Imaging advice

[Marcellus]

Hi All,

Hope this is the right place to post this as it's a bit of a beginners question...

I am fairly new to astronomy but can fumble my way around the sky well enough with a star map. I currently own a Skywatcher Explorer 130pm which I have put to good use so far. I have always fancied having a go at some astro photography but never thought I had the right kit to do so.

I recently invested in a new DSLR for a holiday I have coming up, and realised that I have a scope and a DSLR so am now closer to being able to photograph the heavens.

My question is this.... With the equipment I have (Explorer 130p with 1 axis motor and an EQ2 mount & Canon EOS 1000D DSLR) am i able to get some reasonable pictures of planets, the Moon and hopefully some DSO's?

I know I won't be able to recreate some of the amazing pictures I have seen as they are on equipment that costs thousands of pounds, but am I in a position to start astrophotography or do I need more or better equipment?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Just a bit more on the equipment I have... I also own a shutter remote with a timer on it for long exposures and have a 25mm, 10mm and a 6mm eyepiece for the scope and a 2x Barlow.

Thanks!!

[steppenwolf]

You are certainly in a position to capture some widefield images by dispensing with the telescope and mounting the camera and its own lens onto the motorised EQ2 mount that you have. You'll be amazed at what you can capture taking 30-45 second exposures of the Cygnus region of the Milky Way which is well placed right now. Take 20 or so exposures and then stack them together using the free software DSS (Deep Sky Stacker).

[Marcellus]

Thanks a lot for your advice, that is certainly an area I will be starting off with as it seems pretty hassle free compared to rigging up the DSLR on the Scope.

Does that also mean though that my equipment isn't really much good for capturing DSO's or planets?

Thanks

[ollypenrice]

I think you would struggle to get deep sky pictures because you need a more stable, accurate mount. But Steve is dead right about trying the camera alone.

Olly

[Bizibilder]

You could get some nice pics of the Moon but the planets are a bit trickier.

[Marcellus]

Thanks for your help everyone, I will stick with imaging with the camera for now and move onto something more serious once/if I upgrade my scope and mount.

Would rather have some decent images for my time than struggle with something out of my equipment's range.

Cheers

[GrantEb]

I got this image with a 1000d, SW130, 2 x barlow lense. It's nothing fancy though.

Only difference, it was on a HEQ5 mount, which helped me find the target.

1m30secs unguided.

You could get similar with your mount.