Beginner with a Eos 5D and some lenses buying first telescope

[kahuna0k]

Hi,

I already have a Canon EOS 5D mark IV and some lenses (the longest being a 100-400 f4-5.6). I was thinking about buying a telescope to do planetary viewing/imaging with a mount that I could use to do some deep sky imaging in the future. I've been looking at the Celestron Advanced VX 8" EdgeHD, that seems to be good for planetary imaging. I've spent several hours reading through this forum and it seems that the mount is not good for deep sky imaging. Could I start with this setup now to do planetary observation (and maybe some planetary imaging) and in the future get a lighter refractor (plus maybe a autoguiding setup) and use the same mount to do some deep sky imaging (thinking about Messier objects)? Also what options do I have to just use my camera with the 100-400 or a 100 f2 with that mount to do some deep sky imaging?

My budget is between $2000 and $3000. I've also seen the more expensive mounts, and the agreement seems to be to get the best mount you can and keep improving the telescope over time, but I don't plan to update my setup often, as I said, maybe get a refractor and autoguiding for deep sky in around a year or two.

Thanks!

[jambouk]

A static tripod will only really allow you to do star trails and image noctilucent clouds and aurora, and landscape images of sun, Moon and clouds; basic lunar too.

The scope you describe is fine for planetary observation and imaging, and even DSO imaging of smaller targets (planetary nebula, galaxies, globular clusters etc).

The mount is key. If it is alt-az then that is fine for solar system imaging, and you can image DSOs with multiple short subs, say 20 seconds, and stack them. If the mount is equatorial then this is much better for imaging DSOs and still excellent for solar system imaging.

A DSLR is good as it has a large sensor and doesn’t need to be connected to a laptop. However, when using in video mode, the video is compressed so the quality of planetary images won’t be as good as if using a dedicated fast frame rate planetary camera. A DSLR is a good camera for an introduction to imaging DSOs, but again not perfect as you ideally want the longest possible exposures, and a DSLR suffers with not being cooled and you get issues such as amp glow etc. But unless you are guiding you probably won’t get to 5 minute subs especially at such a long focal length with the 8” SCT. But even so, if you set the DSLR to take sub after sub of 20 seconds, the sensor will still get hot and you’ll get issues, which in part you can mitigate with darks, a type of calibration frame...

There is so much to learn.

Have fun.

James

[kahuna0k]

Thanks for the information, yes there is a lot to learn and there is the fun After more searching and more reading I finally got the EdgeHD 8 with the Advance VX. I'm still waiting for the AC adaptor to arrive but I've already used it manually and it is really impressive. My plan is to keep learning through visual observation, and maybe expend some money to start practicing with imaging that seems to be a long (and expensive) journey. I was looking at the QHY5L-II-M, that I could later use as a guiding camera. My planned expenses were also the focus reducer for the EdgeHD 8" and maybe a dedicated imaging camera like the ZWO ASI294MC, initially I would get the non-cooled version mainly because of weight and price, but from what I heard the cooling makes a big difference for longer exposures. The guiding scope would be the 9x50 finderscope included with the EdgeHD.

What do you think of this configuration? QHY5L-II-M to start with for planetary, and later get the ASI294MC + the focal reducer and move into DSO imaging. Is the Advance VX good enough to hold the cooled version of the ASI294MC and guide at a rate that make the cooling useful or I'm better with the non-cooled with that mount?

Thanks!

[nfotis]

Hello there,

as a Canon dSLR shooter I would suggest that you enable the "ALL-I" option in video shooting, this way you get an uncompressed video stream which might be more suitable for stacking (I think that various programs offer a good amount of control over this camera, like APT (Astro Photography Tool), if you can live with their complex user interface.

A dedicated planetary camera with a smaller sensor should offer a much tighter crop (I think that using the full frame sensor requires a 2" viewing train instead of the typical 1.25" )

Cheers,

N.F.