I am wanting to take astrophotography for a long time. But do i need like a special camera? and i also need to know what i need for a telescope. I am going to buy one but i don’t know what else to buy with it. i was looking and they had like filters and lenses. so i need to know what to get
Thanks
As a minimum, you’ll want a tripod with a barn door tracker, and a camera – preferably digital. The cost for this set up is likely to be a few hundred dollars, less if you already have a camera and a sturdy tripod, more if you go for a DSLR.
At the other end of the spectrum, it’s easy to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a nice scope on a good sturdy equatorial mount with a dedicated astro camera and a set of filters for color and narrow band imaging.
I can’t make specific suggestions without knowing what kind of budget you’re comfortable with, but here are some guidelines for setting up a system capable of shooting nice deep sky images.
The most important part of an imaging system for astronomy is the mount. For exposures longer than several seconds, you’ll want an equatorial mount that has a tracking motor.
The Orion Atlas is an example of a "reasonably priced" mount that’s stable enough for imaging with a decent sized scope and a moderately heavy camera. Their Sirius mount is a little less expensive, and can still comfortably handle a 6" newtonian tube for imaging. Astronomics and Burgess Optical are two companies that are working to bring out mounts with capability similar to the Atlas for under $1,000. If cost isn’t a concern, consider mounts made by Astro-Physics. If cost is a major concern, consider making a barn door mount. If you’re reasonably handy with basic tools you can make one of them for well under $100.
On the optical tube, if you need to hold down cost, buy a newtonian that’s advertised for imaging. Orion sells some at reasonable prices. If you have a healthy budget, consider an apo refractor. But bear in mind a $200 newtonian scope on a $1500 mount will give better results than a $2000 apo on a $500 mount. The dirt cheap option would be to use whatever camera lens you happen to have available.
Otherwise, scopes with lower F ratios (shorter focal lengths) will be more forgiving of tracking errors.
Cameras are electronic, so the cost for a given level of performance drops every year. Decent dedicated astronomical cameras start around $800, and there are a lot of interesting choices when you get up around $4,500. On the low cost side, look for consumer digital cameras that can go with exposures of longer than a minute. DSLRs are easier to work with than ones where you can’t remove the lens.
If it’s still in your budget (or later when it is) you might consider adding a small inexpensive guide scope, and an autoguider. This is apt to add about $500 to the overall cost, but it will make a huge difference in your longer exposures.
Finally, no matter what your budget is, it makes sense to track down a local astronomy club, and join it. The members there are likely to be nice people who will be happy to let you check out their scopes, and you might even make friends with someone who owns a nice scope on a sturdy mount who would be happy to let you take some pictures through it with your camera if you share copies of the photos.
My avatar is a photo of my smaller scope when set up for imaging. Some examples of photos I’ve taken can be found here:
< http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/13640785 >
February 22nd, 2010 at 4:38 pm
You can do some very basic astrophotography with a slr camera and a tripod. You can do some wide field shots of the milkyway using 30 second or so exposure and a wide field of view or do lunar shots using a 300mm lens and a setting of f/16 and 1/400 shutter speed.
the next step would be to get a tripod that will track object in the sky. You can either get an adapter to attach a slr camera or you can get a dedicated ccd sensor, this will probably be needing to be hooked up to a laptop.
References :
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/howto/astrophotography
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Also. The biggest issue I had with my scope and digital SLR was shake. So a remote release. Bulb function and to cap it all, shutter lock up function, this allows the shutter to open before you tell the ccd to take the shot. Even the shutter moving would cause my images of the moon to blur.
BUT, it is not cheap and probably better getting a good scope and sturdy tripod first. Which means getting into astronomy, finding your way around the sky etc. Try visiting local clubs and ask them first. Get a try out of set ups and different combinations and look at the results and processes required. I am still on a DSLR and it is not simple at first as it may seem.
Better to research more than spend first. Muck it up and you could throw it all away and miss out on some stunning time at the end of an eye piece.
References :
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
1. Spend a lot of money. The cheapest mounts (just the mount, not the telescope or camera) capable of astrophotography start around $1,000 and go up from there. Then you need telescope, camera, guide scope, laptop, etc. etc.
2. Spend a lot of time. The best astrophotographers have spent _years_ perfecting their skills.
I decided long ago to let my friends with the money and time do the photography, while I enjoy visual observation.
References :
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm
As a minimum, you’ll want a tripod with a barn door tracker, and a camera – preferably digital. The cost for this set up is likely to be a few hundred dollars, less if you already have a camera and a sturdy tripod, more if you go for a DSLR.
At the other end of the spectrum, it’s easy to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a nice scope on a good sturdy equatorial mount with a dedicated astro camera and a set of filters for color and narrow band imaging.
I can’t make specific suggestions without knowing what kind of budget you’re comfortable with, but here are some guidelines for setting up a system capable of shooting nice deep sky images.
The most important part of an imaging system for astronomy is the mount. For exposures longer than several seconds, you’ll want an equatorial mount that has a tracking motor.
The Orion Atlas is an example of a "reasonably priced" mount that’s stable enough for imaging with a decent sized scope and a moderately heavy camera. Their Sirius mount is a little less expensive, and can still comfortably handle a 6" newtonian tube for imaging. Astronomics and Burgess Optical are two companies that are working to bring out mounts with capability similar to the Atlas for under $1,000. If cost isn’t a concern, consider mounts made by Astro-Physics. If cost is a major concern, consider making a barn door mount. If you’re reasonably handy with basic tools you can make one of them for well under $100.
On the optical tube, if you need to hold down cost, buy a newtonian that’s advertised for imaging. Orion sells some at reasonable prices. If you have a healthy budget, consider an apo refractor. But bear in mind a $200 newtonian scope on a $1500 mount will give better results than a $2000 apo on a $500 mount. The dirt cheap option would be to use whatever camera lens you happen to have available.
Otherwise, scopes with lower F ratios (shorter focal lengths) will be more forgiving of tracking errors.
Cameras are electronic, so the cost for a given level of performance drops every year. Decent dedicated astronomical cameras start around $800, and there are a lot of interesting choices when you get up around $4,500. On the low cost side, look for consumer digital cameras that can go with exposures of longer than a minute. DSLRs are easier to work with than ones where you can’t remove the lens.
If it’s still in your budget (or later when it is) you might consider adding a small inexpensive guide scope, and an autoguider. This is apt to add about $500 to the overall cost, but it will make a huge difference in your longer exposures.
Finally, no matter what your budget is, it makes sense to track down a local astronomy club, and join it. The members there are likely to be nice people who will be happy to let you check out their scopes, and you might even make friends with someone who owns a nice scope on a sturdy mount who would be happy to let you take some pictures through it with your camera if you share copies of the photos.
My avatar is a photo of my smaller scope when set up for imaging. Some examples of photos I’ve taken can be found here:
< http://www.picturetrail.com/sfx/album/view/13640785 >
References :
30 years as an amateur astronomer