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Powerseeker 70EQ for Astrophotography?


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Hello fellow stargazers.

I am new here and as I said in my introduction post I am also new to astronomy and more recently astrophotography. I have 2 telescopes, a Celestron Astromaster 70AZ and a Celestron Nexstar 6SE. I use a Nikon D3200 with a T-Ring and T-Adapter attached to the Astromaster. I have taken a few pictures with this setup, but I need more practice to master the settings and all that.  I also take pictures with my phone, a Galaxy Note 5, through the eyepiece.

The AstroMaster got me started and just recently upgraded to the Nexstar. I have been reading about the limitations of these 2 telescopes for astrophotography. I know they are not good for long exposure photography and that a telescope with an EQ Mount would be better. I am aware of the Celestron Wedge available for my 6SE, but that is out of my budget as of now.

I found some used telescopes with EQ mounts on Craigslist and I was thinking maybe I can get one for long exposure photos. I was considering getting a Celestron Powerseeker 70EQ I found for $60 and use it for long exposure photography only, either by attaching the Nikon with the T-Ring or by Piggybacking.

Is this a good idea? Will the Powerseeker 70EQ be helpful for this kind of photography? Will I be able to photograph anything interesting, any deep space stuff or any planet?

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Joe

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Personally, I think using a decent telephoto lens on an EQ mount would get better results than a PowerSeeker 70EQ. The PowerSeeker is very slow at F/10, and is not very well colour corrected (not hopeless either). Something like a 200-400mm telephoto will do a better job, and be much faster for many deep sky objects (i.e. those requiring long exposure).

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Yes, the 6SE mount is limited, but not impossible. I was able to get 20-30s subs on it, if well-aligned. I'm not sure if the canon problem also applies to Nikon - a filter that blocks the red light so important to nebulae. If it is this is a further limitation. And the other problem is the relatively narrow field of view (but a nice big-chipped DSLR mitigates that to some extent).

That having been said, there is an image on this forum somewhere (wish I could remember where) that was taken of the horsehead nebula (not known for being an easy target) with a massive number of 2-second subs (which would be easy on the SE mount). So it is possible, it will just require a great deal of patience.

HTH

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5 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Personally, I think using a decent telephoto lens on an EQ mount would get better results than a PowerSeeker 70EQ. The PowerSeeker is very slow at F/10, and is not very well colour corrected (not hopeless either). Something like a 200-400mm telephoto will do a better job, and be much faster for many deep sky objects (i.e. those requiring long exposure).

Thank you so much for your reply Michael. It has been very helpful.

So attaching a camera to this telescope will not be great because of the telescope being F/10, so using a lens with lower F/_ value on a EQ mount would work better. Is it still good to get this item for the mount alone? Will it help if I piggyback with a better lens or even mount the camera directly to the mount (if at all possible)?

I am starting to put the pieces together. I have been reading and watching videos about Astrophotography and now I understand the F/_ value and telescope relation. How cool! I just joined and I'm already learning and understanding things.

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5 hours ago, Demonperformer said:

Yes, the 6SE mount is limited, but not impossible. I was able to get 20-30s subs on it, if well-aligned. I'm not sure if the canon problem also applies to Nikon - a filter that blocks the red light so important to nebulae. If it is this is a further limitation. And the other problem is the relatively narrow field of view (but a nice big-chipped DSLR mitigates that to some extent).

That having been said, there is an image on this forum somewhere (wish I could remember where) that was taken of the horsehead nebula (not known for being an easy target) with a massive number of 2-second subs (which would be easy on the SE mount). So it is possible, it will just require a great deal of patience.

HTH

Thank you for your reply Demonperformer.
It is good to know that not all hope is lost, haha. It is good to know the capabilities and limitations for each type of telescope. I hope to keep leraning so I can take cool pictures and then help others.

I will look for that picture you are talking about. I'm sure it will get me pumped up.

Patience is something I will need to learn as I am learning about astrophotography. I have some talents, but patience is not one of my stronger ones. :D

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Straightforward advice above.  As you get more and more keenly involved in astrophotography, particularly DSOs, it is my view and experience that the choice of mount takes precedence. As Michael says, a good quality EQ mount and camera/lens set up will deliver great results and you can 'learn the ropes' that way before committing to a fast telescope.  The 'cheapest' scope for AP I own is my SW 130P DS which gets you into f/5 territory but it is fussy about collimation and coma correction and thus chip size.  I wouldn't mount such a scope on anything less than an HEQ5 Pro and preferably on my current mount.

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34 minutes ago, JoeCamaro said:

Is it still good to get this item for the mount alone?

Definitely not. Astrophotography requires a good solid, driven eq mount which will be significantly more expensive than the wedge for your 6se. 

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2 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

Definitely not. Astrophotography requires a good solid, driven eq mount which will be significantly more expensive than the wedge for your 6se. 

Ok. Thanks for your input Ricochet. I guess I'll have to make the most of what I have now until I can save some money for the good stuff.

 

Thank you  too for the info Owmuchonomy :)

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