Yet another Setup Query (Celestron NexStar 8 SE)

With a house in the village , and beautiful starry skys, and with some money in the hands, Ive decided to pursue a long lasting desire of owning a telescope. The Celestron NexStar 8SE seems very interesting. How would you guys rate this for astrophotography & what more gear is recommended. Any other telescope recommendations in the similar price range are more than welcome as well.

brownbugger wrote in post #10724097
With a house in the village , and beautiful starry skys, and with some money in the hands, Ive decided to pursue a long lasting desire of owning a telescope. The Celestron NexStar 8SE seems very interesting. How would you guys rate this for astrophotography & what more gear is recommended. Any other telescope recommendations in the similar price range are more than welcome as well.

Not something I've been brave enough to do yet, buy a telescope for astrophotography that is. Good luck!

Am I wrong, or is a Dobsonian mount no good for this task, since the picture through the scope will rotate around the object being tracked, thus preventing the use of long exposures?

Dobsonians, and also telescopes on what's called an Alt-Az mount, (like the Celestron above), aren't ideal for long exposure photographs, no. This is because, as you said Martyn, the image will rotate. I've never used one, so don't know how long you can shoot for before rotation becomes a problem. However, the free image stacking software, Deep Sky Stacker (DSS), does cater somewhat for image rotation. Telescopes on Equatorial Mounts are more suitable.

I've got pretty much the 11" version of that Celestron though, and I love it. Excellent for lunar and planetary viewing, and also pretty damn good on smaller deep sky objects. Even at the relatively slow f/10 I can still clearly see dim DSOs at a nice dark site. Could easily see (parts of) the Veil Nebula the other night.

I have an 8" SCT, although it's on the older fork style mount. I've had a 10" Newt on a home made equatorial mount and while it was great to look through, I found that the effort required to transport it and set it up killed off my interest pretty quickly. I now have the same scope in a Dob mount and that's great for observing but no use for photography.

It's pretty hard to beat the versatility of the 8" SCT. Big enough to see DSO's, long enough for moon and planets and relatively easy to move around.
I'd have to say that the style of mount for that telescope you linked to might be the achilles heal. Photography of all types adds weight and changes balance. That might be the weight of the camera on the end of a barlow or off-axis guider or a guidescope or a piggy backed camera. I suspect that you may reach the limitation of the mount quite quickly. Covington has a nice chart of exposure times limited by field rotation in his DSLR Astrophotography book and it ranges from 5 seconds directly overhead to several minutes by the East or West horizon. I assume that you could get a wedge for that mount, but the weight/imbalance issue still applies.
The same scope on an equatorial mount is a bit more expensive, but if you can afford it, I think it would be a lot less limiting.

Steve.

I have the same scope and it works well with both types of astrophotography:
"afocal" (I use a Sony handicam),
or shooting prime with my gripped 7D or my 5DMkII.
The single fork model isn't the best for astrophoto work; It's difficult to adjust for the extra weight of the cam and that weight also works the motors pretty hard. Steve was correct that a full DSLR puts the mount at it's limits. The dual fork CPC models are a little better in that respect.
There are serious limitations with this model at the moment; the biggest being polar alignment.
Celestron has discontinued the original wedge for their 6SE/8SE.
***EDIT NOTE: The new universal model is apparently available now.
Of course if you're wanting really good optics in a Celestron SCT, then be prepared to pony up some serious $$ for a CGEM EdgeHD or CGE Pro EdgeHD.

Most helpful extras:
1) Small bubble level. (ABSOLUTELY VITAL!!!)
2) T-Ring for your brand DSLR & NOTCHED tube (A Smooth tube is more likely to allow your camera to slip)
3) Multifunction camera remote control or better yet a Laptop: (Essential for bulb timer, hands free camera operation & the laptop allows for LIVE view 5X/10X Zoom focus confirmation)
4) PowerTank17 &/or 2nd 12VDC/120VAC supply (a Deep-cycle battery & AC Inverter are great )
5) Dew Shield/Heater, (the big front glass of an SC or Mak makes them VERY prone to condensation gathering.)
((It's fairly easy to make a shield and a 12Volt hair dryer you would use for camping can be used on-site, but honestly- the Heater straps are best though.))
6) 2" diagonal & eyepiece kit (Better for viewing or camerwork)
7) Moon filter (I went with an Orion unit as I prefer it's grey to the green cast given by the Celestron version.)

If you want to try any fainter large DSO's, you'll probably want
8 ) Reducer/Corrector Field flattener ((NOTE: This item usually forces a switch from "Prime" to the "Afocal" photography method))
9) Nebula Filter (such as an OII or OIII)
10) Piggyback camera mount (It's nice for doing tracking wide-Field shots, **NOTE: I find with a full DSLR mounted, it has a tendency to knock the star-pointer off alignment.)

A GPS unit is another very, very handy device too especially if you are into setting up your scope at various sites.

One word of advice I've discovered if you are going to start shooting prime:
Be prepared to clean your sensor often.
With the T Ring & mount tube on, the path to the sensor is wide open. The simple act of putting the camera over the eye-tube and sliding it down into position pretty well guarantees some particle is going to get force-fed into the camera due to the compression of that air column (& whatever particles it contains).
It's aggravating to get everything set up, snap a pic & look at the screen to find out you have a 'planetary' sized speck of lint in the way or a horizon spanning bit of pet hair across most of the frame.