Worked hard all 2013!! Now to reward myself

[Jandy100]

Hi All,

After a long 2013 of hard work it is time to reward myself. Like most people I have been glued to the TV throughout the recent Stargazing Live event for ideas & inspiration.

I have an Evostar 120 on EQ5 currently which I use manually for visual astronomy but I really would like to get into and try some astrophotography. Certainly not in a serious way, as my budget just would really be blown away. My better half is an amateur photographer & would like to have go with her DSLR.

I have even considered a Lunt 35mm for maybe some solar imaging but I don't think my budget will go far enough & also I believe the 35mm is predominantly a visual scope & not up to up job for imaging. But I may be wrong....

I have a fixed budget of £800 (& really cannot go anymore) & wondered what equipment I should consider to be able to have a go at astrophotography.

Any advice & recommendations you can share on what equipment I should consider would be appreciated.

Thanks

Andy

Milton Keynes

[nmoushon]

You will need a T-adaptor for your dslr and then you can put it right into your scope. Because you have an Achromatic refractor you will limit yourself to lunar and planetary imaging. You might even get some CA on the planets to. For lunar your DSLR will work just fine. But for planetary you might have a problem if your camera doesn't shoot video. I'm not sure if a dslr will be able to take pictures of the bright planets and be able handle their brightness and not over saturate the picture. Video is the way around this. If your dslr doesnt have video you could either DIY a cheap webcam or buy a dedicated ccd/guide cam. The QHY5L-II is a new cheap camera that has a good track record and is good for its price. I bought mine for $200 news...not sure what they cost in GBP.

If you wanted to get into long exposure AP for deep sky objects the most common/popular route is a ED80 refractor. Your EG5 isn't the best for DSO AP but you can still get by with it. You will probably want to get some type of guiding setup also if you go this route. There are several options here. Theres been several threads about people wanting to get into AP recently so take a quick search on here and you'll find a lot of usefull stuff.

[m37]

Your scope with a DSLR will give you very, very small images of planets; the DSLR will most likely have a very big chip so your images of planets will be little! The moon will look reasonable but probably won't fill the frame (maybe about 25% of the frame?). Barlows make things bigger but your scope might not cope with this kind of magnification.

The manual/advertising probably says 'DIRECT DSLR CONNECTION' but you will still need to convert the DSLR to what's called a T Thread to fit this direct (T Thread) connection (!) Depending on the make of DSLR these are not pricey. http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/t-rings.html

You don't say whether your mount has motors fitted, this will be an important factor. Assuming it has, your budget of £800 is probably not going to stretch to a serious astrophotography setup. As a very cheap way to dip your toe in the water with your existing scope and mount could I suggest a Microsoft Lifecam (webcam) and an adaptor to fit it on your existing scope? You would be up and running pretty quickly and could do some lunar and planetary to see how you get on. You point at your object and stick Live View on the webcam in something like Sharpcap (free), set the exposure and gain to see as much detail as possible without being overexposed, capture as much video as you can, then stack it in Registax (also free) and fiddle about with it. Then there's post processing in Photoshop/GIMP etc.

This will give you loads to get on with to give you a taste of AP before you decide whether to get more into it. Registax itself is complicated enough, and it will take a while to get the hang of focusing, pointing, focusing again, tracking, exposure, focusing, frame rate, focusing, kicking mount, starting again, focusing, clouding over...

So DSLR with T Ring for the moon, Lifecam (or other webcam) for planets, not too expensive, off you go!!!

cheers and good luck with it

Chris

[Obi Wan Ken00bi]

Hmm, maybe get yourself a nice 80 mm ED scope with a 2 inch, 1:10 crayford focusser, a t ring and the book Making every photon count. After that, perhaps the qhy 5 webcam with a 9x50 finder scope for guiding. After that, and after another year, a heq 5 mount.....

[Jandy100]

Thanks for the responses. Looks like £800 is not going to go very far at all at this rate with a least £320 on the Synscan TM go to upgrade kit for EQ5 & then £150 for power tank, adaptor & leads & £190 for a QHY5 planetary imaging camera.

I think the upgrade from Evostar 120 to the 80mm ED & eyepieces is going to a future purchase.....

Andy

Milton Keynes

[jonathan]

No need to spend £150 on a power tank, a reasonable leisure battery can be had for about £80 but unless you're standing on a hill top in the middle of nowhere you're probably better off with a mains setup for imaging (laptop / camera, dew control, mount drive, it soon eats your amp hours).

Goto not strictly necessary either I don't think, just SynTrek for tracking; given a Pro version of the HEQ mount you should later be able to plug in extra bits for guiding (EQMod etc).

You will need to learn precise polar alignment, so a polar scope is handy to have (some mounts do not include them as standard).

I think you could do reasonably well with a tracking polar-aligned mount and a good 80mm refractor, a learning step without breaking the bank.  Consider the Equinox 80 Pro, it's one of the better 80mm refractors that you may just end up keeping for a long time.  The mount may be your most expensive item.

[Obi Wan Ken00bi]

I agree with jonathan, 320 for just the  computer and motors? Second hand foro eq5 go for that money right? Perhaps sell your eq5 and buy a heq5 with tracking build in? Not sure how much they cost.

but maybe first get the book I mentioned? That will answer loads about your equipment and future purchases... really helped me a lot and saves me money...

[Obi Wan Ken00bi]

Foro = goto .....

I wouldnt invest much money into the mount, unless you can use the upgrades on future mounts. The eq5 is a good mount, but if you are really getting into ap you will replace it someday... 

[Luke]

My suggestion would be get a solar scope (I would say that, being into solar!!) and enjoy the views, and dabble wtih some lunar imaging using your 120 if you haven't already done that. I found it quite hard to combine DSO imaging with visual. The main problems were my lack of an observatory (so that gear needs less setup time) and the lack of clear nights. Lunar imaging doesn't need to take very long and can e.g. be done at the end of a visual session so that you get your full enjoyment on the visual side of things.