Telescope for astrophotography

[abodee2]

Can anyone give me some advice on a reflector (£750 price limit) that I can use for decent astrophotography with my cannon 5d?

Thanks! 

A

[Knight of Clear Skies]

Hi, is that your budget for the OTA or do you need a mount too?

[abodee2]

Hi, is that your budget for the OTA or do you need a mount too?

OTA, and say the budget is £850 instead of 750.

appreciate your help

[abodee2]

Hi, is that your budget for the OTA or do you need a mount too?

Sorry i meant i need a mount also. Brain momentarily stopped working

[Alien 13]

The one combination that would fit your budget would be SW 130P-DS  http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflectors/skywatcher-explorer-130p-ds-ota.html and the EQ5 pro goto http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-eq5-pro-synscan-goto.html the scope would also need a coma correcter about £98. You would still need to add extras if you want full guided exposures.

The one thing I am not sure about is if the scope image circle will fit a full frame sensor.

Alan

[Tinker1947]

You really need a HEQ5 mount its the best of the starter mounts better motors, its designed for Astrophotography, as for a scope the 130P-DS is popular, me i would go fro a 150P-DS the focuser can be changed to a Moonlite some time later, you will also need a Coma Corrector, this is essential as is a Field Flattener/Focal Reducer on a Refractor type of telescope......there will be a few other extra's like how to power the mount, i would get a Telrad and use the Finder scope for giuding with a suitable guide camera....its not a cheap venture getting into AP.....Good Luck....

[abodee2]

You really need a HEQ5 mount its the best of the starter mounts better motors, its designed for Astrophotography, as for a scope the 130P-DS is popular, me i would go fro a 150P-DS the focuser can be changed to a Moonlite some time later, you will also need a Coma Corrector, this is essential as is a Field Flattener/Focal Reducer on a Refractor type of telescope......there will be a few other extra's like how to power the mount, i would get a Telrad and use the Finder scope for giuding with a suitable guide camera....its not a cheap venture getting into AP.....Good Luck....

Hi Tinker

Thanks im having a look at that one just now,

What about the skywatcher Explorer 200P EQ5 GoTo? 

Thanks

A

[Tinker1947]

The mount is the most important part......

[hjw]

Hi Abodee2,

the SW200P telescope itself is 8.8kg. That puts it on the upper limit of the HEQ5. An EQ5 will not cope with is it for astrophotography purposes. Sorry

HJ

[Knight of Clear Skies]

If you don't have the budget for guiding widefield imaging using camera lenses is an alternative. If you are interested, here's an album of images I've taken using various lenses up to 200mm focal length, with the odd telescopic image thrown in. Lenses are more suited to unguided imaging than scopes due to the lower magnification and typically faster optics. I was surprised by how many large DSOs are up there.

[malc-c]

You need to define what you actually want to do.  If you want wide field views of the constealtions, and larger DSO's like M31 and M42 then you might be better off with a large fast telephoto lens and an Astrotrac http://astrotrac.com/  which retails for around £400, leaving you £350 - £400 for the lens and field tripod.

If your interest is in Luna / planetary work, then you need solmething with a long focal length and as much aperture as you can afford.  You're not going to get coloured detail images of neptune and uranus unless you have something like a Celestron 14" CAT, but for Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and the Moon, nearly all the SW refarctors above 80mm and reflectors above 130mm will give results.  Planetary work is often done using webcams and then stacking the frames to get the detail.

Now if you are after the fainter DSO's then it becomes tricky.  The mount is the key.  The 200P f5 Explorer on a pro goto EQ5 is a possibility, but you will have to work at it to get good results.  The mount really is on its limit with this scope.  But, use it with a 150P and it becomes quite a stable platform.  But the drop in aperture does reduce the light gathering power, but with more exposures I'm sure it would be a workable option for some of the brigher faint DSO's.  If you really want to get into imaging the fainter DSO's then you will need to do guided imaging, and to do so effectivly the entry level mount is the HEQ5.  The resoulution of the motors and gearing gives the scope a better platform on which to capture the image when being guided.  Guiding can be done manually using an off-axis guider and illuminated eyepiece, or using software on a PC and a guidescope / camera on the mount.  A guidescope can be made using a QHY5 camera fitted to the stock finderscope by a suitable bracket, so doesn't need to be a heavy item, and works well, although using something like an ST80 with the same camera seems to be the typical option.

For me.. I started with a 200P on an goto EQ5... after a few months of visual work I wanted to image, and then found it frustrating to get the basic results with a 350D loaned to me by a local forum member.  I then realised that I needed a better mount and purchased a second hand HEQ5 pro Goto mount and it's been great... the HEQ5 is an amazing mount.  Occasionally secondhand HEQ5's come up on the classified section, so maybe going down that route is a way of getting the equipment within your budget.

[ollypenrice]

Firstly the mount is the key item, as everyone has said, and the HEQ5 is much better than the EQ5. The stepper motors are designed to respond to fine autoguiding commands which allow for successful deep sky imaging. Don't skimp on the mount or you'll be buying another one and kicking yourself.

Secondly, covering a full frame chip with a telescope is not dead easy. Most telescope optics can't do it. The cheaest one I know of which can is the William Optics Star 71 but it's over budget. You could always crop the image because a full format camera is pretty exceptional in AP. Cropping to APSc size would still allow you to catch a big piece of sky in the 130 Newt/coma corrector wisely recommended above.

Or you could try a good prime lens. You could pick up a used Canon 200L for instance. This is a beauty for AP.

Do look into autoguiding. You will, very quickly, discover why we do it!

Olly

https://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/i-8BPbwzf

[abodee2]

Thanks for all the advice, at the moment i've decided to go for the Explorer 150PDS and a HEQ5 Synscan GOTO

Cheers,

A

[beamer3.6m]

130pds

[malc-c]

Thanks for all the advice, at the moment i've decided to go for the Explorer 150PDS and a HEQ5 Synscan GOTO

Cheers,

A

If you get chance, try and visit a stockest and see the combination in the "flesh" so to speak, just so you can appreciate how solid the mounts are.  The mount could easily take an ST80 / QHY5 combo guidescope with that OTA so it's very future proof.