Astrophotography with a Canon 5d?

[Ariejester]

Hello, 

I would like to delve more into astrophotography. I currently have a Canon 5d mk2 and I wondered if anyone could help recommend which telescope and mount to start with? 

Astrophotography has always been an interest of mine and I'd like to delve into it more. Are there any books you would recommend too?

Thanks so much!

Leanne. 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi Leanne and welcome to SGL. 

Many SGL'ers recommend 'Make Every Photon Count'. 

[Ariejester]

Just now, Philip R said:

Hi Leanne and welcome to SGL. 

Many SGL'ers recommend 'Make Every Photon Count'. 

Thank you  I'll have a look at it 

[Grierson]

Hi Leanne,

I think you will have to provide some idea of your budget. As a relative newcomer I know to my cost that this hobby can become a tad expensive. I too have a 5D2 but found it to be on the heavy side and without an articulated screen it does make for difficulties in some situations so to start I bought a cheap 600D from one of the many e-bay vendors. 

I would endorse the above recommendation. Read and digest 'Make Every Photon Count' it's a mine of information. - John

[Ariejester]

Just now, Grierson said:

Hi Leanne,

I think you will have to provide some idea of your budget. As a relative newcomer I know to my cost that this hobby can become a tad expensive. I too have a 5D2 but found it to be on the heavy side and without an articulated screen it does make for difficulties in some situations so to start I bought a cheap 600D from one of the many e-bay vendors. 

I would endorse the above recommendation. Read and digest 'Make Every Photon Count' it's a mine of information. - John

Thanks John 

I'm looking to spend upto 400 to start with but then to improve equipment a bit at a time. 

Leanne

[wxsatuser]

If you have any half decent lenses with your 5dm2 they could be used in place of a scope, depends on what you want to image.

[Nigel G]

Hi and welcome.

If you want crystal clear, sharp images you will need deep pockets filled up.

If you want to see better what's out there and dabble in AP then £400 will do it.

These images below were taken using equipment under £400 and a canon 1200d BUT this kit is not designed for Deep sky AP and modifications had to be made. It is however fine for planetary and lunar imaging.

If you intend to get serious and improve equipment along the way then start saving for a good quality EQ mount before you spend anything, The Skywatcher HEQ5 seems to be a popular choice. approx. £900

Good luck.

Nige.

 

[happy-kat]

If you use the camera and lenses you have there is the skywatcher staradventurer. That plus tripod legs (which you may already own) is within budget. Though read the book suggested to decide how deep you want to go. Both items suggested are available from FLO link at top of forum.

[ronin]

Astrophotography can be costly, a lot depends on what it is that you expect to get or achieve.

The basics of what is often referred to as astrophotography really have a minimum set of something like an EQ5 with goto and a small ED refractor or reflector, then assorted adaptors to get everything to hang together.

The above is likely to come in at around £1000. This setup is basically taken from the people down at Sidmouth where many initially started out with that set of equipment. A good AP refractor can easily be £1200 (WO Star 71 MkII) and although only 71mm dia they are often used on an EQ6 for stability.

One initial option is as mentioned, take camera and lens, set lens to around 35mm then manually configure the camera for ISO 800, full aperture -1, exposure length of 20 seconds. Buy an intervalometer and set that for the same 20 second exposure length, then 10 seconds wait and 10 expousres.

Manually set focus to infinity, put DSLR on a tripod and hit the go button on the intervalometer. You should get 10 exposures of 20 seconds, head home and stack them in DSS. You can initially use jpeg's as DSS will stack them. Not sure about the processing side, ideally ask around on here for simple but reasonable free packages.

Means that getting a constellation is best or a relevant patch of sky with something of interest - Double Cluster maybe.

Will say that aiming the DSLR can be hit and miss especially if you pick a longer focal length - narrower field. May want to consider an RDF/DSLR attachment to aid in that. Think 365Astro sell them. Now we are up to RDF finder for a DSLR and an intervalometer, which will be around £50-£70

For more exposures you will need to look at a tracking mount, simply to follow the sky. There are the smaller tracking items for a DSLR but if AP is what you want then go for an EQ mount. Ultimately that will be what you require. Thoughts being that buying one of those delays the EQ mount purchase, but they are a nice small unit and good for DSLR wide field AP.

Another example of a small mount and scope was the iOptron SmartEQ with a WO Zenith star 71, sold as an AP package. The tripod never looked substantial, but again a small EQ and refractor.

[happy-kat]

Astroboot do a red dot finder that fits in a dslr flash hot shoe, works well I've got one. Price was very good.

[Ariejester]

On Sat Feb 04 2017 at 09:47, wxsatuser said:

If you have any half decent lenses with your 5dm2 they could be used in place of a scope, depends on what you want to image.

Thank you, I mainly have f2.8 up to 200mm lenses, they are good for the wedding photography I do but perhaps not so much for astrophotography

Leanne.

[Ariejester]

23 hours ago, Nigel G said:

Hi and welcome.

If you want crystal clear, sharp images you will need deep pockets filled up.

If you want to see better what's out there and dabble in AP then £400 will do it.

These images below were taken using equipment under £400 and a canon 1200d BUT this kit is not designed for Deep sky AP and modifications had to be made. It is however fine for planetary and lunar imaging.

If you intend to get serious and improve equipment along the way then start saving for a good quality EQ mount before you spend anything, The Skywatcher HEQ5 seems to be a popular choice. approx. £900

Good luck.

Nige.

 

These are great images, I am just looking to dabble in to it, see where it takes me and then improve on equipment when I've learnt more of the basics  

Leanne.

[Ariejester]

23 hours ago, happy-kat said:

If you use the camera and lenses you have there is the skywatcher staradventurer. That plus tripod legs (which you may already own) is within budget. Though read the book suggested to decide how deep you want to go. Both items suggested are available from FLO link at top of forum.

Thank you

[Ariejester]

23 hours ago, ronin said:

Astrophotography can be costly, a lot depends on what it is that you expect to get or achieve.

The basics of what is often referred to as astrophotography really have a minimum set of something like an EQ5 with goto and a small ED refractor or reflector, then assorted adaptors to get everything to hang together.

The above is likely to come in at around £1000. This setup is basically taken from the people down at Sidmouth where many initially started out with that set of equipment. A good AP refractor can easily be £1200 (WO Star 71 MkII) and although only 71mm dia they are often used on an EQ6 for stability.

One initial option is as mentioned, take camera and lens, set lens to around 35mm then manually configure the camera for ISO 800, full aperture -1, exposure length of 20 seconds. Buy an intervalometer and set that for the same 20 second exposure length, then 10 seconds wait and 10 expousres.

Manually set focus to infinity, put DSLR on a tripod and hit the go button on the intervalometer. You should get 10 exposures of 20 seconds, head home and stack them in DSS. You can initially use jpeg's as DSS will stack them. Not sure about the processing side, ideally ask around on here for simple but reasonable free packages.

Means that getting a constellation is best or a relevant patch of sky with something of interest - Double Cluster maybe.

Will say that aiming the DSLR can be hit and miss especially if you pick a longer focal length - narrower field. May want to consider an RDF/DSLR attachment to aid in that. Think 365Astro sell them. Now we are up to RDF finder for a DSLR and an intervalometer, which will be around £50-£70

For more exposures you will need to look at a tracking mount, simply to follow the sky. There are the smaller tracking items for a DSLR but if AP is what you want then go for an EQ mount. Ultimately that will be what you require. Thoughts being that buying one of those delays the EQ mount purchase, but they are a nice small unit and good for DSLR wide field AP.

Another example of a small mount and scope was the iOptron SmartEQ with a WO Zenith star 71, sold as an AP package. The tripod never looked substantial, but again a small EQ and refractor.

Thank you, I'll have a go with the camera and see what I can find

Leanne.

[Ariejester]

22 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Astroboot do a red dot finder that fits in a dslr flash hot shoe, works well I've got one. Price was very good.

Thanks I've had a look on their website but cannot find what you mean, sorry I'm still very much a beginner at this Leanne.

[Knight of Clear Skies]

10 minutes ago, Ariejester said:

Thank you, I mainly have f2.8 up to 200mm lenses, they are good for the wedding photography I do but perhaps not so much for astrophotography

Leanne.

There are some big DSOs up there that don't require long focal lengths. For example, here's the Pleaides with a 200mm f2.8 lens and crop-sensor camera.

Most scopes won't illuminate a full-frame sensor properly I believe, although cropping the images is an option.

[Ariejester]

2 minutes ago, Knight of Clear Skies said:

There are some big DSOs up there that don't require long focal lengths. For example, here's the Pleaides with a 200mm f2.8 lens and crop-sensor camera.

Most scopes won't illuminate a full-frame sensor properly I believe, although cropping the images is an option.

That's brilliant, thank you

[newbie alert]

22 minutes ago, Ariejester said:

Thank you, I mainly have f2.8 up to 200mm lenses, they are good for the wedding photography I do but perhaps not so much for astrophotography

Leanne.

You have a very good camera.. a 200mm lense is plenty good enough to capture nebulas/galaxies.. but you will need a tracking mount such as a star adventurer..then you can do 5-10min exposures instead of 1 second ones..and at about £280 new..

If you then want to move onto a small refractor you could use it with the mount..say up to 70mm..

[SteveMcHarg]

27 minutes ago, Ariejester said:

Thank you, I mainly have f2.8 up to 200mm lenses, they are good for the wedding photography I do but perhaps not so much for astrophotography

Leanne.

These lenses are ideal for widefield Astro photography! Actually this is all I use nowadays (300mm f2.8). I found that it gave me much better photos than my refractor. Up until using that I had terrible vignetting 

[Ariejester]

3 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

You have a very good camera.. a 200mm lense is plenty good enough to capture nebulas/galaxies.. but you will need a tracking mount such as a star adventurer..then you can do 5-10min exposures instead of 1 second ones..and at about £280 new..

If you then want to move onto a small refractor you could use it with the mount..say up to 70mm..

Thank you, I'll have a play around with the camera and see what shutter speed it can be set to. I've got a decent manfrotto tripod that we use so will have a go tonight if the skies are clear enough. 

Thanks I'll also look into the star adventurer

[Ariejester]

4 minutes ago, SteveMcHarg said:

These lenses are ideal for widefield Astro photography! Actually this is all I use nowadays (300mm f2.8). I found that it gave me much better photos than my refractor. Up until using that I had terrible vignetting 

That's good to hear, there's hope for me yet then thank you!

[wxsatuser]

59 minutes ago, Ariejester said:

Thank you, I mainly have f2.8 up to 200mm lenses, they are good for the wedding photography I do but perhaps not so much for astrophotography

Leanne.

So, what lenses have you got?

[Knight of Clear Skies]

36 minutes ago, Ariejester said:

That's good to hear, there's hope for me yet then thank you!

You're welcome. When I started out I was surprised to find how how much sky some of these objects cover, some have an apparent sizes several times greater than a full Moon.

[happy-kat]

This is th red dot finder, the item in red on this link.

link here

[newbie alert]

2 hours ago, Ariejester said:

Thank you, I'll have a play around with the camera and see what shutter speed it can be set to. I've got a decent manfrotto tripod that we use so will have a go tonight if the skies are clear enough. 

Thanks I'll also look into the star adventurer

Earths rotation is the reason you need a tracking mount..