newbie from South Africa

[astronomyclubsa]

Hi,

New here.

I am buying a NexStar Celestron 8SE, is it neccesarry for a wedge to do astrophotography?

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. I do not do photography, so I will let one of our more knowledgeable members answer your question.

[Bioboybill]

Hi and welcome to SGL. The guys on the Astrophotography forum probably have a good idea.

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome. You can do planetary photography without a wedge.

Peter

[swag72]

Hi and welcome to SGL - What are you looking at photographing? I know that sounds like a daft question, but there's a big difference in the equipment needed for imaging planets, solar and Deep space objects -  What is your poison?

[Mr Spock]

Hi, welcome to SGL

[Putaendo Patrick]

Welcome, and hi from Chile.

[badger111]

Greetings from Maldon, UK

[kendg]

Welcome to SGL

Yes you can do AP on DSOs without a wedge but you will be limited to about 30 second exposures.

You will be able to do better with the wedge but my personal belief is you really need a good EQ mount.

For planetary or lunar you'll be fine. You may want a focal reducer for lunar to get the entire disk in the field of view.

[Crater]

Hello and Welcome.

For Astrophotography, using your type of mount (Alt-Az), have a look at the superb thread below which shows some examples.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/page-1

Good luck.

[ToxoLight]

Hi and welcome to the lounge from middle England.

[Dave Lloyd]

Hello and welcome.

[Charon]

Welcome aboard.

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Astronomyclubsa!

Dana

[glowjet]

Hi Astronomyclubsa and welcome to SGL, I am no photographer or imager, but have been round long enough to know that many have achieved excellent results with Alt/Az, without the use of a wedge, never the less, long exposure DSO imaging, is not viable without equatorial and accurate tracking facilities.

In your case, should you want to venture this far, then a wedge would be required, however, using such an add on device is sometimes not as straight forward as using a dedicated equatorial driven mount, that is well capable of handling the scope and accessories. If this is the eventual route you want to take, then an equatorial mounted scope, should be given consideration. I am sure some of our experienced imagers will make comment, if this is in any way misleading, enjoy the forum

[JamesM]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Clear skies

[seo]

Hi and welcome aboard.

[We_Can_Breathe_In_Space]

Hello and warm welcome to SGL from England

I've just got my hands on a Celestron Nexstar 8se and from reading this forum plantery and lunar AP is an option but if more interested in AP rather than visual have a look at getting sct with eq mount - Celestron avx mount for example  

Sam

[hippie]

Welcome to SGL .

[Vox45]

Hello and welcome to the forum

Clear skies !

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :-)

[astronomyclubsa]

Hi and thank you everyone! I managed to capture some nice images without the mount.

Will post some pics later. I`m now selling the 8" Celestron SCT and the 8" Skywatcher Newtonian for a 12"Meade LX90.

Hope to get great images with this scope

[Special K]

Welcome and best of luck with new equipment.  You are in such a grand position for southern sights which we don't get way up north!  Omega Centauri and the Magellanic Clouds must be incredible!  

[orion25]

Welcome to SGL! I look forward to seeing some of your images of the southern sky!

Clear skies,

Reggie

[hoverge]

Welcome!

I love Southern Africa!