Cuto100200

I've narrowed down my choice to these two and just wanted to get some opinions on the benefits of both scopes in comparison to one another, any experiences people have with these scopes etc. 

Thank you

4 hours ago, Owmuchonomy said:

My first ever astrophotography effort was using a Canon 600D, an EF300mm f/4 lens and an HEQ5 pro mount. I personally wouldn't go heavier than an HEQ5 pro until you have a permanent set up.  I built an obsy and installed an AZ EQ6 GT.

 

Also love this it looks beautiful, thanks for sharing this. Didn't know what sort of stuff you could do with lenses + mount so this gives a really nice bit of perspective. 

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the replies this has really helped, I really appreciate it. 

Just a quick question, is there any difference between the HEQ5 Pro and the EQ5 Pro other than weight capacity, stability and future proofing, does the HEQ5 provide any superior tracking benefits and would this be worth the extra cost? This is assuming both mounts can carry the weight of the rig. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/equatorial-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-eq5-pro-synscan-goto.html

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/equatorial-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html

Thank you

Hi 

For around 6-ish months now I've been taking photos with a 250D, the lenses I have are a 130mm and 18-55mm Zoom Lens. Along with this I also own a 8" Dobsonian and I've generally been doing a mix of wide angle shots with the lens, and very limited deep sky imaging using the telescope. It's been a real joy doing all this but I think it's time i'd like to get past this wall I feel i'm at with Deep Sky Imaging so any equipment recommendations would be amazing.

Currently i'm looking at the Sky-Watcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro along with the Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro Mount as I've heard these are good all-round products and good for starting out a bit more seriously. Any recommendations on equipment that would be useful to go along side this, if there is any that i'd need, would be much appreciated, or just any alternatives to the main equipment in general.

Budget for this stuff is going to be around 1500 all together (excluding the already acquired items like 250D camera).

I'm going to use the 250D as an imaging camera, however will either get it modded in future or eventually upgrade to a dedicated AP camera when I have the budget. 

Thank you

Lewis

1 hour ago, PeterCPC said:

I think that you would find the ED80 plus HEQ5 would give the best/easiest results. You also might want to consider a modded DSLR.

Peter

16 minutes ago, carastro said:

Agree with Peter, you would be much better with an ED80, it won't have the magnification of the Dobsonian, but will be much less problematic for some-one getting into imaging.

As stated a Modified DSLR would produce much better results than a non modified one, or better still a cooled imaging camera if you can afford it.  But you might want to take one step at a time.

Carole  

Thank you both for the replies this helps a bunch, in terms of a just getting into astrophotography, is the SW ED80 and HEQ5 both good pieces of equipment in terms of quality and cost? I was thinking of just using the standard unmodded DSLR until I can afford a dedicated astrophotography camera, also just a question for futures sake; would a cheaper CMOS AP camera in the price range of 200-300 be better than a modded DSLR for the job?

Hi

So currently I've been using lenses (18-55m and 135mm) to do astrophotography, and recently managed to get my dslr (250d) to focus in my 8" dob, I got some nice images of the ring nebula and m13 so far as I've only been able to get out with it once. I was using the dob for primarily visual astronomy and that was the first thing I ever got.

My question is, when investing in more astrophotography equipment, do I save for a more expensive mount (EQ6), capable of handling the 8" dob (Bresser Messier) , or do I use the money to get a smaller refractor, say the 80ED evostar, and a HEQ5 mount? Any suggestions regarding alternative equipment to what I've suggested would be much appreciated

Apologies for the spam of questions lately, thank you for all for the answers they've really been helpful and I appreciate it greatly.

Thanks

Just wanted to know, when imaging with a telescope, aren't you generally fixed at a certain magnification optically, how are the close up shots of nebula, galaxies, etc possible with smaller imaging telescopes? Do people just have telescopes with longer focal lengths? Or is it more down to the quality of camera to enable better quality digital zoom?

I'm sure it's simple I just haven't really been able to find an answer 

Thanks

Hi 

So I've recently been taking photos and stacking with an unmodded, unguided dslr and I was pretty surprised at the quality being better than I expected, obviously the major roadblock to progressing further is getting a good mount, however this also seems to be one of the more expensive pieces of equipment. I looked at the Sky Watcher HEQ5, but obviously this is quite expensive, even with it being one of the cheaper high quality mounts so I was wondering if there are any good cheaper alternatives for someone just starting out?

Thanks

Other than the Milky Way what are some other interesting areas of the sky to photograph wide field (anything 50mm lens and below)? This could include just generally interesting star patterns, faint objects etc? 

Also could anyone recommend some good targets for a 135mm lens?

Thanks

On 17/06/2020 at 22:03, AstroJ said:

Hello All, Im new to the Astrophotography and need some help !  Iv been reading some threads on DDS and CR2 files but they are all about 2 years old or im just not looking hard enough for the right thread.  

I have a question about uploading CR2 files to DSS, I have a Canon T7i and switched the settings in the camera to take photos in RAW, they end up saving the photos as CR2 RAW files. I was reading and guess this is the way newer canon cameras save RAW files as, can someone confirm this? when I try and upload to photos to DSS I load the pictures from my photo files but nothing ever transfers to DSS I have also tried to drag and drop the photos from the files and nothing as well. the version of DSS I have is 4.2.3. 

I have been loading my photos into adobe Bridge and converting the files to TIFF files and stacking them that way. its not a big deal to do this as it takes little time to do, but wondering if theirs an easier way without converting the files?  also is their a difference in image quality from TIFF files or Raw files or should I be converting the pictures to something other than TIFF files to stack?  one more probably stupid question, Could I also process the TIFF files like Raw files in adobe Photoshop? 

Just wanted to say I have a Canon 250d and I have this exact same problem. I just switched to the Sequator software which seems to accept and stack the files just fine.

16 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

Think the K mount lenses can fit using an adapter that doesn't need any additional optics, make sure any adapter you choose can do infinity focus..

Alan

Hi thanks for this didn't know about the infinity focus with adapters thing! I found two that looks quite good but im not totally sure which looks better quality or better for the money at least

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fotodiox-Lens-Mount-Adapter-Pentax/dp/B008CQ9K5A

https://www.ukdigital.co.uk/pentax-pk-lens-canon-eos-adapter.html

Could you give your opinion on which one looks better if you have time?

Thank you

Thinking of getting a Pentax Takumar 135mm F2.5 for AP with Canon ES 250d.

Anyone have any experience/can recommend any good adapters from Pentax K to Canon EF?

Thanks 

15 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I thought you were using a static tripod where taking loads really does make a difference

Stacking software ensures the stars line up but when processing you would then look to crop away the edges leaving the bit of the image where all frames are aligned.

 

Okay cool that makes sense, yeah i'm using a static I just didn't know exactly how the stacking software worked. Thank you for the advice by the way, much appreciated!

On 18/06/2020 at 17:01, happy-kat said:

That was a 24mm lens but could have been a 50mm lens and say 8 second exposures and lots of them.

Some dslr and darks add more noise, however flats are good to take.

Get started keep it simple take lots of light exposures light over 100.

Thanks for this! Just another question I've been wondering, when actually taking long exposures, obviously it takes a long while to complete if you're doing over 100, so would you need to move the camera at all during shooting or does stacking software just know how to stack the images and make up for the fact the stars will be in slightly different positions in each photo?

3 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

You don't even need to have a tracking mount to start taking images. Star trail images are taken with a static mount. Even interesting areas of the sky will show with a static mount.

Details link here

Understood, this looks amazing! So will taking a lot of 2 second exposures to avoid star trailing and then stacking these in software provide decent results? I'll need to learn how to do blacks to reduce noise, if i understand correctly blacks are done by using the exact same settings as you use for lights but you put the lens cap on?

3 minutes ago, R1k said:

my mount is GoTo so it will find the object for me, the image I posted is only a little cropped. I have uploaded the uncropped version below. The effective focal length is 300mm x 1.6 (as I am using a crop sensor camera).

Thanks for telling me all this it really helps! I honestly just didn't know if cameras were that capable of capturing objects, I thought it'd be a lot more complicated and finicky, thought you'd need to zoom somehow or something. I have a canon 250d, would this be enough to do astro with by stacking short long exposures of brighter objects like Andromeda etc? (I'd like to get a Goto tracking mount in future, I was looking specifically at the sw heq5 that you have as it looks very good value for money)

3 minutes ago, R1k said:

Sorry I should have qualified this. This is a Canon 800d with the aforementioned lens mounted on a SW HEQ5pro. No guiding, no capture software. Just the camera, lens and mount. Intervalometer used to capture exposures (26 x 90s lights, 15 darks, 60 bias, no flats). Stacked in DSS and  processed in PS CS6

Ahh understood that's really cool, I still need to learn how to do darks and bias's. When finding an object in the sky, do you just aim the camera at it and shoot or do you zoom or crop somehow to get it enlarged? 

15 hours ago, R1k said:

What’s it for? Widefield or DSO?

 

i took the attached photo with a 75-300mm f4-5.6 last weekend. Picked the lens up for £30 on Facebook marketplace. 

This is very cool, how would you go about doing this? Do you just take many long exposures and then stack them or do you have a tracker?

Any cheapish canon lenses that are better than the kit (EF-S 18-55mm 3.5 - 5.6) for astro worth getting?

When I say cheap I mean under 200

Thanks

15 hours ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

I have both an unmodded 6D and an old modded 1100D, the latter offers better value for money. Here's an example image taken with a kit lens.

Wow that photo is amazing, thanks for the comparison between the two. Was looking at 200d and 250d's as well, I think they're quite new models though so there's less information regarding using them for astrophotography compared to other models I've seen. Are most DSLR's fine for beginner astrophotography? Or are there specific models I should avoid?

2 minutes ago, jambouk said:

Some of my images with an unmodified Canon 6D:

 

Thank you these really help to get an idea for whats possible with an unmodified one. These are beautiful, this sort of thing is what i'd aim for honestly, I wouldn't be attempting anything more detailed than this (not that I really know what that is because these are truly amazing to look at), obviously my budget is a lot less than a 6D so I imagine the image quality would be greatly reduced but even then, i'd be very happy to get even the slightest bit close to these sort of images. 
 

Hi guys

So I've recently been enjoying visual astronomy, and plan to stick with this for the foreseeable future, however I also wanted to get into photography in general, nature etc, however I wanted to get a camera that in future could also be used for astrophotography, as i feel getting a basic understanding of visual astronomy + normal photography would give me a good amount of knowledge to eventually progress to astrophotography when I have the money.

My question is, what's a good beginner DSLR camera that could be used for normal photography and in future with astrophotography

Currently i've been looking at this (this is also around my budget): https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-eos-2000d-ef-s-18-55mm-is-ii-lens-backpack-sd-card/2728C045/

And this: https://store.canon.co.uk/canon-eos-4000d-body-ef-s-18-55mm-iii-lens/3011C006/

Thankyou

Hi Guys

Just a quick question regarding the primary mirror, obviously eventually dust, and whatever else may get on the mirror, how much of this does it take to actually effect visual quality, and when does it need to be cleaned? 

I can spot a black thing on mine, its very small and i imagine it's probably a part of a leaf that could be easily blown, or wiped off though it hasn't seemed to effect visual quality whatsoever, or at least from what i can tell

Thanks

Really nice colour!

I recently viewed Saturn and Jupiter with my 8" dob, I was able to make out Jupiter's gas rings at lower magnification, though as soon as I tried to bump up magnification the seeing conditions took a toll and visuals deteriorated. I think as everyone else has said, obviously they're quite low in the sky and therefore seeing for them isn't the best and therefore high magnification is going to be affected. Generally I think the trick is to just get a decent eyepiece and just keep going at it, the conditions vary quite a bit from night to night!

I'd agree with John on the BST eyepieces, I've heard a lot of good things about the ES Barlows, but personally haven't used mine enough to give an opinion other than the build quality is very good.