

How difficult is it to manually track your self?
How difficult is it to locate planets/nebulae etc without an auto find?
Can anyone suggest a model to buy?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

From your questions, I can tell that you're new to astronomy, and not very familiar with what's involved. I'd strongly recommend that you do a bit of reading before spending a lot of money, so that at least you'll be asking the right questions. A great place to start is the book NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly) which gives both the theoretical background plus a lot of practical information about equipment.

I think you're confusing tracking with finding objects. An equatorial mount _is_ an auto tracking mount: centre the telescope on an object, and it will track it automatically. In any case, tracking isn't as important a feature as you might think; manual tracking is very easy to do with a good mount, and motorized tracking is only necessary for long exposure photography.

The significant difference in mounts is how you locate the object in the first place. Until recently, all astronomers have located objects manually, using a star atlas and a finder scope, and it's not all that hard; many of us actually find it a pleasure! Nowadays many telescope mounts come with small computers which assist the finding process. Some are "object locators" like the Orion IntelliScope which tell you how to point your scope manually. Others are full "goto" systems, with motors that actually move the scope. The downside of having motors is that they often are noisy and all draw a lot of electricity, which means replacing your batteries every night, or buying an external rechargeable power supply. They also are expensive: by opting for automation, you often end up with a small telescope which can find lots of things, but can't show you them in any detail.

Hardly anybody nowadays uses a film SLR for astrophotography, because there are so many advantages in digital imaging. Lunar and planetary imaging is largely done with webcams; long exposure deep sky imaging with digital SLRs or dedicated CCD cameras. However, astrophotography is by far the most difficult and expensive aspect of amateur astronomy, and I'd strongly recommend that you stay away from it with your first telescope. With a budget of £300, you can't even afford a _mount_ suitabble for photography, let alone a whole telescope!

Rather than a 5" or 6" scope on a flimsy equatorial mount (which is about all your £300 will get you), consider instead a larger reflector mounted on a manual Dobsonian mount. It will be much easier to use, and will show you a lot more. If you decide to pursue photography at a later date, you can remount the scope itself on an equatorial mount (which, as I said, will cost you at least £300). Since you're in the UK (I assume), here is what I would recommend:
http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/astronomical_telescopes/sky-watcher/dobsonians

[Edit] I wouldn't recommend the scope campbelp2002 has suggested. I've tested this scope personally, and the optics are poor and the mount totally incapable of supporting a scope this size solidly. Any sort of photography would be impossible with this scope because of the shaky mount. Generally Orion (US) sells good products; this is one of the unfortunate exceptions.

Point of clarification: there are two different companies called "Orion." The one in the US is primarily a dealer, importing almost everything they sell from China. The one in the UK is a telescope manufacturer, and makes very fine telescopes. The two are completely separate and have completely different product lines. US Orion products are generally not available in the UK, but similar products are imported by British companies such as Optical Vision Limited.

Answer 2

If you want to do long exposure photography, the motor driven equatorial mount is an absolute necessity. The source is a telescope that might do. You will need the optional EQ-2M Electronic Drive System because the basic telescope does not include any motors. It will still be tough to take long exposures though, because for any exposure over a few seconds or a minute or so you will have to touch the telescope to make declination adjustments with the manual knob, which will shake it. Unless you have REALLY perfect polar alignment, which is tough to achieve with a portable telescope. But the full two axis motorized equatorial mount is probably out of your price range.

Answer 3

Tracking Telescope

Answer 4

I bought a decent scope with an equatorial mount / clock drive for one reason - so I can provide easy demos to students and friends without having to set the scope between each consecutive viewer. I can set the scope on a target and walk away for a half hour - when I return, the target is still centered. I am only now beginning to dabble in photography, and I have owned the scope for over 7 years. I suspect that this is a luxury that is currently beyond what you need or even want - are you sure you understand the amount of equipment and the investment and the processes necessary to take good astrophotos? I would abandon the photography / clock drive features for more aperture; I would abandon the computer / GoTo features for more sky knowledge - finding stuff really is half the fun. A Dobsonian with max aperture would keep your enthusiasm level higher longer.

ADDED: I don't mean to dampen your dreams here - if you are set on photography - by all means go for it. This is just the voice of experience. You are asking for unnecessary frustration.

Answer 5

Meade make excellent telescopes.
Go for the Auto Tracking (also called 'drive correctors' by some manufacturers).
The camera is very seldom connected to 'look' through the telescope, rather the camera is mounted on the telescope barrel and the telescope itself is used as a guiding device.
By using a guiding eyepiece, which is a short focal length eyepiece fitted with illuminated double cross hairs, the telescope, and therefore the camera, keeps the reference star centred in the view field.
The accepted practice is that the telescope is focused on any convenient medium brightness star while the camera is adjusted to point at the object that you wish to photograph.
If you have your polar alignments correct then the target will stay centred in the camera, irregardless of where the camera lens is pointing in relation to the direction that the scope is aimed.
You need to manually correct the scope tracking to adjust for slight differences in your polar alignment and drive speed.
You can fit what ever telescopic or wide angle lenses to the camera to suit the object being snapped.
Don't forget to adjust the balance weights to compensate for the weight of camera and lens. I also tape weights to the opposite side and end of the telescope. Everything works better if the whole system is balanced as finely as possible as it reduces the load and drag on the drive motors.
To find the different objects use a Star Atlas like Norton's. This will give you the co-ordinates of everything you can see.

Answer 6

Automatic Telescope

Answer 7

Get a telescope first, learn how to use and what you can do with it, *then* worry about taking pictures with it. Everybody seems to want to take pictures, and I can't blame them. The sky is indeed a beautiful place. But few people really understand what's involved.

Regardless of the imaging technology (I still use medium-format and 4x5 film), you have to be able to find things, achieve precise polar alignment, track things precisely, and have the patience of a saint.

The telescope recommended earlier is grossly undermounted: borderline for visual observation, unusable for photography.

If you're really desperate to take pictures, make a barn door tracker. It will cost you next to nothing, you can take really neat pictures, and it will give you insight in to the requirements of astrophotography.

Answer 8

You need tracking capability if you plan to do astrophotography. It is very hard to manually track especially for a beginner.

Personally, I prefer complete manual operation of my scopes because that forces me to learn where things are in the sky. You dont learn if all you have to do is push a button. I try to learn where one or two new things are everytime that I go out in the field. That way I don't get overwhelmed and I don't forget what I learn. I don't do astrophotography because I only have a small camera that doesn't have enough resolution for astrophotography.

Oh, stick with Orion products. Great value, quality and excellent customer service.

oriontelescopes.com

Answer 9

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