baer

Where are good places to get Telescopes for Astrophotography and how might I learn how to develop Astrophotography as a hobby?
Thanks

bobforman Loc: Anacortes, Washington State

I purchased my Celestron from High Point Scientific. Their price was as good as anyone's and they didn't charge shipping nor sales tax. Sky and Telescope is an excellent magazine and is not overly pedantic in it's articles and advice. Also has excellent night viewing charts.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

Check with the Astrophotography forum section- https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-109-1.html -They will be able to help you out.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I got my telescope at B&H. What type of astrophotgraphy are you interested in? Shooting the moon and planets is entirely different than shooting deep sky objects like galaxies and nebula. I agree the Astrophotgraphy section of UHH is a good place to ask this question. Suggest you view Youtube videos for selected scopes to get an idea of what views you can get and capture. Astrophotgraphy is a lot of work and it's a good idea to get a realistic view of what you can accomplish with a certain investment in equipment. The area where you live is also important. Where I live in NJ there are probably only a couple of dozen clear nights a year suitable for astrophotography. I also recommend you visit the cloudy nights website, a great place to learn all about telescopes and astrophotography.
https://www.cloudynights.com/

It took me about a year to be able to get these pics of Jupiter which is the largest target for astrophotgraphy in our solar system, outside of the moon. I have three videos of jupiter and one of the moon on my youtube page called bobspez.

(Download)

baer

Thank you very much!!

I was thinking of a Questar but guess that’s just good for planets. I liked it because I could bring it to McDonald Observatory in Ft. Davis Tx

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Bear in mind that in the eyepiece, the image of Jupitor with the 120mm refractor was about the width of a cigarette, looking at the round tip of the cigarette filter. The photographic images are enlarged. The 90mm 3-1/2" Questar has an even smaller image, depending on what eyepiece and barlow (magnifier) is used. I never looked for deep space objects, but any seen would be hard to see through the eyepiece. Most deep space photgraphy is done with long exposures and post processing, often with very large telescopes. Planetary images are done with video, stacking frames and post processing them as well. The UHH astrophotography section has lots of deep sky pictures posted and usually identifies the scopes and cameras used. One thing that made viewing more exciting for me was using a binocular attachment and two of the same eyepieces to view through both eyes. When I wanted to take pictures I slipped the camera on one of the eyepieces. My camera was attached to a laptop so I could do the final focusing looking at the laptop screen with a remote focuser. Without the binocular attachment I could only see through the laptop screen.

(Download)

baer

Thanks very very much!!

Fly_Boy Loc: South East Michigan

You may want to start astrophotography without a telescope. With your camera and a fast, wide angle lens you can capture the Milky Way, constellations, create start trails. You might want to check out some of the “nightscape” photos on Flickr. You can start with the camera and lens you have, a tripod and a shutter remote. It’s a lot cheaper than buying a telescope.

baer

Excellent
Thanks

Ballard Loc: Grass Valley, California

For shooting bright objects like the moon and planets I like to take a video and then stack the frames to get really nice images. Look up "Planets and the moon" posted Dec 1 2018 for some examples. In the past couple of days I just posted some shots of the Lagoon, Triffid and Omega nebulas using a refractor as a guide scope and a large lens on the camera and mentions a bit on how I took them if you are interested.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I was able to buy an 11" Celestron for about $1000 on Craigslist and then decided that Astrophotography was not for me because of the additional investment for a tracking system and a new camera as DSLR's apparently are not the best cameras for astrophotography. Having bought that $3000 scope used when I decided to get rid of it I was able to sell it for $1500, making a few bucks on a wrong decision was a heck of a lot better than losing $1500 on the same wrong decision.... Nothing wrong with buying used.

ballen2208

Astronomics in OKC is good

tommy2 Loc: Fort Worth, Texas

Didn't see astromart.com listed - that website is a good place to buy used gear and some new gear.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

Oceanside photo is good also. Astrophotography through a large telescope is very difficult, requiring a lot of set-up, a good mount, an autoguider.... And a good tracking mount can cost a lot more than the telescope itself. Sooo, I'd start with a good tripod and shooting less than 30 sec photos using a standard to wide angle lens. Next, I'd get some sort of simple camera tracking drive. I use a Skytracker pro (look it up). There are other such trackers on the market. With that, you can take exposures of two or three minutes, even using a mild telephoto lens. Once you've got tha down, you will know what you want next.. The sky's the limit from there (and maybe your budget). Good luck. It is fun, but not always easy...

Traveller_Jeff

Check out b an h photo. They have quite an inventory. Then check the professional reviews.