[DirtyDeeds]

Hello, I'm new here but having a look around, I really like this place and there seems to be great info. By the way, Astrogirl, I'm impressed with your astrophotography, keep it up!

Anyway, I'm new to telescopes but not new to astronomy if that makes sense. I'm a 20-year-old college student majoring in physics, with the goal of going on to grad school for astronomy or astrophysics. Astronomy has been a passion since the movie Apollo 13 came out. Anyway, I just wanted to say that to establish the fact that I'm serious about this, so I want serious equipment... as serious as it can get on a not-so-seriously big budget. Being a college student, balancing tuition, housing, car payments, a full-time job teaching extracurricular science classes to kids, plus classes, I do not have a lot of money, and I have wanted a scope for YEARS, but have not been able to afford one. I have some very limited experience with 2 10-inch scopes and an 8-inch scope from astronomy club in high school, but I really learned nothing about them and know very little in regards to technical terminology.

I have the opportunity to buy an Orion SkyQuest XT8 for $300. Is this a good deal? I'm impressed by the 8-inch aperture being only $300. Can you add a motor drive separately?If so, could you use this scope for astrophotography? I'm not interested in a go-to because I actually do know my way around the stars fairly well (volunteered in the dome of a planetarium). I'm also trying to start a beginner-orientated astronomy club in my local area, so I'm looking to use this scope, if I buy it, for the astronomy club. Note that there are no telescope shops nearby, so I feel fairly limited. Plus, $300 doesn't stick around in possession for too long! Should I jump on it?

Thanks so much, guys!

[DirtyDeeds]

Probably another dumb question, but here goes...

Is it possible to take this scope and later on attach it to a different kind of mount to enable it to do some decent astrophotography? I'm not even sure if I want to do astrophotography, but I would like to give it a shot.

Thanks again,
Mark

[sgcullen]

The XT8 appears to be a decent dobsonian based on what I have seen online. It is still a dobsonian so it will be good for setting up and viewing objects without a lot of fuss, probably no so good for astrophotography. You'll be able to image bright objects like planets and the moon with it but I doubt you'll have much success with Deep Space Objects (DSOs). The price, $300, is okay. It's not a steal from what I can tell. A new XT8 (without Intelliscope...which is Orion's go-to capable mount for the SkyQuests) can be found for about $450 online. A new XT8 with Intelliscope retails for $619 on Orion's website. So, again, it is a good price, not a great price. It appears that the XT8 will be a good scope for the money for visual astronomy. I think you will quickly reach the limits of its astrophotography capabilities. The scope won't easily mount onto a clock drive system that will work for astrophotography so if that is a consideration you should look elsewhere.

One more thought, if you are interested in astrophotography, you should take a look at LightBuckets. It is an online service where you can use one of several high-end telescopes to take images. These are telescopes that you won't find in most people's backyards. A single observatory costs anywhere from $75,000 to $350,000. The cool thing is, anyone can use them...and at reasonable prices....from $100 per hour to $250 per hour depending on the scope's aperture and location. LightBuckets has scopes in both New Mexico and Australia for northern and southern hemisphere imaging. And, the scopes range in aperture from 14.5" (in Australia) to a 24" in Rodeo, New Mexico.

Go to www.lightbuckets.com to learn more....it's a great way to see if you're interested in astrophotography without investing a lot of money.

I have attached an image of M83 I took just this morning on the LightBuckets 14.5" telescope in Pingelly, Western Australia. It is a 1200 second (20 minute) exposure. Pretty amazing results!