Want to start

[Ian_A]

(((I'll leave what i wrote...however...before i jumped in and typed i should have looked around more i found what i was looking for in hints and tips....silly me.)))

Hi all,

The last time i was interested in the stars etc , i was 10 years old, now i'm 41 and my little girl (5) has shown interest in a 75mm newtonion cheapie that we were given.......

Well that just refired my interest and now i would like to have a go at taking some nice images of planets and deep space...i've only played...and i do mean played with a small digial camera and my Nikon coolpix using a home made mount and a 20mm eyepiece...

As you can expect...nothing to write home about, so i'd like to get another telescope...but with out spending too much ! But i get the feeling that i won't really achieve anything without spending lots of money ??? or will I...

Can anyone offer ANY advice.......

I was thinking of the skywatcher skyliner 8" and a web cam maybe philips toucam (initially) i know its not the best option as theres no EQ mount, but maybe if i save for a year i could purchase a EQ5 mount..

ANY info would be grateful.....Assume i know nothing about this hobby.....and you won't be wrong....

many thanks in advance

[CowsonConcrete]

I too, am no expert on astrophotography and it is something I would desperately like to get into. I have a spotting scope and a universal adapter (about £25-£30) which fits my compact camera closely to the eyepiece.

I'm quite pleased with my lunar pictures and I have managed to get Jupiter and it's moons, which were heavily pixelated but I didn't think I'd be able to do that. I have tried to photograph the open cluster in Perseus but got nothing.

I'm about to try using video through the camera and stacking the individual shots. I'll post the images on my blog (see auto signature) that way everyone can see the development.

My advice is given to you from the point of someone who's only a bit further dowwn the road than you but I've learnt two things

a) you have to practise and adjust your process continually and

There's no point me trying to take images of hugely distant DSO's as I would only be disapointed with the kit that I have.

So spend what you can afford but know your new kits limitations to avoid disapointment.

Hope this helps, a little,

[jgs001]

One of the best and first purchases you could make is

Books - Making Every Photon Count - Steve Richards

It's aimed at Deep Sky, but goes into the kit required, if that's something you want to do.

You're aim of the Dob and webcam will work for some lunar and planetary work, but non tracking will make it more tricky. The EQ5 will be rather overloaded if you try and mount the 8" on it, so you might want to consider the 6" dob instead, you can then unmount the scope and use it on an EQ mount at a later date.

Imaging can be achieved with AltAz mounts, Lunar and planetary use such short frame rates, that it really doesn't matter too much (just don't try a large lunar mosaic ).. It's more tricky with cheap AltAz for deep sky, but it's not impossible, as long as you work within the limitations of the kit and AltAz.

For fainter deep sky, you really need an EQ mount, the heavier the better (within limits, are you gonna have to cart it a long way for instance).

If you have a webcam, you could always try that 75mm newt and see what you can achieve before investing in a bigger scope.

The other thing that's really important... Practice, practice, more practice and a seriously large helping of patience. And for this, it doesn't matter too much what kit you're using, it's about making what you have work as well as you can and as CC said, improving your process.

I started using a £40 NexStar SLT AltAz mount for deep sky and lunar/planetary for instance.