Michael,
This was very helpful indeed!
Thanks!
Diane
On Apr 26, 2020, at 8:12 PM, Michael McDonald <mikemac@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I’ve heard AP compared to a mental illness. And after having been infected
with it for the past two years, I have to agree with the analogy. It will
teach you patience, perseverance, and humility. If you stick to it. You want
be getting a lot of sleep once you’re hooked either. Not from spending your
time doing AP but lying awake all night trying to figure out what exciting
way things went wrong this time!
Most of AP is managing your expectations. You’re not going to be able to
produce Hubble quality images. You’re not even going to match Bernard’s level
without “much money”. And skill! Money is an enabler in this “hobby” but it
still requires skill.
So what kind of images are you hoping to take? Planetary/solar imaging is
different than wide field which is different from deep space objects. Each
domain has its attractions and headaches.
Unless you want to do wide field landscape panoramas, you will need some kind
of mount. Most likely, you’ll want some kind of equatorial mount that can
track across the sky at the same rate as the apparent motion of the stars.
That allows you to take longer duration images. I disagree with the
recommendation that you need a Astro Physics or Paramount mount to start
with. Sure, they’re really nice but laying out $5-15 THOUSAND before you know
if you really want to do this long term is risky, in my opinion. (Unless your
idea of “not much money” is a lot different than mine!)
Unless you’re going to put a big OTA (> 14-17”) on it soon, you can get by
with a much more moderately priced mount such as a iOptron CEM-60 (not the
-EC version!), a Celestron CGX (maybe a CGXL is you think you’re going to put
a big Newtonian on it soon), or a Sky Watcher HEQ-6R. From what I’ve read
and my own experience, all of these will do well for a serious beginner. (I
bought the CEM-60 a year ago and they sent me the CEM-60EC version by
mistake. It’s taken a while to get that thing under control. It would have
been easier with the base CEM-60 but I’m reasonably happy with what I ended
up with.) If you’re tempted by the less expensive Celestron AVX, we should
talk first so you know what to expect.
I started out using my Canon (SL1) but quickly ran into heat issues. I
started out in June and by the first of August, I was ready to by a dedicated
AP camera with built in cooling. The sensor on my Canon was exceeding 115
degrees and all I was getting was noise. A cooled sensor is really handy in
Arizona!! If you decide to go the DSLR route, some people are recommending
some of the newer Nikons (Heresy!) as having a better sensor than the Canons.
As a life long Canon user, I didn’t pay attention to what models they were
referring to. I went with a ZWO ASI1600mm Pro, which is popular with a
certain set of imagers. It’s monochrome (B&W) so I use narrow band filters in
a EFW (electronic filter wheel) to with them out under SW control so I can
get a full color image (or false color with HSO (hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur
wavelengths, great for gaudy nebulas!) by combining them back together in
post processing.
If you haven’t yet, you might want to hang out on Cloudy Night’s beginning
imaging forum to learn from other people’s mistakes. You might also want to
check out Trevor’s AstroBackyard website and YouTube channel. He recently had
a video on his HEQ-5, SpaceCat 51, and Canon right that he’s using for some
of his wide field work this summer.
https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/80-beginning-and-intermediate-imaging/ ;
<https://www.cloudynights.com/forum/80-beginning-and-intermediate-imaging/>
https://astrobackyard.com/ ;<https://astrobackyard.com/>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv05lba4ido&tg4s ;
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv05lba4ido&tg4s>
Oh! And all of this stuff starts adding up, weight wise! So you’ll need an
RV/camper for hauling of of it out into the boonies for the two or three star
parties each year! :-)
Mike McDonald
mikemac@xxxxxxxxxxx
On Apr 25, 2020, at 11:55 PM, Chase Douglas Anderson
<mysporthoops@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hey everyone,
I would like to get into astrophotography. I know very little about this
field and also do not have much money. Any ideas on how to start some basic
telescope photography?
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