Hello all,
I am wondering if anyone is imaging in the upper Midwest (Wisconsin,Illinois,Michigan,Minnesota) at focal lenghts above 2000mm or more and getting good results on a relatively consistent basis. I image from the dark skies of far NorthEastern Wisconsin mainly with an APM/TMB 115mm F7, SXV-H9 and AP1200gto and have been getting good to great results for a little over two years now. Before that I did image with a 10" meade sct at F6.3 for a while, but results were inconsistent due mainly to frustrations with the scope and lousy tracking from the LX200 fork mount . I think from this experience I have been a little hesitant to drop alot of money for a quality longer focal lenght instrument even thought my mount problems have been solved since while seeing can be good at times here it's often very inconsistent. You can have a few nights of decent to good seeing and then nothing but garbage seeing for weeks or months at a time. I guess my ideal scope would be something like a 12.5" F8 RC or similiar, but Ive thought of getting something else in the 1500-2000mm range instead. Maybe a custom high quality astrograph of some kind? (suggestions welcome!) Suggestions on matching the right camera to scope wanted as well. The SXV-H9 would be one heck of a guider I would think along with being a great match for the APM/TMB 115mm F7
So, my question is, is there anyone out there getting consistent results at the above mentioned focal lenghts from the upper midwest. Or, will this venture be more trouble then it's worth? From my experience so far I think imaging at 1500mm or so is possible here, but Im really not sure about going over 2000mm from watching the skies here. Im just not sure the results would be good except for the few great seeing nights a year. It seems like here in the upper midwest when the seeing is good the transparency is bad and when transparency is good the seeing is bad or both are bad
Thanks for any advice
Mike