Where to start buying equipment on a low budget?

[MauriceN]

1 hour ago, RichM63 said:

If you are going to use the astro-camera with your telescope, what is the point of over spending €75 on an 18-55mm lens?

I didn't intend on spending 75€ on a 18-55mm lense. Looking at the offer being astro modded 1000D (which is ~105€ used camera and 125€ astro mod) I've looked at the lense as a nice extra since the lense alone would cost me 55€.

1 hour ago, RichM63 said:

If you are money conscious like me then €105 on the unmodded 1000D body, and if you really want to buy a kit lens 18-55 IS STM €55. MPB German site.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it more expensive this way? 105€ unmodded 1000D + 55€ lense makes 160€. Now there is the offer I got: 200€ for 55€ lense and 145€ modded 1000D. That's 40€ for a modification that would normally cost me 125€ ► 85€ "left", if I don't mind the fact that the camera is used, for adapter etc.

I'd normally prefer a bigger lense since my favourable objects are not capturable with the kit lense. So I'm looking at it like this - a 18-55mm lense is better than no lense, or not? I'd really like to know which objects are actually possible to capturable with the 18-55mm lense. I couldn't find a source for stuff like that.

If you could tell me what the astromod is actually doing (not the filter removal, I mean for the photo end result), I would consider forgetting about the mod and using the money for the other things needed to use the camera with my telescope.

1 hour ago, RichM63 said:

Logical, at your age with a whole load of years ahead, buy an unmodded camera + adapter etc to connect to your telescope for about €130 all in and see how you get on.

That's 130€ now and another >125€ to astromod it later. Or I sell it for less and buy a new one already modded. Both ways will cost me more long term, right?

2 hours ago, cjdawson said:

I think option 1 is the best for right now.   It'll keep you going for a while, and you can add the motor next, that'll get you going.

I think you're right. The only thing that is still bugging me is the eye piece projection. Is it really needed if I have a newtonian or is it optional?

 

Then there is the thing with the motor. Someone said installing a motor on my mount would cost me as much as buying a used HEQ5 with motor already installed which makes it totally unreasonable to upgrade mine. Your opinions on that?

[Paul67]

Faced with a similar dilemma as yourself, I went the used DSLR route and purchased a pristine Nikon D90 off ebay with the intentions of doing milky way/foreground imaging.

I quickly realized that going full blown scope/camera/mount/filters route would not only eat my time but also the wallet., plus as much as I love deep sky images I probably enjoy looking at landscape/star images more and can be done at a fraction the price and with less headaches.

I still use the scope and binos for my observing.

[cjdawson]

On 30/06/2018 at 22:17, MauriceN said:

If you could tell me what the astromod is actually doing (not the filter removal, I mean for the photo end result), I would consider forgetting about the mod and using the money for the other things needed to use the camera with my telescope.

The result is that the camera becomes more sensetive to red - specifically the infrared end of the spectrum.   This results in more red in the images.  And since there's alot of red objects, it makes the camera more responsive to those.    You'd need to add a filter to compensate if you were going to do any daytime photography though.

 

On 30/06/2018 at 22:17, MauriceN said:

I think you're right. The only thing that is still bugging me is the eye piece projection. Is it really needed if I have a newtonian or is it optional?

 

Eyepiece projection is always optional.  I've got an SCT with a 2000mm focal length, this means that when I photograph the moon with an APS-C based DSLR, a full moon fills the frame nicely.  There's alot of deep sky objects that are that size too.

 

On 30/06/2018 at 22:17, MauriceN said:

Then there is the thing with the motor. Someone said installing a motor on my mount would cost me as much as buying a used HEQ5 with motor already installed which makes it totally unreasonable to upgrade mine. Your opinions on that?

 

My opinion on this is start with what you have, then make a decision from there.   For Deep Sky Astro photography, stable mount that can be auto-guided is not optional.

 

[MauriceN]

So, that's what I decided on if anyones interested:

I bought the Canon 1000D with astromod for 200€. Since the person who sold it was super nice and friendy, he added a tring, serial cable, usb, 2x batteries and lense without raising the price. I will then proceed to buy a motor at the end of the year. I contacted some online shops on what to get, and they said I can install any EQ500, Exos-2, Mon-2 and EQ5 motor/goto system on mine. There are already new ones for around 150€. I think that's a pretty good low budget base to start on. 150€ is probably not even close to a used motorized HEQ5.