7.56
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| TeleVue 5x PowerMate. Terrible spherochromatism at f/4. Luckily brand name means it is resellable at little loss. |
2.41
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As comments demonstrate, problems with one brand or another can cause strong lifetime rejection. What is really needed is statistics on failure. And many companies could indeed improve on customer service! For Example: In contrast to others' comments here, I've had excellent experiences within the ZWO environment. It's a terrific way to dive into astrophotography. The functional reliability and ease of use is due to the closed environment, which relieves developers of having to ensure functionality with every possible combination of other companies' hardware and software. The only "fix" I've had to very rarely apply when something misbehaves is to simply reboot. After three years in the hobby, I've not had a single hardware or software failure of any purchases. But I have encountered design limitations. The EQM-35 that others mention worked as advertised. But my specific unit is not very good for dithering, as it takes several minutes to recover from a move. And a traditional R-C reflector I have (TPO) requires a rather complex process for collimation that benefits from using expensive laser gear. But I can confirm both the mount and 'scope perform nicely otherwise. My worse purchases have been all of the options and extras offered when making a major purchase. Early on, I would add most of them thinking I'd probably need them. My equipment cabinet is full of extension tubes, handsets, cables, power adapters, field reducers, and Barlows that I almost never need. I've learned that it's OK to order a specific thing later, as needed. And the stupidest purchase I made...just this week...is a replacement controller (ASIair Plus). My previous one became very intermittent the past couple of weeks and finally would not power up. The day after the new unit was shipped, I discovered the power cable had simply disconnected down below on the mount! So obvious! |
7.67
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Being the stickler for tilt that I am, I bought a GTU tilt plate off of someone. It eats up 17.3mm of backfocus and I am sad to say no matter how hard I tried it's been unusable for me because of that. Go figure they just released one that only takes up 11mm of backfocus now. I have had equipment that I maybe used once or twice (the RedCat51 comes to mind) but stuff like that aided me in finding out what I do and do not like to use. In a roundabout they they were 'useful'. |
1.81
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| I never buy any astro gear with the idea of "selling it" at a later time. It is fine where it is, even if at one point I won't be using it. Someone else will use it maybe, my daughter for instance, and if not, it's my stuff which will stay there as long as she lives. |
4.21
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In my mind, equipment that performed well for you at the time isn't a bad "investment". I have an old SBIG STT-8300 that served me well for several years. I eventually succumbed to a QHY268 as I wanted that lower read noise as I was starting narrowband imaging, but I don't regret getting the old camera. My biggest astro purchase regret is an Eagle 2 astro computer. I liked the idea of having the computer ridding piggy back and having it mange power distribution. The problems started when I attempted to update to a new version so Sequence Generator Pro. The new SGP required an updated version of the .NET framework. The only way to update .NET is by Windows update. The problem is that the Eagle 2 comes installed with a Long Time Support Edition of Windows 10. The LTSE version of Windows only gets critical bug fixes, not feature updates. It's intended for dedicated devices like ATMs which are never touched after installation and do not need feature updates. I'm assuming Prima Luce Lab was thinking that once you setup your system, you wouldn't need to update it, but most astro setups aren't completely static and we tend to update them over time. There was no way to update .NET on my version LTSE. I would need to install an updated version of the OS, and there's no upgrade path for that. You have to buy a brand new license, and you can't update the old OS with an update install - you need to do a clean install. If that wasn't bad enough, the updated machine had issues. The Eagle uses a custom daughter board that does the power distribution, and I couldn't get the custom drivers to control the power distribution. Prima Luce Lab was no help. They never tested the Eagle 2 drivers on the newer OS, and the drivers from their newer hardware which runs on the updated OS was never tested on the old hardware, so neither set of drivers worked correctly. I ended up tossing it and using an old work computer and a Pegasus Ultimate Power Box that goes on top of the scope instead. As I now have an observatory and beginning to automate it via the computer, it makes all the more sense to not put the computer on the scope as I have a couple USB connections for the observatory (roof and safety monitor). If I still used the Eagle, I would then need to run USB back up to the scope, defeating one of the big advantages of putting it on the scope to begin with. |
0.90
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I'd say that my worst astro purchase was also a RH200, purchased new, spent the first 12 months and every clear night troubleshooting and diagnosing. Quoted $2,500 Euro + shipping to send it back to Officina Stellare but took it to a local telescope guru who found the rear plate had been tightened to oblivion during manufacturing. His overall comment was that from the outside it looks magnificent, on the inside however it was poorly engineered and built from a mechanical standpoint. Things like moving the tip/tilt plate moves the primary mirror collimation. It had quite a fair bit of spherical aberration which pushed it way out of the quoted specifications on the product sheet; Officina Stellare claimed it was within production specs. It wasn't a terrible telescope and it did take good photos but for its cost (most expensive 8" non-triplet refractor telescope?), 12 months of diagnosing and fiddling trying suggestions from suppliers and then spending more to get it repaired for a manufacturing defect and really not being great for pixel sizes smaller than 5-6 microns due to spherical aberration and that's on-axis. Tre-foil astigmatism meant that imaging had to be even on both sides of meridian otherwise you'd end up with triangular stars. In a cheaper telescope you put up with these kinds of quirks because you haven't spent the money to buy the "best". It's when you have spent that premium but you're still getting that cheap mass produced feel. |
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7.56
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I'd say that my worst astro purchase was also a RH200, purchased new, spent the first 12 months and every clear night troubleshooting and diagnosing. Quoted $2,500 Euro + shipping to send it back to Officina Stellare but took it to a local telescope guru who found the rear plate had been tightened to oblivion during manufacturing. His overall comment was that from the outside it looks magnificent, on the inside however it was poorly engineered and built from a mechanical standpoint. Things like moving the tip/tilt plate moves the primary mirror collimation. It had quite a fair bit of spherical aberration which pushed it way out of the quoted specifications on the product sheet; Officina Stellare claimed it was within production specs. I can sympathize with the above. I have yet to find a RH200 producing images on par with its cost (this from remote sites I've used), never mind the hype. That is when they actually work. If you want a fast astrograph, get a newt or a schmidt. |
4.53
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If you would have asked this question some time ago, I propably had an immediate answer. I bought an 8 inch RC scope that even had a carbon tube. I put it on my mount and the images were aweful compared to my cheap 8" Newt. I put it in the closet and never looked at it for several months. Meanwhile, I took images with my other equipment. I ran into some trouble from time to time and was able to solve the issues I had. With the new experince, at some point i gave the RC another try and was surprised, how well it worked with the right settings and tools. It clearly showed, that there is a learning curve and its not always the equipment that fails. If I had to name something, I'd say I bought some filters that did not fit my personal interests. I bought them in the beginning, because I thought I needed them. I never used some of them and rarely used some others. But somehow that's the price you have to pay. I won't say they are bad. Maybe someone else would benefit from them. But I did not. That's ok for me... I'm also sure, there are a lot of us out there, that bought things twice. I cheap version of something in the first place and a more expensive version of it afterwards. Maybe even a third one? Strange people, those astronomers. I think, astro equipment is not the right stuff to generate value. Buy vintage guitars, instead. So I never mind to invest in something I like. As someone said earlier - these are just tools. CS Christian |
3.31
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For me like everyone above the Nextstar SE one arm , pointless except for looking at the moon or planets. Great to plonk a Edge HD telescope for the kids to look at the sky through an eye piece. I have a CGX-L and i get amazing tracking( think i got lucky once again). But then I spend time getting my polar alignment spot on. Only draw back is there is no way to simply attached a polar alignment camera had to get a custom made item to work around the handle on the mount. Im now looking to add another mount to 2 i already have as ive just built a observatory in my garden that can have 3 telescopes,so i have room to have one more mount. Interesting that some hate ZWO cameras, think ive got lucky here and never had any issues with the 2 I have. Looking to try something completely different like QHY/QSI to compliment my setups. Filters baader are rubbish as are the ZWO filters. This is one of those items you should really spend a little on and get a quality item that will last for years. |
4.65
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| Probably my Star Adventurer. It never tracked all that well even with a great (electronically assisted) polar alignment. I think after about 2 months and 10 or so uses I went to my EQM35. My only regret there is not going bigger so I could carry a bigger scope on my rig. |
7.75
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| A bad "investment" does not necessarily mean that the product is bad. In my case I made the bad mistake to buy a bundle of Skywatcher AZ/GTI and a Maksutov 127mm as first mount/scope combination. A horrible combo for a beginner because I found myself helplessly poking around in the sky trying to find the stars to align the alt/az mount. Even slight misalignments resulted in targets outside of the narrow fov of the Maksutov. I just had naive expectations about the accuracy of the goto mount. |
3.87
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Probably my Star Adventurer. It never tracked all that well even with a great (electronically assisted) polar alignment. I think after about 2 months and 10 or so uses I went to my EQM35. My only regret there is not going bigger so I could carry a bigger scope on my rig. I did exactly the same thing but I don't regret the EQM-35. It now runs my second, wide field rig and I bought a used EQ6R for my mono, 102mm rig. I wish the EQM-35 was more accurate, belt driven, easier to polar align, had a better DEC but I bought it for $600 and that money doesn't get you better than the EQM-35. Eventually I hope to buy a CEM40/70 or another EQ6R or CQ350 to replace the EQM-35 but that's for another day. And then I'll likely still keep the EQM-35 for travelling, just don't tell my wife. |
12.53
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| Well, I have a lot of them, some due to getting sucked into the marketing blah, blah, blah, and some due to the growing pains of simply learning the hobby. Some were costly and some not so much. But if I had to pick just one regardless of cost........... broadband light pollution filters.......and I tried them all. |
4.29
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Does software count as well? TheSkyX. When I started the hobby 6 years ago, this seemed like the goto application if you wanted to run a Mac. Pricey, with steep purchase price + annual fees, but worth it.... Full of excitement tried the first image, but my Canon camera would not connect. It appeared an issue with the annual MacOS upgrade to not work with the Canon driver of TheSkyX. Can happen of course, but the company selling the software told me that they were too busy with other things and would not be able to look into it for quite a while. Instead they advised to not upgrade / downgrade the MacOS. I've never used the software.... It learned me how important it is to use software that is in active development. Preferably open source, or otherwise scriptable or so for the community to contribute. Since then a happy user of KStars and the INDI platform. As far as hardware goes, the value of the investment is in the joy of using it. Especially with electronics, such as cameras, assume the money is gone when you purchase it, any recovery when selling is upside. Btw, besides depreciation of investments, the opposite also happens: price increases. My mount is now 40% more expensive then when I bought it 6 years ago. That must help somewhat with the recovery at some point...  |
0.00
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My worst investment has been my SmartEQ Pro+, I had yet to learn the concept of operating at 50% payload when I first started and thought all I needed at the time was my telephoto lens. Then I got Aperture Fever and bought a 130SLT OTA and coma corrector, and realized with the DSLR and Guidescope, I was at almost exactly 11 lbs. This setup will not work unless I guide, I can maybe get 45 sec. Subs with a good polar alignment before stars get oblong. Not knocking the mount, it has actually worked quite well when I get guidestars in PHD2. But if I could do it again, I would have started with a CEM60 or something like that. Lesson learned, check how much the scope you want weighs and buy a mount that can handle at least twice its weight. |
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2.41
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| My CEM40 can barely do 30 seconds without guiding (telescope is 2350mm, tho). |
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3.87
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Dave Rust: That’s a joke right? A CEM40 is the worst AP purchase you’ve made? I wish I had that problem. |
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2.41
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| Actually it is a joke of sorts. A previous poster said he didn't like that he could only get 45 seconds out of his mount without guiding. I was thinking, "Hell, that's terrific! My more expensive mount can't do that." |
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3.87
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| Good, because I was going to offer to trade you my 10 worst purchases in exchange for your 1. A winning deal for you I'm sure. |
0.00
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I have a love/hate relationship with my Star Adventurer 2i Pro. Love it because it was the first thing I used to capture my first photo's with and let me step into the hobby. Hate it because I loathed polar alignment with it. Upgrading to a proper eq mount (having two, now) was the best decision I could make. Sadly, for those just stepping into the hobby, there's a ton of various sources for information, so there's a lot that gets muddied when you don't know what's going on. (Let's be real, it's my own fault of course.) If anyone were to look on here and want advice on their first real purchase to get into the hobby, I'll point towards a solid, sturdy eq mount as the first purchase every time, easily. |
6.06
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| Meade 10" F8 ACF tops them. Every newt I've owned follows. |
1.51
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| Any Orion equipment due to their absurd policy of only selling parts to original owners. |
4.02
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| Canon EOS R5. I got it before I knew anything about NB or H-alpha insensitivity on stock cameras. Super expensive, but good for normal photography. If I could make that decision again I think it would be an A7c or A7c II or one of their compact cameras for photography plus an ASI533mc pro for astro or something like that. |
2.15
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For me, it might be my Astroview 6, a scope I bought when I was brand new and had zero experience in the hobby. When I wanted to install a coma-corrector, I had to buy a new focuser for it that would fit, because surprise surprise, the stock focuser for a visual scope isn't going to be inclusive to AP gear! I had to cut out a large hole in the side of my tube to get it to fit, but it eventually worked. I can now fit standard gear on my newt. Despite all of that, I don't regret my purchase as I had zero experience in imaging at the time. Had I had the knowledge I do now, I would have bought different gear to get started. Hindsight is 20/20. |
4.06
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Hi, I purchased a clamp meter to balance my RA/DEC axis. It was not an investment, but the most useless device I ever purchased for astrophotography. I was able to do better balancing without it. |
