astrophotography Telescope Build (help) £1000ish budget

[kiapete1911]

Though id Put a little back story to this.

About 7-8 years ago my dad had a telescope he won and the only way you could get me off it was with a crowbar . I saw Saturn for the first time through this scope and i was truly amazed that these images i had seen in school could be seen in real life let alone from my garden. To my dismay he sold it after a good few months use. But since then iv always look skywards as times gone on and more money has become available to me i took up photography.

About a year ago i picked up a Canon 550D/T2i DSLR. i have done some lunar photography nothing too serious just grabbed a photo when i could over the last month i decided to turn it sky wards again and caught a VERY rough glimpse of my first nebula (Orion nebula, m42) i got deep space stacker and the photo i got was pretty good but i deleted all my photos im waiting for a clear sky to do the hole thing again properly.

TL;DR (i like space, i like cameras.. i want to photograph space with a telescope)

Over the last 2months i have gathered some money and decided to throw it at getting a telescope Preferably Something great for astrophotography!

BUT im asking for advice from people that have the knowledge to correct me where i am wrong and share their wisdom!!

from what i have seen and researched these are the conclusions i have come to,

Astrophotography:

A Refractor is the way to go or is it? 70-80mm is great for nebula and deep space images something like Skywatcher Evostar 80ED

i have a 300mm camera lens and a pretty expensive 2.2x telephoto lens on that which brings me around 660mm focal lengh at f5.6, it not as good as a true 600mm telescope but its not bad. This was not ideal settings or conditions but moon

I would also like the to capture some great detailed planet photos as well which has left me scratching my head as were to go from here, as i only want to buy one scope but image quality is KING

so i thought the Skywatcher Evostar 100ed DS-Pro with the optically matched focal reducer is a nice middle ground

and the skywatcher eq3 pro synscan goto Mount (if its compatible with the scope? i have not been able to find the scopes weight)

and the T-ring and such to match my camera

The more i look in to it the more confused i become at what to do, am i on the right path or is there another direction i should be going in for long exposure shots of nebula and planets

any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[nightfisher]

The most important item in astro imaging is the mount, to such a point that some people depending on budget end up getting the mount, then saving for the telescope

It is a hard compromise to image nebula and such....and lunar planetary all with one scope, if you really want to do deep sky imaging budget for an EQ5 pro mount

[swag72]

For me, the very best bit of advise I could give is to spend £20 on the book 'Making Every Photon Count' available from FLO in their book section. It will really give you a good grasp of AP for deep space objects. There are a couple of things though that you need to know. There is no scope that will be good for DSO's and planetary - They require very different things.

For DSO's, the mount is absolutely THE most important thing of the whole setup. With a wobbly mount you will not get the long exposures that you need for DSO's. The minimum often suggested is the HEQ5. You can couple that with am 80ED, and a reducer for your DSLR and you are well on the way to getting quality images. A cheap guiding setup as well (this will all become clear in Steve's book) and you will be there.

Data capture though is only half the battle. Assuming that you have hours worth of good data, you canrealistically then spend as many hours again processing it to get a half decent image. I thought I'd mention that as often it gets ignored.

The scope that you mention 100ED is really a little on the slow side for DSO photography, even with a reducer on it. You really want to avoid imaging at anything less than f7 if you can avoid it, in my opinion. Refractors are a good place to start. They are about as plug and play as you can get. Also in your plans if you do get a guiding setup, you'll need to think about a PC.

[ollypenrice]

You really can't optimize one scope for very long focal length planetary imaging at ultra slow F ratios and very widefield, short FL, deep sky imaging at very fast F ratios. It's a bit like asking for a telephoto fisheye.

First I'd decide between the two.

If you really can't do that then a 200P Newt on an NEQ6 can come closer to doing both than most things. You'd need Barlows or Powermate for the planets and a coma corrector for deep sky. Already this is getting complicated. See Plan A; decide between the two!!!

Olly

http://ollypenrice.s...68870&k=R4v6bFN

[Scott]

as mentioned above, Make eveery photon count is a great place to start. It really is as good as it gets as far as dso imaging goes. also i would recommend at least a heq5 mount although some have had great results with lesser mounts (quartermass) but i'd say,(and i'm guessing now) if given the choice, he'd prefer a better mount but money (for me anyway) is usually the deciding factor. I don't Know how handy you are but if you google "barn door tracker" its a cheap alternative for a tracker for your camera.

I better stop now coz its even confusing myself

Scott

[VigdisVZ]

I can only underline the importance of the mount. I recommend atleast the HEQ-5, preferably the NEQ-6 for AP. Scope is less important here.

The good news is that if you cash out for a NEQ-6 now, you probably wont ever have to upgrade it so, its a mount for life.

[nephilim]

For me, the very best bit of advise I could give is to spend £20 on the book 'Making Every Photon Count' available from FLO in their book section. It will really give you a good grasp of AP for deep space objects. There are a couple of things though that you need to know. There is no scope that will be good for DSO's and planetary - They require very different things.

For DSO's, the mount is absolutely THE most important thing of the whole setup. With a wobbly mount you will not get the long exposures that you need for DSO's. The minimum often suggested is the HEQ5. You can couple that with am 80ED, and a reducer for your DSLR and you are well on the way to getting quality images. A cheap guiding setup as well (this will all become clear in Steve's book) and you will be there.

Data capture though is only half the battle. Assuming that you have hours worth of good data, you canrealistically then spend as many hours again processing it to get a half decent image. I thought I'd mention that as often it gets ignored.

The scope that you mention 100ED is really a little on the slow side for DSO photography, even with a reducer on it. You really want to avoid imaging at anything less than f7 if you can avoid it, in my opinion. Refractors are a good place to start. They are about as plug and play as you can get. Also in your plans if you do get a guiding setup, you'll need to think about a PC.

Couldnt agree more, I've just bought this and as a complete novice to imagining it's a godsend, it starts right at the very beginning with the very basic requirements needed and takes you thru the lot, if it were me with £1000 i'd get the EQ6 syntrek (non-goto as u can guide with free software download eqmod-which is explained in the book) and go from there.

[kiapete1911]

Is there alot of difference between the EQ6 and the HEQ5 SynTrek keeping in mind i still want some good glass to sit on top of this with little chromatic aberration.

Scott as for the Barn door suggestion, i originally before i though about getting a scope i was looking at the Vixen Polarie star tracker

After i priced that up with some other bits i needed i though it was more logical to get a telescope for images and price then that price slowly got steeper,

so the mount is either going to be a EQ6 or HEQ5 SynTrek (so far)

Thanks for the input so far guys!

Olly and Swag72 your images are fantastic!

[VigdisVZ]

The NEQ-6 is sturdier and less prone to vibrating in the wind than than the HEQ-5 and is ofcourse better at handling larger OTA's without problem.

It's the best mount you can get unless you want to spend 4 times as much and get a MESU-mount.

[kiapete1911]

so its looking like the EQ6 syn

i started from scratch with the scope i was going to use, i had in my head a refractor was the way to go but newts seem to have a lower f, like as olly mentioned the somthing like skywatcher 200p . i decided nebula and galaxys are what i want to photograph. so what would be a good scope from here.

[ollypenrice]

Well, the Newt wins if you just look at the numbers. Faster F ratio, more aperture. However, it's not that simple. Refractors are much easier, needing no collimation. Flats are easier to take and orthogonality at the focuser is less tricky. Given that AP is complicated and is about making the most of precious time, the ease of the refractor has a lot to be said for it. I image with both and find the refractors very significantly more simple.

Olly

[nephilim]

so its looking like the EQ6 syn

i started from scratch with the scope i was going to use, i had in my head a refractor was the way to go but newts seem to have a lower f, like as olly mentioned the somthing like skywatcher 200p . i decided nebula and galaxys are what i want to photograph. so what would be a good scope from here.

From what i'v read in the book and on here from alot of people is a refracter is a great place to start, the ED80 you mentioned is the one recommended and the money u'd save not buying the goto system would more or less pay for that. fast reflectors require precise collimation and unless u have a permanent set up its going to be alot of hassle setting up a big newt over a small refractor. Your then going to have to look at a guide camera (something like the QHY5) and a guide scope (ST80 startravel ) these im afraid are the basics and your looking at around £1500, the thing is u dont want to waste any money on something u'll regret buying later. Really would recommend u start with Steve's book, u can order it from FLO or direct from Steve (He's Steppenwolf on here) its £20 you'll be glad u spent. Good look.

[swag72]

I'm another in the refractor camp, I've not tried any other kind of scope and I don't think I will. Refractors are the most tolerant scopes out there. Tolerant in that they don't need collimation and they take very little time to cool down to name but 2 things. You can get fast refractors - the Tak FSQ85 reduces down to something like F3.9 (Correct me if I'm wrong Olly!), but that is going to cost you a lot of money. There are many folks on here using an 80ED scope (there's a large number of companies out there producing this size scope) and they get some great results. You can play with the field of view you will get in a way by changing your camera - Take a look at CCDCalc (downloadable of the web) and you can put in a scope and also a camera, it will give you an idea of the different combo's and the representative field of view.

This hobby is tricky (understatement as I'm feeling quick mellow today!) and for me I want everything to be as simple as possible. That's not to say that it is easy, it's definitely not, and also things are always going wrong. But when it goes well ............. you forget all of the bad bits. For me, I want to maximise the good and minimise the bad, so I get the easiest possible kit I can, with the minimum amount to go wrong!!

[kiapete1911]

i ordered make every photon count this morning .

swag what you are talking about there sounds perfect keep every thing "as simple as possible", lowering the chance some thing can go wrong, im half tempted to get the NEQ6 and just attach my camera to it for now then buy a great scope later , save another grand and buy the scope on a bigger budget.

this is a good enough compromise for now as i mentioned above originally i was going to get the vixen star tracker but for the price of that i may aswell go the extra mile and get a mount leaving room to upgrade to a telescope

[sloz1664]

i ordered make every photon count this morning .

swag what you are talking about there sounds perfect keep every thing "as simple as possible", lowering the chance some thing can go wrong, im half tempted to get the NEQ6 and just attach my camera to it for now then buy a great scope later , save another grand and buy the scope on a bigger budget.

this is a good enough compromise for now as i mentioned above originally i was going to get the vixen star tracker but for the price of that i may aswell go the extra mile and get a mount leaving room to upgrade to a telescope.

can't agree more. The camera & lens makes wonderful widescreen shots and is quite forgiving. By the time you have understood polar alignment, eqmod, focusing, finding your chosen objects, aligning your objects, test shots, image aquisition, dark frames, bias frames, flat frames, aligning images, stacking images & the dark art of processing you will have saved up for your chosen telescope & can use it with pride.

cheers

Steve

im

[kiapete1911]

Any other final bits of wisdom off any one

thanks for all the information and replys guys its really cleared things up! im now only slightly confused instead of completely lost and confused

[stem1989]

for photography your mount is what you want to spend the majority of your budget on, always EQ not AZ for photography, a good mount will usually produce stunning images with an not so great scope, but an not so good mount with a great scope will be much worse so you need to find a happy medium within your budget. Guiding is something to consider for long exposures, and I would advise the HEQ5 syntrek not synscan (unless you are not using a laptop) which retails at around £635, you can go down to the EQ5 pro and possibly an EQ3-2 pro but if I could start again I would future proof my setup as Im very limited to what I can put on weight wise.

Get a 50x9 finderscope for around 40-50£, a good guide cam £120 second hand and spend a couple hundred on an OTA, I love my small refractor for wide field images. This should give you a basic set up but I always find there are little bits and bobs you end up getting which cost an arm and a leg and push the price up so (adapters, filters etc all add up ) do plenty of research and look on astrobuysell uk for bargains.

Hope whatever you decide brings you some great shots!

[kiapete1911]

I decided to sit on the idea for a year to see if i was still interested in doing this which i am, so this is what i have so far in the image below

The Setup

and i will upgrade to a Newtonian Reflector later

[kiapete1911]

I decided to sit on the idea for a year to see if i was still interested in doing this which i am, so this is what i have so far in the image below

The Setup

and i will upgrade to a Newtonian Reflector later

Link is broken

http://i.imgur.com/PgFqMBy.jpg

[pete_l]

About a year ago i picked up a Canon 550D/T2i DSLR. ...

i have a 300mm camera lens and a pretty expensive 2.2x telephoto lens on that which brings me around 660mm focal lengh at f5.6, it not as good as a true 600mm telescope but its not bad.

OK, The camera + 300mm lens is all the "telescope" you'll need to start out.

My suggestion would be to spend most of your money on a mount. If you buy retail, the HEQ5 is within budget. Go for the Syntrek version and spend another £50 on an EQMod box. The EQMod goes between the telescope and your computer and allows you to control the GOTO on the mount.

You'll also have to spend some money on accessories to connect your camera + lens to the mount.

This will give you a rig that, if carefully aligned, will let you take 30 second "sub-frames" of DSO objects. By taking a sequence of images: say 10 - 20, you will be able to use stacking software to combine them into what is effectively a longer exposure final image.

The short focal length of your lens is quite adequate (some might even say an advantage) for DSO imaging and the wide field of view will produce some pleasing images. However, since this mount will not be guided unless you spend another £300-400 on additional equipment, there will inevitably be some limitations and setting up will require a procedure that will take a while until you develop "the knack".

[kiapete1911]

Skywatcher Evostar 80ED DS-Pro Outfit £459.00 £459.00     Skywatcher HEQ5 SynTrek £635.00 £635.00     Skywatcher DSLR-M48 Ring Adapter £15.00 £15.00     Skywatcher Focal Reducers £160.00 £160.00     HitecAstro EQDIR adapter for EQMOD £27.95 £27.95  

I already Own a laptop

Is there any thing i missed!?

if i bought this is every thing there to be able to put it all together attach a my camera to it, plug it in to my laptop with the relevant software

and start tracking the stars?