Jupiter and Saturn

xa-coupe wrote in post #19269277
Be aware , buying telescopes can be addictive !!
That tripod could mount a tracker and a scope but I would have a long think about a couple of things before going ahead with that... this is where you enter the 'buy once cry once zone'.

This sounds scary!

xa-coupe wrote in post #19269277
1. What scope will you get? There are quite a few and they vary in size and weight. They also vary in quality and therefore price. If you have a star tracker already and will get a smallish scope, then this may well be enough for you.

Yes I know there are dozens and dozens of models of telescopes to choose from. Since my eyes no longer can see Polaris, do you know of another way to do the tracking? How do they do it down under? I need to keep the scope some what lightweight as the older I get the less weight I am able to handle.

xa-coupe wrote in post #19269277
2. Will you be likely to get further into this? I know it is impossible to tell right now but if you are getting the taste for it, a proper mount/tripod combo may be more appropriate. This starts to get expensive but your world opens up. You can get 'goto' functionality for instance, which is a game changer unless you're into astronomy already and know where things are in the night sky.

I do have Stellarium and know how to use the simple parts of that program, such as a search for something like Jupiter and Saturn. The deep space stuff I know nothing about that.

xa-coupe wrote in post #19269277
Be aware , buying telescopes can be addictive !!
That tripod could mount a tracker and a scope but I would have a long think about a couple of things before going ahead with that... this is where you enter the 'buy once cry once zone'.

What are the couple of things you would have a long think over??

You've done exceptionally well for a camera lens I have to say.

Really, the big question is how far do you want to go and what can you afford? You can make what you have work but should you want to do nebulas and other things you will have limited success. Should you not want to then you will do fine. Even cheap scopes will give okay results but you get chromatic aberration and other unwelcome 'guests' with cheap optics. I started with a camera (70-200) and 'graduated' to a cheap proper telescope and in hindsight, the focal length was way too long for a beginner learning the 'trade' and when I did get a decent image I usually got some free aqua coloured fringing.

If you decide to jump in, I recommend a proper 'Goto' ( a list of celestial objects within the mount and the co-ordinates so you polar align, then tell it which one to go to and it points directly at it.) tracking mount such as the HEQ5 which will do about 99% of what you could ever want to do. It isn't cheap but buy once, cry once. There are other options about but I personally believe the Goto functionality is a must.

As for not being able to see the polar star, there are options that involve putting a camera (eg ipolar) or a small guide scope and a small camera with a software program on a computer such as SharpCap which will both give you excellent polar alignment. They can be daunting at first but once you're comfortable it's actually quite easy, though they both are not a cheap option. You've already discovered that polar alignment isn't as critical for planetary as DSOs so, again, it is about where you want to head as to whether you need to worry about it.

I'm a beginner compared to some of the guys around here but if you want help with, I am sure we will all get you through this!

Thank you xa for your compliment on my photography skills, which many times I would rate a big negative number if you saw all the images I have taken but never show anyone else.

My initial thoughts on buying a telescope was to improve my shots of Jupiter, Saturn and of course our moon. I am hoping to not spend more than $1000 or maybe $1500 absolute max as I do not have unlimited funding now in my retirement years. Being brand new to this telescope idea I was not aware of course of problems with cheaper telescopes as you mentioned above. if it will be more pricey I may decide to not buy a scope at all, and keep using what I have and call it good enough. I will also need the to telescope to not be huge and heavy, huge because of space storage in my home and heavy simply because I do not have the strength I did many years ago.

I was hoping since I can get some "somewhat" decent shots with out the need for tracking with my camera that I would not need to buy another tracker of some sort because of my eye sight not being what it was 5 years ago.

I did a search for the HEQ5 and found THIS. The HEQ5 clearly does not include the scope, and just the HEQ5 looks HUGE to me! I would not have room to store this in my home, plus adding the weight of the scope seems to me to make it more difficult to move from inside home to outside, then back inside. I suspect that would take quite a while to move it from inside the home to outside for an hour or what-ever then to have to move it back inside for storage.

The HEQ5 is a mount only, you have to buy a telescope too. They are big and there are smaller units.. not to mention there is a far bigger second hand market over there which gives you options.

My advice, for what it is worth, is to persevere with what you have for the moment and see if you get the bug. Tooling up and then giving up on it is a sure way to waste money which as a retiree, isn't something I reckon you'll want to do! A lot of people are pumping out great images with cameras and star trackers, you just have to be realistic about exposure times etc.

xa-coupe wrote in post #19269635
The HEQ5 is a mount only, you have to buy a telescope too. They are big and there are smaller units.. not to mention there is a far bigger second hand market over there which gives you options.

My advice, for what it is worth, is to persevere with what you have for the moment and see if you get the bug. Tooling up and then giving up on it is a sure way to waste money which as a retiree, isn't something I reckon you'll want to do! A lot of people are pumping out great images with cameras and star trackers, you just have to be realistic about exposure times etc.

The HEQ5 by itself was $1,225 then having to spend more on the telescope..... Google did not show cheaper options.
My light weight tracker could not handle the weight of my camera body plus the huge Sigma 150-600 to get pictures of Jupiter and/or Saturn.

I tried using my 60D with my older and slightly smaller Sigma 150-500 on the partial solar eclipse which was back on 08/21/2017. The tracker was not very solid and did lose track slightly of the Sun/Moon combination bouncing around a bit from the weight of the camera body/lens combination.

Investigate something like an iOptron Skyguider pro or the SkyWatcher Star adventurer. These are simple rotators but the newer ones have a decent payload capability and can guide, which means longer exposures. Neither of them have Goto functionality so you'll have to buy a star map or get adept at using one of the various apps about.

Keep an eye out on Craigslist, eBay and those sorts of sites for all of these things as sometimes you'll find someone selling their whole setup for some reason. I rarely do well but occasionally I get a good bit of equipment for very little

xa-coupe wrote in post #19269715
Investigate something like an iOptron Skyguider pro or the SkyWatcher Star adventurer. These are simple rotators but the newer ones have a decent payload capability and can guide, which means longer exposures. Neither of them have Goto functionality so you'll have to buy a star map or get adept at using one of the various apps about.

Keep an eye out on Craigslist, eBay and those sorts of sites for all of these things as sometimes you'll find someone selling their whole setup for some reason. I rarely do well but occasionally I get a good bit of equipment for very little

That sounds pretty good except for lining up to Polaris.......

The smaller rotators have a small 'telescope' with a grid built in to help you align. You look through them (hopefully you'll be able to see the star) and align the mark with the star. it is a little more complex than that but not a lot more for the northern hemisphere.

Is this the small telescope you are referring to? I have to be able to SEE Polaris with my eyes before trying to find it in the small telescope you refer to. Yes I do know the general direction of where Polaris is, but that is a huge sky to try to find it in the small telescope.

Yes, something like that. To help you you can place the mount facing true north and adjust the angle on the mount to the latitude of your location. That way you are pointing kind of celestial north, but north enough to be able to see polaris and align from there ..... hopefully. Remember magnetic north and true north are different!

xa-coupe wrote in post #19270006
Yes, something like that. To help you you can place the mount facing true north and adjust the angle on the mount to the latitude of your location. That way you are pointing kind of celestial north, but north enough to be able to see polaris and align from there ..... hopefully. Remember magnetic north and true north are different!

I did not know there were two different kinds of North. I am assuming true north is found using a compass? What about using a cell phone?

What is the difference?

Inspeqtor wrote in post #19270084
I did not know there were two different kinds of North. I am assuming true north is found using a compass? What about using a cell phone?

What is the difference?

Magnetic North is found with a compass. True North is the earth's rotation axis. A cell phone uses magnetic north, but has the conversion to calculate true north (which differs between locations).
https://en.wikipedia.o​rg/wiki/North_magnetic​_pole

That little gem set me back quite a few months as I was always aligning magnetic south and wondering why every picture was unusable, in fact I nearly gave up on the whole caper because of this. Then I read something on some obscure forum about it and suddenly I could take 25 second exposures. There's 11 degrees difference in true south and magnetic south so it makes sens that the same would be of north.

If you are using an iPhone you can go into the settings and have it point true north as it defaults to magnetic north. I'm sure Android phones can do it too.

xa-coupe wrote in post #19270230
That little gem set me back quite a few months as I was always aligning magnetic south and wondering why every picture was unusable, in fact I nearly gave up on the whole caper because of this. Then I read something on some obscure forum about it and suddenly I could take 25 second exposures. There's 11 degrees difference in true south and magnetic south so it makes sens that the same would be of north.

If you are using an iPhone you can go into the settings and have it point true north as it defaults to magnetic north. I'm sure Android phones can do it too.

It depends on the app. I don't have a stand-alone compass app on my Samsung phone, but my iPhone compass settings are associated with the compass app; ForeFlight on the same phone works only as magnetic, but that is intended for a particular navigation environment.

Magnetic variation or declination, as you know, varies by location. Your 11 degrees is only 2.9 degrees here to the east, and it is about 5 degrees west in Indiana. I just mention it for others following the conversation.