Astrophotography advice needed!! DSLR or Webcam?

[Icesheet]

Hi all,

 

I'm looking for some advice about getting started in astrophotography. I've read to the point of confusion on the subject and I want to start somewhere simple to see if I will catch the bug. Hoping I can get some advice on camera's, webcams and what I can expect to achieve with my set up.

 

My equipment:

Skymax 90mm Mak

Pentax 75mm EHDF Apo (just bought second hand, here good things about it!)

Berlebach 3012 Tripod

Castor Alt-Az mount

Sky Watcher Star Adventurer kit (en route)

Nikon D3200

 

I have imaged the moon with my Nikon through the Mak on a camera tripod. Was amazed by the result! Next tried Jupiter, massive fail but I wasn't expecting much anyway. This triggered a bit of research on the subject. The first thing I found out was that the Nikon wouldn't necessarily be suitable for planetary imaging as I can't get 1:1 pixel resolution on the videos for lucky imaging. It appears only some Canon camera's can offer that. Of course a lot of people advise to have a dedicated webcam for planetary imaging anyway.

 

Now I have found a Canon 550D second hand for £130 so my options are:

Buy the Canon and sell the Nikon. I can then use the Canon for planetary and DSO..or

Buy something like an ZWO ASI120MC and use that for planetary and keep the Nikon for DSO stuff?

 

Also what can I realistically expect with my set up? Initially my plan is to use the Mak to image planets and probably just my DSLR for DSO. As far as I can see the DSLR on Sky Adventurer will be fine. What about planetary through the Mak on this? At some point would DSO through the Pentax be achievable with this set up too? It appears some people are managing it but overall opinion seems to be split!

Please guide down the right path

 

Chris

 

 

 

 

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

For planetary the ASI120MC is excellent. Preferably, get the MC-S version, so you get higher frame rates. You can then stick with the Nikon for wide-field, lunar (which the ASI120 will also do, especially if you make mosaics), and with an equatorial mount you can go for DSO imaging with the Nikon as well

[Adam J]

Personally I would purchase the cannon 550D its actually not bad at all at planetary imaging and good for the DSOs too. I guess that it depends on how happy you are with the Nikon for wide field as the canon is better supported. If you are not having too many issues with it then by all means get the dedicated planetary camera. 

[Dave S]

I prefer the canons over the Nikon's as the Nikon's aren't a true raw file output. Only a minor consideration though. A webcam would be better for lunar and planetary due to the smaller sensor size and so has a smaller fob so gives a larger apparent magnification which is needed for planetary stuff. The star adventurer will be fine with the DSLR but won't really be very suitable for any but the smallest scopes. 

Now this is only my personal choice but instead of the canon or the webcam I would look at a middle ground device like the gpcam. Which will do planetary and basic DSO's. In addition you can use it to autoguide the adventurer. Which would increase the range of activities you can do with the kit you have. 

Whichever path you choose you have joined the dark side so expect to spend more in time.  I prefer to start small and really learn the techniques before stepping up to more expensive kit. You'll reap the benefits later.

Dave...

[iwols]

for starters i would use your dslr ,i upgraded to a mono 414 but thats where the cost comes in and looking back i had some very good images from my nikon dslr,just my two pence worth

[Icesheet]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the quick replies! It seems if I go down the DSLR only route then the Canon is favoured.

1 hour ago, iwols said:

for starters i would use your dslr ,i upgraded to a mono 414 but thats where the cost comes in and looking back i had some very good images from my nikon dslr,just my two pence worth

 I'm interested to hear what you imaged with your Nikon iwols. Was it just DSO or planetary too?

 

1 hour ago, Dave S said:

I prefer the canons over the Nikon's as the Nikon's aren't a true raw file output. Only a minor consideration though. A webcam would be better for lunar and planetary due to the smaller sensor size and so has a smaller fob so gives a larger apparent magnification which is needed for planetary stuff. The star adventurer will be fine with the DSLR but won't really be very suitable for any but the smallest scopes. 

Now this is only my personal choice but instead of the canon or the webcam I would look at a middle ground device like the gpcam. Which will do planetary and basic DSO's. In addition you can use it to autoguide the adventurer. Which would increase the range of activities you can do with the kit you have. 

Whichever path you choose you have joined the dark side so expect to spend more in time.  I prefer to start small and really learn the techniques before stepping up to more expensive kit. You'll reap the benefits later.

Dave...

I actually looked at on of the gcams (altair right?). Would the basic one GCAM1 be suitable or os the extra price for the GCAM2 worth it? The option to autoguide later is appealing too.

 

I'm wondering of anyone has any opinions on the scopes I have and how the Star Adventurer/ Berlebach combo would handle it?

 

Chris

 

[Icesheet]

Forgot to add, any opinions on GCAM v ASI120? They both claim to be able to image planets and DSO and both have auto-guiding capabilities.

[TareqPhoto]

I had ASI120MC before i damaged it, i will buy a new camera in the future for planetary, and that will be ASI224MC, someone as a sales person from a vendor recommended me to get 290 camera instead of 224, so now i have 2 options over 120, and from what i can see, either 224 or 290 will be good for DSO too over 120, i don't need for DSO because i have a cooled mono camera, but i think i can use my cooled camera too for planetary or lunar and using "ROI" feature, i also ordered QHY5L-II-M for guiding and this is also similar to ASI120, so i can use it for Lunar and maybe planetary if i am willing to use filters.

[Stub Mandrel]

Webcam - planets, detail lunar or solar features. Small sensors & high speed best for small, bright objects

DSLR - anything else, bigger sensors and suitability for longer exposures better for DSOs.

Specialist astro cameras - suitability depends on sensor & pixel size as this can rangew from webcam size to DSLR sized and all points between.

[cuivenion]

I've got a gpcam v1 and you can do traditional DSO imaging with it. The drawback is that it suffers from ampglow during long exposures. This is hard to remove as it is an uncooled camera.

Here's some examples of what the GPCAM can do. The Galaxy was a guided long exposure shot with 135mm FL lens. The Jupiter and M57 was taken using a skywatcher 200p.

I will say there are more sensitive cams out there, the imx224 and 290 sensors in particular. It just depends on how big the dso's you want to image are. Dslr's have much larger chips.

[happy-kat]

What camera mount fitting is on your pentax 75mm lens?

[cuivenion]

13 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

What camera mount fitting is on your pentax 75mm lens?

Pentax K. I used a c-mount to Pentax k adapter.

[happy-kat]

The point I was going to make is that if it was an m42 mount on the pentax lens I gather nikon cameras won't reach infinity focus. The op has a nikon camera.

[cuivenion]

2 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

The point I was going to make is that if it was an m42 mount on the pentax lens I gather nikon cameras won't reach infinity focus. The op has a nikon camera.

Sorry, got mixed up there.

[Icesheet]

Thanks all. I think I'll take the plunge with a webcam. Not entirely sure which to plump for yet but looks like it could be between the GPCAM or ASI120. Any the absolute maximum I will spend is £200. 

7 hours ago, happy-kat said:

What camera mount fitting is on your pentax 75mm lens?

The 75mm is actually a 75mm apo telescope not a lens. Apologies if that is what you meant. It just got delivered today so I'm not sure what fitting they have for cameras. It's an old scope so I'm sure I'll need more than just a t-ring. 

Ps Impressive images cuivenion! If that's what's possible with the GPCAM1 I'd be delighted.

[cuivenion]

Thanks, the gpcam is definitely better suited to planetary. Just wanted to show that dso was possible with it as well. Have fun which ever direction you go.

[Icesheet]

Well I took the plunge and ordered the GPCAM224 v2. Only just found out there is no Mac capability so looks like I'm on the hunt for a dedicated Windows astrophotography laptop. Can't wait until the other half finds out about this!!

Thanks for all the input  

[Marci]

Install Parallels or VirtuaBox or Bootcamp. I have 4x diff versions of Windows running on my MacBook alongside MacOS.

[Starwiz]

I started with the ASI120mc for planetary, and after being seduced by the DARK SIDE now use it mostly for guiding.

[Icesheet]

On 30/09/2017 at 12:52, Marci said:

Install Parallels or VirtuaBox or Bootcamp. I have 4x diff versions of Windows running on my MacBook alongside MacOS.

Thanks, will look into this!