Which camera

[Beardy30]

Hi folks I have a Nexstar 8se and I’m wanting a camera - any recommendations? Please 

[Star101]

Do you have a DSLR? If so, why not buy an adapter and start from there? Adapter for attaching Canon DSLR  and you will need this T-Ring

If not, they can be cheaper than Astro cameras when first starting out.

Second hand cameras for sale

More used cameras for sale

 

Have fun

 

Dave

[Wyvernp]

+1 for the dslr if you have one. If you go ahead you'll also be wanting a bahtinov mask for focusing.

Edited June 6, 2020 by Wyvernp

[Beardy30]

Which dslr would you recomend 

[Robindonne]

I would prepare for later steps and pick one of this list.  Its for later use with stellarmate, eagle and asiair.  The models that say “tested” work with all above systems for perhaps later automation

Edited June 6, 2020 by Robindonne

[Star101]

18 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

Which dslr would you recomend 

If you are working on a tight budget, then a older/cheaper one would suffice. Its just to test if you enjoy it or not! Just make sure you can connect a computer to it. USB or WiFi. Use the computer to control it and see the image you are taking.

My first try was in winter on M42 with a Canon 50D...Its hard to walk away from that...But its summer and the sky is bright....You might get bored in a couple of weeks. Keep your costs down until you are sure its for you! The list that Robindonne have posted above is a good list. All you need to do is look for a cheap one of the above. 

Check that the one you are buying comes with warranty. There are some being sold that have faults.

[Beardy30]

It’s ok I’ve gone for a Pentax k1 Mark 11 cheers all 

[Star101]

4 hours ago, Beardy30 said:

It’s ok I’ve gone for a Pentax k1 Mark 11 cheers all 

Why?

[Beardy30]

It’s a quality camera highly recommend to me 

[bottletopburly]

 

4 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

It’s a quality camera highly recommend to me 

Recommended for astrophotograhy in particular or terrestrial ? i use a Nikon D5300 and is excellent for astrophotography. 

[Cornelius Varley]

8 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

It’s a quality camera highly recommend to me 

What software are you going to use to control the camera ?

[Shimrod]

25 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

It’s a quality camera highly recommend to me 

The K1 is the top end DSLR from Pentax, if you've bought this primarily for terrrestial photography, you've bought a nice camera - if you've bought it for astro (and assuming you've bought new) you have spent a lot more than you need to, and it probably isn't appropriate for your OTA. The K1 does have a nice astro feature when used on a standard tripod - it allows for long exposure night photography, tracking the movement of the stars across the sensor to avoid star trails. This feature is also available on the K70 at 1/3 the cost.

You might also want to have a look at this thread over on  8SE and full frame sensor for an example of the vignetting you can expect to see.

Pentax is also very much niche when compared to Canon and Nikon, so you may find some of the specialised items like brands/filters and control software may not be available in Pentax form. If shopping for lenses though they have kept the same mount throughout the SLR/DSLR era so even the oldest manual lenses will still work with the current models.               

Edited June 7, 2020 by Shimrod

[CedricTheBrave]

I believe kstars/ekos now has a Pentax driver via GPhoto

[Beardy30]

I use it for wildlife photography mostly but wondering if there’s a better camera for Astro , I’ll look at the d5300 cheers 

Edited June 7, 2020 by Beardy30

[Shimrod]

34 minutes ago, Beardy30 said:

I use it for wildlife photography mostly but wondering if there’s a better camera for Astro , I’ll look at the d5300 cheers 

I'm a little confused - if you do wildlife photography what camera do you have at the moment and wouldn't that be suitable for astro? With only 4.4fps shooting, the K1 is not best suited to wildlife. If I was buying into a new system from scratch, I'd been looking at one of the mirrorless camera systems. No need to worry about shutter counts!

Edited June 7, 2020 by Shimrod

[Beardy30]

I prefer the Pentax over something like the Z7 personally but yes the Mirrorless cameras are good, it’s personal choice I guess 

[johnturley]

2 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

What software are you going to use to control the camera ?

Do you necessarily need any software to control the camera, I don't use any with my Canon 6D, although I do have a programmable cable release. 

John 

[Shimrod]

1 hour ago, johnturley said:

Do you necessarily need any software to control the camera, I don't use any with my Canon 6D, although I do have a programmable cable release. 

John 

I suppose you don't need any software, but in my first attempts with a Canon 7D I have found it much easier. Viewing a larger image on a laptop makes it easier to see if I have got focus, and the EOS utility also lets me set interval timing with exposures longer than 30 seconds. I know from reading on here that you can use the images from the camera to plate solve as well (depending on software) although it is not something I do.

Others with more experience might explain why it is essential to have software control!