Trip to Northumberland, Equipment suggestions.

[BentleyMiller86]

Hi all,

I'm setting myself a challenge, I have just under 3 weeks to go before I make my way to Kielder! The challenge is to take my first DSO pictures on a budget! I have 3 targets, Perseid's for obvious reasons, Andromeda and possibly the Elephants Trunk Nebula, (if this one is doable?) there's no moon and there all in the NE no nice and er easy! no light pollution filter needed either as well there isn't much where i'm going! And my view is directly NE over Kielder reservoir!

So far I have the following equipment / software:

Pentax K3ii inc 50mm, 18-55mm and 300mm Lens'
Laptop
Stellarium

What equipment do I need to gather, inc cables and software?

I'm not bothered about overly long exposures so an Alt AZ go to mount and refactor scope should do me, I don't have either! can anyone recommend one as cheap as possible? or is any one selling one second hand? I also have to learn how to use them!

Thanks for you advice on my (personally anyway) ambitious project!

Rob

 

[Tim]

Wellies.

[clarkpm4242]

If the camera is the Pentax K3II...

...learn how to use the Astrotracer and Interval timer functions.

The 55mm lens will do for Perseids and the 300mm for Andromeda.  Forget the Trunk...

All you need is a sturdy tripod/head combo for the camera. to be mounted on.

Shoot in RAW mode and have plenty of memory/battery power. 

For image processing use something like DeepSkyStacker (free download) and another digital darkroom tool.

Do lots of reading e.g. http://www.astropix.com/bgda/bgda.html

and learn in daylight!

Good luck!

[michael8554]

Not sure if it gets dark up there at this time of year?

Michael 

[BentleyMiller86]

20 hours ago, michael8554 said:

Not sure if it gets dark up there at this time of year?

Michael 

Up there? its not in the arctic tundra  its only 160 miles north from me.

On 23/07/2018 at 06:26, clarkpm4242 said:

If the camera is the Pentax K3II...

...learn how to use the Astrotracer and Interval timer functions.

The 55mm lens will do for Perseids and the 300mm for Andromeda.  Forget the Trunk...

All you need is a sturdy tripod/head combo for the camera. to be mounted on.

Shoot in RAW mode and have plenty of memory/battery power. 

For image processing use something like DeepSkyStacker (free download) and another digital darkroom tool.

Do lots of reading e.g. http://www.astropix.com/bgda/bgda.html

and learn in daylight!

Good luck!

Thanks! I totally forgot about the astrotracer! I don't get much chance to shoot anything and I have never used it before.

[michael8554]

5 hours ago, BentleyMiller86 said:

Up there? its not in the arctic tundra  its only 160 miles north from me.

Might as well be:

Civil Twilight Begins 2215
Nautical Twilight Begins 2331
Astro Twilight Begins 0100

Astro Twilght Ends 0100
Nautical Twilight Ends 0302
Civil Twilight Ends 0417

Michael

[clarkpm4242]

Probably 3+ hours of useful dark in a couple of weeks time...