Upgrading for Astrophotography

[Chloegeek]

Hi there everyone.

It's coming up to our first full year of having a decent scope and an okay setup and we think we are reaching a point where we might be looking for an upgrade. Up till now we have been using a Celestron 8SE with a wedge and a 600D to do the majority of our astrophotography. It has served us quite well! However we are starting to reach the limits of what we personally can achieve without any kind of tracking and being stuck using a wedge on a relatively flimsy tripod and mount.

We have decided that it's time for us to upgrade! So, as we speak our SCT is up for sale and well on its way to being sold and we ourselves have been hunting down some new equipment. We have so far looked at getting the following, however I am very open to suggestions and opinions on what we have lined up and suggestions for other things we should be looking to get.

Our budget is in the region of £1000-£1400.

We don't want to cheap out and get something we wont enjoy but at the same time we aren't really made of money, so if the total could come in at less than £1300 we would be extremely pleased. Also note that we really don't mind buying second hand equipment, if anything it's mildly prefered because well, old kits need homes too!

So far the setup is:

Sky-Watcher Evostar-80ED DS-Pro (OTA)

Sky-Watcher HEQ5 Pro Synscan Mount and Tripod

Dew Shield + Heaters + Controller (Haven't picked any specific brands yet)

Orion Magnificent Mini AutoGuider Package

We already have:

Canon 600D

Various Adapters for the camera

We know there are some misc cables and such probably missing from our setup, but other than that, what else do we need? I feel like I'm forgetting things in that list and if anything in that list seems like it might not work well with the setup, please do say! Mostly looking for advice on whether or not we are on the right track and if there is anything better for similar amounts?

Thanks

            Chloe

[Davey-T]

Sounds like a plan, what version of Windows are you using as Orion Star Shoot Autoguider doesn't work with Win 10 and there are cheaper options if you want to save money.

Dave

[swag72]

That's a good starting point for DSO imaging. The only thing I would add would be the reducer / flattener for the 80ED otherwise your stars will be pretty naff in the corners with that large DSLR chip. You can get it from FLO here

You may also want to buy a Bahtinov mask for the scope to aid with focusing - A bad focus can make or break an image. 

Light Pollution filter? I don't know what your skies are like, but again worth thinking about - The Astronomik clip in filters are very good 

[Alien 13]

As above, if you want to save a bit of money you could opt for the SW 130PDS as an alternative to the ED80 but it would need a coma corrector to get a flat field on a DSLR.

Alan

[Chloegeek]

Sounds like a plan, what version of Windows are you using as Orion Star Shoot Autoguider doesn't work with Win 10 and there are cheaper options if you want to save money.

Dave

Ah! Thank you for that, I didn't know that it had troubles with Windows 10. All the laptops here are running on it so I would love to have a look at some other options, especially if they are a little cheaper!

That's a good starting point for DSO imaging. The only thing I would add would be the reducer / flattener for the 80ED otherwise your stars will be pretty naff in the corners with that large DSLR chip. You can get it from FLO here

You may also want to buy a Bahtinov mask for the scope to aid with focusing - A bad focus can make or break an image. 

Light Pollution filter? I don't know what your skies are like, but again worth thinking about - The Astronomik clip in filters are very good 

Awesome! Totally forgot about the flattener and the mask honestly. I have them for my current scope! So we will definitely be picking those up. A clip in Light Pollution filter would be a good idea for when we are shooting at home because we have a little light pollution here but our main shooting tends to be done out in wales in a pretty low light pollution area, so we might hold off for a little bit. 

As above, if you want to save a bit of money you could opt for the SW 130PDS as an alternative to the ED80 but it would need a coma corrector to get a flat field on a DSLR.

Alan

It does look like a really nice scope but I think we are going to stick with the ED80 for now as we are quite keen to work with a refractor for a while. 

Thank you all so very much! This has been a huge help already. I'm sure we will be up and imaging again in less than a couple months. Any more advice is always very welcome!