Best sub-1000 scope for astrophotography?

I'm looking to upgrade to something that will allow me to dabble in some astrophotography. I currently have an 8" Dobsonian with a NexImage cam, which allows me to take some modest snaps and stacks - but I'd like to upgrade in the near future.

I'm wondering what options are open to me? 1000 max budget.. Ideally I'd want the option to cover both deep space and planetary, but with particular focus on planetary imaging.

Thoughts?

Hi,
The first thing to look at would be the mount and not the OTA...you can buy the best possible scope on the market but if the mount ain't going to be able to track, game over.
For 1000e and as for beginner would recommend eq5 or celestron equivalent with 80mm doublet.if you would find good deals for second hand it would leave you some budget for autoguiding aswell!!!Ofcourse you would need a camera etc but that's a different story.
Hope that helps.

If you want to cover planets and deep sky you will need to compromise. Deep sky needs a fast scope with big aperture which means you get more signal to noise for shorter exposures. Planets really need F10+. You could get a fast scope and use a 5 times barlow for planets.

As Nerro says think mount first. A good scope on a poor mount will only give poor results.

You could get an EQ5 and Skywatcher Quattro 4 imaging newtonian for 885 sterling. The scope needs well collimated and a coma corrector to get full potential out of it. A 5 times barlow would give you F20 for planets. The fast scope would give you some leeway on the tracking and periodic error of the mount.

www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-moun...ro-synscan-goto.html

www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-quat...aging-newtonian.html

Get yourself a decent field flattener if you are going to be doing DSO's, When I got my Astro-Tech AT8RC, I went and bought the AT2FF also, and that field flattener works as goon on my Celestron C80ED which I use for Wide Field

It's ok guys I got a Celestron C11-SGT in the end.

johnob wrote: It's ok guys I got a Celestron C11-SGT in the end.

Budget went out the window then