Astrophotography setup

[Gvarouha]

G'day all,

This is my first post on this forum and would really appreciate any feedback I get.

I've been using a 4se for observing and it been great now I want to make the jump to astrophotography but the mount that comes with the 4se is clearly not up to the task.

I am looking at building a rig over time that I don't have to keep upgrading. So I was thinking of buying a ax-eq6 mount as a solid base to start with.

My question is until I can upgrade my OTA is it possible to use the 4se on the eq6 to start imaging. If so would I need guiding due to the long focal length.

Thanks for the time.

[Somnium]

Welcome to the forums . :welcome:

The eq6 would be absolutely fine for the 4se, it looks like it already has a dovetail bar so you are good to go. 1.3 m is a pretty long focal length for unguided imaging. If you are going to do it you need perfect polar alignment and limit your exposure times. But have a play around and see how long you can go without getting eggs or lines instead of stars, you should get between 1 - 4 mins depending on how well it is set up. One thing that I did for a while is mark a location where I set the scope up, that way I only need to get perfect alignment once, the next night I would just bring it back to the same spot and you are good to go.

[Gvarouha]

Thanks for the reply, it's good to know roughly what I should aim at regarding unguided exposure times.

[raymo]

Even with near perfect polar alignment you will struggle to get
consistently round stars beyond around 90-100 secs. On occasion
you might get enough useable subs from a session of slightly
longer exposures to stack some, say 100-120 secs.
I hope your new mount tracks beautifully, and you get a bit longer than that.
raymo

[Somnium]

Money spent on an auto guider is well worth it !

[Gvarouha]

Thanks for the info, I might invest in an auto guider as I plan to shoot DSOs when my skills are up to it.

Any suggestions on a guide scope and guide camera.

Cheers

[rustigsmed]

+1

[Shiraz]

it's going to be hard work imaging DSOs with that scope George. At f10?, the sensitivity will be super low (particularly if you will be using a DSLR), which will mean that you need long exposures. Agree with other posts - you will definitely need a guider and you will be limited to a few of the brightest objects. Looking forward to seeing some images.

[rustigsmed]

Hi George,

People mostly either use a guidescope with their autoguider or an off axis guider with their autoguider.

Bintel sell a few guidescope and autoguider packages http://www.bintel.com.au/Astrophotography/Autoguiders/67/catmenu.aspx probably worth giving them a call to sort out the differences and to confirm it will be effective with your FL.

I hope this helps.

Russ

[Gvarouha]

The guys at bintel are very knowledgable. Pointed me in the right direction.

I realise the 4se is not great for imaging but I would rather put all my cash into a mount first and then upgrade the OTA when I can afford to.

Thanks for the tips

[Somnium]

Good idea, just a question, why are you looking at an az-eq6 rather than just getting the eq6 and Use the 500 you save on a auto guider set up or an ota?

[Gvarouha]

I want a mount that I don't need to upgrade down the track. My thinking is to build the kit up once and do it right even though it may take a little longer.

That's the goal anyway. I'll see how that plan works

[Somnium]

are you looking for an alt az mount in particular? because the EQ6 has the same weight rating and is $500 cheaper. unless you are looking for a terrestrial and astronomy mount then you might want to save the money

[Atmos]

I believe that the alt az version also has belt drives as standard whereas the standard NEQ6 doesn't.

[Gvarouha]

I believe the az-eq6 is belt driven rather than gears. I will look into it some more though, I might just be getting caught up in the sales talk

[Somnium]

true ...