On December 26, 2011 at 19:15, SOUND.SD said...
I think I have settled on the Celestron 130 motor driven.
[Link: celestron.com]Spent about an hour at OPT in Ocean Beach. Thanks Homeboy.
Really looking forward to combining this with my other hobby, digital photography.
This could be dangerous.
Please note that the instrument you point out is just a telescope and motor. It was hard to tell from that web site, but I don't think that includes a tripod, or eyepieces. I would recommend looking for a local place that sells telescopes, and go in ready to talk with them for an hour. If they are the right place, they will try to get you to a viewing session before trying to sell you an instrument. Take them up on that. It will give you a much better idea of what you'll really want, and why more expensive scopes are more expensive.
I would also recommend trying to find a very active amateur astronomy group. They will likely have regular viewing events, where you can go and look through many instruments, and get a better idea of what you like. If you can keep the enthusiasm to attend a couple events, and perhaps make a couple friends, and get invited to view with them, you'll have a much better idea of what you want. I bet you won't even think of the instrument you have picked out after doing something like this.
If you enjoy photography, I'd bet you will enjoy viewing nebula. Just use the google image search to do a search for nebula. You are correct, in that astronomy and cameras are well suited, but the kind of camera you'll want for a telescope is much different. Telescope cameras are all about low light performance and minimizing thermal noise. So they do things like chill the light sensor element with either a thermoelectric cooler, or water cool the sensor element. It is interesting to see someone hooking up a camera to a water pump!
