--- JohnRenstrom@Hotmail.com wrote:
My priorities remain the same... #1 Ease of use...It needs to be compact, easy to set up and capable of taking me for a tour of the night sky... #2 Image quality. #3 Photography.
Your criteria are valid, but I still think a Schmidt-Cass isn't the total answer. #1 GoTo Schmidt-Cassegrains offer nothing to speed set-up. Polar alignment is not a difficult operation, if you know how. Letting a computer do it for you guarantees that you'll never learn to do it quickly by hand & eye. Too, the portable fork-mount is about the last choice of the astrophotographer. You'll have a better time balancing, tracking, and loading-up the equipment weight with a heavy-duty German equatorial. Is the S-C offered in a GoTo G.E.M.? #2 Well, as Brent pointed out, a S-C will not fulfill this critera if indeed the best resolution is required. #3 See #1. Also, if the intent is just to capture images without any of the attendant activities, I fail to see the allure. I actually enjoy guiding manually-it's part of the total experience. Is this now considered weird and anachronistic? If the object is to take the exact same photo as 20 thousand other people, why not just download it from someone's website? I know folks who can find objects faster than GoTo mounts, and I myself am pretty darn competitive. Now, that said, if you do go-ahead with your intended purchase, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be interested in just how your personal criteria were met by the instrument. Maybe Brent and I are missing your point completely. Please post your experience afterwards! To echo Kim's post, please understand that no-one is attacking you or showing disrespect toward your opinions & desires. You posted one view, we posted another. Thanks C. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/