Good starting point for astrophotography

[naskies (Dave)]

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

[renormalised (Carl)]

That is a very good starting point so far as equipment goes!!!. You have some very good choices there. Since you have heaps of cameras etc, you'll have no worries about choice of camera/scope combination.

Your piccies are a very good start....your Moon shots are great

Oh...and welcome to IIS

[cventer]

Welcome and Great list

One thing you might consider given you are thinking of a scope like Meade 127, you dont realy need an ED80. Its overkill for a guidescope especially when you can get away with something like thise https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Product.aspx?ID=9193 which is much lighter and less prone to differetial flex. You can also buy a cheap 50mm finderscope and convert it to a guider. See this link http://msfastro.net/articles/finder_guidescope/

Also if you are looking at meade 127, take a look at the Megrez 120 120mm f/7.5 APO. They are available between $2200 and $2499 in Australia.

[naskies (Dave)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Your piccies are a very good start....your Moon shots are great

Oh...and welcome to IIS

Thanks!

Originally Posted by cventer

One thing you might consider given you are thinking of a scope like Meade 127, you dont realy need an ED80.

Ok - thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by cventer

Also if you are looking at meade 127, take a look at the Megrez 120 120mm f/7.5 APO. They are available between $2200 and $2499 in Australia.

The Megrez looks really nice. Would there be much of a difference between the Meade 127 and Megrez 120 for astrophotography?

[cventer]

Originally Posted by naskies

The Megrez looks really nice. Would there be much of a difference between the Meade 127 and Megrez 120 for astrophotography?

I am not sure. The Meade is a tripplet lens vs doublet in the Megrez

Meade has 7mm more apperture but weights 4 lb more.

be interesting to hear from anyone who has used either or both

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Very nice moon lapse image.

As per your list... Eq6 good, the ed80 is a great place to start... Even as a guidescope for your camera and lenses, should keep you busy for a while. You could then pick up a larger refractor, or even an 8 inch reflector, that should still mount on an eq6 . The ed80 is as close as APO you will get for the price... Exceptionally good scope. Not overly wrapped in the 127 mm scopes they are a bit fussy for focus, some like them but not me. I went for a 132 mm triplet... Not too cheap though, but still not too dear... The sky is the limit.

[astrocookie (Molly)]

wow! awesome photos!!!

[naskies (Dave)]

Originally Posted by Alchemy

As per your list... Eq6 good, the ed80 is a great place to start... Even as a guidescope for your camera and lenses, should keep you busy for a while. You could then pick up a larger refractor, or even an 8 inch reflector, that should still mount on an eq6 . The ed80 is as close as APO you will get for the price... Exceptionally good scope. Not overly wrapped in the 127 mm scopes they are a bit fussy for focus, some like them but not me. I went for a 132 mm triplet... Not too cheap though, but still not too dear... The sky is the limit.

Interesting... thanks for the info. I have a feeling that with an ED80 as a main scope, I'd be wanting to upgrade within a year or two - so I'm looking for something that will keep me happy for a while (and that I'd want to keep even if I acquired something substantially better). The WO FLT 110mm Triplet APO is starting to look pretty tempting too.

Originally Posted by astrocookie

wow! awesome photos!!!

Thanks! It seems like most people provide a few details with their photos, so here are some captions:

* Self portrait under the Milky Way (Rochedale, Brisbane) - behind the trees is the junction between the Pacific Highway, Gateway Motorway, and Ipswich Motorway, hence the light pollution. 14mm 20 sec f/2.8 ISO 1600.

* The recent "super" moon taken handheld. 200mm 1/400 sec f/2.8 ISO 100.

* 2007 lunar eclipse composited over the Brisbane CBD as seen from Taringa.

* Golden moonset from this past Monday morning - the colours are as I saw it. 200mm 1/200 sec f/2.8 ISO 200.

* Star trails around the SCP. Stacking of 1 hour worth of 30 sec exposures at 200mm.

* Milky Way... before I discovered stacking. 35mm 13 sec f/2 ISO 800.

* Eta Carina Nebula... my first-ever stacked photo 17x 200mm 1 sec f/2.8 ISO 6400.

* M55 globular cluster... I started at M2, M3, etc... and manually compared online photos against mine to figure out which one it was. Took a while! 8x 200mm 1 sec f/2.8 ISO 6400.

[naskies (Dave)]

Well... I decided to test my interest in astrophotography (I have a 'few' hobbies) by building a barn door tracker to see whether it would stick, or whether it's just a passing fad.

Big mistake! Now I'm totally hooked... and so I've ordered an NEQ6 + Orion Awesome Autoguider + plate for my dSLR from Bintel. A big investment for what amounts to a glorified camera tripod

(I have lots of lenses from 14 to 200 mm... figured I may as well take things one step at a time.)