DSLR questions

[ninjageezer]

Total newbie wanting to try some astro ,i have a sky watcher 250p flex dob for observing but planning very soon to get a scope more suited to astrophotography probably a Sky-Watcher Evostar 72ED DS-Pro along with a gti mount and wedge .

my question is can i use my unmodded canon 60D to good effect ? i dont really want to get it modded as i use it for day to day also.

i dont mind having to buy a dedicated camera as long as its not silly money.

i want to have a go at nebulae and galaxies .

Edited March 3, 2022 by ninjageezer
spelling

[Stickey]

Hi Ninjageezer,

I use a 72mm refractor with an unmodded mirrorless camera to good effect. However, aperture matters in deep sky astrophotography. 

As a general, personal opinion, modest refractors are good with bright targets like star clusters and larger, high surface brightness galaxies. 

But for fainter objects like nebulae and dimmer galaxies, you'd be better off with a bigger reflector for similar money. 

I also have a 200mm reflector for use on the fainter nebulae, but still with my mirrorless camera. 

There's no such thing as 1 telescope "to rule them all", it's very much horses for courses and many of my more experienced clubmates have more than 1 telescope/camera combination to choose from. 

You should have no problems with the SW72 and Canon 60D, but just be realistic about what results you'll get. 

 

Mike

[Nik271]

The main consideration is matching the focal length of your scope with the pixel size on the sensor of your camera. With a Gti mount (not very precise entry level mount) something like 2-3 arcsecond per pixel sampling rate should look OK. The 72 Evostar at 420mm and the 60D at 4.3micrometers pixel size gives you about 2.1''/pixel which seems OK.

You can easily image some of the big nebulae e.g. the Orion, the Veil, North America, Rosette. As for galaxies Andromeda, Triangulum, Pinwheel  could be framed  nicely on the large APS-C size sensor of the 60D.

For the smaller galaxies and planetaries you will need longer focal length, better mount and everything will become much much more expensive. But there is plenty of fun to be had with 400mm focal length refractor and a DSLR!

[Alien 13]

I would agree with Nik271 above, look at the Samyang 135 thread and you will see that lots of structures are very large indeed..

Alan

Edited March 4, 2022 by Alien 13

[ninjageezer]

Many thanks for the info much appreciated. i will probably use the 250p flex for some planetary imaging ,well that's the plan anyway......i just would like a smaller setup to get out to locations that are darker.

what i dont want to do is buy some kit that i regret buying . 

 

[happy-kat]

There's some mileage in your 250p light bucket too, this thread gives and idea on what might be possible within limitations

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/page/1

[ninjageezer]

12 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

There's some mileage in your 250p light bucket too, this thread gives and idea on what might be possible within limitations

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/228101-the-no-eq-dso-challenge/page/1

mine is only a manual model ,no goto., so observing only ...

[happy-kat]

sorry I did not realise the flex came in two flavours, lovely light bucket you've got

[Same old newbie alert]

On 03/03/2022 at 22:53, Stickey said:

 

It worth noting that reflection nebulae and some galaxies will be fine with unmodded cameras.. emission nebulae and galaxies with ha areas will be more or less blind depending on model with the IR filter in place..

Also nebula's are huge so it make sense to use a short refractor that's less taxing on the mount, again best to use a equatorial rather than a Alt Az