Astrophotography

[busby80]

Hi everyone , I own a celestron nexstar 8" telescope and planning on getting into some astrophotography and need some help. I'm looking into buying DSLR or maybe a ccd camera attachment . I'm pretty new to all this so any advice would be appreciated .

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[ronin]

You can easily do planets with the scope as is, attach a webcam, get movie, process movie.

For the rest there is a problem or two.

You will really need an equitorial mount, the Alt/Az of an 8SE simply tracks the sky wrong.

You could buy a wedge for the scope but they cost lots of money and you could get an EQ mount for much the same cost.

The 8SE is a slow SCT, f/10 as I recall for SCT's, immaterial of scope design you really want a fast scope, f/5 or f/6. There are 2 reasons for this:- brightness of image and reduction of tracking errors. And that is errors on an EQ mount. You could get a focal reducer for the 8SE, I have no idea on cost.

The divergence between visual and astrophotography is actually quite sharp, it is rare that a good visual setup will be suited to astrophotography. The criteria is odd to many. For visual you want a nice big scope, for astrophotography you often want a nice small scope.

Location ??

There are clubs around and you could be close to one that does a fair amount of imaging that you could be pointed to thjat may be able to give direct advice based on experience.

[oldpink]

Hi and welcome to SGL

for astro photography I hope you have deep pockets

DSLR is the cheaper entry level, you can buy a second hand Canon pretty cheaply or a dedicated astro modded for about £300 +

CCD is the more expensive level that can run into thousands of pounds then you have filters and filter wheels if you go mono

at F10 your scope isn't ideal and not sure the mount is good for astro photography as I don't think its an EQ mount though I may be way off on that one

[busby80]

Thanks ronin that's some great advice . I also own a smaller scope so maybe think of doing some astrophotography with that . [emoji3][emoji3]

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[busby80]

Thanks oldpink , May favour favour buying a DSLR as at the moment only using my I phone for shots . Here's a few pics I've managed so far .

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[Scott]

Just to very briefly explain from an extreme beginner, Astrophotography (AP) can be brocken down to 3 basic classes

1. camera on camera tripod

2. planetary

3. deep space

All three have very different needs so reading up on the subjuct is extremely important to avoid wasting your pennies.

A good place to start reading up on deep space imaging is "making every photon count", often touted as the deep sky astro imagers bible. £20 well spent imho

[ollypenrice]

Don't spend a penny on kit till you have done an awful lot more homework. For long exposure deep sky imaging the telescope is not a fraction as important as the mount and the telescope you have would need a very good mount.

Why not start with Steve RIchards' book, Making Every Photon Count? FLO carry it.

This may seem hard to swallow and counter intuitive but pretty well everything about deep sky astrophotography is exactly that. It is cheaper to believe this sooner rather than later.

Olly

http://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Best-of-Les-Granges/22435624_WLMPTM#!i=2266922474&k=Sc3kgzc

[Earl]

Your scope is great for luna and planetary avi stacking, focus on that. There is plenty to master in that field alone.

For Deep Space Objects, galaxys, nebula, clusters etc, its not really going to work easily.

To do it all will realistically takes multiple setups and thousands of pounds. and hours upon hours of learning.

[busby80]

Thanks for all your replies and help everybody. Some great advice [emoji2]

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[oldpink]

don't be disheartened
its still a good scope for visual or even planetary and lunar imaging
maybe look at getting a planetary cam, a lot cheaper than DSO imaging and great practice

[tingting44]

i started off as a visual observer with my 130-p at 1st, then i dabbled in some planetary imaging, then when back to visual when it got too technical, then i went back to planetary imaging, then DSO imaging, then planetary, then DSO..................you can see the pattern here lol.... personally if i started off and jumped straight into DSO imaging then i would have packed it in, as it does get very tricky, especially if you do not have the funds to get the gear you want and have to make do or jimmy rig things together, this often makes more problems then you think. I jimmy rigged my EQ5 with motors, GPUSB, guide port etc and to use a mount not ideally suited for long guiding it was just a pure head ache for me, needless to say when i got my HEQ5 a mount designed very well for the job of guiding i was off and guiding with my 1st attempt. These are just my own personal ramblings, but gives you a bit of an insight......i think lol

[Sandancer10]

I bought the kit in my signature especially for AP. I decided to go in at the deep end and concentrate on DSO. I have to be honest and say it wasn't easy, but the upside is you can look at your own work and get immense pleasure. If it was easy/cheap would it be so enjoyable - probably not.

My kit has cost me about £2,000 so far, without the DSLR.  As Ronin said you can start off with a relatively cheap webcam and try the Solar System first. It really depends on what you are interested in photographing and your budget.

Good luck in whichever direction you choose and happy Stargazing.

[Liquid360]

Just to show what can happen.... I began with a new 10in LX90. Spent a year looking around and a month ago decided I want to do deep space imaging. I haven't even purchased my CCDS yet and I'm already in for around $23,000USD. It's BRUTAL. You hear all these stories speaking of how hard it is to force equipment to do what they weren't intended to do and so you think if you ever do it you'll get the right equipment.... and so now I'm a poor guy with nice equipment. This is what I've signed up for and thus far have only potential and really the truth is that I have no idea at all what I'm doing and only a forum as a star to sail her by [emoji6] I just hope that a few months from now I'm not out here saying "you should get into deep space imaging! I've got a bunch of equipment to sell you".

[ronin]

It is like anything - the temptation is there for bigger, better and exponentially more expensive equipment.

You can do AP with something here like the EQ5, dual motors, nice small ED scope as the basic equipment.

The results will not match the images of those that have £20,000 of equipment and 20 years experience. However that is true in just about all other things as well.

To "worst" aspect of the items above is that the next step is to upgrade by quite a chunk, and the tempting upgrade of the scope would have to be the last.

There is however no reason why the budget has to go astronomical, a recent post was the 30 minute challenge. That is a good idea, it limits the total time so negates to use of costly equipment that will allow a 60 minute single exposure. A well set up dual motor EQ mount simply collects 60 second duration exposures for stacking.

[RichM63]

Hear hear Ronin, I'm a big believer in trying to get the most out of something that can possibly squeezed.

I will never have the budget to go for an amazing DSO rig, but who cares, anything I manage to get onto MY laptop screen is for me, and my self satisfaction in knowing that I did my best at the time.

Sadly I guess that the OP gave up and has not been seen since July.