starter scope for astrophotography?

[RYan2040]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum so please forgive me as im sure this will be a very common question.

I'm looking into getting into this wonderful hobby and hope to buy a telescope soon. I won't be jumping straight into the photography as i will have alot to learn and want to enjoy the night sky! this is why i want to buy a scope which i can then use for photography later rather than upgrading.

I was looking into getting the skywatcher 130p synscan but have seen other posts that this isnt really a good choice if i want to take photos later. Im going to have about £250/300 (not a high budget for this i think!) for the scope then will buy webcam/camera depending on what is best for the scope i purchase. Im mostly interested in planets and nebulae.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and some recommendations for scopes (relfector or refractor) will be brilliant! if at all possible some pictures of what i can hope to achieve realistically.

Thank you for taking your time to help!

Ryan.

[rowan46]

First it needs to be big enough to keep you interested and small enough to go on a mount at a later stage. this is my suggestion

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2 / EQ3 PRO GOTO

my reasoning is that this is a good scope visually it will give you practise on using an eq mount and with the addition of an ra drive should allow you to use it for some basic imaging. at f5 it's fast enough to be usable when you upgrade to an heq5 or eq6

EDIT on your budget you will want the eq3 and not the eq3 goto. there's no point getting the goto if you intend to go into imaging at a later stage as the eq3 pro isn't up to the job

[Capricorn]

Astrophotography is in it's purest form a specialised area. You say you are interested in planets and nebula. That is the solar system and DSO's, that's what a nebula is. Since DSO's cover the universe that is not the solar system you are saying you want to cover everything.

A good (very good) astrophotography system will be £15,000+.

A reasonable mount will cost £600-700, or £1000, reasonable refractor is £800 easily, £2000 just as easily. Something like a TMB 92SS is £3000-4000. I have a WO scope that is decent for AP, it cost £700, to do AP I need a flattener that is another £250. With that it will produce a flat enough image to be usable. So nearly £1000 on what is an inexpensive scope and nothing else.

What you see as images are produced with equipment in excess of this.

If you want a direct comparison look at photography. Professional photographers use lens on cameras that cost in excess of £3000, go price up an apo 500mm f/2.8 lens for nature photography. The bundle that we buy, 18-70 zoom package, isn't even considered. Even the camera body's cost £2000 or more. A professional photographer will carry round equipment costing well over £20,000.

If you have a club, or clubs, near you get in contact, pay them a visit, see if they have an imaging section and see what is there.

You can do some photography on a budget, but what results are you expecting. To spend easily an hour, maybe two, setting up then getting mediocre results can be disheartening. One person recently sold their imaging equipment for this reason. Looked on Astro Buy and Sell 2 days back and I see another whole set up for sale.

[rowan46]

What capricorn says is of course true but some product is capable of being produced for a lot less than £15 000. If you are not expecting to produce pow you can have fun with webcams and photographing some of the brighter dso's with a dslr and short exposure stacking, m42 , m44 and m45 are certainly possible as i have seen ok pics taken with very basic equipment and I've no doubt other m numbers are possible

[RYan2040]

Well thank you for your quick responses!

Im of course not expecting anything amazing but you have to start somewhere!

Throwing the AP to one side for now, this may come down to personal preference but reflector/refractor still plays on my mind also.

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Startravel 102 SynScan AZ GOTO

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 130P SynScan AZ GOTO

I'm more than likely to get one of these scopes in the end (even if it's impossible to do ap at a later date) Whats your opinion on these two?

Thanks again for helping the newbies

[RikM]

If you are interested in viewing the planets then the 130P would be the better of the two because you will get quite a lot of false colour from the Startravel.

BTW, these were taken with a 150P on an EQ3-2 with dual axis drives. Not very good I know but I didn't have £££££ to get anything better, so I did the best I could with what I could afford at the time.

[AWR]

The 130P is a much better scope. More aperture means that you will be able to see more.

Andrew

EDIT: He said it much better ^

[rowan46]

If I had to choose one of those it would be the 130p solely on the basis that it has no ca, other than that they perform about the same. with the refractor being a little more contrasty on the moon and planets. Welcome to sgl by the way

[rowan46]

If you are interested in viewing the planets then the 130P would be the better of the two because you will get quite a lot of false colour from the Startravel.

BTW, these were taken with a 150P on an EQ3-2 with dual axis drives. Not very good I know but I didn't have £££££ to get anything better, so I did the best I could with what I could afford at the time.

I knew I had seen a decent m42 taken with a 150p on an eq3http;)

[RYan2040]

Wow, Great pictures! very impressive! thank you for sharing!

You've all been really helpfull thank you.

I may increase my budget slightly to get the 150p eq3-2! (have been looking at this also but might of had my arm twisted )

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 150P EQ3-2 / EQ3 PRO GOTO

Although the go-to is £559! any cheaper tracking options? May have to upgrade at a later date if not. Although that will give me plenty of time to save whilst learning the skies

Ah apologies Rowan i see you mentioned in a previous post the go-to wont be up for it (lots for me to learn still) How did you get such amazing photos? lol, sorry just impressed! (webcam/dslr? stacked)

just seen this

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/dual-axis-dc-motor-drive-for-eq3-2.html

i assume this will be what i need (sorry for multiple editing, all over the place researching atm)

Thank you for the welcome everyone here is so helpful!

[RikM]

I got the basic model and then added the bolt on motors for tracking.

First Light Optics - Dual-Axis D.C. Motor Drive for EQ3-2

No need for the GOTO unless you want it for observing because this is just a practise mount for Astrophotography. It will take a lot of effort and you won't get great images. Images you can be proud off and get a warm fuzzy feeling that you took them, yes...but then you will look at what the big boys can produce and lament that you didn't get a bigger mount.

[RYan2040]

I will always want bigger, better, perfect equipment/images thats just me (and most people i presume!) so i've learnt to be contempt with what i can afford Plus i think your recommendations are perfect for me as a begginer looking to advance with little budget. I think i've swung the way of the 150p but will be a month or two before i can afford it (i need a holiday!)

Hopefully i will be back the proud owner of a scope and let you all know how im getting on! (or be begging for more help!)

Thank you all once again, Nice to see there are some helpful people out there that don't look down on the newbies!

Ryan

[brucen]

I have the 130P AZ GOTO and have started using it with a webcam. Only been out a few times but you can get some half decent images that way. I am sure the 150 would be better though particularly for fainter objects.

[Daniel-K]

when you decide on what your getting you can always buy stuff and put it away till you get a nice set up for AP, i never spent a fortune all the stuff i have (in my sig) cost just under £1000 i was patient enough to wait till the right bits came up for sale, once you have what you want sell your old stuff thats what i done.

[Quatermass]

Have a read of my blog I started with the 130 p and progressed to a skywatcher 200p and my budget was like yours. I would agree with the 150p set up if you cant afford more.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

[Ratlet]

If you are interested in viewing the planets then the 130P would be the better of the two because you will get quite a lot of false colour from the Startravel.

BTW, these were taken with a 150P on an EQ3-2 with dual axis drives. Not very good I know but I didn't have £££££ to get anything better, so I did the best I could with what I could afford at the time.

You do yourself a MASSIVE disservice.

Personally, I think these are awesome. If I decide to get into astroimaging and get a scope then these are (from a Newbie perspective) a very convincing argument for getting the 150P.

How do you think this will perform for imaging in the solar system?

How would you rate the 150P for portability? One of the reasons I'm not rushing in and buying a scope (besides a colossal ignorance of scopes) is that I live in a flat with no clear view of the sky so I'd need to go elsewhere by car. Do you think this would be feasable?

Again, fantastic images.

[Ratlet]

Have a read of my blog I started with the 130 p and progressed to a skywatcher 200p and my budget was like yours. I would agree with the 150p set up if you cant afford more.

Sent from my GT-S5670 using Tapatalk

If you are considering the 200p, then this quatermass's blog would be a good example of pictures. Really inspiring.

Star Gazing

[swag72]

While you are saving, you could do a lot worse than spending £20 on this book First Light Optics - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards. I know that it gets recommended often as it really is a good and informative read for astro imaging. Sorry, I can't chip in about the scope as I use a refractor.

[Daniel-K]

Skywatcher EXPLORER-150P (EQ3-2) 150MM F/750 Newtonian Telescope | eBay

keep an eye on this it got the motor drives on so you should be able to get 60 sec subs unguided with good polar alignment

[MikeWilson]

Don't get the 130P. The focuser isn't up to imaging.

The 150P gets my vote. Heck, it's what I used to start astrophotography (albeit on a HEQ5 PRO mount but any tracking mount will get you started):

Skywatcher 150P newtonian reflector on a study HEQ5 PRO mount by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

M45 - The Pleiades (11th November 2010) by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

M42 The Orion Nebula by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

M101 - The Pinwheel Galaxy (closeup) by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

NGC7000 - North American Nebula by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

M3 Globular Cluster by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

M51 - The Whirlpool Galaxy close up (27-02-2011) by MikeWPhotos, on Flickr

Get one. It's a highly underrated scope and will serve you very well!

[RYan2040]

Thank you all once again. Think i will take the advice in and get the 150p! just got to pay for a holiday and then i can get it, another month or two to wait tho . One more quick question, How were those photos taken? webcam or dslr? and which is best suited to the 150p?

Thanks!

[RikM]

I use a Canon 1000D with mine. I think this scope is well suited to working with a DSLR.

[RikM]

Here is my M45 image using the 150P (although this was on an EQ6)

[skywatcher58gb]

Hi RYan

As you say AP can be fun and rewarding but get into visual first as there is so much to see and enjoy, I've had scopes for 12 years now but still get a buzz from just looking.

Dave

[UnderTheRain]

If you are interested in viewing the planets then the 130P would be the better of the two because you will get quite a lot of false colour from the Startravel.

BTW, these were taken with a 150P on an EQ3-2 with dual axis drives. Not very good I know but I didn't have £££££ to get anything better, so I did the best I could with what I could afford at the time.

When I get the rest of my bits to start imaging and I get images that good Rik I'll be very happy

Nice pics