Newbie with the night sky

[Jupiter_13]

Hi everybody

As my title says I'm a complete beginner! I'm a photographer so I'm interesting in merging the two together. I have never owned a telescope but I have been doing some research and there are so many terminologies I'm not familiar with.

To narrow things down I'm currently looking at a Skywatcher Explorer 150p (hoping for something less than £300). I'm interested in the planets at the moment and would love to be able to see Jupiter in particular.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or could point me in the right direction

Lizie

[ronin]

There is a big difference between photography and astrophotography.

When in photography do you have the take 20 exposures each of 60 seconds where the object is moving, then stack one on another in order to get enough collected light to build up an image.

There is an astronomy club at Sturdington, I suggest you visit them and see if there is an imaging section. If there is visit and enquire about the various aspects.

http://fedastro.org.uk/cgi-bin2/cms-society2.php?societyid=30443

This is the fedastro entry, the club site seems to not list it's address.

The 150P generally cannot attain focus onto a DSLR sensor, you would need the PDS variant.

For planets the most common method is an Alt/Az (goto) Mak or SCT with a web cam. You track the planet, take a video (.avi) then feed this into something like Registax. A webcam is no real use for DSO's and a DSLR is not much use for planets. Throw in that for DSO's and long exposures you need an equitorial mount (driven). You can work out that planetary imaging is different to DSO imaging.

Astrophotography is generally expensive.

[ChrisLX200]

Astrophotography is something of an 'Extreme Sport' within the photography hobby   It's difficult and you have to be a bit mad, having lots of money helps too. Very rewarding when it all comes together though. The equipment tends to be expensive because it has to be both sturdy, precise and optically excellent. There are starting positions however, those that represent the minimum to get you going. It really depends what you hope to achieve. You could do a lot worse than buy (and read!) the book entitled 'Making Every Photon Count' ehich is available from our sponsor - click the link at the top of the page. I think that will answer most of the questions you have. Having read that, come back with more questions on here

ChrisH

[oldannie]

Hi Lizie - am also a newbie with aspirations of doing some astrophotography in spite of the complexities and expense having had 'ordinary' photography as my main hobby for a number of years.  It's taken me an age just to decide which equitorial mount to buy and a great deal of research.  I can also recommend Steve Richards book but also bought another book (on CD Rom) - Jerry Lodriguss, 'A Beginner's Guide to DSLR Astrophotography and think this is also excellent, though again that's from a beginners perspective, others my have a different view.

Good luck

Annie

[Owmuchonomy]

Hi everybody

As my title says I'm a complete beginner! I'm a photographer so I'm interesting in merging the two together. I have never owned a telescope but I have been doing some research and there are so many terminologies I'm not familiar with.

To narrow things down I'm currently looking at a Skywatcher Explorer 150p (hoping for something less than £300). I'm interested in the planets at the moment and would love to be able to see Jupiter in particular.

I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or could point me in the right direction

Lizie

Hi Lizie and welcome. As you are a photographer may I suggest a route similar to my first steps depending upon your current equipment? I started out by using my camera kit, so wide angle and telephoto piggy backed onto my equatorial mount. If you are intending to go the astro photography route the choice of telescope is significantly less important than choosing the right mount. For example, here is my first ever astro photo taken in September 2013 using a Canon 600d and a canon 300mm lens. Long exposure requirements drives the need to invest wisely in the correct type of mount.

[m37]

For planets, video is really the way to go. Take a video, use freeware like registax to stack the frames and maximise useful data.

A 130 on an az goto and a converted webcam or planetary cam might well do the job for you. You will get rotation in the field of view with an az mount as celestial objects follow an arc but you don't need to shoot very long videos. The best bet would be a reflector or mak on a decent GOTO equatorial but then it starts getting pricey. Bear in mind that p!anets also rotate on an axis so even if you can track them for a long time the image will change as the planet rotates.

For a quick and relatively cheap intro to planetary I would recommend a skywatcher 130 on an az GOTO mount and maybe one of those zwo planetary cameras or a converted lifecam.

Have a google for some images taken with different combinations of those and see what you like the look of.

Good luck

Chris