The best planetary view $179 can buy!

Once again an Orion catalog snared me... they recently started selling their 6" f/8 Newtonian optical tubes separately (without Dob base) for $179, so I impulse bought one. Check out the picture of Jupiter I took with it last night.

My only point here is "do not forgot the old-fashioned low-tech newtonian for planets!" Now I love CAT's and refractors as much as the next guy, and my C8 and TV85 both give great views, but not for $179 NEW! Also, I'm not trying to push Orion... I'd think any Discovery, Meade, Celestron, or any other long focus Newt would do the trick.

Anyone else have any great bang-for-buck planetary pictures to post?

Peace,
Bruce.

Attached Image:

Bruce,

Very impressive! I'd be pleased if my $2000 OTA took that kind of picture. What eyepiece were you using?

Erik D

I've been thinking of getting one of these too. Can you give some specs on the photo?

That's a great pic! What kind of camera? Digicam? CCD?

I just got an Orion Astroview 100/f6 OTA for 250.00 and am enjoying the views immensely!

Moon pic taken on 10 Feb with a Nikon CP4500 afocal coupled to a scopetronix 14mm EP @43x. Exposed at 1/[email protected] ISO100.

Attached Image:

Hi Bruce -

I recently got an 8" Konus newtonian and I was blown away by how well it does on planets. I took this picture of Jupiter with it.

Not quite $179, but for under $600 (includes a CG-5 mount, polar scope, and lots of extras) I think it is a great buy for a planetary scope.

I am convinced that the simple newtonian makes a great planetary instrument!

-Jake

Attached Image:

Here is a picture of Saturn I took with my Meade 826, an 8" f/6 newt circa 1985.

http://www.siebertoptics.com/SiebertOptics-astrophotos.html

Ok, guys, I'm new to the Newt scene myself. I bought an Orion 130ST EQ a couple of weeks ago. I was AMAZED at what I could see, but this disscusion string has raised a few questions for me. I'm also fairly new to Astromart so forgive me if I'm asking redundant questions.

First, what is the software you're talking about using to stack the images? Where can I find it?

I had been contemplating my next eyepiece purchase and I think Mike made up my mind on the Siebert Optics eyepiece. That's a really nice image of Saturn. I think this is my last general question for everyone. I hoping you Newt guys can help me, what is the highest power eyepiece I can get away with using? The 130 is a 1300mm primary, 650mm f/5. I was looking at the Siebert 4.9mm or 7mm. I was afraid the 4.9 might start to wash out. Any opinions? I already have 10mm, 25mm, 40mm Orion Plossls, an old Celestron 2x Barlow and a couple of REALLY old Meade eyepieces that came with a 60mm we bought 15 yrs. ago.

Now I have a couple for Bruce; what tripod and mount did you use? I've got the Orion EQ-2 that came with my scope. I have done a lot of work to it to steady it up and it's much better. Think it's steady enough to pull this sort of thing off? I don't have a motor for it yet though. Did you track or just snap the individual pictures with the snapshop command in the Logitec software? Just a couple more questions, buddy, I promise. :^) Is you're webcam the small "ball" shaped Logitec? I sat here and tried to yank the lense off and didn't see how without just ripping it off. This is the last one I think, did you mount the camera to the scope some way or just hold it?

Sorry to be so long winded, and thanks in advance guys.

Lee