Toute l’astronomie en un site

How do you get into astro photography? How do you connect to a telescope.

Duration : 0:7:27

Read the rest of this entry »

I am looking at the Nikon D70 is that a good one?

There are actually two DSLR’s made for shooting astrophotography (have extended UV and IR sensitivity)

The Canon 20Da and Fujifilm Finepix IS Pro

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/FujiFilm/fuji_ispro.asp

Or you can have your camera converted.

http://www.lifepixel.com/forensics/

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 >

There is no one type of telescope best suited for astrophotography; they all have their strengths and weaknesses. If you’re going to do deep space photography the most important thing is a solid, driven mount with smooth motions. Go to Yahoo! groups and search on astrophoto; there are several groups where you can find lots of information and advice.

That said, a lot of people start out with a Meade or Celestron SCT on a good mount. The Celestron CGE or Meade LX200 are the best of those, though the lesser mounts like the Meade LX90 will also do fairly well. These are probably the best moderately-priced out-of-the-box astrophotography setups. One big advantage of the SCTs is that they have lots of focus range to accommodate a wide variety of cameras and accessories. The disadvantages include long focal ratios, giving you a narrow field of view and requiring long exposures (reducers are available, though), and long cool-down times.

I have Maxim DL Essentials and I’m confused about the "convert raw to color" method? I can’t find any help online. Is my camera* taking color photos but they show up black & white until I want color? How does it know which stars are red and which are blue, etc?

While this may not answer your question as to your own personal camera, I thought you might find this article enlightening as to how the pros get pictures and pretty them up.

I have a Meade ETX 125-PE edition but it is broken now and I need a new one. I would like to begin looking at Astrophotography what good telescopes and equipment do you recommend?

Telescopes usually don’t "break." If the mount is not working properly, it can be repaired or replaced. An ETX125 is too good a telescope to just throw away!

Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner’s telescopes:
http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telescope.pdf
http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html
http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html

For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington’s Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley).

You’ll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these:
http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~VIEW_INDEX=0/~VIEW_SIZE=1000000
http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106

Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don’t buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations

I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy.

Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley).

Or is a lens mounted on the SLR and piggy backed onto the eyepiece? Anymore information about choosing the right FILM SLR would be appeciated thanks

Most often, the camera is mounted to the telescope directly, using the scope as a telephoto lens. You can also do afocal (camera lens to eyepiece) and eyepiece projection ( using the eyepiece to project a more magnified image onto the film). Any basic book on astrophotography will describe the specifics.

Desirable characteristics for the camera include mechanically operated shutter (so it doesn’t run the battery down keeping the shutter open), mirror lockup, and interchangeable focus screens. The Olympus OM1 in 35mm and the Pentax 6×7 in medium format have been very popular.

Maybe $1000 total. Is it possible? I don’t want super fantastic photos like the ones from magazines, just nice ones that is impossible without a telescope. Just photos to prove that there is more out there than what we can see with the naked eye

Bored -

Hmmm – As you can see from this link, you may be starting out a little low.

http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=refractors/~pcategory=telescopes;jsessionid=7905D36EF1606ECFBAE82CA54D830E98.ivprod1

ADDED: (What you are describing sounds like the scope, the mount, and the camera – like the $3409 package in the second row).

Are you intending to mount a standard camera as a piggyback? It doesn’t sound like it, since you mentioned using the scope as the light gathering device. If not, you can also use an SCT like these:

http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=cassegrains/~pcategory=telescopes

or a fast reflector on an equatorial mount, like some of these (not the dobs):

http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=reflectors/~pcategory=telescopes

In any case, I think you will end up spending almost 3x your current target in order to get even marginally satisfactory results. Based on your description, I think what you are considering would require at least a small reflector with a CCD camera and an appropriate software package for your laptop. Astrophotography is a separate branch of the amateur astronomy hobby, with its own set of criteria, equipment, and skills. If you are not already a skilled amateur astronomer, I would not recommend that you start that way unless you really know what you are doing. Do not buy used equipment on line unless you know how to repair it. You might consider going the piggyback route… It works very nicely for low mag targets like nebulae and open clusters. It basically consists of buying one of these scopes and attaching a standard camera to the outside of it, then leaving the shutter open while you guide on a star through the eyepiece. You can use a telephoto lens if you want a little magnification, but you don’t really need much to get some minimally decent pictures.

I would recommend that, if you have not done so already, you look up your local astronomy club on line. You will be welcome at their next open observing session, and you will get an opportunity to see what is available and what makes sense for you. Best of luck and Clear Skies.

I’m interested in images taken by people with all size telescopes.

in other words, you want to see other ppl’s pictures, not post ones of your own. this is not my idea of sharing.

there are many sites out there. try poking around cloudy nights for links and pictures.

I own a sony digital slr a350 camera, and i want to take pictures using a telescope instead of a lens… has any one out there aready done such a thing and what parts would i need to buy and what brand of telescopes would you recommend?
Many Thanks!

Jimmy gives you a nice way in (it’s called afocal imaging) – you can buy a Minolta or Sony T-Adaptor and attach a 1.25" nosepiece to get to "Prime focus" much much better quality but you have to focus using the scope. If it’s a Newtonian you may run out of backfocus & can use a coma corrector if this happens. Check out "prime focus astrophotography" in google. You really want to be able to make 60 second shots & stack – not easy.
Check my site for sample images http://www.thelunarscape.com