AP - Learning the hard way

[taxman0720]

Hello everyone. I have a Celestron Nexstar 6SE. This is my first scope. I love it for visual observation but wanted to start dabbling in AP. Got some great pics of the moon using my Nikon D5500 and a 2x Barlow. Not to bad pic of Venus also, but I have to do the next step and learn to stack. My problem is I tried exposures from 30 seconds to 5 minutes on M42 last night and what a mess. I really thought the alt az mount would at least keep on the object for the 30 second exposure but I was sorrily mistaken. I understand about field rotation and thought my scope would handle it. Did a bunch of reading and comes to find out the alt az mount will only work with hundreds of 10 second pics to get anything decent. Also read the Celestron wedge is a waste of money and will not take care of the problem. So here is the question. Is it worth it to get a decent EQ mount and put my Nexstar 6se on it, leave everything as is and take hundreds of 10 second exposures or just scrap the idea and wait until I can get a decent refactor with an EQ mount? One mount I am looking at is the Celestron Advanced VX mount. The sad thing is the mount cost more than the telescope. 6SE is only 8 pounds and even with an auto guider and camera, the 33 pound payload should be sufficient. Sorry for the long post and as always, thank you for any input.

[Mac]

My first purchase was a Celestron 6" SCT with an AVX. I quickly realized that the scope didn't perform as expected. I wanted to do AP and found I had better luck using my 400mm Tamron zoom lens. That's when I decided to get the Explore Scientific ED102 with 1/2 the focal length of the 6" SCT.

The AVX will handle the 6SE just fine but you'll struggle with it until you have a guide scope. I've thought about selling my SCT but decided to keep it and get a guide scope mounted to it too.

You won't get the results you want with 10 second exposures.

[KathyNS]

Yes to the AVX. It will handle the 6SE, and it will serve you well with other telescopes in the future.

Get a focal reducer for your SCT. That will significantly improve your light-gathering capability for DSOs, plus it will reduce tracking problems by reducing the image scale. You might not need a guider for a while if you use the focal reducer. You will, however, have to get good at polar alignment.

[KingClinton]

Your current setup will manage 30 second exposure but it takes some practice.

Joe Ashley wrote a book called "Astrophotography on the go" and used your setup showing that decent AP is possible with alt/az mounts.
Here are some links to his threads on the old forum that you may find interesting.

http://www.astronomyforum.net/astro-ima ... raphy.html

http://www.astronomyforum.net/astro-ima ... ounts.html

And also the link to the book: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... yT4Ucsupfo

So while you wait on a new setup give the above a read and maybe have another try with the you kit you have. The lessons learned now will come in useful later with a new setup.

[taxman0720]

Thank you for the responses. I do like the idea of a focal reducer and it is good to know the AVX will handle the load.