Hi – newbie potential astrophotographer here. None of the gear but some ideas which I’d really welcome you views about.
What I’d like to work up to over time is to build an astrophotography system with the ability to take high quality images of nebulas, galaxies and the planets, in that order. Being retired from the NHS I’m on a pretty limited budget, so I’m thinking of going the second-hand route over the next 12-18 months, but part of me is tempted to sell some camera lenses and a guitar (or two) to go all in and try and build a complete system from the start – mount, telescope plus their bits, guide-scope and a mono ccd module. I have a laptop and I’m competent in photo-manipulation software so at least that bit feels dealable with.
I’ve worked out perhaps the key component for astrophotography is a decent mount. I want to operate from my girlfriend’s back yard, in which case perhaps something like a Skywatcher EQ5/6 might be suitable. But due to local light pollution I’d also like to visit some darker sky sites from time to time too. In which case, how realistic/easy would it be to chuck an EQ5 in and the rest of the gear into the boot of the car and set up everything in a field in the middle of winter? Do people do that, or is setup time, lugging lots of weight, the need to avoid freezing to death etc just not worth the hassle?
Is buying a mount second hand a sensible option at all, bearing in mind what can go wrong with goto mounts which are full of gears, electronics, lubrication need etc, all of which need to be working well in order to be useable?
Telescopes – would a more compact refraction telescope be a good starting point? Coming from general photography I know the importance of good glass. I’m not clear whether a shorter focal length telescope with very good optics e.g. RVO Optics 72 (a Williams Optics clone) might still enable me to get decent images of galaxies as well as nebulas using a lower-end CCD module and guide-scope? Or would I simply need something with a significantly greater focal length?
Cameras – I do have an excellent Sony A7R III camera generating 42mp images which I could use as a starter dslr-type camera on the end of a telescope, but it has the Sony “star-eater” curse, in that Sony uses aggressive noise-reduction algorithms which can’t be disabled by the user for anything over 3.2 secs exposure and which erases a significant number of stars in long exposures. Thanks, Sony. Consequently, I can’t find anyone on Google using these cameras for longer-exposure astrophotography through a telescope. Am I right in thinking a max limit of 3.2 sec for image stacking is not going to be long enough for deep-sky imaging?
Similar question about buying ccd modules second-hand– minimal info out there about reliability of CCD modules and their likely lifespan/reliability if buying second hand. Any thoughts? Given how quickly technology moves on, any unusually good performing ccd modules recently arrived that could be recommended in the “cheaper” end of the market? Not too much info out there apart from lots of people showing stunning images from £1kplus ccd kit.
I’d really welcome all views about the above. I think astrophotography is going to be my last big project so I want to try and get as much right from the start as possible.