Can you recommend a telescope for astrophotography?

[jay2jay99]

First of all, hi everyone

I was wondering if anyone can you recommend a telescope for taking deep space and planetary photos? I had a Meade DS2114 previously but would like to jump up a bit. I have a budget of about £400-£500 ($650-$800).

I did see somewhere that the Skywatcher 250px is quite good and it's in budget. I also saw that a 10"+ Schmidt-Cassegrains telescope is good for astrophotography but I don't know if that's an affordable telescope.

I plan to use it with a Canon 50D DSLR.

Many thanks in advance.

Regards,

Jason.

[RikM]

Have a look through the SGL imaging forum and see what sort of kit people have used to take their images.

'Planetary' and 'deep space' imaging normally require different types of scopes and cameras. Planets need high magnification / high frame rate, deep sky needs lots of light gathering and long exposures.

Probably better to choose one type of target to concentrate on at first. Next think about what sort of mount you can afford. It doesn't matter what sort of optics you have if you can't keep them on target.

With your stated budget, you will find it difficult, but it is possible to get some images. But probably not of both planets and deep sky.

There are a couple of primers on SGL about imaging on a budget. For the low-down on deep sky imaging, get a copy of First Light Optics - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards This will tell you what you need to know and could stop you making a costly mistake.

[brantuk]

Hi Jason - you can get some nice little appo's for around £300 well capable of dso photography (may need a field flattener). Sct's tend to have a longer focal length and high f-ratio so more suitable for planets, unless you have a huge one, (often needs a reducer).

Have a look at the William Optics appos for starters - and Skywatcher do some nice appo doublets too - look for f-ratios around f5 or less. Newts can be used but often need coma correction - don't know too much about them.

In any event you can get more for your money buying second hand

[twotter]

I'm no expert, but one thing I have picked up is that you need a good mount (HEQ5 and above). I've been keeping an eye out for a HEQ5 Pro and from what I've seen so far, you would be lucky to get one inside your budget, and you'd still need a telescope, unless you mounted your DSLR on it's own.

The webcam guys get some great lunar and planetary images, so why not consider a 127 Mak - they're inside your budget and would give you some spare cash for a webcam and other bits and pieces you might want?

[dmahon]

Equinox 80 @ £577

ED80 DS Pro @ £345

Megrez 72 @ £389

What mount have you got?

[Tim]

Hi,

As already stated, what sort of kit have you already got that could be used? There is quite a bit to consider when starting out on the imaging route.

[jay2jay99]

Guys, thanks for all the info. Hmm.... it's tough, planetary or deepspace..... I'd probably choose planetary. In regards to mounts, I don't have one as yet, I've looked at that HEQ5 mount and, well, that's a bit out of my budget. I assume that these equitorial mounts are a must for deep space to allow for longer exposures? Would you need such a mount for planetary photography? I'll have a look through the telescopes mentioned and the imaging Page.

Also, you'll have to excuse my newness, what is appo and sct? field flattener and reducer I'm unsure of but I will look up :-)

[lukebl]

The telescope's the cheap bit! Get a decent driven mount. As others have said, an HEQ5 is about the minimum.

[brantuk]

Appo = appochromatic refractor and Sct = Schmidtt Cassegraine telescope.

The mount is probably the most important part of any deep sky imaging rig. Needs to be heavy, solid, and stable (as well as accurately polar aligned). It all depends on which OTA (optical tube assembly) you put on it. Light tube heavy mount is a good rule of thumb. The HEQ5 would be suitable for many of the refractors, and lighter/smaller Scts, Maks, and Newts (Maksutov Cassegraines, and Newtonian reflectors). Hope that helps

[jay2jay99]

Well that pretty much blows my chance of being able to afford it then as the HEQ5 is about £700 and my budget is only £400-£600

[brantuk]

Have a look at the CG5 GT or the EQ5 Synscan models - might be more within budget and very suitable imaging starter mounts so long as the tube weight is kept down. I get good results from the Meg72 on CG5 GT. You ought to be able to pick that combo up s/h for around £600 (or less if you're good at bartering)

[jay2jay99]

Thanks brantuk, I will look into that.

[jay2jay99]

That mount is more within budget. It's surprising, just not something you account for when you're looking for a good telescope! Out of interest, what are you're opinions on the SW 250px? I've seen some decent photos from it and is floor mounted so doesn't need a mount. Interested in your opinions.

[RikM]

The 'Auto' and 'goto' versions of the Skyliner 250PX can be used for webcam imaging of planets, but no chance for deep sky work. I don't know if the basic manual version can be used for that with much success. I haven't tried it with mine yet as I bought it purely for visual use.

There is also an Explorer 250PX, which can be mounted on an EQ6 (just about) and gives very nice images if you know what you are doing, but it wouldn't really be an ideal starting point, more like something to build up to.

[jay2jay99]

When you say "for webcam imaging of planets", I'm looking to take pictures using my Canon50D DSLR, can this be done using a T mount?

[RikM]

When you say "for webcam imaging of planets", I'm looking to take pictures using my Canon50D DSLR, can this be done using a T mount?

Yes, probably for single shots of the moon. I've done plenty of that with my Explorer 150P on an EQ3-2, I can't see why it wouldn't work with the larger scope even on a dob mount.

You wouldn't be able to take pictures of the planets like that though; nowhere near enough magnification. No good, for deep sky photos either. The scope needs to move to follow the stars / object accurately for a good few seconds or ideally several minutes at a time.

[jay2jay99]

See this is where my inexperience sets in and I get confused , if you can see say Saturn or Jupiter through the telescope why can you not photograph it? Is it to do with the how the camera mounts or do you mean you can photograph them but they will not be of good quality?

[RikM]

You can see planets through the scope because the eyepieces do the magnifying. Connecting a DSLR is normally without eyepieces in place so you are using the native focal length of the scope (1200mm for the 250PX) and that is not enough magnification for the planets to appear as anything other than bright points of light.

[RikM]

This is the sort of thing you will get.

You can do much better with a cheapo webcam and small Mak.

[jay2jay99]

Ahh, I see what you mean, ok. This is the best picture I've taken of Saturn, although it wasn't through a telescope, it was handheld with my dslr and a sigma 50mm lens.

[RikM]

I think that's pretty incredible for a hand held camera shot, well done:icon_salut:

Here is my best Saturn. I used an £80 second-hand Skymax 127 with a £30 Phillips webcam. This was my first night out with the kit and the sky conditions were not so good.

Planetary imaging is not really my field. Other people who know how to do this properly get very nice images with a very similar set-up. I haven't quite got it right yet. I think I need a better barlow lens and good conditions.

[jay2jay99]

That's really good! I was jumping around when I zoomed into my picture of saturn, it was the first time I had actually seen a distinguishable planet and Saturn was a target I had set myself a long time ago. Now I got it, I want more, clearer, closer, sharper :-)

[Ags]

I think if you want to do planetary imaging, budget for a small and cheap webcam rather than using the DSLR. Have a look on this forum for pics taken with the skymax 127 using a webcam. With that combination you will have a nice scope for visual observation of solar system objects, some capability for viewing deep sky objects and the potential to image planets, with a GOTO mount! You will even have little money to spare to pick up a couple of extra eyepieces.

The webcam route assumes you have a laptop or netbook, however. Also note the skymax 127 and its alt-az mount are no good for imaging DSOs.

[jay2jay99]

Can the GOTO mount can track the planet/star etc? The only gripe I have is that the motorised mount on the Meade 2114 was completely useless, there was so much play in the gears that it was shockingly inaccurate! Are these better?

I'll have a look at the imaging forums and see what I can find, I know nothing about webcams and astrophotography, that's completely new to me but I have heard about it.

[brantuk]

Goto systems allways have tracking - at least I've not seen one that doesn't. Webcams can take several frames per second of a bright object (eg planets). If you collect several thousand frames (ie run for a few mins) then you will get good shots and bad shots depending on what the atmophere is doing by the second.

Then you align, stack and process the good frames only using software like "Registax" and "Gimp" which are free to download. Registax will sort out the wheat from the chaff for you and align it all. Gimp is like a poor mans Photoshop lol.

You can do this with either an al/az or eq mount because star trailing will not be an issue and you are taking short exposures. It's best to use a slow focal ratio scope of around f10 as these will generally focus the light better. Typically Mak or Schmitt cassegraines are used.

For dso's it's a whole different ball game. Webcams aren't appropriate unless you modify them for long exposure. Either ccd's or dslr's are used for this because they can be configured for long exposure. However, earths rotation causes star trailing when exposing for long periods. So you need a rock solid mount capable of accurate tracking. EQ mounts are essential as is accurate polar alignment to eliminate star trailing.

Then you can track in RA with the shutter open 5 or 10 mins at a time keeping the object in the same place on the camera chip. These objects are faint - so a fast f-ratio typically f5 or less is appropriate for "collecting" photons. These objects are also big so a wide field is preferred - typically refractors are used. Software like Deep Sky Stacker is one favourite tool for aligning and stacking dso's.

There are other combinations like newts and wedged cassegraines. But someone else will explain that