A bad online experience, especially the first few, can indeed have a long lingering effect. I personally have not purchase a lot of astro gear online. But some of my friends do. I believe with proper research, especially checking the credibility, track record and return-policy of online sellers, these risks can be lowered.lin00b wrote:thanks gary, having some bad experience, i m not keen to buy sensitive optical instrument online, and expensive optical instrument at that.
A lot of information can be gathered online. My take is that the more you are unsure of what to buy, the more online research you should carry on doing before walking into a shop. Unless the shop is near enough (thus not wasting too much of your transportation time and money) and does not pressurize its customers to buy things, then this may be the exception.lin00b wrote: not keen on buying online cause i m not that sure what i want also, best option is to drop inside a shop to get a feel of things first
An analogy is newcomers to lT trying to visit big IT Shows to buy laptops instead of doing their homework online first. Some of them will be at the mercy of incompetent sales people (some of them are last-minute recruited part-timers with little IT knowledge). Others will believe whatever the salesperson say. And in the buying mood of the event venue, may make an impulse buy that they may regret later - e.g. salespeople using bait-and-switch tactics and tell you your preference is not good and recommend something else which you have not much knowledge of and thus cannot verify quickly on the spot. And in trying to justify the time and effort spent going down, giving the benefit of the doubt to potentially unscrupulous salespeople who is trying to leverage on this very point.
The smarter buyers will do their homework online, reduce their options to a few candidates and then go to the IT show to confirm what they already know and make a final decision. And if they can't find what they want and find no suitable alternatives, have the courage and faith in their research to walk away and leave the event empty handed.
Yes. Plus the weight of accessories added onto the telescope. If you add or remove something of significant weight during the stargazing session, you may need to adjust the counterweight position and re-balance your setup again.lin00b wrote: just checking my knowledge,
for an eq mount, you need an equal amount of counterwight as your scope? i.e 10lbs of weight for 10lbs of scope?
My *guess* is no or too much hassle (e.g. post editing) to achieve similar eq results. Fast photos may not capture not enough data in the first place. Stacking such photos does not improve them much. At high magnification, stars should trail even faster - something AZ non-tracking mount is not designed to do. I am not an expert in photography, the experts in this forum may want to comment on this.lin00b wrote: can stacking of lots of fast photo using alt-az be equal to long exposure using eq?
Yes. As long as portability and bulk is not an issue, no amateur astronomer will complain their mount is too stable, especially in windy places. My friends have mounted their DSLR on my cg5 before. The milky way photos turned out fine.lin00b wrote: is it important/recommended to oversize a mount? i.e 20lbs rate mount for 10lbs scope. or as long as scope is less than rated it's fine?
Always give some allowance from the stated load capacity, especially for astrophotography.
You can check the specifications for each of these accessories from online retailers, reviews or from its manufacturer's website.lin00b wrote:how much extra weight does accessories add to the scope? (lens, filters, camera, etc)