Advise from the pro 's

[BASmith]

I want to mount my cam (XTi) on a good telescope.

I know I need "T" rings.

Or, if the Tele already includes them......

$2 Grand limit.

Looking for Deep Sky applications.


What would you suggest?

[Adrena1in]

Well I'm certainly not a pro, but I've learned a few things.

For Deep Sky Imaging you're going to want to take long exposures, and the first thing you'll need is a good quality, sturdy mount. German Equatorial Mounts tend to be the most recommended -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_mount. You'll want to spend a fair amount on one of these. There's no point spending thousands on a scope if your mount isn't going to track well, but a good mount and a crappy telescope or even a bog-standard camera lens will allow for some good images.

Personally I would recommend an Apochromatic Refractor. I don't have one, but the images I've seen from them are superb. Don't assume that bigger means better either. Because DSOs are often dim, you'll want something fast, but DSOs are also often quite large, (as in the amount of sky they cover. The Andromeda galaxy might be 2.5 million light years away, but it spans 3-degrees of the sky...the moon only spans about 0.5 degrees!). To that end, I'd say look at an Apo with around 80-100mm of aperture and as fast as possible...f/4 or f/5. I think most of the "80 ED" type scopes would be great for the job, but again, I have no experience of these myself...I'm just going by what I've heard over the year or two I've been interested in AP.

Let us know how you get on.

[Nighthound]

At least half, maybe a bit more of your budget should be applied to a mount. You can either choose from something like an Orion Atlas or Vixen GP2 and then go for a decent 80mm semi-APO refractor like an Astro-Tech or Orion with ED glass. I believe the Atlas has a higher load capacity which could be helpful later if you add a guide scope for longer exposure work. I would keep your focal lengths down on your imaging scope since these mounts are at the low end for imaging. Keep in mind also that there will be other expenses like dew heater/straps, power supply, mounting hardware(dovetail plate for scope) and various other things down the road that will be found necessary or at least desired for both imaging and processing. You can find some very good quality used equipment out there that may help stretch your budget at places like Astromart and Cloudy Nights as well. Do some research and set some realistic expectations when starting out. This is a very challenging hobby that can get expensive but it also is very rewarding. Let us know when you have some choices narrowed down and we can give you some thoughts on specific pieces of equipment.