Astrophotography

[Ganymede12]

What set up would you recommend for a first time astrophotographer?

[Atlas]

Are you looking to image Planets or Deep Space objects?

Depending on which one your planning, will have alot to do with the suggestions you recieve.

[DOBBY]

Webcam ? or DSLR ? & budget ?

[RikM]

As said above, planets and DSO's (nebulae, galaxies and such) need almost opposites in terms of equipment, so you need to let us know which you are interested in.

[malc-c]

What set up would you recommend for a first time astrophotographer?

To make things easy a driven EQ mount is the basic requirement. Depending on the targets, the darkness / quality of your skies, and the amount of cash you have will then dictate the scope and camera's you sit on the mount, and that in tern will dictate what size (EQ5, HEQ5, EQ6 etc) mount is needed.

If you want to capture images of the moon then you can get away with a dobsonian and a basic webcam. If you want decent deep sky images then a large aperture, fast (f5 or less) scope on an HEQ5 or EQ6 with a digital SLR would be a starting point

[Tinker1947]

One of each of these for DSO's .....plus some not so expensive bits...

First Light Optics - Skywatcher Explorer 200P DS OTA

First Light Optics - Skywatcher HEQ5 PRO Synscan

[laser_jock99]

What set up would you recommend for a first time astrophotographer?

A camera & a tripod. Start with some simple star trail photos.

[Ganymede12]

OK I thinks I'll hold off astrophotography until I have a better scope any way.