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Planetary Scope advice! [Solar System] Acquisition techniques · R. Estuardo Ordonez · ... · 2 · 217 · 0

RubenO 0.00
R. Estuardo Ordonez
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Hello, I want to buy a scope for visual and planetary imaging and your expert advice is much appreciated.
My budget is limited to approx. $1500.
And I have another box to check.
I'm obsessed with Neptune. 

I have two mounts, a Celestron AVX and a SW EQ6 for astrophotography and changing scopes to do some planetary it's a pain, but doable.  I own my first scope the NexStar 6SE and its really limited.  Neptune is just a blue pixel and I may be using my imagination to see it, the mount is really shaky and not precise, not finding objects, dew shield is needed and makes him more shaky if just a slight breeze hits him.  Focusing is not precise because of shaking, and I need something more and the aperture mosquito has given me a good bite and now it's itching me.
I've come to these options.

1) 8" Classic Cassegrain
  • $1,080.00
  • f/12
  • Focal length: 2436mm
  • 20 lbs.
  • good: I'm prepared to collimate, I own an 8"RC, compact, no dew shield required, no temperature or humidity problems.
  • bad: shares a mount or need to buy a mount for it, refinement of the instrument may be limited and its raw,

2) 7" Maksutov-Cassegrain
  • $1,500.00
  • F/Ratio: 15
  • Focal Length (mm): 2700
  • 19 lbs.
  • Good:  Smaller aperture may benefit from bad seen and long fl, its compact and may not need collimation
  • bad: temperature and humidity shifts are a pain with him and may need dew shield elongating its lenght, so wind resistance is bad, and needs to share a mount or need a mount for him alone.

10" Dobsonian
  • $910.00 Classic or $1020 the Flextube
  • F/Ratio: 4.7
  • Focal Length (mm): 1200
  • OTA Weight (with accessories): 28  or  OTA Weight (with accessories): 33
  • Dob Base Weight: 25  or  Dob Base Weight: 26.5
  • Good:  Comes with a mount, flex is transportable, big aperture is light gathering positive, colors and faint details may pop better.  No electricity to operate.
  • bad:  Low focal length may not give me a good close up and a Barlow is needed, so the price goes up, equatorial platform is needed to track the sky or recentering is needed, and its heavy and bulky, Flextube is still big, big apertures have problems with air columns with humidity, seen must be good.


Local conditions:
I live in Guatemala, 14.3 degrees latitude.  We can get really good seen because we are high in the mountains, I live in 1730 m above sea level and I could get as high as 4000 m above sea level.  But its humid, so seen conditions is a variable, and the horizon is a big no no for astrophotography.  So with this info I guess we have normal conditions, like everywhere else except for deserts.

Help If you have any info on the scopes or if I'm missing something about them or other good options.
Clear Skies.
Ruben O
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andreatax 7.90
andrea tasselli
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Easy! The 10" dob. Slap a 3x coma-correcting barlow (from APM) and you're in business. You can make a goto scope of it by adding OnStep controller, motors and gears/belts. Has been done before and a good number of times. I'll probably do it myself one day but with a 16"...
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TareqPhoto 2.94
Tareq Abdulla
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From those i will definitely go for 10" Dob, actually i have 7" Maksutov and it is nice for moon and planets, but i still want to go more, even 10" is good move but i will look for more in future, so i will not go for 10" or 12" but larger, and for you with those options i will go with 10" Dob.
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