Lense advice

[alnab01]

Hello

I Currently own a canon 1300d and want to make use of it. All i have is the standard lense but am looking to buy others. Could you please tell me which lens would be suited to:

Star trails

Constellations

The moon

 

Also, is this camera capable of capturing planets and what lense would best do this

Many thanks

[alan potts]

In real terms any lens you put onto a Canon body can take photo's of star trails but for best effect I suggest a wider angle. I feel your best purchase would be something like a 18mm-55mm zoom, there are many different models some very expensive which generally means better correction and quality, I have 15-85mm zoom which would also do a fine job but is fairly pricey as it has quality ED glass elements within, I also have a 24-105mm L lens which is very expensive but quality, as I said there are many on the market from Canon. Donot be put off by offerings from the likes of Sigma, Tamron and other independant companies, they to make good lenses and are normally cheap, don't forget secondhand either .

As for the Moon your not going to see much with even a longish telephoto lens, you would need 500mm to get a decents size and for close-ups is the domain of the telescope, planets really are telescope only. Anything taken of a planet with even a 300mm lens will only be a bright point of light. Though the zoom lens option I suggested will cover your other bases, though some constellations are very large and you will not fit them in unless we talk extreme wide angle lenses and large price tags.

[alnab01]

Thanks for the advice. I have an 18-50mm zoom alreay so may see what i can do with it. I do also have a scope...how do i attach the camera to it?

[Cornelius Varley]

26 minutes ago, alnab01 said:

Thanks for the advice. I have an 18-50mm zoom alreay so may see what i can do with it. I do also have a scope...how do i attach the camera to it?

What telescope do you have ? Knowing this will determine how the camera body is attached.

[happy-kat]

The kit lens is fine to start with for constellations and star trails but stop it down a bit it improves star shapes. 

For planets you may be better off using a webcam in your telescope, do you have a webcam an old one is fine as you will be modifying it.

[alnab01]

I dont have a webcam, only o e built into my laptop. My scope is a 130Eq. Not the greatest but im very much a beginner

 

Alan

[happy-kat]

Your telescope is unlikely to reach focus with your DSLR, but it might when using a barlow x2. Do you have a barlow?

[alnab01]

Yes i have a 2x barlow

[happy-kat]

You could take images of the Moon afocal with the equipment you already have, and learn to do and take star trails and constellations and all about stacking and processing.

It isn't really a great time for planets they are either not there or very low in the murk and there is plenty with the above you could be doing and learning.

[alnab01]

Sorry for the newbie question but what do you mean by afocal? I am more interested in creating star trails and imaging the constellations to start with anyway.

I have an adaptor to attach my samsung s8 to my scope and it can actually capture pretty decent close ups of the moon so i will focus more on the stars

Alan

[happy-kat]

2 minutes ago, alnab01 said:

I have an adaptor to attach my samsung s8 to my scope and it can actually capture pretty decent close ups of the moon so i will focus more on the stars

That is called afocal imaging. You hold the camera device to the eyepiece to take the image seen in the eyepiece. Works fine for the Moon and if you do that and take video you can capture the planets and the Moon and create a better image with processing the avi file with great free software,

[alnab01]

Ah so im doing it without knowing i am..haha. Thanks for the tips. What software would you recommend?

Alan

[happy-kat]

Regustax, it really is good to take video and learn how that is processed, search for more information.

Startrails for star trails

Deep Sky Stacker version 3.3.4 for constelations

Sequator for constellations with foregound like a tree or landscape

GIMP for general post processing

^ are free