Choose your kit wisely!!!!

[jamoo]

Right............

have been looking at this website for a while now, just looking at a few topics and stuff and generally admiring the photos people are managing to get, some very very nice indeed.

I have recently come into some money and now am looking to start getting to grips with imaging...i have a budget of around £4000 and have a good DSLR (CANON 600D) and am wanting to buy some equipment from the ground up. I am planning on using the camera for imaging and have a couple of prime lenses and a couple of kit lenses(50 1.8, 85 1.8, 35-80 18-55). would really appreciate some advice on what people would buy if they were in my position. The amount of kit available is quite intimidating for the newbie and i really haven't a clue when it comes to imaging but i have had a few telescopes before(celestron 127eq,meade etx125,celestron cpc800) would like to see what other would do with the cash!

[ian_bird]

Spend 60% of your budget on the best mount you can lay your mitts on.

It's all about the mount. The better the mount - the better the result. And a lot less tears.

And get a CCD.

Other members will give far better advice - but remember the mount! I have been through 3 mount upgrades in 2 years. Wish someone had given me this advice back then!

Cheers

Ian

[baggywrinkle]

You can of course use your Canon 600D, but lay aside some money for a reasonable priced CCD later when you have got the swing of things.

In the meantime use the money to get at least an OTA on an EQ5 mount at the least. If you really do want to do DSO work then an EQ mount is really needed.

The max exposure times on an AZ mount would be 30-45 secs to prevent star trailing and depending if you are photographing objects on a north-south axis (longer exposure times) or on a west-east axis (shorter) exposure times.

A properly set up EQ mount would allow minutes of exposure time.

Get hold of a copy of 'Making Every Photom Count' by Steve Richards. Worth every penny.

[nightfisher]

The most important part of the kit will be a good mount some thing like HEQ5 pro or EQ6 then you will more than likely be advised to get a smallish ED refractor

[Daniel-K]

NEQ6 PRO,William optics FLT 110, AND an atik314 CCD

[ncjunk]

I would go for the az eq6gt as it should be slightly better quality with a number of improvements.

The atik 428ex would be a better camera than the 314 as it has a higher sensitivity and better resolution(you 460 is a larger version of the 428 but i think the 428 would be perfect)

AZ EQ6-GT 1,349

Atik 428ex 1,495

Sky watcher ed80 349

To be honest you could pick a better quality telescope than the ed80 but its a good allrounder.

I'd then spend another 800 on filter wheel, filters, guide camera, off axis guider. (Buying some of these second hand)

Sent from my GT-I9003 using Tapatalk 2

[baggywrinkle]

I have the SWED80 on an HEQ5 mount. No problems with weight or balancing even when you add cameras.

The Skywatcher ED80 is a superb widefield OTA, crisp clean views, beauitfully made and punches well above it's weight. a 10:1 focuser to help get fine focus control.

There are quite a few ED80 fans on this forum.

The OP could even go for the 102 or 120mm versions with the budget they have.

[Ant]

With a budget of four grand, the mount is easy.

Get yourself an EQ6, almost completely future proof, very capable.http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-neq6-pro-synscan.html £959

You'll need a laptop, I use an Acer I3, which cost about £350. So it doesn't have to be anything hugely expensive (try to get four USB ports).

The scope part is actually harder. You have three main choices...

1. One scope (maybe Ed80 or similar) and go the unguided route, you will be limited to a couple of minutes exposure time, depending how accurate you polar align. You don't need a laptop at the scope for this route.

2. Two scopes side by side, guide through one and image through the other. This route is fairly straight forward, you'll need a guide camera and you use software to guide the mount. You can get 5, 10, 15 minute exposures using this route, but flex between the two mounts will ultimately set the longest exposure times (as well as local sky conditions). This is a less complicated route than option three, because the guide and imaging cameras are separate, so changes in (eg) focus on one doesn't affect the other.

3. One scope guide and image through the same scope using an off access guider. This is harder to setup, but is worth the effort, the flex issue goes away and exposure times can go up to as long as sky conditions allow. I've taken 60 minute subs without too many issues.

Sky conditions are potentially going to be a problem using a colour camera. Unless you live somewhere nice and dark, you may want to consider getting a CCD (SX or ATIK start at around £1500), you can then use filters get around light pollution.

I'm going to stick my neck out and make specific suggestions

Eq6 - £959

Ed80 or similar - c£500

Ccd - c£1500 (http://www.firstlightoptics.com/starlight-xpress-cameras/starlight-xpress-sxvr-h9-mono-ccd-camera.html)

Guide camera - lodestar c£400 (http://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/starlight-xpress-lodestar-autoguider.html)

Off axis guider / filter wheel - £290 (http://www.firstlightoptics.com/starlight-xpress-accessories/starlight-xpress-usb-mini-filter-wheel-oag.html)

EQDIR -

Filters (ha and OIII) - about a hundred quid each

That comes in at just under 4 grand.

You can buy second hand to bring the price down.

Ant

[swag72]

I would definitely buy the book 'Making Every Photon Count' from the book section of the FLO website. This will be really useful to you to understand and be better equipped when it comes to AP. At £20 it is a tiny drop in your budget ocean - The best £20 you will spend.

I would echo thoughts about going second hand - You will get much more for your money. With the introduction of the EQ8 mount to the UK in October time I am sure that if you can wait that long there will be a load of quality EQ6's for sale as people upgrade. Certainly I read that from a guy in Oz, where the mount has already landed. So that's the mount sorted then!!

I know this is going to sound really repetative to the other posts, but that's because people are offering good advice. An 80ED scope, an Atik 314L+ mono with manual filter wheel and filters. Narrowband is good to combat light pollution and you may need a light pollution filter as well. Some form of guiding (a finderguider works well) and many people use a QHY5 camera with this to good effect, and a reducer as well to throw into the mix. You'll need a PC so that you can run it all if you go down this route.

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Jamoo!

My only advice would be to heed the advice given by all the guys who posted before me. They know what they're talking about!

Dana

[Moonshane]

I am visual only but my advice would be spend some time with a competent imager before you buy anything. when you realise the extreme processing effort it takes to get some of the results on here, you may decide imaging is not for you. if you still think imaging is for you when you know what's involved to get first class results, then fill your boots with the advice above.

[damnut]

Hi Jamoo,

Warm welcome to SGL, echo Swag72's comments about making every photon count, this book will save you cash in the long run. Also do consider used kit, lots of good kit around.

The other thing I would do is to find your local astro club and see what kit other folk have and the realtime results they generate. And check out the imaging forum and some of the excellent images sent in by the good folk here.

[damnut]

Ha,

Moonshane & i crossed in the ether, love that dob.!

[ronl]

Hi Jamoo welcome to the lounge,

whatever your decision on kit, Enjoy.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's

[jamoo]

Thanks so much for the replies, I have ordered 'making every photon count' and I already have turn left at orion. Not so long ago I only thought there were just a handful of nebulae and galaxies. I am astounded at the pictures people are getting! One thing i have looked at is hyperstar as I have had a celestron cpc before. Just don't know enough about it. The budget has taken a bit of a hit today as I have bought an L series lens for the camera. I was thinking the same thing as you said Moonshane but the astro group near me only have open evenings once a month. March, April and May were all rained off, and they don't meet till again august, I am getting itchy with wanting to get on with this and try my hand at imaging. the price of the neq6 seems attractive and seems like a good buy, there is a Williams optics 132flt with eq6 on ebay at the moment and I am really tempted with it but wonder if this may be too much for a beginner to cope with?

[HIP3802]

Hi, Jamoo, and welcome to SGL!

[jamoo]

I also went through a short phase of wanting a dob but cash was limited and my other half likes neat and tidy, not man cave!!! Again Thanks for the warm welcome!!!

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire

[JamesM]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Clear skies

James

[Bizibilder]

Hello Jamoo and welcome to SGL!!

[DrRobin]

Hi Jamoo and welcome,

Most here agree that a Skywatcher EQ6 would be a good choice for a mount and capable of carrying a variety of scopes.

Your choice of scope really depends on what you want to image. If it is small DSOs then a fairly long focal length scope is required, this probably means a reflector (Newtonian or SCT). If it is large star fields then a short focal length rich field refractor is hard to beat. If it is planets then again fairly long focal length helps.

As regards brightness, generally the fainter the objects the bigger the aperture to gather more light.

Your Canon 600D would be ideal as a starter camera, you can get some very good pictures with these Canon cameras. If you want to move to something lower noise and higher gain then a cooled CCD is required. After a couple of seasons with the Canon you probably want to look at a mono CCD and use RGB filters. Replacing a Canon with a One Shot Colour camera probably won't be the jump you are looking for.

Oh and to track correctly you will need a guide camera and guidescope, but you can modify a finderscope to use as a guider.

Good luck, spend some time looking around and consider how easily you can set up and store that big scope, coupled with the number of good nights a year and you might end up with something smaller than you first think.

Robin

PS, I use an EQ6 with a 8" or 11" SCT and a Canon 600D.

[Amra]

Welcome! Wish I had 4k to spend.

[Moonshane]

As regards brightness, generally the fainter the objects the bigger the aperture to gather more light.

for visual yes (although technically you cannot make anything brighter, just more apparent and larger) but surely not for imaging? it's a faster focal ratio that gathers more light (in a short space of time) than aperture. aperture = resolution mainly for imaging and focal length determines field of view/appropriate chip size?

[DrRobin]

It is my understanding that F number v brightness (apparent) only holds true when the subject field is evenly lit, when it is a point source or very nearly a point source then it's aperture. According to my measurements on a typical galaxy (M81) it is a combination of the two. I went from a C11 at F/10 to an 8" at F/4, the camera was the same and the exposure times didn't reduce as predicted by the f number alone, it was roughly somewhere in the middle, indicating faster exposure times from the better f/number but also faster exposure times from the increased aperture.

Robin

[Moonshane]

hi Robin

You may well be right - I was basing my comments on other comments from imagers (possibly a dangerous thing to do) as I have no experience of it myself. it would be interesting if others have the same experience as yourself.