Astrophotography

Graham0602

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7 Dec 2010 - 8:25 PM

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Am doin a GCSE Astronomy course and learning sooooooooooo much, absolutely loving it

Started thinking I fancy doin a bit of astrophotography.
No experience, don't own a telescope or even a decent pair of binoculars. Have been recommended Michael Covington book "Digital SLR Astrophotography"

Anyone done it, anyone got any hints or tips on how to get started relatively cheaply ??? HAve seen various articles recommending using webcam technology rather than DLSR technology, any views on that ????

Would love some piccies of the moon or Jupiter (clear in the night sky at the moment when it's not foggy/cloudy) or Saturn or the stars that were all my own work

G

User_Removed

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7 Dec 2010 - 10:45 PM

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Webcams are advised for beginners as they are much lighter/cheaper and so the rest of your gear cap be lighter/cheaper.

You will need a much bigger scope to support an SLR attached to it.

Any modern DSLR is suitable however, the 20Da would be a waste of money for its aged feature set as it matched by the newer cameras - The higher quality you want, the more you will have to pay for gear.

Personally I would start by focusing on getting a scope that you can expand upon and then add photo capability.

Kako

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8 Dec 2010 - 10:35 AM

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Hi Graham,

I don't have any experience on the astrophotography aspect but could heartily recommend the Skywatcher Dobsonian 150mm (6" diameter) telescope. New it would cost about £170-180. It has a circular turntable type stand that makes the scope easy to turn but is a bit bulky as a result. 150mm is a lot of aperture for the money though and gives brilliant views of the moon with the two included eyepieces. It is also capable of taking an SLR type camera or anything smaller, although the attachments are extra. Just one thing though, you might find it difficult for this kind of money to get decent views of the planets, you can see them but they are very small to photograph. The pictures posted by amateurs have usually been taken with bigger (more expensive) scopes.

cheers

Karl

bigalguitarpicker

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8 Dec 2010 - 10:07 PM

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The BBC "Sky at Night" magazine is a good read. I don't know if they have web forums, but it could be the place to start looking for astrophotography info. I've dabbled very slightly, using a Fuji S7000 and got reasonable results, managed a photo of the Pleiades and one showing the nebula in Orion's sword. If you get usable pics and decide to print them, invert them first. Having black stars on a white background saves the black ink!