New to everything

[zoeholt]

Hi got referred here from twitter, i am interested in starting astrphotography, and i needed advice on what i need to buy.

I know i will need a new telescope, and a camera, would just like some recommendations.

Money is an issue as well, so as affordable as possible, i want to be able to see detail on the planets, that is my aim!

[dtr42]

mistake

[Ags]

Hi, welcome to the forum. I recommend a good book on astrophotography called Making Every Photon Count by steppenwolf, a member of this forum.

[DOBBY]

Hi Zoeholt... & welcome to the forum

For astro-photography you have 2 basic choices.. DSLR camera or webcam

for dlsr you are looking at a starter set-up of £2,000 + with camera.'scope,mount etc

whereas a webcam can be used with many different 'scopes for £30ish + 'scope & mount

[Tiddles]

First investment should be a copy of "Making Every Photon Count"

You will also pick up plenty of advice in the relevant stickies in the AP forum.

The planets/lunar imaging is very different to deep space objects.

For the planets (you'll only really pick out detail on Jupiter and Saturn, Mars at a push) a modified webcam on a scope with a tracking mount will get you started.

For DSO's a lot of money and patience, a good grounding in visual astronomy will set you on the right path.

[zoeholt]

Will have to just be planets really. I don't have that kind of money :| not even to save up

[Ags]

If you can get to beautiful locations with dark skies, you can do widefield AP with a DSLR and a camera tripod. Look at the images of saturn5 on this forum for an idea of what you can achieve. It doesn't have to cost the earth, and you don't have to spend all the money in one go :-)

[rowan46]

for planets and the moon you will need a scope a webcam and a laptop. the scope doesn't have to be fancy webcamming a planet is quite easy. It is possible to take pics with this setup it's not hard but it requires a bit of practice The scope also doubles as a very capable visual astro scope

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skyliner 150P Dobsonian

[Chris]

I agree with AGS, AP doesn't have to cost the Earth, you can do wide field AP for as little as 150-160 quid with a second hand DSLR camera e.g. like my Canon 350D on a cheap camera tripod with a trigger release button so you don't shake the camera when you take pics.

For planetary imaging you firstly need a telescope with a long focal ratio e.g. f/12 which will help to magnify a planet and frame it in a narrow field of view, Maksutov type scopes are good for this because they have high f/ratios, they are portable, and very good contrast. Secondly you need a mount which will track the object although unlike DSO imaging you don't need the tracking to be that accurate so the mount can be quite cheap. Thirdly you need a suitable webcam for astro imaging, and its also helpful to have a Barlow lens between the webcam and the scope to increase the magnification further. Then all you do to take pics of planets is download "Registax" software for free set the scope up to track the planet, connect the Barlow lens and webcam, then connect the webcam to your computer, film the planet and save the film which consists of lots of individual frames, then stack the individual frames in Registax which throws out the bad images and stacks the good images to bring out the planetary detail. See link below for an example scope and tracking mount which I think would be suitable for this for less than 300 quid new, probably 200 quid second hand:

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Skymax 127 SupaTrak

For DSO imaging this can be done on the cheap, e.g. If I add up the cost of my second hand HEQ5 mount, second hand Scope, and my second hand astro mod'd camera, it comes to only 600 pounds, and thats for good quality optics and a reasonably good mount and camera capable of producing very good images if in the right hands (mine arn't the right hands yet:D).

If you want to buy new equipment you can still do DSO imaging very cheap, but with generally lower quality results. I started out with cheaper optics and mount and even though my images had bloated stars towards the edge and blue/violet fringing around bright objects (Chromatic Aberation CA) I was just chuffed to be taking pictures of objects in space, and thats all you need to start with See links below for examples of new setups which I think would get someone started in DSO imaging:

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 150P DS OTA

Plus

First Light Optics - Skywatcher EQ5 Deluxe

Plus Single axis motor drive.

or if you like refractors like me:)

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Startravel 80 OTA

plus

First Light Optics - Skywatcher EQ5 Deluxe

plus the following filter to reduce false colour fringing CA.

First Light Optics - Baader Fringe Killer Filter

basically for DSO imaging you need a short focal length e.g. f/5 or 6 which gives you a wide field of view plus much better light grasp than long focal lengths, the shorter the focal length the less exposure time you need and you can get away with less accurate tracking, although you still need better tracking than with planetary imaging, hence you need a sturdy motor driven mount, and it needs to be an equatorial style mount so you can allign it to the pole star "Polaris" so the mount tracks accurately. Once you have alligned th mount you can attach your DSLR via a T-ring and T-adaptor and focus the camera using either live view mode or if you don't have just keep on taking short exposures of a couple of seconds and adjusting the focuser untill happy. You then find the object you want to image and take lots of exposures of say 30 seconds to begin with until you get good at polar alligning, then you can down load Deep Sky Stacker DSS for free and use this to stack the 30 second exposurs together to increase the detail/signal and reduce noise in the image, basically to give a better picture:) furthe down the line you can worry about Dark, flat, Bias exposures, I still haven't used some of these as I've got a fair way to go myself on the imaging front:)

Anyway, I hope this helps, just keep on asking questions and you'll have learnt lots about AP before you know it:D

Chris

[zoeholt]

thanks so much. It would probably have to be second hand for me, i don't think the telescope i have is suitable, let me see if i can get the information, i know when i look through it, mars is just a red dot, for example.

Its quite old so i don't have a name but heres what i can get from the manual

objective diameter: 60mm

focal length: 700mm

eyepieces: 20mm 12.5mm 9mm 4mm

barlow: 3x

maximum magnification: 525x

finderscope 6x 25mm

as the title said i am new to this, so that pretty much means nothing to me, is it suitable or would i be looking at getting another?

[Chris]

Hi Zoe I've had a look at you existing scope specs, with an aperture of 60mm I think that its likely to be a very small refractor, the important thing with regards to the optics for imaging (other than the quality of the lenses) is the f/ratio which is calculated by dividing the focal length by the diameter of the objective lens, which means that you scope has an f/ratio of 11.7 (f/11.7) which is high. high f/ratios are better for planetary imaging because it gives you high magnification and a narrow field of view to frame the planet, so you could try basic webcam imaging with it by filming a planet and stacking the individual frames of the video in Registax to see if you get any detail showing, although I don't think an aperture of 60mm will give you that much detail on planets, but you might have some luck with Jupiter and Saturn:)

You mentioned that you looked at Mars through this scope and it just looked like a red dot, Mars is a difficult planet to see any detail in without a large aperture scope and good seeing conditions, try Saturn you should be able to make out the rings, and also you should be able to see a couple of cloud bands on Jupiter and the moons (if the optics are Ok) I would say that if you can see these details visually it might be worth attaching a webcam to the scope:)

As for DSO imaging with your existing scope, I think your scope is too slow optically at f/11.7 it won't have enough light grasp to bring out enough detail in objects other than perhaps the core of M42 the great Orion nebula. Also the most important thing for DSO imaging before you get to the scope is the mount and I don't think a 60mm refractor would come with a mount suitable for DSO imaging as standard.

I hope this helps, and let us know what you decide:)

Chris

[zoeholt]

thanks for the reply. At the moment I can't see saturn, it rises too late and too low, we have a gigantic tree in the back yard so I have no chance!

will try Jupiter again on the next clear night.

I think for starters I might just get a good camera and take simple pictures I can't remember what they are called, but shots of the moon and possibly constellations, always liked the time lapsed ones.

I have a baby and only one of us works and i sell jewellery for a bit of extra income not enough to afford anything that i need really. Will have to see what i can gather for my birthday, but thats not until september.

Trust me to pick the expensive things

[Chris]

I think doing widefield pics with a DSLR on a tripod is a great place to start Zoe, its how I started and I found it a really good for learning the very basics. You can pick up second hand DSLR's for about 150 quid or perhaps even less, and they take great family pictures as well as for Astronomy:D I also have a 3 month old, and at the moment my wife only gets 25% wages for Maternity and shes the main bread winner as I'm a part time Radiographer at my local hospital (23 hours a week plus any oncall and weekend shifts I can pick up), so I understand about the money, AstroPhotography can be an expensive hobby, but you can have plenty of fun on a budget as well, I buy pretty much everything I need for this second hand, there is a great site called UK astrobuyandSell which I would recommend, us Astronomy lot tend to be a honest friendly bunch so you shouldn't go far wrong, if you get stuck just ask and someone or often 20 people have the answer:D

Chris

[zoeholt]

Thank you for the advice, will take me a while to get a camera but best to start small! I will look around and no doubt post my first photos here