New to Astrophotography

[kfox]

Hello! 

I have been into astronomy for about 6 years now. I have a 6inch and a 10 inch dob as my telescopes. I think that I have reached the point that I want to get into astrophotography. It has always interested me to be able to take unbelievable images of the night sky in my own backyard. I have done a lot of research and I think that I have a somewhat of an idea of what its about and what I need. I have a list of things that I would plan on getting if I dive further into this hobby. My dobs are not going to work at all since they can't track so I would need something new. I want to know if this equipment is not enough, too much or just right for a beginner astrophotographer. I know that I can start with just a camera and a mount, (which I'll probably do) but I want to be able to go a lot further if I want. The equipment that I have picked out are:

• Canon EOS Rebel T6 EF-S 
• 50mm Lens
• Orion Sirius ED80 EQ-G Computerized GoTo Refractor Telescope
• T-Ring for Camera
• Light Pollution Filter (Bortle 5 from my backyard) 
• Remote Time Shutter 

One of the biggest things that I learned through my research is that astrophotography is not cheap, so this is the cheapest set up I could come up with still being around $2,000. I do know about some software that I can use like deepskystacker and others to help process my images but I will wait on that until I get some stuff. Any advice, tips and help will be appreciated and if this is a horrible start/set up, don't be afraid to tell me. Thank you! 

[ollypenrice]

13 minutes ago, kfox said:

Hello! 

I have been into astronomy for about 6 years now. I have a 6inch and a 10 inch dob as my telescopes. I think that I have reached the point that I want to get into astrophotography. It has always interested me to be able to take unbelievable images of the night sky in my own backyard. I have done a lot of research and I think that I have a somewhat of an idea of what its about and what I need. I have a list of things that I would plan on getting if I dive further into this hobby. My dobs are not going to work at all since they can't track so I would need something new. I want to know if this equipment is not enough, too much or just right for a beginner astrophotographer. I know that I can start with just a camera and a mount, (which I'll probably do) but I want to be able to go a lot further if I want. The equipment that I have picked out are:

• Canon EOS Rebel T6 EF-S 
• 50mm Lens
• Orion Sirius ED80 EQ-G Computerized GoTo Refractor Telescope
• T-Ring for Camera
• Light Pollution Filter (Bortle 5 from my backyard) 
• Remote Time Shutter 

One of the biggest things that I learned through my research is that astrophotography is not cheap, so this is the cheapest set up I could come up with still being around $2,000. I do know about some software that I can use like deepskystacker and others to help process my images but I will wait on that until I get some stuff. Any advice, tips and help will be appreciated and if this is a horrible start/set up, don't be afraid to tell me. Thank you! 

That looks OK though you'll need the field flattener for the scope. Working at native focal length you'll be imaging at just under 1.5 arcseconds per pixel. That is quite a high resolution and it is certainly in autoguiding territory. Although using short exposures may give you round stars this will be because the tracking errors will be about equal in both RA and Dec. For the system to work to capacity you will need to autoguide. (To be honest I regard autoguiding as something you 'just do' from as close to the beginning as possible. If you look at the cost of all that kit and then consider how much damage going unguided does to the final image it surely can't make much sense not to guide?)

Olly

[DaveS]

I don't know if FLO ship to the USA, but if they do get hold of This Book and read it thoroughly, at least twice before spending any real money. Steve is a mod on here. AKA steppenwolf.

[steppenwolf]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

(To be honest I regard autoguiding as something you 'just do' from as close to the beginning as possible. If you look at the cost of all that kit and then consider how much damage going unguided does to the final image it surely can't make much sense not to guide?)

I absolutely agree with Olly's assessment here. You will not release the full potential of your system unless you do autoguide.

[kfox]

10 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

That looks OK though you'll need the field flattener for the scope. Working at native focal length you'll be imaging at just under 1.5 arcseconds per pixel. That is quite a high resolution and it is certainly in autoguiding territory. Although using short exposures may give you round stars this will be because the tracking errors will be about equal in both RA and Dec. For the system to work to capacity you will need to autoguide. (To be honest I regard autoguiding as something you 'just do' from as close to the beginning as possible. If you look at the cost of all that kit and then consider how much damage going unguided does to the final image it surely can't make much sense not to guide?)

Olly

Thank you I will add an auto guider to the list! 

[kfox]

9 hours ago, DaveS said:

I don't know if FLO ship to the USA, but if they do get hold of This Book and read it thoroughly, at least twice before spending any real money. Steve is a mod on here. AKA steppenwolf.

Looked it up and they do ship to the USA, so I bought it. Thank you, I will read it and let you know how it goes!