I know this gets asked a lot...

[Victor Boesen]

Please help!!

As said in the title I know that this question gets asked a lot of times. I want to know what to do.
My confirmation(don't know if that's what you call it in English) is in 59 days, and I need some help whether to wish me one thing or another.

What am i looking for?:

I want to get into "serious" astrophotography, however I still don't want to stop doing visual. I have a scope now that needs to get swapped out(bresser 150/1400, poor quality) but I don't have the money to have both a scope for astrophotography and visual. I was thinking about the star adventurer mount(I have a nikon d3300+kit lens and 50mm 1.8+a sturdy video-tripod) because of its easy setup and portability. Then I could put a skywatcher dobsonian on my list as well to get a better visual scope. I think that this would be a good way to start, but I am 14 years old and I don't have the money to buy equipment all the time. So the problem in my case would be that I wouldn't be able to afford a real mount and scope for astrophotography right after I get the star adventurer and a dobsonian unless I save up money for a long time and get broke right after buying the equipment.

This leads me into my next "solution". Then I was thinking about selling my visual scope and putting the eq5 pro on the list instead. Then I don't know whether to chose the 130p-ds, 150p-ds or the evostar 80ed to go with the eq5 pro. I am really blown away by the quality and images by the evostar 80ed, and I think that it's a really good beginner astrophotography scope. Or is it? It costs a lot more than the 130p/150p-ds does, and the reflectors would also be a better visual scope wouldn't they? of course I still want to have a visual and an imaging scope, but if I chose one of the reflectors then I guess I wouldn't need both right now, would I?

I want to make the right choice both mount and scope, and if the evostar 80ed+eq5 pro is the best choice then according to you, then I would just have to buy a dobsonian as well(which wouldn't be that big of a deal if just the evostar 80ed+eq5 pro is the best choice).

Hope that you want to spend some time reading this, and feel free to ask me about anything!

Victor Boesen

[bottletopburly]

Eq5 pro  and 130 PDS ,not to heavy good scope /all rounder 

[Victor Boesen]

7 minutes ago, bottletopburly said:

Eq5 pro  and 130 PDS ,not to heavy good scope /all rounder 

I guess as I wrote in my question , that I also would be able to use the 130p-ds as a good visual scope, wouldn't I?

[bottletopburly]

6 minutes ago, Victor Boesen said:

I guess as I wrote in my question , that I also would be able to use the 130p-ds as a good visual scope, wouldn't I?

Yes most certainly though more experienced observers will be along with some more good advice  

[ronin]

The problem I see is the word "serious".

EQ5 and the ED 80 is fine, you can attach a DSLR, get an intervalometer and head off to get lots of 60 second exposures.

Problem comes when you want 300 second exposures. That is when you need a guide scope and guide camera and a few more bits and that means a bigger mount as per the HEQ5. I have seen lots of good images on an EQ5 with something like a 72mm ED. But the people who took those some 10 years ago now have all in general gone up to HEQ5, NEQ6 mounts.

Even if you stay with the 60 seconds but go to narrowband there is the addition of filter, filter wheels and they are motor driven. Again more weight so bigger mount.

All the scope you have mentioned you can add an extension tube to, then put an eyepiece in and visually observe. Visual is not a great problem, it is the future of the AP which I I guess where the potential problem lies.

So in a way define "serious".

[Victor Boesen]

3 minutes ago, ronin said:

The problem I see is the word "serious".

that's why I put the word serious in "". I want to get decent images without breaking the bank or without using a ccd, or narrowband filters.

But thanks for you opinion!

Victor Boesen

[CraigT82]

I can recommend the Star Adventurer, especially considering you already have the tripod, DSLR and lens to start with.  It's a great little mount to give you your first steps into DSO photography.  I think it's best to take those first learning steps by doing widefield DSLR images but that's just my opinion.

You will need to learn how to process data too,which is at least as important as collecting the data, and the more data you have collected the more you will be able to learn about processing.  That's another reason why I'd recommend the Star Adventurer, it's ease of use and portability mean you will get it set up and collecting photons more often than a larger mount and scope, it's also small and light and so much easier to take out to a nice dark site... which is probably the one single thing you could do to improve your imaging!

Another one of my opinions is that you should not compromise between imaging and visual scopes, if you want to do imaging an visual get yourself two set-ups, one for each, not one set up to do both.  In the long run you will spend less money this way!

[spillage]

I think you need to give us an idea of the money you have to spend as this would help. I would say get the best mount you can afford. If you can afford a heq5 or above this will help as you can always buy another scope/kit later on and slowly add to your kit but the mount will stay with you for longer (its your foundation to imaging).

You also should buy the book every photon counts.

What you think is a rubbish image will look great to someone else and what looks good to you probably looks meh to someone else.

I would always say just do your thing an enjoy it. You will always improve you images over time with whatever kit you have and your processing skills will improve to. One day you will reach the limit of your kit and then you can look at upgrading and adding more...better dslr or ccd...auto focus....filters...filter wheels...just depends how deep your pockets are and how much you want out of this hobby..

Its like a racing driver. You can get your racing license buy the best racing car but without the skills you will not win the race. Probably come last or never finish get disheartened and give up. Take your time and dont think you can jump right in and compete with people who have been doing this for years.

 

cheers

Spill

[Thalestris24]

Hi Victor

Astroimaging is a bottomless money pit! As you are only 14 you have plenty of time - the universe will be around for a while! The best kit is the one you use! So portability and ease of use are important considerations. Certainly, a Star Adventurer (astro photo bundle with a dslr and lens (135mm or 200mm lenses are good) is a good way to start. The SA is maybe not so easy to get to point to particular targets. Still, have a look at the Widefield imaging section - there are some really excellent images there. You will have to learn to set up and to polar align the SA, learn how to get good focus, how to get exposure right. Then how to stack your images and post-process them. They are all skills you can transfer to using a eq mount + scope, should you want to take things further.

Oh, dark skies are your friend! Yes, do also get the book mentioned above.

All the best

Louise

[Victor Boesen]

8 hours ago, spillage said:

You also should buy the book every photon counts.

Got it for Christmas and read it in a couple of days:-)

2 hours ago, Thalestris24 said:

The best kit is the one you use! So portability and ease of use are important considerations. Certainly, a Star Adventurer (astro photo bundle with a dslr and lens (135mm or 200mm lenses are good) is a good way to start.

Thank you for your help! I really appreciate it. I know I have plenty of time, but since I got my telescope, and then my dslr, my love for astronomy and wide field imaging have just been growing.

thank you!!

Victor Boesen

[newbie alert]

At 14 on a low budget i would go for the star adventurer..as you have the camera and lense...ive seen some amazing widefield images done with this setup..plus you will learn to stack and process the images and can then move on once you have the funds..at least then you will know what you want and have a feel for what you need..amazing bit of kit the star adventurer... you can do some widefield and constellation images now but be limited to exposuretimes of a few seconds depending on lense size..where as if you had the star adventurer you can do several minuites

[Victor Boesen]

2 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

At 14 on a low budget i would go for the star adventurer..as you have the camera and lense...ive seen some amazing widefield images done with this setup..plus you will learn to stack and process the images and can then move on once you have the funds..at least then you will know what you want and have a feel for what you need..amazing bit of kit the star adventurer... you can do some widefield and constellation images now but be limited to exposuretimes of a few seconds depending on lense size..where as if you had the star adventurer you can do several minuites

thank you for your help! I will keep the star adventurer on my wish list for confirmation then:-)