Telescope Upgrade

[jpro747]

Hi,

I am using a celestron Poewrseeker 76 (700mm) telescope and Canon 350D at the moment, but I am thinking of buying a new telescope soon. Has anyone got any Ideas of good telescopes? should I go for 1000mm or higher/lower?

Thanks

ContrailsUK

[grztus]

Hello contrailsUK

I'm in the very similar situation.
I have used Rubinar 1000mm/10 (it's almost the same as MTO 1000/10) with EOS 350D last months and now I'm buying my first telescope. I have chosen Sky Watcher Synta 10" (1200mm/4.72) on Dobsonian mount.
Rubinar with crop number 1.6 given 1600mm of focal lenght and it was enought for me (most of airplanes in zenith). So I decided to buy telescope with focal lenght not smaller than 1000, but also not bigger than 1300mm.

But the most important thing was the light of the scope, becouse Rubinar was to dark for me, especially with such small viewfinder as in 350D.
I will get my Synta in the first few days of November and I will write few words about spotting with it as soon as possible.

Here are the photos without cropping (only resizing to 1024px) taken by Rubinar + 350D (about 1600mm, "about" - becouse there's a need of using macro ring to separate built in flash and the Rubinar's rear wall, that increase a focal lenght)

http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/pel ... forb6i.htm
http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/pel ... fosh3.html
http://www.fotosik.pl/pokaz_obrazek/pel ... i9ynh.html

And http://www.grztus.orgfree.com/aukcja.htm are some photos taken by Rubinar + 350D after digital corrections (I'm using Paint Shop Pro and Neat Image software).

[jpro747]

those are good photos!

I am thinking of getting this one: http://www.f1cameras.co.uk/shop.php?id=238&level=

[grztus]

Hello

you are presenting amazing photos taken with your new telescope!

Can you write here few words about your first impression of using StarHopper telescope? Do you enjoy Dobsonian mount for spotting?

[jpro747]

Thankyou grztus,

I am finding my new telescope great a the moment as it is giving me great photos! One thing which is quite annoying is the overall weight of it - 50kg which is heavy and quite hard to move around. Another is that the telescope is quite large - the tube is 4ft long. One more thing is that the telescope is at a low height when on its own. Mine is mounted on a table so that I can look through it when I'm standing up instead of having to kneel on the ground. Dobsonians are OK if you know that you can lift them outside and have enough room to get them through the door. The telescope is also great for astronomy, if your interested in that as well.
Thanks

ContrailsUK

[FL350]

Contrails,
have you tried some astrophotography? The Moon, sunspots, Jupiter, Saturn, Milky Way/star exposures, comets?

The largest telescope I made observations with had a 20" mirror. The details I've seen on the Moon were just unbelievable. Bright mountain summits glistening from within black lightless areas around. Just WOW. And the Saturn rings. We tried some CCD photography, but it was years ago. Anyway, contrail photos with such machine would...well...

I remember transmiting the CCD camera's signal into a TV screen. This way I could show some novices a passing 744 Singapore Airlines. This was the moment when some of them finally believed I could really see detailed airliners up there!
Best regards,
FL350<

[jpro747]

Hi, Nice to know you that you are interested in astronomy FL350. Some people just dont think what else you can do with a telescope other than look at the night sky. Before I got into contrail spotting I used to look at stars and the moon etc, and one day when I saw a plane going over I looked at it through my telescope. It was an unbelieveable sight, I never thought you would be able to see it because I thought that telescopes were too powerful for observing airliners. Ever since I've been addicted to contrailspotting....
Anyway......
<br>
I have observed the moon which is very big. I think I need a moon filter though because it seems blurry but I have not been able to see any of the planets yet because its the wrong time of year. They will be back early next year, and I will try to get some photos to put on here!!

I have seen many planes cross in front of the moon before, but I can never seem to get the photo, it happens too quick and I'm not an expert on camera settings etc. Maybe in the near future i will buy a sun filter so I can see the sun and maybe get some contrail shots going across the sun
Thanks,

ContrailsUK