Total beginner's astrophotography questions!

[wulfrunian]

Hi,

As I've posted elsewhere, I'm currently thinking of going for a 10 inch dob. My brother's into photography, and would like to try some through the scope; I know that with this scope I'd be limited to the moon and maybe brighter planets.

What I need is a quick guide to the equipment and techniques needed. I'm considering the Skywatcher scope, which apparently has an SLR camera connection. Not knowing much about photography, I might not understand your answers, but my brother will hopefully

I'd be grateful for any hints or tips, or links to a beginner's guide. Thanks

[Abernus]

I can't give much advise as I am quite new and not tried this myself. Althought I have done a fair bit of reading. I think the responce you might get is that DSLR cameras are not the best thing to use. Best this is a Webcam modified.

I have used my DSLR to take pics of the moon, this does work but for planets I think CCD cams are the best.

Like I said I am no expert and I might be wrong but this is the impression I get from other posts I have read.

[Beyond_Vision]

I wouldn't recommend using a dob for astrophotography as it will be difficult to keep an object in the field of view of the camera. Imaging the planets with a DSLR would result in a very small image. To get best results a camera with a high frame rate of more than 25fps would be required such as a webcam or a purpose made planetary camera like a DMK.

It would be possible to take images of the Moon with the dob as the image scale would be reasonable. Although the prefered method would be using a webcam or planetary camera.

Ideally you will be better off with a tracking mount either a Alt/az type or if you intend to move on to Deep Sky imaging an equatorial mount.

Regards

Kevin

[arad85]

Moon/planetary details are affected by our atmosphere. This is termed "seeing" and you get shimmering images at high magnifications. If you take a DSLR single shot, you will end up - more likely than not - a distorted image. The method of overcoming this is to run a video camera and take a sequence of images and then "stack" them. Take a look in the imaging - planetary and imaging - solar/lunar sections to see what can be achieved. Most people post up their equipment used.

As for DSO's - even the brightest ones need a tracking mount (preferably a equatorial mount) and long exposures (people take many hours worth of data to get the stunning effects you see in the imaging sections). These long exposures are taken at 5-20minute exposures and then stacked as the planetary images are.

People with their foot in both the imaging and visual observing camps tend to end up with a number of 'scopes (see my signature... )