Splog
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Hi Gary
Here's my suggestion to answer the original question which I understand to be: Your wife would like a telescope and you would like to use that for Astro photography? budget about 1k!
A relatively small refractor 60 to 100mm would be easy for your wife to use, this could be mounted on any reasonable tripod and would give wonderful widefield views of the night sky, planets moon you could even get a filter and use it to view the Sun! Okay Planets would be small in the eyepiece, but she will need a decent set of eyepieces to go with the scope and it is the eyepieces that will give the magnification... Budget £500 (not dogs danglies stuff but still pretty good)
You will need adaptors and other bits to use with your DSLR, which will be no problem whatsoever.... Budget £100
You will be able to get nice wide field shots at low magnification typically 600mm focal length. You really do not need high magnification with Astro photography unless you are trying for planets? If you want planet shots then you need a high speed camera, typically 30 - 60 fps .... Budget £300
Finally if you want shots such as those posted you will need tracking capability! For a relatively small scope as suggested I would recommend an AstroTrac which can be used with a conventional tripod and is extremely accurate ...... Budget £500
Having said all that the most significant investment is time, learning, reading studying etc... Oh and btw, don't be fooled by the spin that just because a scope is self aligning, auto-tracking etc you don't need to learn your way around the night sky!.... Believe me you do!
I have been doing Astronomy and Astro Photography for a number of years and have spent more than I care to think about on kit, but it doesnt matter what you buy if you don't or can't use it!
Get the most portable, easy set up you can then get away to a nice dark camping area and have fun.
Hope this helps,
Here's my suggestion to answer the original question which I understand to be: Your wife would like a telescope and you would like to use that for Astro photography? budget about 1k!
A relatively small refractor 60 to 100mm would be easy for your wife to use, this could be mounted on any reasonable tripod and would give wonderful widefield views of the night sky, planets moon you could even get a filter and use it to view the Sun! Okay Planets would be small in the eyepiece, but she will need a decent set of eyepieces to go with the scope and it is the eyepieces that will give the magnification... Budget £500 (not dogs danglies stuff but still pretty good)
You will need adaptors and other bits to use with your DSLR, which will be no problem whatsoever.... Budget £100
You will be able to get nice wide field shots at low magnification typically 600mm focal length. You really do not need high magnification with Astro photography unless you are trying for planets? If you want planet shots then you need a high speed camera, typically 30 - 60 fps .... Budget £300
Finally if you want shots such as those posted you will need tracking capability! For a relatively small scope as suggested I would recommend an AstroTrac which can be used with a conventional tripod and is extremely accurate ...... Budget £500
Having said all that the most significant investment is time, learning, reading studying etc... Oh and btw, don't be fooled by the spin that just because a scope is self aligning, auto-tracking etc you don't need to learn your way around the night sky!.... Believe me you do!
I have been doing Astronomy and Astro Photography for a number of years and have spent more than I care to think about on kit, but it doesnt matter what you buy if you don't or can't use it!
Get the most portable, easy set up you can then get away to a nice dark camping area and have fun.
Hope this helps,
). So I'm up and running, imaging a target in no more than 20 minutes or so. I didn't mention getting all the other bits out and assembled, wired together etc