How to begin imaging ?

[Syed Saif Alam]

I am an ameture astronomer form the little city of gwalior . I have been fascinated by the night sky since i was just a kid (im still a kid) . I bought a telescope with all the money i can save. So now i come to my topic . How do I start imaging? I am quite familier with the night sky now and know how an eq mount works . But the question is can i get anything without having descent equipment . Cause really i just have astromaster 130 eq with me with a cg-3 mount which all of us know is not at all capable of handling astrophotography to begin with . But what is the basic equipment i need if i want to start prime focus astrophotography ?

First of all : Which camera,

I dont have a dslr or a ccd camera and not even near the resources to buy one in the near future , but i have seen a lot of webcams used for astrophotography , for example the almighty spc900. But you dont get anything even remotely like that in India . So the bare minimum of a camera that I need for AP.

Next up my targets :

My tagets are not objects that are 3.1763 billion light years away . I know how ridiculous i would seem just by mentioning that  . But can i even get a pic of our moon ? a descent one at that ?

Next my budget : I wouldnt write this in the first place if my pockets were deep .

Next : What else do i need ? Which software to use to adjust the exposure of the webcam etc ? 

Please i just want to start basic imaging . I want to capture the moment . To all my seniors here at this amazing fourm please guide me . Thank you . 

Clear skies ..!

[steppenwolf]

With your limited budget and resources, photographing the Moon is certainly within your grasp. The SPC 900 is certainly very good but many other (low cost) webcams can also be used providing you can find a method of attaching them to your telescope. This method could be as simple as using an old 35mm film cannister to use as a nosepiece and gluing this to the front of the camera AFTER you have removed the camera's lens. These cameras usually come with capture software but there are several free video capture programs like SharpCap available for download.

You can stack the video images using the free software Registax to produce a single detailed image and then further process the output using the free image processing software The GIMP.

[cjdawson]

To add to what steppenwolf has said, you should also be able to have a go at Saturn, Jupiter and Mars.  Not sure how big they will turn out, but I don't think it will be too much of a stretch.

Also, if you have a camera - and I mean any camera, you might be able to photography the moon by holding the camera up to an eyepiece.  The bigger the eyepiece the better as it will be easier to get the camera to line up.

You could probably make a bracket to hold the camera in place.

When I say camera, I mean the point and shoot type of digital camera, or even the camera built into the phone.

The secret to making a decent image is practice.

The basic equipment for prime focus astrophotography is....

telescope and mount

A camera that has it's lens removed

Some way of connecting the camera to your telescope so that the telescope becomes the prime lens.

Everything else that you could get will only make things easier, but the above is the bare minimum.

[Syed Saif Alam]

Thank you so much . I really appreciate it sir . I saw your post and started working rightaway . Ill soon post my finished webcam image . I finally made one after your tips .Ill post my progress here so please guide me further . 
I tried afocal but i foud it literally neckbreaking and a perfect focus was out of reach well i will not give up on trying to image even if its even the moon its worth a lot to me . Thank you for your guidance .

Clear skies .!