Proposed set up to begin astrophotograhy.

[Gas_mantle]

Hi all,

I'm a new member here and wonder if people would be prepared to give their comments on some equipment I'm thinking of buying in a couple of weeks time with a view to starting astrophotography.

I'm not a newcomer to astronomy or photography but don't currently have a telescope and have never done astrophotography (I do have a digital SLR), initially I'd thought of a Skywatcher Evostar 120 on a EQ5 pro goto mount (approx. £750) however now after reading more about the set up I'm thinking the mount won't be anything like accurate enough to contemplate achieving anything decent and the scope is very average.

So now I'm thinking of buying an EQ6 pro goto (about £950) and buy a very modest telescope just to use for 2 - 3 months till I've saved funds to buy something better. I thought about a Skywatcher Startravel 102 (about £170) with a view to buying a Skywatcher ED DS pro later (about £1500)

I realise it will mean for a while I'll have a cheap scope on a better quality mount but I'm happy to live with that for about 3 months till I can get the ED scope and the cheap scope may be useful as a guide scope later.

Any comments before I make a purchase would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Peter.

[Gas_mantle]

Sorry, I made a mistake above, the 120 ED DS PRO is about £1050 (not £1500 as I originally typed).

[Owmuchonomy]

Hi from Ripon Peter.  You've got your priorities right.  You won't go wrong with that mount.  You can always mount your normal photo gear on it assuming you have a few lenses to try as well and practice imaging with that.  Thats what I did.  Its a steep learning curve so feel free to ask for help and take a look at 'Making Every Photon Count' a book by Steve Richards.

[nephilim]

HEQ5 & the Skywatcher ED80 will keep you going for a long time & be a 3rd of the price of the EQ6/120ED combo, you dont really need a goto system, run it through EQMOD. Get a half decent canon EOS & a copy of BYEOS & your laughing.

Steve

[DaveS]

I would think twice about the ST 102, it will have horrendous CA, at least for AP, visual may be another matter.

I'll get burned as a heretic here, but how about pulling the mount down to a HEQ5 Syntrek (Which you can control through a laptop) and putting the differance (About £300) towards an ED APO, the ED80 should then come in on your budget.

Unless, of course you're planning a seriously massive rig.

Edit, nephilim got in while I was typing.

[Gas_mantle]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies, a few things for me to think about there.

As for the ST102, I realise it's a cheap scope and will suffer from CA but it's only intended as a short term solution till I can afford the 120 ED APO. Originally my budget was about £1000 but if I wanted to go for an EQ6 and 120 ED I'm looking at £2000 which I simply can't afford in one big outlay. The budget scope was simply a way of allowing me to at least use the mount (even if only visually) till I can get an ED APO scope.

Peter.

[DaveS]

Checking on FLO, a HEQ5 Syntrek, ED80 pro, 0.85 reducer / flattener and Canon T-ring come to £1153.

Why do you want the ED120? What camera will you be putting on it? Think about image scale and field of view.

Tracking and / guiding a long FL 'scope puts much greater demands on the whole rig. You *will* want a guiding set-up at that FL.

[Gas_mantle]

Hi,

I intend to do a mix of both visual and astrophotography and thought the 80mm ED may be lacking aperture for deepsky objects, the 120ED seems a good compromise that isn't too big or pricey but is still a decent quality scope.

I take your point that a larger scope puts more demands on the mount but surely an EQ6 won't have any trouble handling a 120 ED even with a guidescope and a DSLR, or will it ?

As for guiding, I kind of envisaged that a budget refractor would serve that purpose once I've got a decent quality main scope to do imaging with .

Thanks

Peter.

[swag72]

4 years ago now I decided I wanted to take up imaging. I spoke with a retailer knowing nothing and having never hooked up to a forum and I got, what I now know, to not really be the best starters kit. I ended up with an ED120 to start with - This was not ideal and I would not offer that advice to anyone now.

As a starting kit I would recommend an HEQ5 - a most excellent starter mount and the basis of many folks kit. It has enough bells and whistles to get you decent results with minimal fuss. Onto that I would put an ED80 (Not an ED120) - This is a good place to start and is going to be easier all round than the 120ED. It will not stress the mount at all and you will soon be getting decent subs out of it.

You don't mention a camera at all - I assume that you are looking at using a DSLR? You can buy a focal reducer / field flattener for the ED80 that will connect to your DSLR and give you round stars from corner to corner. If you want to get good images you don't want them ruined by poor stars in corners. 

Guiding is touted as a dark art, but generally I don't think it is. You can do this easily with a converted finder guider scope and with a camera such as the QHY5 II - The basis of many people's guiding kit. If you get the guiding setup, then you can go for longer exposures - Again the basis of any good images. Then you will probably need a light pollution filter as well.

I'm not sure how much of your money I've spent now! I would definitely steer clear of the ED120. It's a bit of a betwix and between focal length in my opinion. Not enough for small stuff and too long for short stuff. Have a look at the field of view calculator for some indication of how DSO's will sit in your field of view. http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fovcalc.php

Has the book Making Every Photon Count already been recommended? A real imagers bible, worth it's weight in gold. Read it ...... then read it twice more before spending a penny. By that time you will know what you want and why you need it. 

I hope that helps. Not a definitive answer by any means and probably different to some others, but based on my own experience in astro imaging.

[DaveS]

Well, you'll definately want a NEQ6 with that beast. By the time you're getting into that territory I'd be thinking Triplet Apo and CCD for serious money.

For DSOs visually, I'll recommed the inevitable 200p dob, even though I'm definately not one of the dob-mob. Always worth having something to look through while the subs come in.

You really need to pause, take a deep breth and work out where you see your imaging going, reading "Making Every Photon Count" in the meantime. That way you'll avoid any expensive blind alleys.

[Gas_mantle]

Many thanks to those good enough to offer advice, it seems like there is a lot in favour of an ED80 over an ED120.

What sort of results am I likely to get from an ED80 once I get used to it ? Will I be able to photographically resolve the belts on Jupiter or individual stars in the M13 globular cluster for example ?

Better still has anyone got any images they've taken through an ED80 that they'd be prepared to post ?

Many thanks

Peter.

[swag72]

Have a search on something like Astrobin http://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=ed80&search_type=0&license=0&license=1&license=2&license=3&license=4&license=5&license=6&telescope_type=any&telescope_type=0&telescope_type=1&telescope_type=2&telescope_type=3&telescope_type=4&telescope_type=5&telescope_type=6&telescope_type=7&telescope_type=8&telescope_type=9&telescope_type=10&telescope_type=11&telescope_type=12&telescope_type=13&telescope_type=14&telescope_type=15&telescope_type=16&telescope_type=17&telescope_type=18&telescope_type=19&telescope_type=20&telescope_type=21&telescope_type=22&camera_type=any&camera_type=0&camera_type=1&camera_type=2&camera_type=3&camera_type=4&camera_type=5

The search above is for ED80 images.

[Gas_mantle]

Have a search on something like Astrobin http://www.astrobin.com/search/?q=ed80&search_type=0&license=0&license=1&license=2&license=3&license=4&license=5&license=6&telescope_type=any&telescope_type=0&telescope_type=1&telescope_type=2&telescope_type=3&telescope_type=4&telescope_type=5&telescope_type=6&telescope_type=7&telescope_type=8&telescope_type=9&telescope_type=10&telescope_type=11&telescope_type=12&telescope_type=13&telescope_type=14&telescope_type=15&telescope_type=16&telescope_type=17&telescope_type=18&telescope_type=19&telescope_type=20&telescope_type=21&telescope_type=22&camera_type=any&camera_type=0&camera_type=1&camera_type=2&camera_type=3&camera_type=4&camera_type=5

The search above is for ED80 images.

Ok thanks, taking a look now :-)

[nephilim]

For imaging the planets you need  a decent barlow lense & a camera that does video capture (a webcam is ideal & cheap) the stills from the capture are then stacked using various software (I use Registax5) DSO AP & planetary AP are 2 entirely different beasts, the former being the harder (and MUCH more expensive).

Steve

[laser_jock99]

Don't know your budget but an EQ6 is as good as it gets without spending a lot more money especially if you're thinking of loading it with a 'proper' scope later on!

[Quatermass]

Mount first scope second nephilim pretty much nailed it lots of choices too many really. But don't forget the software to process your images that is vital and half of what you will be doing.

[Blazar]

You started the thread with comments on equipment, but not what you were interested in taking shots of. As Nephlim stated above planets are different in terms of the telescope and method of capturing it. No single scope will do everything, you (and your wallet) will find this out ;-)

Larger aperture scopes (read Long focal lengths) are generally employed on the planets (so 8" diameter is a good starting place), and a CMOS or web cam is then used in conjunction with a Barlow to magnify the image. planets only take up a small number of pixels on the camera so the camera is usually chosen (pixel size) specifically to match the optics and target. So a good newtonian or SCT will do for this side of imaging. A perfect polar alignment is not really required for this side of things...but I usually keep practising it anyway ;-)  Planets come and go, and at the moment not much is about (or at least at a reasonable time!)

Deep Sky Objects (DSO - nebula, galaxies globular clusters (Globs)) are small and dim (usually) and require long exposures and a fair number of shots. Long focal lengths are not required, so small refractors (such as the ED80) are perfect to begin with. I am still at the 'got some gear....but not really used it in anger. In terms of cameras most people start with DSLR's (and some continue with them), as then the next step would be a Charged Couple Device (CCD) camera. Polar alignment is king....and then you start to guide...which helps longer exposures. This is the harder side of imaging, and requires more time and investment

Bottom line is you will probably build two different scope/camera setups, but the common denominator is the thing they all sit on...The mount. I would also add that you did not state where you will be viewing from so is portability a factor?...some of this stuff is quite heavy..and the mount will need power along with laptops etc ;-) I wish you luck with your choice and always remember to have fun ;-)

Regards

[Gas_mantle]

Thanks for all the replies.

I've had a think and it sounds like the ED80 is the way forward though I still intend to go for an EQ6, I'd sooner pay a bit extra and get a mount that isn't going to need upgrading a year later. A decent mount will also help if I buy a bigger scope later.

I'm more interested in deepsky objects but will probably try a bit of lunar and planetary imaging. Luckily my garden has good views and light pollution isn't too bad so I'm not expecting to be moving heavy equipment over long distances regularly.