what do i need?

[ben the mercian]

My wife is a photographer and wants to try her hand at astrophotography. Ive had a look at a few things (attatchments and stuff) on the tinterweb , but im still not sure what we need to get started. I have a skywatcher explorer 130 eq2 and a Nikon D3200 DSLR. What atatchments do I need to attatch the camera to the scope? any help would be appreciated, thanx guys.

    Ben

[brewaskew]

I am new to this as well, but from what I have gathered so far, you can either get a piggyback adapter for your scope, basically put the camera on top of your scope so it is shooting the same area of sky your scope is pointed at, or you can get a t-ring (needs to be specific for your brand of camera) and a t-adapter for your scope (which attaches to the t-ring and then you can attach it to the scope)

[ben the mercian]

thanx brewaskew, I will have a look at some kit

[m37]

You might struggle with I nward focuser travel if direct mounting a DSLR. Low profile focusers are expensive so search YouTube for a guide by astronomy and nature TV on using a Barlow to overcome the problem, if memory serves!

[ben the mercian]

i was looking on ebay at a skywatcher t adapter with the 2x barlow built into it. Do you think that would be ok?

[Sandraj]

Have a look at this  

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Revelation_Projection_Camera_Adapter_1_25__-1.html

I think that allows you to put plossl lens inside it, which connects to the T ring which you screw to the camera.

[brantuk]

Depends what she wants to photograph. For instance imaging planets is best done with a webcam - for deep sky objects a dslr is fine - but dso's also require guiding (which means an additional scope and camera and a mount that will take all the gear and track incredibly accurately).

For a dabble have a look in the imaging sections for initial settings - they are totally different for night time photography. I'd also suggest she starts with a read of this book to appraise herself of everything that's involved:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

Have a look into imaging software like Registax for planets, Deep Sky Stacker for dso's, Phd (Push Here Dummy) for guiding, Photoshop or Gimp (Gnu Image Processing). There's a lot more but that's enough to get you started - hope it helps.

[star2001]

I would look into at least a Celestron Advanced goto mount, a rich field triplet refractor with dual speed focuser (example: Barska Magnus 65 or 80mm), autoguider. This would a good match for Nikon camera and easiest to master setup. Also a willing mentor helps the most.

[ben the mercian]

thanx guys