|
I've always had an interest in astronomy and photography. I have a few friends who are also starting down this road. I saw the photos of what they are achieving with a small motor driven scope and correcting by hand. Unbelievable! I had no idea that you could achieve this level with a webcam and or digital camera.
Currently I have a Canon 300D and laptop and a fixed pier. I would like to move towards guided tracking and felt it would be best to first spend money on a fairly good mount.
Budget is always a sore point, especially with the wife. I estimate approx $800-$1000 for the mount (2nd hand?) . Does this look too low??
Once I had this set up I could experiment with my camera and wide field and gain some knowledge and save some pennies.
I was thinking from there I would purchase a small guiding scope. Not sure if an Achromatic 80mm Long Perng or 66mm semi APO William Optics would be overkill. Thinking of connecting a Webcam to this and trying some of the freeware guiding software on the net e.g GuideDog or PHD etc.
From there looking to purchase an good ED80 APO and try shooting prime focus. I'd like to try shooting deep space objects, but planetary also. This would be my goal over a good space of time to 1. Gain some experience/ knowledge and 2. Spread the cost of purchasing components.
|