Which camera suits my reflector set up?

[Worthy1973]

Hi, I have a Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT and are looking to get into astrophotography. I have to say I am confused as to which camera would suit my set up. If possible i would like to stay under £300 but could stretch to £500 if worth it.

I am ambitious and looking to get good quality images of the solar system and if possible some deep space.

 

What would you recommend? as I have looked at some cameras and they are best suited to refractors, but my first decent telescope is a reflector.

 

Many Thanks, Paul

Edited March 8, 2020 by Worthy1973
spelling

[carastro]

Webcams are better for solar system imaging.  You will be limited in what you can do in the way of deep sky imaging on an ALT/AZ mount.  

I am rather out of date on suitable webcams, so hopefully some-one else  will be able to advise on best webcams.

Carole 

[happy-kat]

The planets and Moon are within grasp and DSO but particularly for the latter you would be working within the limitations of your mount.

Do we assume you do not already own a camera such as a DSLR?

Do you have a laptop or would you be imaging within reach of a PC?

[Worthy1973]

1 hour ago, happy-kat said:

The planets and Moon are within grasp and DSO but particularly for the latter you would be working within the limitations of your mount.

Do we assume you do not already own a camera such as a DSLR?

Do you have a laptop or would you be imaging within reach of a PC?

Thanks happy-kat, I have a Canon DSLR camera, but was wondering whether a ZWO camera would be better suited, as I am led to believe that it is hard to focus a DSLR with a Newtonian.

I have a laptop, but also looking to extend my cables to my desktop PC.

Do you think it might be worth investing in a EQ3 pro mount and using my DSLR?

I am literally just starting out, so not looking to make too many costly mistakes (like purchasing the Alt/

Az mount) 🙂 

Thanks for your help

[Pankaj]

1 hour ago, Worthy1973 said:

I am led to believe that it is hard to focus a DSLR with a Newtonian.

Do you think it might be worth investing in a EQ3 pro mount and using my DSLR?

I am literally just starting out, so not looking to make too many costly mistakes (like purchasing the Alt/

 

There is no issue in getting the right focus if you are doing prime focus AP. I use a DSLR with SW 130PDS. It works perfectly well.

Regarding mount - if you are interested in AP then polar aligning is a must. So you must invest in a mount which is equipped with a good polar scope in its body. This mount will further prove the right investment because of its load bearing capacity. Tomorrow you start guiding. That means additional load on mount. If you take an EQ3 right now then you may have to think upgrading at that moment. When I started with AP, I saved some additional money and bought a NEQ6 Pro. And I pat my back for that decision. 

[Pankaj]

To add +++

I suggest you start with a DSLR. Learn and hone your skills on PA which is absolutely necessary for AP. Then upgrade to cooled cameras.

[Gina]

They say the mount is the most important part of an astro imaging setup and I agree.  An NEQ6 Pro should do you well for a very long time though admittedly I upgraded to an EQ8.  Never regretted either mount.

[happy-kat]

If you are looking at this stage trio just dabble your feet don't get put off using what you already own. You can image with a tracking altaz mount you just have to work within the mount's limits, we've a long thread with other members doing this. You may find your slt telescope won't reach focus with your dslr without the use of a barlow, however if you already own camera lenses then start with those, ideally take the telescope off the mount and just use the camera and dslr. You can mount a red dot finder in the flash hot shoe.

[TerryMcK]

A ZWO120MM mini will be fine for a reflector as a planetary or lunar camera as that is what it is designed for. In the future you will also be able to use it as a guide camera on a German equatorial mount. It shoots high speed video as well as longer exposure stuff and is relatively cheap.

I’ve used mine in my 200p to capture the moon and planets.

Edited March 8, 2020 by TerryMcK

[happy-kat]

This is the thread, on the last page but it's one to read through, if wanting to explore using what you already have.

Link here

[Padraic M]

Hi Paul, I started with an Astromaster 130EQ which looks like it is similar optically if not identical to the Nexstar 130SLT - 130mm aperture Newtonian, 650mm focal length. The difference is in the mounts. I foolishly thought that I too could 'get into astrophotography' with that scope, the EQ mount and the motor drive. Don't believe it! The people on this forum are too nice to give you the hard facts. My advice is to use your money and buy some heroin, for three reasons:

- It's easier to get into

- It's not as addictive

- It's cheaper

First off, the mount (at least the Astromaster EQ mount - I assume that the NexStar mount is similar) is too unsteady. It shakes with the slightest breeze or touch. It's not bad for visual (don't bump your nose off the eyepiece) but is infuriating for AP. You'll get lots of lovely white stripes and circles in your pictures as the stars/planets/moons bounce around mid-exposure. You'll be limited to very short exposures, so you can pretty much forget about deep space objects, except maybe on a very still, dark night you might get lucky.  I don't think that EQ vs AltAz really makes that much difference if your mount is unsteady as you won't be able to motorize the EQ mount (the motor drive is just an electric way to shake your mount). I ditched the mount, and spent €900 on a SW HEQ5 Pro. Even though that's considered a beginner's mount, it's a massive step up from the Celestron.

Secondly, you won't achieve focus with your DSLR - most Newts don't have enough back focus distance. It's not that it's hard, it's that it can't be done. There is some guy on here who sawed off his focuser and 3d printed a new one, but I'm guessing you're not into that. You will need to use a Barlow to focus your DSLR, so not so bad eh? Except, a 2x Barlow will turn your 650mm scope into a 1300mm telephoto paparazzi's delight. That would be fine if you had a decent mount to hold the scope steady, but you don't (see point 1 above). 

Thirdly, you could use a ZWO camera. The 120MM as mentioned in a previous report is a fine camera and very reasonably priced but bear in mind that it's monochrome. You don't actually NEED filters and a filter wheel to use it properly, but, like heroin, you will WANT it. A colour ZWO might be better for starters? The reasonably-priced ZWOs have much smaller sensors than your DSLR, so they will actually give a smaller field of view than your DSLR with a 2x Barlow; so essentially your scope is acting as an even longer telephoto lens. The previous point about an unstable mount applies.

Your addiction will soon make you want a completely new set-up. You will want to buy a short-focal-length refractor, a hefty mount, a mono ZWO camera, an electronic filter wheel, some filters, a short guide-scope, a second ZWO camera as a guide camera, a laptop and a rechargable power bank. Then you can start to 'get into astrophotography', but you'll get cold turkey anyway and you will want a bigger and better version of everything when you compare your photographs to some of the ones on here.

So what can you do in the meantime? I would certainly agree that you work with what you have for now while you figure out which way you want to go in the future; maybe you'll tire of the idea, or love it so much you'll save up and take the plunge. At a minimum, you'll need to buy a 2x Barlow, but you could stick with the DSLR for now. If it does video, you can use it for planetary imaging. If not, get one of the reasonably-priced (colour?) ZWOs which excel at planetary photography. The reason for this is that planetary photography takes video rather than long-exposure shots so the shake in your mount won't impact as much with 30-millisecond exposures than with 30-second ones.

Finally, you could go old-school organic and stick to visual observing. You can do that fine with what you already have, there are lots of beautiful sights in the night sky to enjoy (esp. the brighter nebulae, larger planets and star clusters) and it's a great way to learn your way around the constellations.

You might find that the eyepieces that came with your scope are not great and some new ones would be very worthwhile.

Padraic.