Recommendation for a remote scope

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Pierre Konzelmann avatar
Hello, fellow Astrobin users!

I am thinking of sending a scope to a remote location in Spain. I really grew tired of the constant bad weather. Last winter in Western France, we had as much rain as the last 2 winters combined!

The 2 main questions I still haven't answered are:
  1. I'd like to go for an IMX571 sensor, I think it's the most versatile one out there (I have the color version and love it). But should I go for mono or color? I've used both, so I know the advantages and drawbacks of both. But do these still apply in a Bortle 1/2 location? Would it make sense to send an OSC camera to a remote observatory?
  2. What telescope should I go for?


What I would like to photograph from the remote location are objects that I can't easily photograph from my home, due to excessive light pollution and/or lack of integration time. For instance, dark nebulae, the dust surrounding galaxies and nebulae, nebulae in their true color... 

I'm not sure I would like to have narrowband filters (thus my interrogation on mono vs OSC question). I kind of prefer the natural look of color images, and in a Bortle 1/2 area, it would be a shame not to take advantage of the lack of light pollution, wouldn't it?

With this in mind, regarding the scope, I'm thinking anywhere between 400mm and 800mm of focal length, so either a 80-100mm triplet, or perhaps a small Newtonian (6" f/4). The reasons being:
  1. Objects I want to photograph in priority should be rather big. Or smaller objects swimming in stellar dust, like the IFN surrounding M81/M82.
  2. Since I can't change the remote scope, having a wide field scope means I have access to more targets, even if I have to crop a bit
  3. I'm trying to keep the budget low, so a smaller scope means I can mount it on a smaller, less expensive mount (ZWO AM3 or similar)


What are your thoughts? Any recommendation?

Thanks for your insights!

Konzy
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andrea tasselli avatar
Any IMX571 based camera of your choice, possibly with integrated tilt plate, and a FW if you plan for no down-time due to the Moon, in which case you'd need both filter wheel (2") and filter. May get away with 31mm filters though, depending on scope configuration. As for the telescope I'd pack as much punch as possible for any amount of money invested so here would be my choice: Explore Scientific MN-152. Very resilient, stable collimation and fast enough @ f/4.8. And no need to fiddle with coma correctors.
Oscar avatar
Askar 107PHQ is my recommendation, or the 65PHQ

I have the 65PHQ and it's really monstrously sharp and stars are 99% perfect and pinpoint across APS-C, so I assume Askar put the same quality into their 107, and I've heard many people like it.
Michael Jarvis avatar
I have the 107PHQ (ZWO variant: FF107).  I have posted a number of images on Astrobin captured using this scope.  Very nice scope.
mrflib avatar
My advice, speak to Steve @Steve Asbury at Roboscopes. What he and Peter Shah don't know about telescopes and hosting is not worth knowing. They do managed hosting in Spain which takes the absolutely massive sting and learning curve out of having your own gear in Spain.
jmarinotero avatar
I have a dual set up in a remote observatory in Spain (I live in the USA). Been working fine for almost a year now. I think you already have the process well thought out, but I would offer a couple of points of my own

- Design for simplicity and robustness. A refractor is much easier to operate remotely, all else being equal. Less things to tweak and configure. If you can get good support for collimation a fast newtonian is certainly attractive
- For the type of objects you want to image, I think a 100-120 mm refractor is ideal.
- The IMX571 is a very solid choice. I am partial to using mono even in Bortle 1/2, because you will want to image faint stuff (dark nebulae, IFN) and that requires a lot of Luminance.  Also, Murphy's Law dictates that the weather will be fantastic when the moon is out and in those cases you can use your Ha filter to capture data, no problem. With an OSC camera those nights are like being back in the city
- This one will be controversial, I know a bunch of people are doing it: don't send an AM3 / AM5 to a remote observatory. These mounts were not designed for that type of use. I own an AM5 that I use for portable imaging, when I want to travel to a dark sky. I would look at a CEM70 or similar, great observatory mount. You want peace of mind

If your set up is configured correctly remote imaging should not be a daunting experience. It's actually pretty easy these days, we have good software, and a bunch of people doing it. 

Good luck, and clear skies!
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Dark Matters Astrophotography avatar
I would definitely recommend mono with filters so you can maximize imaging time during high to full moon situations. Also be sure the optics are of good quality, since putting scopes into very good seeing conditions will show any and all flaws fairly easily, especially of the optical variety. What can look fine and dandy in 2-3” seeing can start to look poor in 1-1.5” seeing.
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