Astrophotography

Hi guys. Im looking to get into astrophotography. Im wondering what ill need to get and what are good ccd cameras out there.

Ive a canon 300d already. Also ive an LX90 GOTO 8".

What id like to achieve: Images of: Moon close up= webcam and barlow, Widefield:canon 300d and nice lens, Galaxies nebulae etc:ccd or 300d.

So what do i need and what are the good ccd cameras???
I also want to autoguide.

All help very much appreciated and i know that there are alot of real wizzs when it comes to this on this board so id be really grateful for everything! Also dont want to spend too much on this! My father hopefully will take care of it!

Many thanks,
Matthew

What id like to achieve: Images of: Moon close up= webcam and barlow, Widefield:canon 300d and nice lens, Galaxies nebulae etc:ccd or 300d.

So what do i need and what are the good ccd cameras???
I also want to autoguide.

Also dont want to spend too much on this! My father hopefully will take care of it!

First thing you need is a blank cheque off the old man. Then come back here - I'll order everything for you, ahem...

Hey Matthew,

Gonna get back into this stuff myself as I'm finally about to get some free time soon I hope. Still waiting on my QHY6 to arrive though. It will be interesting to see if it gives good images as it is really good value at 300 pounds. Ordered it as a test as I don't want to spend a fortune on things like SBigs, QHY8, Atik714, etc.

If you want to grab my 50mm 1.8 or 100mm f2.8 macro at any stage. Just drop up to the house. The 100mm is a great lens - as sharp as they come. Both should do good as widefield lenses but I haven't tried them out on the night sky at all myself but I use the 100mm all the time for day stuff.

Autoguiding would set you back a bit as you'd need a webcam, preferably black & white & an interface such as the GPUSB or else a dedicated guider. It drove me crazy trying to get my guiding to work at first as there is a bit of a learning curve to it.

By the way, how would you get long exposures? As far as I know most of the software would require you to have some kind of lx cable attached to the 300D. I have a TC-80N3 for the 30D but I have a feeling these don't fit the Digital Rebels - not sure though so you could try it out. You could try it out using the bulb setting without a PC but it may be hard to get focus right that way.

Trev

Hi Mathew

The Lx90 is a relatively good scope for astrophotography. Even with a fork mount I have been able to get up to a minute long exposures with minimum trailing. Most dso can be got with much shorter exposure length.

Take lots of subs and stack them in DSS or Nebulosity to get rid of the field rotation as you will probably need to chuck a lot of the subs out due to mount shake etc.

I have thought about getting a wedge sometimes but as this would increase set up time even more I have not done so yet.

I have not gone to the autoguiding stage as yet. For this you will need the APM909, which is not available in Europe :x ---(Something to do with EEC rules on lead or something). It is available in the US for $50. Kicking myself that I didnt get one when I was over there last. You can of course autoguide using the autostar itself as a stop gap. I understand that this is not as accurate as directly through the mount though.

The main difficulty with the Lx90 (and all scts for that matter) is the long focal length of f10. This means that on its own you will have a very narrow field of view and any error in the drive will show up as imperfect stars and trails. The solution is getting a focal reducer which increases the FOV and reduces the exposure time.

There is a learning curve with some nights of frustration but also some rewarding nights too.

DB

Hi Matthew.
The Canon is grand for widefields.
Just maybe a wider lens?

You can not beat the SPC900 (used to be called the Tou cam)
for the moon / planets as a starter webcam.

If you want to push the boar out get one of the
Imaging Source ccd cams.

As for deep sky stuff...
I havet a clue so I wont comment.
But I reckon the Cannon is a good start

Hi guys i was thinking of getting an ATIK 1HSII! I know there an older model and discontinued but it looks nice as a started cam and its monochrome and i could do LRGB eventually and it has an uprated SONY CCD chip in it. Its air cooled also with an inbuilt fan and comes with K3 CCD tools etc....

www.videoastronomy.com/atik_ccd_imaging_cameras.htm

429$ on that site but ive found it second hand for 80£ sterling which seems sweet!

Any opinions??? any alternatives???
All help appreciated!
Matthew