Celestron NexStar 8 SE or Celestron C8-SGT

Hi CJ,

If you want to do deep sky astrophotography forget about an altazimuth mount even forget the 8" SCT. Reason why it's to high a focal length for the CG5 GOTO. What you want to do is buy the best equatorial mount you can afford. I know Astronomy Ireland are selling the CG5 GOTO mount for around 450 EURO. Then get yourself a decant refractor something around F6/F7. An 80ED is a pretty good scope to start with you will have a good set up for around 1000euro. Any sort of cheep scope will do you for guiding as long as you can pick up a star in it. All in all this kind of set up will get you on the road with great results and when you get more experience you can upgrade .

Carl.

Thanks for all the replies guys, food for thought indeed.

Think I'm gonna research this a bit further

thanks

CJ

I would stay clear of the CG5GT since it can be very hard to get it to work to its described limits plus it sells for about £250 second hand. If you can stretch the budget then think mount first for imaging and look at the Skywatcher EQ6 Pro. Speak to Steve at First Light Optics, tell him what you are looking for, see what discount he will give you and then tell him I told you that you can have the extra discount that he promised he you give me for not getting me an old SXVH9 ccd Kieran AKA Phoenix

OH and stay clear of Telescope Planet. They take payment from your card immediately even if they have no stock and you have to wait 3 months for new stock.