Beginner Imaging Setup

[quantumpanda]

Hello all,

I have a budget of around £600. Could you please suggest a setup for imaging? I already have a Canon 1000D, but I need help on the Scope and Mount.

Thank you for any help, in advance.

[Sparrow]

It really depends on what you want to image. Equipment requirements for lunar planetary are different to that for deep sky imaging. It's a case of "horses for course" I'm afraid. If you can say whjat sort of imaging you'd like to do, I think you'll get better and more helpful advice.

I started out with a 6" schmidt (Celestron) which was brilliant for lunar and planetary although I'd have liked a larger aperture. For deep sky imaging you need to be thinking of a good refractor or possibly a newtonian and you would need a motorised equatorial mount. Alt Az mounts are OK for lunar planetary but not really for deep sky unless you use a wedge.

I started on lunar planetary work and then moved on to deep sky imaging after a couple of years.

The Canon 1000D is a great starting point for deep sky imaging but consider that ultimately you will need:-

An imaging telescope and ultimately a guide telescope.

A guide camera

A motorised EQ mount.

Laptop computer

various cables.

Power supply (I have an outside socket for the mount and laptop, and a power tank for dew heaters)

T ring and adaptor for your camera to fix it to the telescope.

There are probably other things I've forgotten but these are certainly the basics.

For lunar planetary, the requirements are rather less - a scope and mount, your camera or a dedicated LP camera (approx £100 upwards) and possibly a laptop if you do get a LP camera. - I still actually prefer to use my Meade LPI camera for lunar work and create mosaics.

For deep sky imaging I would estimate that my setup has cost about £1800 altogether but I've built this up over a few years.

Hope this helps

[Deneb]

how about starting with getting a decent mount 1st, you might want to consider imaging with a Apochromatic Refractor as well with a short focal length & a fast focal ratio. Would not worry about guiding either at the moment..

Nadeem.

[ollypenrice]

That's a low budget in DS imaging terms so you will need to be looking at second hand. Like Nadeem I'd say a small apo or even a long camera lens, a prime being better than a zoom. For a mount I'd go for an HEQ5 pro. These come up second hand as people upgrade to the EQ6. But the 5 is as accurate and would be good.

That will do for most of your budget already so a small apo and guider can come later. If not guiding a short focal length makes things much, much easier.

Olly