Immaging advice please

[jeremy1]

Ok guys here goes. Now not wanting to upset the pro's who take absolutely stunning pictures and are a joy to look at but I'm not really big into photography so the Idea of buying loads of kit costing £££s is not really up my street. What I would be more interested in is just capturing a few immages to show friends and to keep as a record for myself without costing the earth. So.... whats the cheapest way of getting a piccy that wont cost so much but is ok if not perfect to look at. Bearing in mind I dont have goto or auto tracking so a simple snapshot would probably be best. Has anyone tried those mounts that you can attach a simple digital camera to ?

[ollypenrice]

There are no snapshots in deep sky imaging, I'm afraid. The objects are just too faint. By far your best bet would be to try the moon and planets, ideally with a cheap adapted webcam and free stacking software like Registax.

You can get decent moon images by holding a basic daytime compact digital to the eyepiece or using one of the eyepiece clamps to hold it properly. If you do that, be sure to allow enough space for your lens to open and close without fouling the EP.

With a sheet of Baader solar film over the objective and the finder scope blanked off you can take sunspots this way as well.

Olly

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=1793644788&k=r8HTK72

[jeremy1]

Thanks Olly. I have Registax and an old web cam but dont you need a tracking facility to keep the object in the field of view for taking a short video of your immage or can registax lock onto the immage frame by frame ? Maybe also sorry to the moderators as this should shift over to Immaging rather than begginers help now.

[Pete Presland]

you can do planetary imaging just using the slow motion controls on your mount.i used to do it with my old c8-n, but as you up the image scale it needs more correction to keep the image in view.

have a go, you might get hooked and purchase a upgrade for your mount.

[Pete Presland]

if you have dslr you can always do some simple wide-field shots, or star trails.

[sgazer]

how cheap is cheap? As above, a webcam for planets/moon and some sort of tracking even manual.

Or you could get a 150 quid s/h DSLR with a 18-55mm kit lens and stick it on a tripod and take some snaps of the milkyway, approx 10s shots should do it.

Or you could motorise your EQ5, stick the DSLR on that with say the 55-250mm kit lens and get a longer exposure. You should be able to get some decent shots that way.

[JacobvonChorus]

Trust me, astrophotography is a bottomless pit in terms of money. Once you start investing, you will not stop. At first, you will want snapshots, then you will want to have tracking, then guiding and it goes on and on. At that same time, it is very rewarding.

For getting snapshots, though a video astronomy camera may work. I know next to nothing about them but you could try looking up the Mallincam, I know many people who greatly enjoy that.

Jacob von Chorus