Starting from the bottom

[Cyprio42]

hi

I'm getting into astro photography and I prefer the deep sky.  I'm now reading up on the different mounts, scopes etc and my budget is roughly £1000 max. Ive just sold a long lens so I'm reinvesting this money into a set up and I don't mind second hand, sometimes good bargains can be had.  I have a Nikon D750 so hoping this will get me going, I'm reading thru the forums looking for ideas on what else will be needed.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.

[carastro]

The most important bit of your kit will be the mount.  For deep sky long exposure, it should be a sturdy equatorial mount capable of guiding.  If you are not going to put a huge telescope on this, an HEQ5 will do very well.  If you couple this with something like a Skywatcher 130PDS (see the long thread on this scope), plus some of the extras you will need you can do this in budget.  Refractor's require less maintenance but are more expensive, but if you decide to go down the refractor route make sure you buy an APO to avoid chromatic aberration.

Although I have not read it myself (I always do things back to front - lol), every-one recommends Steve Richards book, Making Every Photon Count, apparently is is the bible for Astrophotography.

Carole 

[Cyprio42]

Thanks for your advice Carole?

[carastro]

There will of course be other things you need other than a camera, (which you have and it will certainly get you started), such as a guide scope and guide camera, depending one which scope you get sometimes the finderscope can be converted into a guidescope.  Probably a laptop (cheap one will do).  Dew heaters if you are susceptible to dew.

Means of powering everything.

Carole 

[cletrac1922]

3 hours ago, carastro said:

The most important bit of your kit will be the mount.  For deep sky long exposure, it should be a sturdy equatorial mount capable of guiding.  If you are not going to put a huge telescope on this, an HEQ5 will do very well.  If you couple this with something like a Skywatcher 130PDS (see the long thread on this scope), plus some of the extras you will need you can do this in budget.  Refractor's require less maintenance but are more expensive, but if you decide to go down the refractor route make sure you buy an APO to avoid chromatic aberration.

Although I have not read it myself (I always do things back to front - lol), every-one recommends Steve Richards book, Making Every Photon Count, apparently is is the bible for Astrophotography.

Carole 

Agree with Carole

HEQ5 or 6

I have a SW ED80 on EQ5 mount, and at the time when ordered the scope, over 10 years ago now, astronomy shop only had the EQ5, and would had been another 4-5 months to get the HEQ5

I am very happy with it, and have glass solar filters as well