Thanks National Geographic Maksutov

To all who posted

I was active in astronomy a couple of years ago and built a 6" reflector on
a post mount. Enjoyed the astro part but was a solitary hobby. I sold this
scope and I am sure I could buy it back.
BUTTTT...
I am now into digital photography and was looking for a telescope that I
could use as a terrestrial and astro scope with my digital camera. Much
improvement over a couple of years.

I was looking for a cheaper MAK and there is the NG without tripod mak
available for under $200.00USD. But most of the posts were about the
excessive $$ for the crap tripod but no one mentioned the optics quality.
From the posts I assume that NG would use the minimum optics in their
scopes.

I think I will now look harder at the Orion equivalent.

To all that posted thanks

Brian

--
To reply, remove the "z" if one appears in my address
"Amyotte" wrote in message
...
To all who posted

I was active in astronomy a couple of years ago and built a 6" reflector
on
a post mount. Enjoyed the astro part but was a solitary hobby. I sold
this
scope and I am sure I could buy it back.
BUTTTT...
I am now into digital photography and was looking for a telescope that I
could use as a terrestrial and astro scope with my digital camera. Much
improvement over a couple of years.

I was looking for a cheaper MAK and there is the NG without tripod mak
available for under $200.00USD. But most of the posts were about the
excessive $$ for the crap tripod but no one mentioned the optics
quality.
From the posts I assume that NG would use the minimum optics in their
scopes.

I think I will now look harder at the Orion equivalent.

To all that posted thanks

Brian


You may also find it worth your while to look he
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OSAO/?yguid=94373086

You will probably have to join this Yahoo Group to see the messages, but
there are a LOT of them, and they are about the equipment you are now
considering (Orion)...

Have fun!!!

--
To reply, remove the "z" if one appears in my address
"Amyotte" wrote in message
...
To all who posted

I was active in astronomy a couple of years ago and built a 6" reflector
on
a post mount. Enjoyed the astro part but was a solitary hobby. I sold
this
scope and I am sure I could buy it back.
BUTTTT...
I am now into digital photography and was looking for a telescope that I
could use as a terrestrial and astro scope with my digital camera. Much
improvement over a couple of years.

I was looking for a cheaper MAK and there is the NG without tripod mak
available for under $200.00USD. But most of the posts were about the
excessive $$ for the crap tripod but no one mentioned the optics
quality.
From the posts I assume that NG would use the minimum optics in their
scopes.

I think I will now look harder at the Orion equivalent.

To all that posted thanks

Brian

Here's one more group you might want to look at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MakScopes/?yguid=94373086

I am now into digital photography and was looking for a telescope that I
could use as a terrestrial and astro scope with my digital camera. Much
improvement over a couple of years.

What digital camera are you using? Are you using as DSLR or a model with lens
that cannot be changed?

For photography with a digitical camera, either astro or terrestrial, I would
think twice about using a MAK, they are very slow making the longer exposures
much longer. (At F13.8 the exposure will be nearly 4 times as long as for an F7
setup). For planets it would be OK but not ideal.

Terrestially, the problem is the long focal length, takes nearly ideal
conditions before a 1250mm focal length is useful and lots of closer in shots
are missed. The long focal length makes it difficult to find the target, an
important issue if you are shooting something that has a tendency to move like
a bird.

Thats my experience. I have a few scopes that I have used with a variety of
point and shoot digital cameras take long distance photos of birds. The one
that is most similar to the ETX is a celestron C5, same focal length as an ETX
but a 5 inch scope. But I rarely use it, mostly I stick with my Pronto and I
have taken some pretty nice shots with an inexpensive 80mm F5 refractor.

jon