Best lense for astro photography ?

[leemanley]

Hello all, just a quickie, does anyone have personal recommendations as to the best sized lense they use for A P.

I have a canon 550d with a stock 18-55mm lense.

New to DSLR use so still finding my way around things !

Have had minor success so far but know the camera should be capable of much more.

Any help always apprecialted.

[leemanley]

By the way, I should have added that I am doing all my shots afocally till the big newt comes.

[Steve Ward]

One to avoid is the Sigma 70-300 APO zoom , great optics , great price , but such a smooth silky zoom action that it creeps dramatically when pointed above about 40 degrees ,

Tried every one that WEX had in stock when i returned mine and all were identical .

Shame because much better optically than the Canon 75-300 i replaced it with (Canon still good for the price though)

[Tinker1947]

One to avoid is the Sigma 70-300 APO zoom , great optics , great price , but such a smooth silky zoom action that it creeps dramatically when pointed above about 40 degrees ,

Tried every one that WEX had in stock when i returned mine and all were identical .

Shame because much better optically than the Canon 75-300 i replaced it with (Canon still good for the price though)

I did cure this on one of my Sigma Lens, placed a elastic band between the manual focus ring and the body of the lens enough grip to stop the creep...

[Andy_E]

Hi. What sort of budget were you thinking? My vote would be with the Canon 100-400mm f5.6 L, but this sort of quality comes at a price. However, both Sigma and Tamron produce similar lenses at a slightly lower cost. It also depends on what you’re going to photograph. The nice thing about a 400mm lens is that it gives a similar magnification to a pair of binoculars (somewhere around the 8x mark), so you can plan your images nicely with a pair of bins. The 100 – 400mm focal length is a nice range, allowing for relative wide-field shots right up to some of the larger globular clusters such as m13 (though some cropping will be needed).

[Merlin66]

For piggy back wide angle shots, the Canon 85mm 1.8 prime seems to be a good choice.

[ollypenrice]

The Canon EF200L is a classic. Primes are best on the stars, in general.

Olly

[mikehab]

Just out of interest - are there any DSOs that can be imaged (with stacking) with a 50mm prime lens? Are there any that spread over such a wide area that they would 'visible' with a 50mm lens ...? I seem to recall that there are some DSOs which have such a wide field-of-view & are spread over such a large area that they can't fit into a 200mm lens. Is this true? If do - does anyone have any example images they can share please?

[Psychobilly]

Cygnus will provide you with a whole range of different imaging opportunites from 50mm up.... the canon 50mm f1.8 EF II nifty fifty is a good performer.. Older lenses (normally in M42 fit) sucha s the Pentax Super Takumars - although prices are now a lot higher than they were a few years ago.. Leica Telyt's are superb....

I must admit I ended up with a couple of Canon L's including the 200/2.8L , 100-400/4.5-5.6L and 24-105/4L

For zoom and focus creep I use Micropore surgical tape to lock the focus and zoom... Fcusing with AF lenses on Canon DSLR bodies using APT's FWHM based AF is a dream...

Couple of example shots here...

http://stargazerslou...se/#entry851545

Peter...

[leemanley]

Another great example of how amazing this site is !

Thanks fofr your replies

Lee

P.s. the budget is up to £400, at a stretch...

[swag72]

I think Lee, that it would be really useful to say what sort of things you are aiming for? Do you want widefield stuff or to be able to capture stuff a little larger in the frame?

The suggestion of a 50/1.8 is good for widefield and the 200/2.8 is a real astro classic for getting in closer. I have used my 300/4 and that proved good and I was really pleased with the field of view. I would stick with prime lens's as they are known for being sharper as a rule and also I am a sucker for a Canon lens.

[GlassWalker]

Following are some examples of what you can do at 50mm. It is a lot of sky that is covered!

Cygnus region slightly cropped.

Orion - Barnard's loop. Can't remember if this is cropped or not.

The 50mm f/1.8 is ok in the middle wide open, but the corners degrade badly. Stopped down to f/2.8 or so helps a lot.

Only other lens I used much is the 135L but that's a bit over budget...

[mikehab]

Fantastic pictures GlassWalker .... I've just got myself a 50mm prime Olympus Zuiko f/1.8 lens off ebay, and an OM-EOS adapter ring... so looking forward to some clear skies to try them out.

[Alan_B]

Don't forget that Glasswalkers AMAZING image of Barnards loop was captured with a modified DSLR

[GlassWalker]

Well, even with an unmodified DSLR that would only take a bit longer, if the tracking is up for it. I know I have a lot of improvement I can still do on that... forgot to say both the images earlier are with H-alpha filter.