One of those lovely spend my money posts

[pragmatist]

£3000 for astro photography setup inc CCD camera, mount scope etc.

Interesting to see what comes up. I promised I would only do visual but to be honest I am becoming a little bored with it and want to immerse myself a little more. I already bought making every photon count which I think is a good start.

Thanks,

Matt

[jonathan]

Yes, the right kit is one thing... having the knowledge to get the most out of it is another entirely.

[pragmatist]

This is what scares me. I like instant results and I know this genre gives you far from this. Quite an art I'm led to believe.

[Owmuchonomy]

What would you like to image? Your choice makes a big difference to the kit you need as I'm sure you've gleaned from Steve's book.

[pragmatist]

Hi Chris, pretty much deep sky. I like visual on planets but nebula and galaxies really interest me.

[nmoushon]

Firstly I would look into the second hand market. That will let your money go even farther.

To make a potentially long comment short I'll just post a list of my suggestions.

NEQ6

80-120mm refractor. Could go doublet or triplet depending on size

guidescope and guide camera - QHY5-II mono and either a seperate 80mm guidescope with rings and dovetail bar or could go cheap and do a 50mm finderguider but works just as good

field flattener/reducer - depending on if you get a triplet or doublet

CCD camera - could go cheap at first and get a DSLR but if you have to money i would suggest go ahead and jump into a mono CCD. There are lots out there but a common beginner one is the Atik.

[Owmuchonomy]

Hi Chris, pretty much deep sky. I like visual on planets but nebula and galaxies really interest me.

Well in that case, 3 things: mount, mount and mount.

Pretty much as post 6 really.

[pragmatist]

Looks good to me. May look at the altair astro refractors or Borgs as I am hearing so many bad things about Williams quality control.

[Owmuchonomy]

Looks good to me. May look at the altair astro refractors or Borgs as I am hearing so many bad things about Williams quality control.

I have the Altair 102 EDT and flattener. Lovely scope. I have an issue with the dedicated flattener though. With my DSLR it seems to push the flat field too much. It's being looked into right now. If you are going CCD and thus smaller real estate you should be fine.

[jonathan]

I have the Altair Astro too, only got as far as purchasing Every Photon Counts but not really read much yet.  So, NEQ6 - check.  102 triplet refractor - check.  Even if I bought a field flattener (if necessary) and a CCD, and somehow managed to work out how a guide scope worked, I'd still be stuck with polar alignment as I've never managed to do that successfully yet!

[Paul73]

Instant gratification???

Have you considered video astromomy? There is chap who posts some pretty amazing stuff on here with only a few minutes worth of data. I think that he may have some pretty gourmet kit and Sorry can't call his name at the moment.

Paul

[ronin]

iOptron IEQ30 @ £999, or if smaller the iOptron ZEQ25 @£850.

Atik 420 or 320 @£900

Scope is the difficult one, most of the WO apo's cost over £1000, GTF-81 for example.

Altair do an 80mm f/6 triplet @£850, Ian King do the new WO Star 71 @£790 which has a built in reducer/flatener.

Then I suppose comes guide camera and scope.

ZWO do a camera @ £220 that acts as a guider, there may be less costly but no idea what or who.

Guide scope can be an ST80 or I suppose OAG, cost unknown.

That should just scrape in at £3000.

ED doublets cost less but may display some CA, hence the triplets, not sure about good imaging reflectors

There is the Explore Scientific 80mm triplet the Alu-Essential at 599€ so about £500.

That would need a reducer flatener.

[Owmuchonomy]

I have the Altair Astro too, only got as far as purchasing Every Photon Counts but not really read much yet.  So, NEQ6 - check.  102 triplet refractor - check.  Even if I bought a field flattener (if necessary) and a CCD, and somehow managed to work out how a guide scope worked, I'd still be stuck with polar alignment as I've never managed to do that successfully yet!

The 102 Wave EDT comes with a flattener; well mine did.

Hijack alert: Jonathan, I can help you with your PA etc maybe? I'm near Ripon.

[jonathan]

The flattener was definitely an extra when I purchased mine which I didn't feel like paying for at the time (there was no real benefit price-wise as I recall, not part of a kit price).

I still don't know if I'll be bothered with serious imaging, maybe I'll just have a dabble at the video imaging or piggy backing my DSLR.

[Stu_2011]

Hi

I'm about 2 years into astro photography now with a couple of Atik CCDs, a couple of good 80 mm scopes + guide scope and an HEQ5 mount. What I'm finding is that once you are set-up and have a routine going (and the skies are clear) then taking the images is pretty easy and doesn't seem to involve much skill. I'm sure I can improve on capturing the data but I'm happy now with my capture results

The post processing is now the main challenge and personally for me is taking the most time to learn - this also requires purchases as the software to do post processing costs money. Something to consider for further down the road.

Thanks

Stuart

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[carastro]

HEQ5 (make sure it has a guide port) or NEQ6 if you think you might want a heavy scope later on.

Small Apo refractor - ED80 or WO or similar.

If you get a Skywatcher ED80 you can utilise the finderscope as a guidescope with a QHY5 camera.

Post 6 really sums it up.

I got my first imaging kit (without the guidescope) for £750 2nd hand so it can be done.

Carole