Astrophotography Help

[Herzy]

                My Equipment

Camera: Nikon D3200 

Scope 1: Celestron 127eq

Scope 2: NexStar 90slt Computerized

Alright I'm very interested in getting really into Astrophotography. Now I've taken some decent 30-sec exposure pictures of some various things in my 90slt, but I tend to get star trailing even when it's tracking! 

So basically, my question is should I continue using my Computerized scope to get into astrophotography or invest in a motor for the 127eq?

Now I know that equitorial mounts are far better for astrophotography, but I'm just not very good with finding stuff in the scope. I can find the easy things like m42 or some star clusters, but I want to take pictures of things like m51 or some really cool looking stuff!

[ollypenrice]

To take long exposure deep sky images you really need not just a motorized equatoriual mount but a good one, and you need a scope which will come to focus with a camera and which has a fast focal ratio.

A pixel on your camera might be five millionths of a metre across and, ideally, the total tracking error should be about half that. This kind of precision is not easy to reach!

You might begin by reading Making Every Photon Count by Steve Richards, available from the site sponsor. It could save you a fortune in mistaken purchases!

Olly

[swag72]

4 hours ago, Herzy said:

........Alright I'm very interested in getting really into Astrophotography.........

By this comment do you mean that you are willing to spend the money necessary to 'get really into..' it?

As Olly says, get hold of a copy of Making Every Photon Count before spending a penny. What you will learns is that its all about the mount..... that is THE most important part of the imaging rig. You are looking at taking long exposures for DSO imaging (as much as 30 minutes) and you need a mount that will guide and work well for all of that time.

[Herzy]

I'll definitely look into that, thanks for the replies!