which camera for nexstar 6se

[emma-royds]

Hi I have had an interest in astronomy for a number of years but its starting to get more serious lately, Just bought a telescope (as in title) and i am a beginning newbie but I like experimenting a lot, over the past week i have dismantled a webcam and rigged it up on the telescope and I am really very please with the results, I realy want to do astro photography with a dlsr camera but need some advice as to the best (cheap) camera to buy and what tubes/"T" adapters are required probably will be starting off with planets then moving on to other celestial objects.

any help pointing me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

thanks very much

[knobby]

What mount is the 6se on ? It's difficult to do DSO with an alt az mount ...

With your user name I'm sure you'll get 'piles' of info on the forum though :-)

[happy-kat]

Hi

First post :-)

This thread may give inspiration if you do not have an EQ mount. If you have an AltAz moutn with your 6SE then the Earth's rotation will limit how long you can expose for.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/?fromsearch=1

I choose a Canon DSLR as lots of software and user support, as a minimun look for a LCD screen. You could buy second hand and depending on budget a 600d has a great flip out lcd screen even more handy.

For connecting my Canon to a telescope I use (other suppliera are available)

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/t-rings.html

and then a

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/flo-125-inch-t-mount-camera-adapter.html

This makes it very easy to add the camera or remove it from the focuser.

Whether you would also need an extension tube or a barlow to reach fouus with a DSLR I have no idea.

[ronin]

For DSO and long exposure imaging you really need an equitorial mount with motors and prefereably with goto.

The 6SE and webcam will get, or enable, images of the planets. However the mount and the webcam is not really suited to long exposure DSO imaging.

I think you can orientate and tell the 6SE that it is on an EQ mount which may be one way around it to a certain extent. Could be worth looking into this option at least initially.

Was going to ask which bit of Cornwall then realised I had my geography wrong.

For the long exposure stuff you really need a smallish scope, WO 71 or 130PDS on an EQ mount like the EQ5.

You then get a DSLR - Canon is popular, and an intervalometer, and a T-ring (maybe one other bit) and you go playing for want of a better term.

With the 6SE and a webcam you get a movie of the planet and then process the output .avi file - pick the best 25% of the frames adn stack them then process.

The "problem" of imaging is that there is a certain set of minimum requirements.

[emma-royds]

well thanks very much all of you, certainly gives me some good info there, the items in the FLO link look just the job, I will now start looking for a camera and get the parts from FLO then probably be back to annoy you with more questions (living up to my name! a real pain)   from what I understand about mounts (which at the moment is very little) it's a "SINGLE ARM AZ GOTO" mount the spec tells me, i will have to go and look up all the different types of mounts now to understand what you guys are talking about, there is so much to learn in such a short time.

Thanks very much

[happy-kat]

The mount moves up down and left and right in tiny increments that keep your chosen object in view.

What the mount can not do is follow the way the earth rotates, so if you were looking at Jupiter for say an hour you might notice that the stripes change angle as you have been following it.

This inability to follow the earth's rotation prevents you from doing long exposures as the object DSO you were capturing would rotate/twist in the camera image if the length of the exposure was too long.

The thread I gave showed that something is possible but there are limitations and the longer the focal length of the telescope the shorter the exposure length before trailing/bluring shows.

The sky is not going anywhere, time is not short :-)

[happy-kat]

You might find you can do a lot more with a camera on a tripod then attaching it to your telescope.

[sexysi]

I used to have a 6se, great for planets, via video cam connected to the end. Tried doing deep space stuff, but failed. I found that mounting another scope on top over weighted the mount, so couldn't guide. And TBH all i put on was a ST80 weighing 2kg's.

Now sorry to say onto a HEQ5 mount, for DSO pictures. Expensive but well worth it.

si

[sexysi]

Here are a couple of images i got from my 6se.

Moon  taken with Nikon D40 iso 800

si

[sexysi]

Opps 1st image should be this 

si

[kendg]

I'd recommend a Canon. A used one would be great. A flip out screen is really nice to have and I think almost a nessesity.

Once you get hooked you'll be looking at upgrading the mount. I did.

[sexysi]

Also been looking at tracking software for the camera. Like the look of backyardEOS or BackyardNikon. I love Nikons so use them. But please check what cameras are supported by the software. ie: Just bought a Nikon 3100, with live view and found that it isn't supported on the software......great.

So check the supported lists, Ie a Nikon D5000 and 5100 are supported. Lots on here use Cannons, but some of the older Cannons are not supported either.

Try and get a camera that has Live view on it as well, as at least you can see the image on a screen, not by looking through the view finder.

£140 should get you a DSLR off ebay, but again there are a couple of gotchas on there. With my Nikon, ask for a shutter count, to see how much the camera has been used. My Nikon had 4000 images taken which is low for a 3 year old camera, but if the count is 20k, get a different one.

si

[happy-kat]

This post has comments on different places to look for a second hand Canon.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/256853-2nd-hand-canon/?fromsearch=1

Having had a search in the "No EQ DSO Challenge!" thread I linked to earlier the posts with a 6SE the telescope has been used to piggy back the camera on rather then image through the telescope I guess because the focal length is so long.

Perhaps you want to research before spending any money.

[emma-royds]

Thanks guys, all the information is greatly appreciated, seems i need to research quite a bit and then make the camera choice, I really like the pictures above, if i get anywhere near them I will be extremely happy, I am a little confuse with someone (camera expert?) from a camera shop telling me the length of tube beween the camera and the telescope is critical! depending on the camera's ability to focus, I somehow thought the focus is done via the telescope rather than the camera (as there is no lens) am I missing something here.

thanks.

[happy-kat]

Not all telescopes allow the camera to reach focus when used in prime focus.

Prime focus means the telescope is being used as the lens. Cruedly put it means the light path is not reaching focus on the camera sensor how ever much you either rack in or out the telescope focuser. The focuser effectively runs out of travel before that sweet spot of focus is reached.

There are a few tricks that can help if there is a problem but it does not solve it for every telescope.

Not enough inward travel might be addressed with a barlow not ideal on a long focal length telescope.

An extension tube if not enough outward travel.

[emma-royds]

Thanks Happy-Kat that explains it brilliantly, i will go get a camera now and start playing,   I now have a really good idea of what to look out for during the setup process. thanks a lot.

[happy-kat]

Seeing another thread reminded me of a very important camera feature, you must be able to turn in camera noise reduction off. Nikon like to stop user control of this, another reason to like Canon. If like me you will be reading lots and asking questions I went with Canon as there was ready support out there. However very old Canon's are too old and no good, so best stick with something like the 1000d and upwards, 450d and upwards, 100d. T here are lots of models in that range with different nice to haves like LCD and flip screen but not all have a flip screen.

[cjdawson]

If you have the choice of camera, everything that I've seen to date says go for a Canon over any other brand.   I personally have a 30D and a 70D.  These are both good cameras, and there are plenty of others to play with too.

The reason for Canon over Nikon is something to do with the firmware in the camera.  Basically, the Nikon firmware has code built in to reduce noise on the image and has been known to think that Stars are false things that need to be removed to make a nice image - when this happens it completely destroys the image of the star field that you were wanting.   This information was provided to me when the 30D was the current camera, so things may have changed in the 10 or so years.

Canon have produced some cameras specifically for Astrophotography - 20Da, 40Da and 60Da (see the theme ;-)  These cameras had extra features specifically for Astro photographers, since them almost all of the features are now part of their normal camera line up.  The only feature that sets the Da version apart is the physical removal of the IR blocking filter.  When people are talking about "Modified" cameras, it's this filter that is removed to increase the light sensitivity to red colours.

The features that I think are the must needed for AP are as follows.

1. Bulb mode.

2. Cable release - ideally an intervalometer. (you can get these cheap on amazon or ebay, it's important that the camera supports it)

3. Mirror lockup.

4. 2second self timer.

These items are nice to haves that make your life easier.

5. Twistable LCD Screen

6. Live view - uses the screen like a view finder.  (every Canon after the 30D has this)

Notice that I haven't include the image size (Mega Pixels) this is because anything from around 8MP is good.  However, the higher the MegaPixels, the smaller the individual pixels are which will have knock on effects as the amount of light hitting each pixel is lower.  More Mega Pixels isn't necessarily better.