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14" Goto Dobsonian vs C11 on AM5 for beginning planetary

Equipment Planetary Camera Buying Advice Solar System
6 replies•282 views
For a planetary beginner, what setup to choose?
Single choice poll 23 votes
43% (10 votes)
48% (11 votes)
0% (0 votes)
9% (2 votes)
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Maxim avatar
Maxim avatar
Hi everyone! I'm trying to decide what setup should I invest in to take beautiful images of the Jupiter, Saturn and Mars, as well as Moon craters and optionally sun spots.
For now I've settled on two possible candidates:
- Sky-watcher FlexTube 350p SynScan
- Celestron C11 on ZWO Am5n on EQ6 tripod

I have a balcony pointing south but also a bunch of streetlights, so most likely I'll have to move my setup to a more suitable places when I'm going to image.
Also I'd rather spend less money than more

Dobsonian

Pros:
- Cheap aperture
- No need for polar alignment(questionable, probably need to use EQ platform)
- Faster thermostabilization
- Less dew problems

Cons:
- Need for good 5x barlow
- Very heavy and cumbersome to carry around, load and unload from the car
- Field rotation in Alt-Az

SC 11 on AM5

Pros:
- No field rotation
- More compact
- Cheaper barlow

Cons:
- More expensive (up to 2 times)
- Longer temperature stabilization
- Probably needs dew shields, fans, heaters.
- Smaller aperture, 11" vs 14"

I saw many incredible planetary images taken with dobsonians and I'm always wondering if field rotation is not as big of a deal as I think it is. Maybe field de-rotator or eq platform is a way to go? At the same time AM5 + C11 is more versatile but I already have a EQ6-r installed remotely and not planning to shoot deepsky with this planetary setup.

So I'm asking for a help of the community
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andrea tasselli avatar
andrea tasselli avatar
The larger the aperture the better, so the 14" will easily trump the 11", all other things being equal. And you won't need a 5x barlow/PowerMate either, with the current crop of planetary cameras even a 2x plus spacing will suffice (not that good barlow are especially expensive compared to other gizmos). And field rotation should be heasily handled either by software or a derotator. Equatorial platforms are nice to have but the need to reset it plus the extra expense would leave me a bit cold about it. And if you move over wide distances in latitude probably too expensive to consider.
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Stéphane Mee avatar
Stéphane Mee avatar
I would not be worry about light pollution for planetary work, especially with lucky imaging. At least that's my experience. I would still recommend the C11 (I have the C8) on the EQ6 if you intend to do more than just planetary. This will give you more room to grow in other areas, albeit a more pricey ticket. Are you getting the SC XLT or the HD one? Cheers
Tony Gondola avatar
Tony Gondola avatar
I agree with Andrea, for lunar and planetary, aperture wins and small pixel, low read noise, high frame rate CMOS cameras are a big help. With a decent frame rate camera, you will gather data so quickly that alignment and field rotation won't matter so a GoTo dob will work well, potentially. The biggest barrier won't be the hardware, it will be the seeing. You'll need very good seeing to get the best out of even a 10" aperture so don't expect world class results right away but, if you are patient and learn to predict good conditions and have good optics, you won't be disappointed.
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Sean Mc avatar
Sean Mc avatar
Aperture = resolution. 

that said, I’d go with the c11 and am5

you can do so much more with the c11
GTom avatar
GTom avatar
As simple as that: if you want ANY proper deep sky imaging in the future, go for the AM5, period. Purely planetary the Dobsonian will be OK but you can forget about any decent long exposure work.
Ben avatar
Ben avatar
A small pro/con, pop an eyepiece on the 14" Dob and have fun with good visual. Not that a C11 can't do that too, but won't beat the Dob's F5?
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