Posted by Andrea Tasselli at 13:32 on 2011 Feb 09
Hi Norman,In terms of overall ability to take long exposures and overall decent telescope and mount I think the 200P the only one the fits the bill. This said I’m afraid you camera (which isn’t a DSLR) won’t be much of help as the lens can’t be removed afaik. This said there are very cheap ways to accomplish at least some of what you’re after by using a suitably and easily modified webcam (Philips SPC900) and taking short movies of the moon and the brighter planets. With further modification (less easily done) even the brighter and smaller of the deep sky objects are within reach.Going deeper and therefore fainter would require:1. A way to "guide" the main scope usually done using a smaller scope in parallel and another "guiding" camera to give the mount the correction in order to remove the small errors in tracking due to the mount main drive.2. A specialized astronomical camera of a true DSLR so that the lens can be removed from a the body and the telescope used in liue of said lens. The best camera for such a job appaear to be Canons and while they can be expensive older generation cmaeras such the D300 as still pretty good for astrophotography.Hope the answers above will help.Andrea T.