Posts Made By: Greg Shaffer

Originally Posted by Gabe *

Hello, after viewing Jupiter's moons during the opposition, I think I need to buy a scope.  I live in an area with a moderate amount of light pollution but will occasionally get to take it to rural skies.  

I prefer something motorized that can help me find objects (especially given the moderate light pollution most of the time when I use this) and prioritize ease of use/less maintenance.

Given the above and a desire to stick to less than $500 for a first scope, I am hoping to find a Celestron Nexstar 8 SE used for at least close to this price (I already noticed one in the classifieds here but the user is selling locally only).

I know there are a million threads across the Internet asking "is this a good first scope for me" but I thought I would solicit any feedback for whether this is a decent choice for a ~$500 budget used with a motorized finder to use in a location with some light pollution.

Thanks for any thoughts!

An 8" SCT like that is an excellent choice for a 1st scope.....very versatile. While it doesnt do any one thing with excellence it does pretty much everything very well when combined with a focal reducer for wider field viewing as well. Buying used gets you in very reasonably as well.....

Thats why I mentioned WITH a focal reducer which expands the field of view......without using a focal reducer it is best suited for planetary viewing. Wide angle EP's can also help.

If something is 1/2 or more off from what the usual price is the right thing to do is IGNORE it. You are asking to be ripped off otherwise.

Yes, the error 16 and 17 refers back to the alt and az motor communications with the HC not being present.

You need to look into clearing and updating the firmware..... I think there is a process for forcing a firmware reinstall to the HC but I don't know the procedure. According to what I know errors 16 & 17 refer to the motors and the error is due to the absence of the firmware for the control of those motors. I'm assuming that somehow the on board programmable memory chip "eeprom" was erased. Perhaps by the cable you used causing a short ie surge because it was wired wrong.....

This is just educated guessing based on having read quite a bit on the 16/17 error.....I dont know enough to tell you how to go about fixing it but this should help put you on the right track..... There is a Celestron forum on Cloudy Nights that has a lot of information on the issue as well as some very knowledgeable folks who have been down the same road....

I started out with an 8" f/6 dobsonian very much like the AD8 which I bought used for $200 from someone at a local public astronomy night put on by a fairly large astro club many years ago......in my experience you would be hard pressed to find a better starter scope. 

Were I to offer one suggestion it would be to immediately investigate adding manual setting circles....Finding specific objects to look at becomes easy instead of frustrating for one who is unfamiliar with the sky.

I can 2nd what Ed said.....while Astromart remains THE place to buy and sell when it comes to used gear, Cloudy Nights is THE place to get advice and help with very active forums.

You are likely to be frustrated with jumping in to imaging with a C14 and trying to do long focus planetary work out of the gate. The forums here at AM are not very active as well. This is the best place to buy and sell but you might consider joining the Cloudy Nights site for input/info on imaging advice.

That said the C14 is a great choice for planetary imaging but doing long focus imaging requires knowledge and experience....Not what you want to hear but you might be better served by starting out with some deep sky stuff at shorter focal lengths with say a small refractor while you learn.

Originally Posted by Barry Young

Hi Greg:


I appreciate your answer very much. What I want to hear is what people who know more than I do think of what I am thinking. 

When people like me ask a question, it is to learn, not to validate decisions we have already made. If I had already decided there would be no point in asking what others think. 

Thank you very much for your reply. 

Barry

LOL.....so the implication is that I dont know more than you about imaging and the process involved? Really? I guess all those years I spent learning, building my own scopes and astro imaging count for nothing. 

You asked for thoughts on jumping straight to imaging with a long focus instrument such as a C14, I tried to point you down a less frustrating path.....Best of luck to you though.

Now assuming you didnt intend to convey the meaning I got from your response I will offer you one more bit of advice. Accurate tracking is essential to good imaging and the need for accuracy goes up exponentially as you increase the focal length used (such as for planetary imaging). I wouldnt consider attempting to build a mount and attain the accuracy required if you have not done so before.

Originally Posted by Joseph Gervase

Greg,
Barry is absolutely right.  It's best to go short on focal length in the beginning.  You will just end up frustrated if you go in the direction that you described.  I did it with a C9.25.  It's gone now for the same reasons and now I own and work with a 70mm high quality  triplet refractor and a 102mm triplet refractor. Using a DSLR but will jump into a CCD when I master the DSLR environment.  I do have an C8 Edge but use that primarily for visual.  But when I attempt to use it for imaging, the issue of tracking and precise alignment come into play.  It's always good to have fun though and you can try things out and see what success you have.  Good luck with it.
Joe G

Joseph....I think perhaps you meant to say "Barry, Greg is absolutely right" since we share the same opinion regarding beginning imaging.

Barry, I caught that you said you very much appreciated my reply....it was the rest of it that was a bit ambiguous lol

No worries mate..... One other bit of advice. When choosing a mount and following the philosophy of "lets do this once" that you indicated in your 1st post, you should consider the largest load you might be putting on it (for instance the C14 and the required accessories for imaging) then consider a mount with the "rated" ability to work with DOUBLE that load. You definitely want to stay at 75% or less of the rated capacity. The closer you get to using a mounts full capacity, the more images you will have to cull before beginning the image stacking process. Mounts like that dont come cheap but if you have the wherewithall to do so, it will serve you well for many years regardless of where your interests take you. 

On the mount itself, the "lets do this once" philosophy works, no so much when it comes to the scope though.....

Ohhh and before I forget, welcome to Astromart!

Welcome to "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence" syndrome...... lol

You appear to have a complete grasp on the phenomenon