How best to get into DSO astrophotography?

[jjqpr]

Hi all, I have a question, I have managed to take some shots of jupiter and the moon using my skyliner 250px and baadar 5mm eyepiece with my canon 7d (eyepiece projection)... but I really want to look into DSO stuff.

Obviously the mount the skyliner 250px is on is hopeless and doesn't track, so i want to know what options I have, and I think I am right in thinking the following but really need some advice!

1. Get a tracking mount for 250px and continue to use eyepiece projection or find a way to mount dslr to scope. I THINK the minimum mount would be EQ6 is that right or would ES5 be OK? Sometimes I see stuff about tracking, sometimes "GOTO", are these the same thing?

2. Get a mount (eq5, 6 etc) and just mount DSLR straight on to this removing the telescope all together? In this case what sort of lens would be best on the camera?

3. Something else I've probably missed, I assume the terrible mount the scope comes with can't somehow be automated?!

Thanks for any advice I am totally new and need to know how much I need to start saving!!

[swag72]

Your first investment should be the book 'Making Every Photon Count' available from the FLO site in the book section. This is an imagers bible and should be compulsory reading ...... twice through before a penny is spent!!

Onto spending your pennies ............

The most recommended DSO AP rig is something like an 80ED scope and an HEQ5 mount - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-pro-heq5-pro.html - This package price will give you an idea of what you want to start saving for. You will benefit largely from adding a reducer http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/skywatcher-85x-reducer-flattener-for-ed80.html into this package and also you can then connect it with http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/skywatcher-dslr-m48-ring-adapter.html to your camera.

• You may want to consider how you would power your mount - Either mains or battery.
• A Bahtinov mask for assisting with focus http://www.firstlightoptics.com/bahtinov-focus-masks/starsharp-bahtinov-focus-masks.html
• How are you going to capture your data? Using a PC? Would be a good idea as you can then consider using the PC for a guided setup later (Steve's book will explain it all) - For data capture you can use Canon Utilities that comes with the camera. You'll get live view on the PC screen, good for focus.
• A Light Pollution filter - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction/idas-d1-light-pollution-suppression-filter.html this is very good or you could consider an Astronomiks clip in filter http://www.astronomik.com/en/clip-filter-system.html - Bern at Modern Astronomy is your guy for these.

Phew!! Processing software - The stacking software that many use (DeepSkyStacker) is free and many then use Photoshop for the processing side.

Alternatively you can just use your camera and lens, Probably a much cheaper option!!!

Many will answer this and give you differing points of view, this is just based upon my own experience with AP. You want to keep this difficult hobby as simple as possible in my opinion. You want to keep every bit of data you take, not have to bin it as you've not got ideal equipment.

If you hop across to the imaging section, take a look at what is in there and be realistic about your aspirations. People normally list their kit with their image, so that will also give you a good idea of a starting point.

I hope that is of help

[jjqpr]

Wow that is a lot of help, thanks! I must admit I hadn't thought about buying a whole new scope having only just got the 250px Maybe I should have researched more about AP before buying, though I don't regret the 250px , just seeing jupiter was a real wow moment for me!

So I do like viewing very much, AP would just be a bonus....OK at the risk of looking like a total idiot...is it actually possible to "see" any DSO through a telescope or is the only way to have long exposure AP? I guess what Im asking is what else can I see with my eyes using the 250px, I have a 5mm, 10mm and 25mm eyepieces.

Finally if I were just to use the DSLR on a tracking mount, would I be able to use a longer lens to get deeper DSO's or is that just being stupid and the only way is a telescope like the one you link to above?

That book crops up a lot so yes I will start there! Thank you. And sorry for the really probably dumb questions!

[swag72]

'''.is it actually possible to "see" any DSO through a telescope or is the only way to have long exposure AP? I guess what Im asking is what else can I see with my eyes using the 250px, I have a 5mm, 10mm and 25mm eyepiece

Yes you can see DSO's through your scope. But as an imager, I've never really looked through a scope, so can't offer you much advice on that. If you look in the sketching section that will give you good indications of the sort of things you can see. Nothing will be bright and colourful as the images you see on websites etc.

....Finally if I were just to use the DSLR on a tracking mount, would I be able to use a longer lens to get deeper DSO's or is that just being stupid and the only way is a telescope like the one you link to above?

Yes you absolutely can use longer lens' on DSO's - There's a few members on here that use almost exclusively camera lens' and not telescopes at all. For that you could use an Astrotrac http://www.firstlightoptics.com/astrotrac/astrotrac-tt320x-ag.html - There's some excellent examples on the forum of members using that setup and it really does work well.

[autonm]

Your first investment should be the book 'Making Every Photon Count' available from the FLO site in the book section. This is an imagers bible and should be compulsory reading ...... twice through before a penny is spent!!

Onto spending your pennies ............

The most recommended DSO AP rig is something like an 80ED scope and an HEQ5 mount - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/pro-series/skywatcher-evostar-80ed-pro-heq5-pro.html - This package price will give you an idea of what you want to start saving for. You will benefit largely from adding a reducer http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reducersflatteners/skywatcher-85x-reducer-flattener-for-ed80.html into this package and also you can then connect it with http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/skywatcher-dslr-m48-ring-adapter.html to your camera.

• You may want to consider how you would power your mount - Either mains or battery.
• A Bahtinov mask for assisting with focus http://www.firstlightoptics.com/bahtinov-focus-masks/starsharp-bahtinov-focus-masks.html
• How are you going to capture your data? Using a PC? Would be a good idea as you can then consider using the PC for a guided setup later (Steve's book will explain it all) - For data capture you can use Canon Utilities that comes with the camera. You'll get live view on the PC screen, good for focus.
• A Light Pollution filter - http://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction/idas-d1-light-pollution-suppression-filter.html this is very good or you could consider an Astronomiks clip in filter http://www.astronomik.com/en/clip-filter-system.html - Bern at Modern Astronomy is your guy for these.

Phew!! Processing software - The stacking software that many use (DeepSkyStacker) is free and many then use Photoshop for the processing side.

Alternatively you can just use your camera and lens, Probably a much cheaper option!!!

Many will answer this and give you differing points of view, this is just based upon my own experience with AP. You want to keep this difficult hobby as simple as possible in my opinion. You want to keep every bit of data you take, not have to bin it as you've not got ideal equipment.

If you hop across to the imaging section, take a look at what is in there and be realistic about your aspirations. People normally list their kit with their image, so that will also give you a good idea of a starting point.

I hope that is of help

This is one of the best replies I have read in a while !!  Every point I agree with.

First off buy the book 'Making Every Photon Count; - worth its weight in gold and will save you pain and ££ in the future.

I started off myself with a 200p Dob (manual mount)...  purchased a HEQ5 mount and placed the 200p on it. Using my Canon DSLR 1100d I attached it to my 200p scope.

Pictures taken can be found on my website www.mauton.co.uk   with that setup.

However if your wanting to get into DSO you also need to consider, do you have a laptop? which software have you access too? you you have long extensions into your garden? USB cable extensions if you want to run things from within your house... lots of other questions.

12 months ago I was in the same boat as you however ... read that book !!

[todd8137]

As much as it's liked MEPC ,is ok not essential I have never read it yet and still take good deep sky images ,I would try and pick one up second hand, ,dso imaging is not as har..d as it's made out to be there's hundreds of threads and other web sites on this matter it's not that hard to do your on your way with ep projection ,you will need to spend a bit of money tho so your wallets going to take the brunt of it ,there's second hand of course have uou Jo one local to show you what you will need

It's a little boring gathering the data as well did you have a price you want to spend ?

Cheers pat