Astrophotography ?

[frayne]

Been thinking about buying a telescope and mating my Canon 6D for some good pics of the moon, mars, jupiter and stars. Anybody else into this as a hobby and have some good suggestions for a novice ? I would like to stay below a grand for starters, if possible.

 

[Freedom56]

I use a Skywatcher 105mm APO refractor and a Meade LX-75 mount with my Canon Rebel t4i. I also have a Celestron 8" SC on a Meade LX-55 Mount. There are better mounts available today for Astrophotography. You really need a good mount and the ability to align the mount to do any deep space imaging.

 

[Nodak]

I use a 1980 Questar 3.5 inch scope and am experimenting with a canon mirrorless DSLR that I got a great deal on.

 

[frayne]

This is a pic I took a few years back with a canon 70d and a 100-400mm lens. I would like to get some better shots thru a telescope though.

 

[splitwdw]

Wow, Frayne, cool shot. Are telescopes expensive? I'm a star/moon/planet watching but never thought about a telescope until recently. Not for photography.

 

[audreyh1]

I've really enjoyed wide angle night sky photography - stuff like the Milky Way. Caught a few meteors. Just need a wide angle lens and low noise DSLR on tripod.

I used to be active in this group. It shows what is possible with minimal equipment. https://www.facebook.com/groups/NightSkyPhotography/?ref=group_browse_new

 

[6miths]

I have mated my 4" B&L Criterion scope with Minolta/Sony SLRs for 30 years and had fun with it. Always considered making the move to an 8" or 10" SCT with a CCD but doubt that I ever will. Too many other things on the go. DS has been doing alot of wide angle photography at the cottage which is in a dark sky preserve. Spectacular shots of the Milky Way.

About to head out and watch the ISS go over in 50 minutes. It's all good!

 

[donheff]

It has been nearly 20 years but I did a bit of astro photography with my daughter using her home made Dobsonian telescope. We got great results using a $15 web cam and free stacking software that aggregates frames from the web cam. Other people with commercial scopes and a bit of patience got absolutely stunning images of planets, galaxies, and nebula. I would recommend that you see what is happening in that sphere now rather than just hook up a dslr to the objective. I haven't looked through to see what's currently up but here is the site I learned from: QCUIAG WEBSITE www.qcuiag.org.uk
The moon, below, is a still shot using the web cam. Jupiter and Saturn are composed of multiple frames compiled in Astrostack.