Advise please

[Cosmic Geoff]

To give you a pointer, for EAA I use a 102mm f5 achromat telescope, an ASI224MC camera and a EQ5 Synscan mount.  (Partly because I had all this gear anyway)  It works really well for quick images of anything that will fit in a 0.5 deg field, e.g smaller galaxies and various planetary nebulae.  It is not much good for imaging planets (too small & focal length too short)  or for really wide field images (all of M31), or for taking long exposure award winning images.   If you all up the prices you will see this is over £1000 worth of kit, excluding the laptop.  You do not need a large aperture for imaging - a bit of exposure time brightens things up marvellously - unless you want to image very small things at a high resolution.

If you want to image anything you need a decent mount - you can always change the scope or the camera.

You mention dso imaging with a large Newtonian in your initial post - that is not beginner stuff,  and generally requires autoguiding. And check the prices of large chip cameras.

[squipper]

Thank you for your reply   i am easily  confused watched all the Y,T videos of all the astro people  and as i mentioned earlier    some say  large app  newts,dobs and some say small app  refactors   i can buy one but not both ( would like too but finances  and the wife say no )  it will be a once only  purchase and would   like an easy life with the boss . that's why at my first post i had put down the large newts then  get told i just want a small refractor   telescope  and theres when it all goes over my head. I want to image the horses head, and heart nebula .

[Elp]

Check on the telescopius website the targets you want to image, you'll need the scope details (focal length) and the camera specs (sensor size mainly), you'll see how they frame up.

Note, imaging is not cheap, it will get expensive very fast if you have your heart set on using a telescope as the imaging lens.

A good start if you're going to be starting from fresh is the soon to be released ZWO Seestar. It'll be easy to sell if you don't get on with it, it'll likely be one of the easiest solutions out there for imaging/EAA bar getting someone else to do it for you.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Elp

[Albir phil]

Well if you are thinking about imaging then I would go for a DSLR camera, Samyang 135mm F2 lens ,and a tracking mount. To be honest imaging dose not come cheap.But it is possible to pick up some used items to keep cost down. I am not a youngster,and it can be hard to get your head around some things in imaging, but there is always someone here in SGL that has the answer you need . Good luck I'm sure you will succeed 😃🌠

[Cosmic Geoff]

12 hours ago, squipper said:

. I want to image the horses head, and heart nebula .

If you want to image these in particular you should pay close attention to what telescope, camera, filters, mount etc and in what sky conditions the imagers you want to emulate operated.  I have tried imaging both these objects from my Bortle 6 location with the gear mentioned above and the results were very poor.

[M40]

Have a look at these videos created by curtisca17 on this site, they give very good idea of what is required and what to use

Sorry I thought that took you through to his films, follow the links on the website to his youtube channel at the same time have a look through his gallery as he has taken pictures of the same target using different telescopes.

all the best 

 

Edited August 16, 2023 by M40
Add stuff

[AstroMuni]

15 hours ago, squipper said:

Just been checking there is nothing like an  astronomy show  near me all seem to be far away for me to get to them  and thank you for that info 

Do you have a local astro club? They can be really helpful.

Here is a suggestion based on my personal experience. I am of similar philosophy that once you buy you keep for ever - LOL. And dont buy multiple things that have same function.

Lets keep this simple....Buy the following : HEQ5 pro, good camera with low read noise (eg. ASI585mc), an optional triband filter such as Antlia/Optolong (this will really help for EEVA) and I have the 130PDS Newtonion scope which is a great scope so I would recommend that! So that works out to be £1039 + £365 + £116 (Optolong L-enhance) + £239 = £1759 if you purchase them all new. I have assumed you have a computer and dont own a DSLR. If you do have a DSLR there is no need to purchase the ASI585. With this combination you can easily capture 30sec images without stars trailing and get very decent images. Good luck! 👍

Software for image capture + processing you can download and use for free, so all good on that count.

If you wish to control your mount through the computer you will need to purchase a suitable FTDI cable too. Does this fit in with the budget approved by SWMBO? 😉
EDIT: Reasoning behind choosing HEQ5 instead of EQ5 is payload. The 5-6" Newtonions are close to 6kg or more.

Edited August 16, 2023 by AstroMuni

[squipper]

SWMBO  said i am too old for this malarkey  (I am 72 )  and  say i can go up to £1,800 full stop,  only new or used for all the gear make up your mind or the bank vault will be shut  ( being on a limited income )

[bwj]

Squipper, 

If you read through the forums on this site and on Cloudy Nights you'll find a lot of people in your age range, many just starting out. I've been interested in astronomy for my entire life, but am just now able to spend time to get a little serious about it . I'm 71.

Clear Skies!

[Elp]

How are you at picking up things and fault finding and solving? If not very well, getting an EQ imaging setup is an exercise in frustration (you WILL get frustrated at some point with something not working as expected). Some input on this will enable us to narrow down a bit.

If you want semi "good" images (like you see on this forum), you will need good computer post processing skills otherwise the result will look underwhelming.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Elp

[squipper]

 I do have a 7D mkii camera  but someone said  dslr is  not properly suited for astro imaging as it does not do the camera any good you need a dedicated  astro camera , i can  slowly edit raw photos to highlight them . Can admit i may be slow but will get  there in the end.

 I could just get a dob  but been told they are no good for imaging , have seen plenty of  used complete asto set ups complete  with cameras laptop everything i need to image but they are only collection only and a miles away too expensive to go by taxi to pick up

 

[Elp]

You can use your existing camera, it's just that one of the built in filters will block hydrogen alpha in the red spectrum. You can use the DSLR, many people do even I did but serious people tend to use astro modded ones so they are more sensitive to the hydrogen alpha red present in many emission nebulae.

If you already have the camera I'd suggest get a sturdy tripod if you don't have one, with an intervalometer (or use a built in one if available) and just try with what you have. You can take photos of the moon and open star clusters with ease sticking to roughly 10s or so exposures. The longer your zoom lens the less exposure time you can do without tracking. Orion will be visible soon, you can capture that with 5s exposures with a normal camera. Andromeda and Pleiades also make good easy targets.

[Elp]

They may have suggested it's not good as obviously exposures use up the shutter count, hasn't stopped many people using them.

Astro cameras typically come with no blocking filters in front of the sensor, are more quantum efficient, and with in built cooling produce less noise. You do however need power and a computer/computer controller to take the images whereas a DSLR is a self contained unit.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Elp

[squipper]

I have a sigma 18-35  1.8 lens if that is any good  and a sturdy camera tripod

[Elp]

I'd try it, you'll at least get a sense of how to find and frame a target and get good focus (focus manually). Use an app like stellarium to get your bearings when outside. If it's a Sigma Art lens it will be very capable. You might need to stop the aperture down to something like F2.8 to F4 to get sharp stars across the whole field of view. I've imaged with compact cameras on tripods, granted there was edge coma on the stars but it didn't stop me capturing the milky way and even Andromeda in the same shot.

One of the best pieces of astro gear I've got is an EF version of the Samyang 135mm F2 lens, gives a lot of telescopes food for thought. At 135mm you would need tracking however unless if you kept your exposures very short.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Elp

[squipper]

Yes it is an ART series lens my other small lens is a kit lens 28-80 3.55.6    it is an 58mm apt  were as the sigma is 72mm apt

[Elp]

I'd try it, you'll be surprised what you can capture from your back yard with just a camera.

If you then feel comfortable with it, maybe add a star tracker like a Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTI which will also allow at least a 60mm refractor to be used on it. But you can continue using the camera on it to start off with.

Start small, you'll quickly learn what it is you want/require rather than having a whole lot of new kit you may/may not believe was best.

[squipper]

I am very grateful  for your time  and patience  answering  my questions  my back garden is south facing sun all day from 11:30 till  it sets over the opposite houses across the tenfoot  i have seen Saturn through my  Tasco 114/500 Galaxsee when i first got it in the early 90's   but thinks happen and it got put away in the garage and forgotten about till a few weeks ago  now I have got the urge to do it while I can .

[Second Time Around]

45 minutes ago, squipper said:

I have a sigma 18-35  1.8 lens if that is any good  and a sturdy camera tripod

That's a superb lens for milky way shots and was my choice until I had to sell it due to poor health.

[squipper]

Would be easier to take a short video of a planet instead of  a load of single frames to keep down the shutter count 

[Elp]

Planets you can do video, but to see them clearly with surface detail you need a long focal length. A DSLR also has a large sensor so the planet detail might get lost if it's projection onto the sensor is small. I've managed planets with my 360mm refractor with a Barlow so 720mm effective focal length, they were small. Even with my C6 at 3000mm focal length (with Barlow) it just about decently fits a 5 x 4mm sensor (which is tiny). Planetary imaging requires a different setup from deep sky nebula imaging. It is nearly impossible to have one setup that can do everything well.

Edited August 16, 2023 by Elp

[Cosmic Geoff]

5 minutes ago, squipper said:

Would be easier to take a short video of a planet instead of  a load of single frames to keep down the shutter count 

You probably need to read up on the techniques for planetary imaging. 🙂 The normal method is to take a short video, but  a DSLR may not be well suited for this - serious planetary imagers use a large telescope with long focal length and a planetary camera that can take high-speed video and crop the region of interest.

[squipper]

Sorry  typo error  i meant  deep sky nebula imaging.  you mentioned a C^6 is this more suitable  for me as i hav just seen on an other shop that they have got a 

second Hand Celestron C6 XLT Advanced GT Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope

   for £ 749.00   would I have enough money left over to cover all the imaging  hardware  and cables  to keep the BOSS happy or stay with my dslr 

[squipper]

Cosmic Geoff  this is were i get confused  long focal for planets and short for nebula imaging   I thought it might be the other way round .

[bosun21]

What mount does the C6 XLT come with? Planets are tiny and require a high magnification and a smaller FOV. Nebula and other wide field targets are just that, wide.