Best telescope for astrophotography, Expert recommendations to choose

General
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I honestly wasn’t planning to jump into astrophotography anytime soon, but after a few late nights stargazing and trying to capture photos with my phone, I’ve officially fallen down the rabbit hole.
Now I’m realizing my current setup just isn’t cutting it for deep-sky shots, and I’ll need a proper telescope sooner than I expected.

While browsing forums and watching way too many YouTube reviews, I ended up shortlisting two telescopes that seem to get mentioned everywhere.
Still not sure if they’re genuinely great for beginners in astrophotography or just riding the hype:

Sky-Watcher telescope
https://www.amazon.com/Sky-Watcher-Heritage-Tabletop-Dobsonian-650mm/dp/B082HFBCZC?th=1
Celestron telescope
https://www.amazon.com/Celestron-11069-Computerised-Schmidt-Cassegrain-Technology/dp/B000GUFOC8?th=1
My requirements are pretty straightforward:

  • Sharp, detailed views for astrophotography
  • Beginner-friendly but capable enough to grow with
  • Solid build quality so it lasts for years

If anyone here has real hands-on experience with either of these (or both), I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Any pros, cons, or things you wish you knew before buying would really help before I make a final decision.

Thanks in advance!

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No experience with either. But neither of your choices are AP telescopes.
But first you need to answer WHAT do you want to take pictures of?
Because that determines where to begin looking. Successful AP requires a good mount, because the mount determines your success rate.
My first choices of equipment really sucked! I went by the names I knew from childhood. What I discovered after the fact was I bought crap, I had a cheap Celestron mount (An AVX), and a decent Orion telescope (Orion ED80T CF). My Orion G3 camera was my biggest setback. It was returned 3 times and never did take a decent picture. Don’t go by reviews, they lie.

My interest was Nebula, deep sky objects (DSO). So I focused my “wish lists” on that. After several years I slowly began to actually succeed at getting some Picturds. Images of my subject as I finally learned how to get everything to work together.

Today, you have a lot better choice of equipment, cameras, and options. But whatever you have in mind for a budget, you better double it. Don’t just grab willy-nellie at things or you may wind up with marginal equipment that is very disappointing.

Start here. Some excellent advice. Study his presentations.
Spend months before you slap your money on the barrelhead. There are telescopes, and then there are Astrophotography telescopes. But your mount will determine how well any telescope, guider, and cameras can help you to gather your own images.

Slow way down so you don’t wind up with wasted money on marginal equipment. Or worse, giving up because you wind up totally frustrated.

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How much money are you willing to spend ?
I’ve got thousands into the hobby and I don’t do pictures . Do you really wanna take pictures ? You can look at those in books and magazines . Why not just enjoy the serenity of visual observing ?
If it’s something you really feel the need to do , you’ll be spending far more than either of these in the links .
The 8” Celestron Schmidt Cassegrain is a nice optical tube but I’d get it on an equatorial mount . That half fork mount and tripod setup is just flimsy . It’s too flimsy for visual observation let alone stable enough for taking pictures . Again , I’d come back to how much are you willing to spend . Getting a budget established will determine everything .

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Your choices would not work for AP. I am sorry to say you are not even in the ballpark either. Real AP set ups cost multiple thousands of dollars with the emphasis on the mount. Now what is a very popular these days are smart telescopes. I believe the SeeStars run around 500 bucks or so and it runs off of a app on your phone or tablet. A higher end smart scope is made by Vaonis but those are a couple grand real fast.

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I appreciate the straightforward response. I knew astrophotography was expensive, but I did not fully grasp how far off my initial choices were. Smart telescopes are something I had not seriously considered, so that is actually very helpful. A Seestar or something similar might be a good way to learn the basics without jumping straight into a multi thousand dollar setup. I will definitely look into that option while I continue learning.

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Fair questions, and you are right to ask them. I do genuinely want to take pictures, not just visual observing, even though I understand they are very different hobbies. I am still figuring out a realistic budget, but it is becoming clear that it needs to be higher than what I initially thought. Your comment helped reset my expectations. I agree that if I go this route, it needs to be done properly or not at all.

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Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response. I really appreciate the honesty, especially about early mistakes and marketing hype. Your point about the mount being the most important part definitely hit home, because I was clearly focusing too much on the optical tube itself. I am mainly interested in nebulae and deep sky objects, so your experience is very relevant to what I am trying to do. I will slow things down and spend more time learning before buying anything. If you have any specific beginner friendly mount recommendations for DSO imaging, I would love to hear them.

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It is becoming very normal for visual observers to toss a SeeStar 30 or 50 out and take picturs of what they are looking at. The only downside is you really arent taking the pictures. It seems the folks that use them dont really care about it and enjoy them.

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Judging from your initial choices in Telescopes, you are looking at trying to ease into the AP hobby, I was the same. The initial outlay is considerable, scary even. If I remember correctly, I was around $4500. That is a deep leap of faith.

You do have choices in mounts I did not have when starting out. There is the SeeStar30 and 50 available which are enticing for beginners.
As beginning GEM mounts go, you could begin with a Sky-watcher EQ6R Pro. I was going to buy one when my Celestron AVX went belly out for its 3rd and last time in 3.5 years. But the CFO (wife) put the brakes on that because it was close to Christmas, and me dropping ~ $1400 on a new mount was too much for her.
She wanted me to wait until February. So since I could not be imaging I researched. I was browsing the Chinese offerings and just did not want to get back in bed with them. I recalled how so many compared their stuff to Losmandy, so I began looking there. Going from a defunct AVX and a $925 punch in the gut, to the Losmandy $3500 kick in the pants required a lot of research to me. The last week in January I called and talked with Tanya at Losmandy. I had all my ducks in a row by then and knew exactly what I wanted. I set a date to go to the Losmandy Factory to pay for and pick up my new mount.
You also have the new Harmonic mounts to consider. Personally, these may be a great way to go.
You can get your choice in one of these GEM or Harmonic Mounts and be in good shape to advance into AP for a lot of years.
As you can see by browsing these links, the costs mount rapidly. And when your add in your choice of telescopes it really gangs up on you. But if you go cheap, or do not do your homework you can really get screwed and/or bomb out entirely. You do not want to do that.
So think it all through very well. You will need a bundle of cash and to be very honest about being dedicated even on the nights that nothing works right. There will be many where nothing works right and you have to walk away. The start over the next night and everything works better. Not great, but better.
Then one night you finally get a picture. Or as I called my early successes, Picturds. Because they were pretty crappy, but they were images. The point was to persevere and do better the next night. Don’t give up.

When I was researching the HOW and WHAT I needed to persue my voyage into DSO Nebula Specific objects I discovered and was advised to use smaller refractor telescopes. It was really good advice. My Orion ED80T CF took me many, many places and brought home the evidence I’d been there. Which is the point (to me) about doing AP. That telescope was a $1000 outlay in itself

I get more clear nights than many in this quest for images. Sometimes I’m actually in a cloudless hole that allows me to image when others can’t. So consider your location.

I’m saying to take your time, consider the things you’ve thought about, and all of those you haven’t. If you still want in, proceed with caution and determination.
And Welcome to the most frustrating pursuit of your life. The rewards can be incredible.

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Can’t believe your AVX gave you that much grief . I’m using the old Meade LXD 75 mounts . I have two of them with the Meade 5 inch achromatic refractor on one and the other with the Meade 8 inch Schmidt Newtonian tube on it . Never a problem except a handbox that started acting up on one a couple months in and Meade replaced it no questions asked . That was around 2007 2008 Things went down with Meade not too long after that with newer models that started having problems . I couldn’t understand why they discontinued the LXD 75 . It was doing real well . Far better that the equally priced Celestron mount (CG-5 I believe) . The Meade tubes and mounts were far better than the Celestron offerings at the time IMO . Less money too . The Meade Plossl eyepieces were far superior in the same price range of the Celestron Plossls . Unfortunately like happens so often is that the “new and improved” stuff is usually not the case . If it ain’t broke don’t fix it . Both my mounts went through the Messier catalogs many times with sessions revisiting all the favorites plus countless hours of sessions of Lunar and Plantary viewing and even started doing the NGC catalogs too . They still function flawlessly till this day and they are now 20 years old . The go-to functions were spot on from one end of the sky to the other . Meade really screwed up when they discontinued that mount . I think it was the final nail in their coffin . I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll keep going . They were $699.00 mounts at the time . They are capable of entry level astrophotography but I never got into that . I have thousands of dollars in eyepieces , Barlows and filters and just enjoy the serenity of visual observation relaxing under the canopy of a star filled dark sky site . It’s a very relaxing hobby and I’ve seen some awesome sights looking through the glass with my eyeballs on good nights with great seeing conditions . I never regretted not getting into taking pictures . My buddy did and we’d go to star parties out at dark sky locations out in the Mojave desert . He’d spend the entire evening in frustration attempting imaging while I’d be taking in marvelous views looking through my eyepieces enjoying the sessions .

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Well fine, don’t believe it. But it failed the first time it was turned on, with the factory power supply.
After a long and sorted bunch of BS with Celestron repair it lasted 8 months and died (2nd time) again.
After that I only gave it a 12 volt AGM battery for power and never charged the battery unless it was disconnected. That was how I nursed it to 3.5 years. Where it died the 3rd time.

But you can’t even compare Meade to that Chinese piece of junk. But wait, there’s more…

6 of us all bought AVX mounts ranging from California to North Carolina, (We were all members of a Photography site that got interested in Astronomy.) I can only give you my actual experience’s.
But of 6 AVX mounts, 3 of us had to return ours to Celestron in Hawthorn, CA for warranty repair, always the electronic boards failed.
As an electrical troubleshooter for much of my career (42 years), before sending it off I’d examine the PC board in it. The most obviously destroyed component was diodes, which caused catastrophic failure through the board. That was why I gave it a battery power supply. An AGM battery at that, so it got a pure DC source of power.
After, I decided to get a real mount. I almost decided to get a Skywatcher EQ6R-Pro, but the wife wanted me to wait until February. It was November, a 4 month wait. 1/3 of a year to look and decide. As I shopped, one thing that kept coming up was how different mounts compared themselves to Losmandy mounts. Finally, I took a look at Losmandy.
Humm, American Made in Burbank, California. 20 miles from where I happen to live. A real Brick & Mortar store near me, I bent Brian’s ear for about 2-3 months and got every question answered. I had my mount completely configured and a few extras to configure it exactly how I wanted it, and future proofed as well. I had no intentions of bigger telescopes at the time. But it has a 50 pound Photographic Instrument rating. (GM811G HD) Heavy enough to handle anything I would lift onto it. My present telescope with everything comes to 36 pounds. And there is nothing lightweight about it.
Total is an estimated 150 pounds of mount and telescope. (No wonder I don’t move it much.)
I sat and explained my every thought about the mount to Scott as he was building a double telescope rig for a local college astronomy program. Not long after I took delivery of my mount, he started his configurable mount line. I wasn’t the only one building my mount with his products. Because his genius runs through every mount he makes.
Mine began as heavy duty, and has a 12" extension to make it a “Portable Pier” configuration. So going from my 80mm EDT telescope to my present AT130mm was painless. I had future proofed my mount at its conception. Oh, and I drove down and bought a second 11 pound counter weight for the 130.
Much better than anything coming out of China even today. Still adaptable and reconfigure able should I decide to revamp it.

But you can belive my AVX was a waste of money, except for the very hard lessons it taught me. No more Uncle Ho’s diodes for me. My telescope is from China, and my cameras are. But I’m almost weened from Chinese equipment.
Truth be told, I’m very happy just putting my laptop out, plugging things in (a power cord and a USB cable), and uncovering my telescope and mount for any given night of imaging.
In 2013 when I began, I could only dream of being where I am today. Remote operation from my mancave in the house about 15 feet from my wife watching TV. No more shivering out in the dark. Set it, watch it for a few minutes, and do whatever I want (usually You Tube) until I go to bed. The next day I have my set of files to stack and save for my You Tube for kids presentations. The local schools use them for a part of their curriculum. And it is a good way to get my picturds out to hopefully encourage kids to get interested in something besides Angry Birds or other games.

Probably more than you wanted to know. Suffices to say I’m doing my best to ween myself of certain foreign influences.

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That’s a terrible experience from Celestron . You know my LXD 75 mounts were made in China too . A basic copy of the Vixen mount with a payload rating of 30 pounds . I always thought if anything went wrong with my LXD 75 that I’d replace it with the Celestron AVX . I’m glad at this point I never had to make that move . My 2 mounts were made most likely in 2006 . What year were the AVX mounts ? And it makes me wonder what happened to Chinese diodes during that time frame . I wonder if they ever got those problems straightened out . I always used an AGM basic wheelchair battery to power mine with alligator clips on the battery side and the cigarette lighter socket adapter so I could use the cigarette lighter cord that Meade sold as an accessory back then . The included battery bag that required 8 “D” size batteries to run just seemed silly to me . Maybe I just got lucky but I’ve gotten lots of use out of those old Meade mounts . Really the only complaint I would have is that on the highest slewing speed (I think 10 of 10) the things are louder than an electric coffee bean grinder so I always ran the slew speed at 8 or 9 which was quiet enough that it wouldn’t wake up the neighbors .

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It taught me a lesson. I found out about this.
Convinced me not to shop there ever again.
Meade might be in the same coop. I don’t recall. But you apparently got some good ones, and they may outlast us at the rate things are going.
I don’t rightly know exactly when my AVX was made, probably 2013 or 2014. But I know where it came from and I’ve never patronized them again. Amazon changed vendors on me. And being the guy I am, I didn’t question it, just get my stuff to me.
The sole reason I went through Amazon was I got bamboozled into their Prime membership to get free shipping. Prime was supposed to guarantee my every happiness. They lied.
First, the vendor they awarded the sale to has a 14-day return policy. But they celebrate their sabbath Friday and Saturday. Then they are closed on Sunday for their other employees.
So they do business Mon-Thur, very slowly. By the time I began my return process they stalled and did not reply until 15 calendar days had passed.
Then they said, “Oh, sorry you are beyond our 14-day return policy.”
Then Amazon refused to honor their 30-day satisfaction warranty. Told me I would have to deal with Celestron about it. So I made an appointment with their guy down in Hawthorn, CA and that SOB hid with the excuse he was in meetings. I just left the damn AVX in their lobby with the receptionist. The next day Celestron replaced all their computers with new ones and it took 20 days to get them working. Meanwhile they sat on their thumbs while that got fixed.
Suddenly, without any warning, a big Celestron box showed up on our porch. Lucky, or maybe unlucky in retrospect, no porch pirates got it before I did.
Something interesting, first I had to prove I had bought their power supply for the mount. Which I did, both times I returned that anchor. Otherwise, they were using the excuse that these AVX being returned left and right had been plugged into faulty power supplies (Like your car).
I decided to get a battery box from Walmart and wired up my battery source for the mount. But it still died 8 months later. That time I packed it up and used their pre-paid return label and sent it off with UPS. With proof (again) that I’d bought a Celestron Power Supply designated for the AVX. In total, I lost 5 weeks of use do to their fiddling around. Out of 24 months of warranty.

Amazon paid dearly for their part. I would order things just to look at then send them back to the bone yard in Las Vegas. Anything I was curious about I ordered and bounced back, probably thousands worth of merchandise. They can’t resell it, it’s used.
It’s not pretty to piss me off. And that is not to mention my following that vendor back East on various forums. They had one particular woman who followed me around on forums. But she could not squelch the truth. I had the facts to drive business away from them. And I drove like a cowboy following a herd.
So now you know the rest of the story.

When my AVX died again, suddenly, in November in the height of Nebula season, I went shopping.
I have my forever mount now. It will outlive me. And having had more than a few experiences with “The Chinese business model” I am all but weaned on China products.
America may have sold out to cheap Chinese stuff, but I’m making much more informed choices now. One of my favorites is Pegasus Astro out of Greece. Great stuff!
Looking for my next camera and not one from China if at all possible. I’ve learned.

To bad Meade went belly up. They were a good solid company in their day.

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Yeah , Amazon sucks . They were pretty good at one time but that was long ago . Two thirds of what’s listed there is from 3rd party vendors . They’re just a middleman that makes a percentage off of the items the outside vendors sell . I’ve seen the same items on eBay from the same sellers on Amazon and Amazon charges 15 or 20 percent more for it . At least eBay would take care of you for 90 days if there was a problem . I’ve actually had eBay refund my money on defective items when the seller wouldn’t even communicate with you . I’m sure in those cases the seller isn’t selling on eBay anymore . Celestron used to be a good company too but I guess that’s not the case anymore . I know their optical tubes on their Schmidt Cassegrains were Chinese imports by Synta . At least they were by the time I got into astronomy . The old orange tubes were made in USA I believe but that was probably before the turn of the century . Meade made their own optics for the Schmidt Cassegrain and Schmidt Newtonian in Irvine California until around 2010 when they shipped that production down to Mexico . Just the optics though . When I bought mine the optics were made in Irvine but the rest of the tube assembly was Chinese . I lived fairly close to Irvine when I had that handbox go bad so I just drove over there after calling them to have it replaced . It was a fancy place that had a state of the art silver observatory dome on top of the second floor . It was iconic . A real top notch observatory with top notch Meade optics in it . I guess they couldn’t compete with Celestron making their optics in China and tried by moving its optics to Mexico . Refractor optics on standard achromats were made in Taiwan which was a cut above Chinese stuff . I think they were made by Guan Sheng Optical in Taiwan . Meade’s Plossls were made in USA until at least 2000 then they farmed them out to Guan Sheng and as time went on those went to Chinese production too . Then all the legal problems hit Meade after they were bought out by the Chinese company Ningbo Sunny Electronics . That now parent company of Meade ended up in court for antitrust violations stemming from price fixing as they were surd by Orion telescopes and Celestron . You might recall that Orion sold quite a bit of Celestron stuff as time went on . You could see the stark similarities in Orion and Celestron products . Yes they were both manufactured by Synta in China . It ultimately cost Meade 32 million dollars to settle . I believe Synta also produced the mounts for Orion / Celestron . Meade’s top tier mounts were made in USA while more budget mounts like my LXD 75s were also Chinese made by Jinghua Optical Company , aka (JOC) . There no doubt lies the difference in those mounts even though they were both made in China .
Meade eventually ended up under the Celestron / Orion umbrella no doubt due to financial strain until what seems like Celestron then decided to get rid of everybody else involved . Yeah , Celestron is not a nice company IMHO . Hence no more Meade and no more Orion .

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The tabletop dobsonian is a poor choice for two reasons:

  1. The camera will likely cause an imbalance and the telescope willnot be stable
  2. It does not have a motor drive so it cannot take long exposures necessary for deep space objects

The Celestron NexStar 8SE is a poor choice for astrophotography as it is a single arm fork mount that is not stable enough for long exposure astrophotography.

You need a sturdy oversized GEM mount with a refractor telecope on it or an SCT telescope with dual fork arms to take long exposure astrophotos. The dual fork arm telescope can be placed on a wedge for this purpose.