Quote:
|
Originally Posted by leon
Hi to All,
II will be imaging with an ED80, on a EQ5 mount, and would like to know which camera would be the best for this purpose, and also what other items would i require to make it all happen, other than a laptop.
Thank You for your time in answering this request. 
Leon |
Apart from the obvious (cables to hook up your DSLR to the notebook) you'll need:
Software - MaxDSLR or similar is excellent by all accounts, shame my DSLR's not supported so i've never tried it. PhotoShop, the Gimp or Paintshop pro for final image adjustments.
Make sure you've sorted out your EQ5, ie: rebuilt it, relubed and adjusted the worm/wheel sets etc to minimise periodic error in the worm/wheel set. It's also worth considering the beltdrive systems to replace the existing spur gears from the motor to the worm section of the RA and DEC drives.
You'll also need to consider guiding options, which are essentially as follows:
Guidescope with at least 50% of the FL of your main scope, along with illuinated crosshair ocular. 9-12mm is a good starting point.
Off-axis guider and illuminated crosshair ocular. Finding a suitable guidestar can be quite an interesting exercise.
CCD autoguider. Quite expensive so maybe a webcam based guider is a better option.
Focusing aids, at a minimum a hartman mask which is cheap and easy to build (Kendrick sell them ready made).
More expensive options include parfocal knife edge focusers, parfocal ground glass focusers with 10~60x optical focusing aids.
A right angle finder for the 350D .. invaluable and really helps with avoiding astrophotographers neck.
If you live in a city light pollution filters etc really help.
Tons of patience
Good seeing
Excellent polar alignment is a MUST!
Good luck!