Beginner in astrophotography

[josso]

<p>Hi everybody,<br>

I am more and more interested in astrophotography and I am thinking of buying an equatorial mount to take long exposure of cosmic wonders. I have a Canon 400D with a 18-55mm and a 70-300mm lenses. My tripod is the Hakuba HG-504MX carbon fiber tripod that can support 25lbs.<br>

Basically I would like to begin astrophotography and try to take long exposure with the 18-55mm and if possible my 70-300mm so I think I am looking for a cheap motorized equatorial mount that could fit my tripod.. Is it possible?<br>

While searching on the web I found a cheap solution that could work and I would like to know if anyone here tried it. The mount is the $60 Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount (<a href="http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=mounts_and_tripods/~pcategory=accessories/~product_id=09055">http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=mounts_and_tripods/~pcategory=accessories/~product_id=09055</a> ) that can apparently fit on a regular tripod. From what I have read, I can then add the $45 <a href="http://www.telescope.com/control/product/%7Ecategory_id=drives_controllers/%7Eproduct_id=07812" >Orion AstroTrack Drive for EQ-1 Telescope Mount </a> to motorize it. This solution appears to be very cheap and tempting to begin with but I don't know if it really works as advertised..</p>

<p>Thank you in advance,<br>

Nico</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>There is someone here who has done spectacular night sky shots (not star trails), but I can't find the link right now. One hopes they will pop up in this thread.</p>

<p>In the meantime, without mounts, etc, you can do star trails such as discussed in (<a href="00SUWU">link</a> ).</p>

<p>You are aware that the lenses you have are really "wide angle" for this sort of thing? Even a 500mm lens on a APS-C body, like yours, only gives a relatively small image of the moon, much less other things.</p>

[josso]

<p>Thank you for the reply JDM. Yes I am aware my lenses are "very wide angle" for this application and will give me "landscape" of the cosmic wonders.<br>

I already tried some star trails with many 30 s to 1 min exposure for one hour. It looks good and I like it but I would like to go further and be able to see some Messier objects.</p>

[alpenglow]

<p>Nicolas,</p>

<p>You might consider making your own barndoor tracker rather than getting an equatorial mount. A well made barndoor does an excellent job using the wider focal lengths and for exposures up to about 45 min.</p>

<p>Mike</p>

 

[frank uhlig]

<p>For real astrophotography you will have to marry an heiress of a battery empire to satisfy your quest realistically with a digital or electronic shutter camera. Star exposures take hours and will drain your batteries quickly.</p>

<p>So, shelve the Canon digital and get a manual camera, an old one (<= 100$) which your lenses fit ... Good luck!</p>

<p>And do google astrophotography and at phnet, too. For best results you need wide diameter lenses, etc, etc, written about here at least 5 dozen times, anyway ...</p>

[colin carron]

<p>Nicolas, here is a link to a very similar question asked a few weeks ago. The EQ-1 mount and tripod now seems to be unavailable on Amazon but that is the sort of thing you might want to look for eslewhere.</p>

<p><a href="../nature-photography-forum/00TcqE">http://www.photo.net/nature-photography-forum/00TcqE</a></p>

<p>Jdm, are you thinking of Howard Cox?</p>

<p><a href="../photodb/member-photos?photo_id=5145424">http://www.photo.net/photodb/member-photos?photo_id=5145424</a></p>

<p>Amazing stuff but I think he úses a 200mm schmidt telescope so not the sort of thing anyone can expect to shoot without a lot of gear, experience and possibly the rich heiress.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>A fairly elaborate barn door tracker (<a href="http://www.jlc.net/~force5/Astro/ATM/Barndoor/barndoor.html">link</a> ). A Google will reveal others including Wickipedia.<br>

Howard Cox looks interesting, but the one I was thinking of had lovely mountains and pin-point star images all together, and for real, not Ps'd, I think.</p>

[colin carron]

<p>JDM, I know the sort of thing you mean. If you go to the Photo.net home page and <em>'Search by Captio</em>n' then put in <em>'Star Trails'</em> you get lots of great images. I particularly like the shots by John Patrick but there are many others.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=571843">http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=571843</a></p>

[JDMvW]

<p>This is getting warmer, but still not what I had remembered (which I might have seen on Astronomy Picture of the Day, instead of here).</p>

<p>(<a href="00O23E">link</a> )</p>

[josso]

<p>Thank you very much for all your comments. I will look again on photo.net and google to see if I can find out more about the Orion Min-EQ Tabletop Equatorial Telescope Mount.<br>

I am also considering to build my own barn door tracker as a second option but I don't have much time and I don't know if I can trust my poor skills to build an accurate tracker.<br>

The links you gave me are all very nice and interesting!</p>

<p>Thank you again,<br>

Nico</p>

[Jeff Lear]

<p>There are many ways to photograph stars. I've been working at it for years now using my trusty Celestron CG-9¼ with a Losmandy EM. I haven't been so pleased with the results.</p>

<p>On the other hand, I took this just the other night. No tracking, no telescope, and no huge focal lengths... Just my trusty 5D MkI, 17-40 f/4L, tripod and cable release, all things most regular photographers have.</p>

<p><img src="http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r34/F1Addict/Stock%20Gallery/Milkyway.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<strong>Details:</strong> Milky Way Galaxy from the Eastern Sierra on 8/20/2009 at 22:04 PDT. Canon 5D MkI, Canon 17-40 f/4L, old (and heavy) Bogen tripod, Canon TC-80n3 release. 95 s, f/4, ISO 400. I used Canon Digital Photo Professional on the RAW image to reduce the Luminance noise (setting 6) caused by the high ISO and for other RAW adjustments including contrast, saturation, and black point.</p>

<p>When I returned home and saw the full-sized image I was surprised to see several Messier objects in the field of view when viewed at 100%. This was not a complicated image to create and the only thing I did in photoshop was to remove the amp-blown pixels as I didn't have LENR enabled because it was cold and I didn't have the time to wait for my camera's little brain to render the image after I closed the shutter.</p>

<p>I'm just trying to make the point that you don't have to invest in thousands of dollars of additional equipment to capture interesting night sky objects. If you want a full frame image of the Orion Nebula that's a different story.</p>