What is a good telescope for the ioptron skyguider pro and photographing galaxies

[Tim Jennings]

Morning  all,

Can any body help me looking for a good cheap telescope to use on a star tracker to photograph galaxies please.

 

[Rallemikken]

Maybe I'm making a fool out of myself:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/telescopes-in-stock/skywatcher-explorer-130p-ds-ota.html

Not even sure if it is possible, but this beauty is just 4kg. The payload of the Ioptron skyguider pro is said to be 5kg. It has a guide port, that means that it can guide in one axis at least. I have a  Startravel 80 that comes with the same finderscope. I removed the eyepiece in the finderscope and installed a mini guide-camera, worked like a charm. Or you can pull it off and save some grams.....

Very few galaxies are wider than a half moon. That means that you need focal lenght. With a small-sensor astrocamera this scope can pull theese targets close enough to resolve some details. I'd say you can do 30sec exposures with this scope unguided, maybe even more if you learn to polar align.  I do galaxies with a DSLR with a crop sensor and an Explorer 200 PDS at 1000mm focal lenght. As I have grabbed the lowest hanging fruit, the targets quickly gets smaller.

This scope takes beautiful pictures of DSO's, just spend some time searching. And if you decide to upgrade the Ioptron to an EQ-mount, you can keep the newtonian.

Anyone else done something similar? Will it work?

[Carbon Brush]

Hello Tim. A couple of questions first.

What model of mount do you have? Star tracker is used generically.

Do you already have a camera that is happy with long exposure and low light level?

If you only want to photograph, then an old secondhand telephoto lens will get you going.
One of those that doesn't have automatic everything functions and is heavy.

Astrophotography can be a real money pit and it is better to dip a toe in the water.

[barbulo]

Welcome to SGL @Tim Jennings

For astrophotography I wouldn't recommend to go above 60-70% of max capacity of the mount (3 Kg in your case). Star-trackers are meant to be used for widefield AP with light setups, such as a DSLR attached to a lens or a small refractor. Andromeda galaxy apart, you will need quite a long focal length to frame a galaxy properly, and that would mean relatively big and heavy optics for the SkyGuider.

You can check the field of view of a given setup in the "Imaging" tab of this well known FoV calculator.

What camera will you use? What is your budget?

[Tim Jennings]

The camera  would be a Olympus em1 micro four thirds my budget will be £600

[Same old newbie alert]

You can image any galaxy with a camera and lens, depending on the focal length used depends on the size of the image it produces...the biggest galaxy scale wise is m31, here we see the difference with a 200mm lens and a 72 mm frac

[Same old newbie alert]

Edited April 9, 2022 by Same old newbie alert

[Same old newbie alert]

And this will be the largest galaxy to image, most of them are much smaller.. 

[Rallemikken]

3 hours ago, barbulo said:

For astrophotography I wouldn't recommend to go above 60-70% of max capacity of the mount (3 Kg in your case). Star-trackers are meant to be used for widefield AP with light setups, such as a DSLR attached to a lens or a small refractor. Andromeda galaxy apart, you will need quite a long focal length to frame a galaxy properly, and that would mean relatively big and heavy optics for the SkyGuider.

Well, you don't use theese trackers for visual, so I assume the payload capacity is for imaging. That aside, I totally agree on having some slack, weightwise.

This guy have a tracker, he have a DSLR, and he wants to image galaxies. Galaxies, as in "more than Andromeda".

This could be a challenge for one of the youtube-guys out there. Hang a Sky-Watcher Explorer 130P-DS on a tracker similar to what he ownes, and fit the DSLR to the focus tube. With a laptop with Kstars/Ekos (which is free (as in speech)) you can do platesolving with your DSLR (but not goto) and one-axis guiding  if you fit a another camera to the finderscope. Maybe Astrobiscuit, he does strange things all the time, or Nico Carver, he has done a lot of work with theese trackers!

Edited April 9, 2022 by Rallemikken

[900SL]

This is what I get at 340mm FL and a 1" sensor. Guiding for 150s exposures on a Fornax Lt 2. To give you some perspective. (Cropped in a fair bit). I'd never try this on a Skywatcher Star Adventurer. 

You need a long focal length for galaxies. It's very demanding on polar alignment, balance, tracking and wind

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by 900SL

[Grant93]

I haven't read through the answers, so this may already of been said. So sorry in advance if this has already been pointed out.

For the Skyguider pro and the 5kg weight limit, really you're limited to a few bigger galaxys here in the northern hemipshere, Andromeda and Triangulum, but also you can do widefield on the Pinwheel and Whirlpool for example, and you can do galaxy groups like the Leo Triplet and Markarians Chain. As far as telescopes go you could use a Redcat 51 or ZS61 With FF, although all in thats a little over budget, but you would be well within weight limits, and you would have seriously good quality glass.

Also if you happen to be in the southern hemisphere there is the LMC and SMC, and maybe other galaxys I am not aware of

Edited April 10, 2022 by Grant93

[david_taurus83]

A 130PDS at 650mm focal length will be too much for a SGP. Even guided it would struggle. Stick to lenses below 300mm or a small scope like a 60mm frac or a Redcat51 etc. 

[ollypenrice]

As has been said, apart from M31 and M33, galaxies make for very small targets. They are usually imaged at long focal length and high resolution - the hardest kind of astrophotography to do, both for the imager and the equipment. This means it's important to manage your expectations.

With a small, lightweight setup you would get much better results on targets which are larger on the sky and are often stunningly beautiful. It would be worth thinking about this before making expensive decisions!

Olly