Widefield kit advice

[LyraVega]

Hello everyone 

I'm looking for a bit of advice  - I want to get a mount for doing widefield photography with a DLSR and would love to have recommendations for some sort of tracking mount for my tripod I'm

I've been looking at this:

http://www.scsastro.co.uk/catalogue/orion-min-eq-equatorial-scope-and-camera.htm

but wondered if I'd be better off going for a full sized telescope tripod and mount. I really like shooting on 35mm and medium format film too so something that could take one of  my old cameras too would be ideal. 

Thanks in advance for sharing any experiences you may have with this.

---

Sophie

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Hi. It depends on your budget really. The EQ-1 would probably work OK with very short focal length lenses but it lacks a polar scope for precise polar alignment. I use an EQ3-2 as a budget solution which works reasonably well, but I do end up throwing away a certain number of subs due to imperfect tracking. Here's Orion taken with a 50mm lens and a modded camera:

I can get 2 minute exposures with a 135mm lens consistently, discarding maybe 10-20% of them. There are better mounts available if you're willing to spend a bit more, for example the Star Adventurer was designed as a portable widefield mount.

As to film, digital cameras are more sensitive and it's possible to combine multiple exposures using stacking software such as DSS. By all means give it a go if that's your thing but I believe expensive specialist film may be required to get decent results. On the other hand, if you have any old prime lenses kicking around some of them can be good for astrophotography, using an adaptor to fit them to a DSLR.

Hope that's some help. 

[LyraVega]

That's an amazing shot! thanks for sharing - I really like the look of that Star Adventurer, you are right about the specialist film, I've done a fair amount of night photography on film before I caught the astronomy I realised what I was missing was the sky - just a load of stripes!

much appreciated.

[Andy Mitchell]

I've used the EQ-1 (not the tabletop version) with the same motor unit, and about the only thing it was good for was shooting widefield with a camera lense. Its been a while since I used it but with a 50mm lens I seem to recall you could point it in roughly in the right direction and get 20-30second exposures out of it. My DSLR doesn't nicely support over 30 second exposures so thats not too bad.

Its a decidely non-precision bit of kit and the lack of a polar scope really does mean you can't align accuratly on polaris. With a small maksutov telescope (1250mm) on it I thought I was doing well when I got 6 second exposures with only a little trailing...

The Skywatcher Star Adventurer is supposed to be much nicer as a platform for holding cameras and small scopes, but costs a lot more. Fits on your existing sturdy tripod.

Not sure I would wan't to try film myself, we gain so much from the amazing sensitivity of modern digital cameras. Plus you get to stack multiple noisy short exposures into one cleaner image using software like the free DSS (deep sky stacker)

Old prime lenses can still hold up really well and can be used for astrophotography to produced amazing results. The image below is from a ~30 year old lens(135mm f3.5), on a decent mount and with a CCD astro camera.

[Mick J]

Hi Sophie,  I would suggest you look around for the type of picture you want to take and then look at the equipment used.  Tracking mounts can be many varied things,  do look at the Star Adventurer mentioned above, do a search for astrotrack on here and get an idea of what will suit you, and ask more questions.

An American photographer Jim Cormier post here as Nightfly, likes to use film, you may find his Blog and Flicker pages interesting, start here

[Andy Mitchell]

An American photographer Jim Cormier post here as Nightfly, likes to use film, you may find his Blog and Flicker pages interesting, start here

Yowsers, 45 minute exposures! I'm impressed. Just don't tell me he manually guides it, to match the retro film theme,  or my brain will explode

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ive never used one, but the results you can get with the astrotrac are amazing. 

[LyraVega]

Those Astrotracs look incredible - I got very excited by the idea of capturing the lyrids (limited success) but thought I'd do a bit more research before the persiads and see what would work, I really like composing shots with a bit of landscape included. I'm hoping to be in the dramatic cevennes dark sky area - I'm sure I can put a few pennies aside before then

[LyraVega]

Hmm but a roll off roof observatory like Jim's might be a little way off...

Still, gotta aim high!

[damnut]

I'd like to get my hands on an astrotrac too, its just a bit pricey!

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'd like to get my hands on an astrotrac too, its just a bit pricey!

A good and cheaper alternative to the astrotrac is a home made barn door tracking mount. If you are good with your hands and a few bits of wood and nuts,bolts and screws.........it should be an easy DIY project.

[LyraVega]

Barn door tracking mount? Sounds amazing do I need a barn?

[Mick J]

Sophie,  you may be better off playing with your dslr to start with, film sounds like fun - I can remember when that's all we had.  You can capture quite a lot with a wide lens, increased iso and short exposure.

What dslr camera are you thinking of using.

[LyraVega]

Hi Mick - the dlsr i've been using is a budget canon Eos1000 that's been home modded for infra red (still testing that) but I've been loaning my work camera canon mkii 5d - using an Nikon fm2 for 35mm - but I do have a couple old lens that fit the dlsr from a now defunct camera. Intersting idea to try them on that camera in the new astro situation

[happy-kat]

You can get lens mount convertors, I use vintage m42 and vintage Canon FD (for macro) lens on my 1100d. Cost less than £10 for the adaptor.

[damnut]

Hi Luke,

DIY = Destroy It Youyrself  , but a great call, have a friend who is handy, the quid pro quo is I look after his IT.

[Mick J]

Hi Mick - the dlsr i've been using is a budget canon Eos1000 that's been home modded for infra red (still testing that) but I've been loaning my work camera canon mkii 5d - using an Nikon fm2 for 35mm - but I do have a couple old lens that fit the dlsr from a now defunct camera. Intersting idea to try them on that camera in the new astro situation

You and Sam seem to making a good start,  some old Canon lenses cannon reach focus at infinity on new bodies (Canon changed the spacing), have you looked at software to control the Canon or a cheap intervalometer ?