Telescope's for Photography?

[waynecrider]

I was wondering if anyone could suggest a beginners telescope that would allow one to do some photography. Nothing big and expensive, but reasonable and useable and perhaps used to get a better deal and better scope. I know there's all the ones that are computerized and have drives for tracking but that may be a little beyond my budget. Any feedback will at least give me an idea as to prices/deals and experiences of others before I bite the bullet. Thanks

 

[pthornto]

It depends mostly on what you want to photograph through it. Brighter objects like the moon are not too difficult to capture acceptable images with shorter exposures. Planets often require higher magnifications (say 200x) to show any detail and you battle atmospheric unsteadiness at these magnifications. Faint objects like nebulae and galaxies require large apertures and longer tracked exposures. Film approaches to astrophotograpy highlight a lot of these challenges.

For The simplest approach images can be taken through an eyepiece. A small refractor (3 to 4 inches) is a good starter scope and does not need as massive mount. Newtonian reflectors usually start at 4 inches but typically are bigger and need a beefier mount. The Dobson type mount for Newtonians is often recommended as a first scope but does not permit automated tracking like an equatorial mount and is not suitable for imaging. The Schmidt cassegrain is often used for imaging but these are usually more complex beasts with sophisticated mounts.

Astrophotographers is a huge field. I would also recommend some good astronomy books to get you started such as nightwatch and the backyard astronomers guide, both by Terrence Dickinson. Also forums like cloudy nights will give you lots of opinions but all from a digital perspective.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

In Istanbul , its impossible to see stars because night sky been blocked by city lights. I dont know what was the situation in Florida but that is the most important problem. And dont over impress by the images at the internet , they have all fake colors with made from different photographs taken with different very expensive digital sensors and filters and colored with software and been stacked.

There is cheaper technology made from web cam sensors but you need still expensive filters.

If you dont use filters ,coloring software, small diameter mirror , you end with boring pictures.

You can make a big telescope with capton aluminized film. You can strech it to a frame , remove the air at the back and get a giant mirror impossible to make with hand on glass.

You can make a epoxy mirror , rotated , liquid goes to parabolic shape and been set. Its cheap and dont use fibers in it. You can coat it with aluminum at home.

You can make a pinhole telescope for sun also.

And its possible to make pinholes on a aluminum disc and create your next technology telescope.

You can look to the james webb telescope , giant mirror made from smaller mirror pieces and got hold together.

You can make your giant liquid silver mirror , rotated on air bearing and get the shape of parabol .

You can rotate a small pool where heavy liquid inside and pour on to it , epoxy , been set and you have a giant mirror.

 

[narsuitus]

Any feedback will at least give me an idea as to prices/deals and experiences of others before I bite the bullet.

Instead of a telescope, I sometimes use a Nikon 1000mm f11 mirror lens with or without a Nikon TC300 2x converter for shooting solar and lunar eclipses, Venus transits across the sun, and sunspots.

https://flic.kr/p/94pdKw
https://flic.kr/p/cc6Xrm
https://flic.kr/p/jqpnz
https://flic.kr/p/cc6VzG

 

[Dali]

I was wondering if anyone could suggest a beginners telescope that would allow one to do some photography. Nothing big and expensive, but reasonable and useable and perhaps used to get a better deal and better scope. I know there's all the ones that are computerized and have drives for tracking but that may be a little beyond my budget. Any feedback will at least give me an idea as to prices/deals and experiences of others before I bite the bullet. Thanks

Celestron C8: cheap, not too heavy, compact, obvious to use, easy to carry and to store, plenty of accessories, easy to find used (stores or ads in specialized forums).

 

[thuggins]

Tamron makes a 500f8 mirror lens that is incredibly small and light. If you are serious about photographing the moon and trying your hand at planets, a small (90mm-110mm) Mak-Cass telescope is lightweight, inexpensive and easy to use, and will give very good results. I use the 600mm Zuiko for astrophotography, and with proper adapters for Barlows (or a teleconvertor) and such it can't be beat.

 

[Neal]

Dear Wayne,

Unless you only care about the sun and moon, you will be wasting your time without a good equatorial mount. The tiniest shake will ruin your exposure.

Look here as a good place to start.

Good luck!

Neal Wydra

 

[waynecrider]

Thanks all. Well I'm doing alot of reading when I can and I'm thinking that I may buy a good mount first, (I do have a very solid tripod) and use it with my digital camera to get started for now. It will afford me time to get acquainted with prices and models and still have some fun. May not be able to image as far out as I want to but I can have some fun while I learn more. I do want a motor drive so need to study up on them.