Essentials for astrophotography

[legoalan]

Hi everyone, I am just curious as to what's the minimum setup for a scope for it to take "alright" pictures. Can someone please explain to me the main points I should take note of if I want to get into astrophotography?

Can anyone also recommend a setup for someone on a budget to get into astrophotography (ie the minimum required telescope and kit). I would just like to know what kind of money I would need to spend for a astrophotograpy kit.

Sorry for the newbie question but I'm thinking of upgrading and was just wondering if I should wait longer for a more decent kit

Any help would be greatly appriciated

[Neil McRae]

legoalan

I suppose it depends on what type of astrophotography you wish to do.

Having limted experience I would suggest a 200mm scope around £200/300

Very good mount HEQ5 minimum around £500

A DSLR camera £300

A better starter is a webcam (CCD) £20 (great for planets)

Power supply for mount ( Sealed rechargable battery around 20 A/H) £30

Battery charger £15

These are just rough figure but you will need around £1000. There are bargains out there and 2nd hand equipment but make sure you test before buying.

I am sure others will give you better facts.

Neil

[brantuk]

For imaging planets a tracking alt/az mount with a webcam is suitable and a scope with a long focal ratio of around f10. £300 to £400 would just about do it.

For dso photography you'd need an accurate tracking EQ mount, polar aligned, with guiding and two cameras - one capable of long exposures of several mins at a time. Typical scope would be a fast focal length - probably a wide field appo of f5 or less. Bank on around £800-£1000 for reasonable chance - wich can be much higher by the time you add in all the accessories.

Hope that gives an idea

[brantuk]

Snap Neil lol

[Zakalwe]

DSO imaging on a budget?

2nd hand HEG5: £400?

2nd hand ED80 Apo refractor: £180?

2nd hand DSLR: £250?

Field flattener: £160

Odds and sods (T-rings, filters, cables): £80?

You're probably looking at about a grand, if you go for 2nd hand kit. But this will be the very minimum....very soon you will be looking at guide cameras, better mount etc. DSO imaging is expensive...no other way to describe it.

First, most important purchase will be the book "Making Every Photon Count". That will tell you everything you need to know about getting started.

[rowan46]

I would say get the book first it tells you what you need and more importantly why you need it. Having the information up front will enable you to have better choices.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

[legoalan]

Wow, that certainly is pretty expensive. Thanks for the approximations, I guess I will just stick to some visual oberserving right now. Would it be a good idea to get a 200p dobsonian as an upgrade for now and wait until I have enough money for a decent mount and get the bits and bobs later on when I am ready for astrophotography?

P.S. what type of scope is better for imaging?

[Zakalwe]

Wow, that certainly is pretty expensive.

P.S. what type of scope is better for imaging?

DSO imaging? On a limited budget? A short focal length refractor. Something like an ED-80 (made by loads of different peeps). The mount is more important than the 'scope though.....HEQ5 as a minimum, I would say. EQ6 even better.

For planetary and Lunar work, then a long focal length reflector. Maybe a SCT, or even a big dob.

[ollypenrice]

The easiest scope on which to learn imaging is a short, fast refractor. In fact it is hard to beat a very good camera lens like the Canon EF200L which is very fast and has a short focal length. These features makes tracking the sky far, far easier and the results are good, at least to my eye...

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Photography/Widefield-images-including/SIMEIS-147-HArgb/1182345194_8j8Pv-X3.jpg

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Photography/Widefield-images-including/CONE-ROSETTE-STARS-finished/1188334455_yG63d-X3.jpg

For a good bit of introductory reading try Steve's Making Every Pixel Count.

As stated above, you can (just about) get started in DS imaging for a thousand pounds but twice that would make it easier! There are members of this forum with ten thousand pound mounts. Ahem!! Yes...

Olly

[r3i]

Other essentials for astrophotograhpy are: time, patience and perseverance - difficult to put a cost on those...

[legoalan]

The easiest scope on which to learn imaging is a short, fast refractor.

Olly

So would a dob not be very good choice as I would mainly like to do some observation right now? By the way, thats some cracking picutres there

[rowan46]

A dob is absolutely out of the question for deep space photography, you can however use them to image the moon and planets if you put a webcam on them.

[Sparrow]

SOme good advice here, but one thing missing - to start with you could do widefield shots of the sky which do not require tracking as long as you keep expsoure times down to about 8-10 seconds depending on what lense you have. For this all you need is a camera with some means of manual focus (ideally a DSLR but most bridge cameras have manual focus) and ideally a tripod.

Regards

John

[ollypenrice]

So would a dob not be very good choice as I would mainly like to do some observation right now? By the way, thats some cracking picutres there

Deep sky needs long exposures, accurately tracked, so a Dob won't do that. Top visual solution, though.

Olly

[pvaz]

If you already have a DSLR with a couple of lenses you can get started with just the mount (HEQ5 or EQ6) and directly attach the camera, lens and a ball head on the mount. This will enable you to get started widefield and get to grips with every technical aspects of processing. It will also be more forgiving on tracking inaccuracies.

As you'll have a capable mount you can later add the scope, then maybe a 2nd one, a guiding camera, a netbook to guide.... and so on. At least it won't be the 1k£ all at once and you'll have an easier learning process.

[JamesM]

Can I second Olly's suggestion of Steve Richards "Making Every Photon Count" (FLO £19.95) It really is a definitive guide to imaging which tells you what you need, why you need it to achieve the kind of results that might satisfy your expectations. One last thought regarding a future budget for imaging and that is to factor in the cost of software in the post processing stage. Many of the programs such as 'Deep Sky Stacker' are free but there are many others that are not and processing the captured data is half of what creates the final image.

James

[legoalan]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I think I'll just have to go with visual observations for now as I dont think I can afford all the imaging things in the long run.

Can any of you guys show off ur DSO imaging skills and post some pictures up so I can see what kind of spectacular awesomeness I am missing out thanks

[rowan46]

there's a whole section devoted to imaging, plenty to see there

[Herbig]

You will also need some type of focusing aid, a Bahtinov mask can be made to suit your scope, just google it, you should be able to down load a free template. Stick the template onto some stiff card or better still a sheet of opaque plastic and cut out the slots. I'm just in the process of making one for my small refractor.

[ollypenrice]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I think I'll just have to go with visual observations for now as I dont think I can afford all the imaging things in the long run.

Can any of you guys show off ur DSO imaging skills and post some pictures up so I can see what kind of spectacular awesomeness I am missing out thanks

My own visual ramblings are here. ollypenrice's Photos

The other imagers on the DS board also link to their own websites as well as posting.

All I can say is...all in good time.

Olly