Hi everyone,
I've been a long time fan of (terrestrial) photography but have become increasingly drawn to the sky and astrophotography. Stars used to be just "dots in the sky" to me, but now I can find many constellations without a guide and can remember the date of the next new moon without thinking
I have a substantial investment in dSLR equipment (Canon 5DmkII and 20D, lots of lenses), but I'd like to start acquiring some quality astrophotography equipment too.
I have been thinking of the following as a medium-high end starting point (I'm mainly interested in stars and nebulae for now - planets later):
* Meade Series 5000 ED Apo Triplet 127mm *or* Skywatcher Black Diamond ED120 OTA as the main scope
* Skywatcher ED80 Refractor OTA as a guide scope
* Skywatcher NEQ6 Pro GoTo Mount
* Imaging Source camera for guiding or shooting planets (DBK 21AU04.AS?)
* Other bits and pieces to mount the dSLR, etc
Any thoughts on whether the above would be a good combination? I'm hoping that this will provide me with room to expand (e.g. high end CCD camera) rather than replace my equipment in the future. I'm open to any other suggestions too.
I've attached a few photos of what I've been shooting (mostly recent)... just what I've managed to do with a dSLR and plain tripod/handheld. Here's a video I made of the recent lunar eclipse (hand stitched from individual frames):
http://itee.uq.edu.au/~davel/DavidLiu-LunarEclipse.m4v
Thanks!
Dave