Are you interested in getting started in astrophotography? How do you know if this is the right hobby for you? I get asked quite often as I share photos with friends and family members how I do it because they are interested in doing it as well. I have been diligently tracking my progress in a journal and have decided to bring it to this format so as to share what I have seen and what I will see, but where to begin? This would be a great spot to start.
What I suggest is to first find the right equipment. I did an article on this and touched the surface on what kind of telescope to get. There are three ways you can go about this, you can find out what the people that are really into this hobby want to get or have and get the same thing. (I hope you got some deep pockets as the equipment is not cheep.) Buy the cheapest gear out there, or get a starter set up and figure it out from there. Am I trying to deter you from this? not at all, I’m encouraging you to get involved and try it. Look I did this with a budget and so can you. I’ve run into too many elitists in this hobby that try to be the only ones doing something so they try to scare people off, that’s not me. I will say this, the first and foremost thing is you have to be willing to just look some nights, if you are not into astronomy at all, then you are going to get frustrated. Yes this hobby is going to get expensive in some aspects, but trust me, it’s worth it, I’ll help you get into this with a budget and not cut corners on quality.
First things first, I am linking equipment in the articles. I am not a paid advertiser of any vendor. I am only doing it so you can see and read specs on the equipment or possibly find the places to download software or review it yourself. I do not get paid for my referrals and you clicking it does not get me money or anything what soever.
Telescope:
First and foremost you need a telescope. Personally I bought mine a 6″ Celestron Nextstar 6Se. (I am not advertizing vendors, but linking to where you can purchase items or find them. Celestron uses authorized vendors and this is one I used and have used a few times with success. . . .and honestly has the best prices on Celestron gear) If you are on a budget I recommend this. I’ve had quite a bit of debate with people who say no get the 8″ or the 8SE instead. I’m going to put this out here now so you can chose what you want. If you can afford the 8SE then do it. You will see more and get fainter images. It’s not the magnification or power you want, it’s aperture. However I suggest the 6se if you have never done this or are unsure how committed you are about the hobby. I paid around $800 for the scope, (comes with tripod), the power tank and the case that has the extra eyepieces. for all of it, the 8se is about $1,299 for the same thing. This leaves you enough for a camera if you get into it. While you are learning, if you get good with some less than epic gear you will be fantastic when you do get the good stuff, not to mention you are going to take some bumps, some lumps and nicks along the road, I treat my gear like I am carrying a holy relic, yet things come apart, things fall and get messed up. It is also worth noting if you learn on the cheaper step into the art, you know what you will need afterwards.
let me show you some examples of how this pans out.
Now this is not me making fun of, being critical or anything other than giving you a visual image in which to make a comparison between the optics in a telescope, and why I suggest the 6se as a starter. The vast majority of your results are 1 part telescope, 1 part camera and 4 parts your processing. which I will help people walk through the method I learned.
As you can see this is not a bad image. The difference between this photo and my first ones are a lot of practice, trial and error, hard frustrating moments and nights where I didn’t get anything good.
With this example I am showing you how you can get quality results with the 6se as well as the 8se. But if you are going to come into this hobby and not sure how much you want to spend as well as not sure how dedicated you are going to be, try the 6se. Yes it is difficult to get amazing shots, but this is your entry into the hobby. The thing is, I can get images on par with an 8se with just the 6se and I got into the hobby cheaper, but can do more with the 8se.
The absolute must on this is you need a motorized mount. one that is an Equatorial mount is ideal, but you can use a regular mount that the 6se comes with aka a fork mount. I’ll explain in a bit
Software:
The cameras all come with capture software. that’s the good news. the bad is Photoshop is a must. am I saying we Photoshop images to alter their looks? not like the modeling industry does. we use it more of a tool to pull the data that is in the photo out to make it visible. It’s like being able to raise and lower the water level in a lake to see what is where in the lake.
Fortunately, my wife had bought a copy of Photoshop and I can tell you it is worth every single penny paid. There are other programs out there, but I have not been able to get them to work. there are some programs like Gimp, a free alternative to Photoshop, I didn’t know how to work it and once I had Photoshop and learned it I have not tried Gimp. Startools is out there and Maxim DL I have only used startools in the trial version, it gave ok results if it had more tutorials or maybe a trial that was say 30-60 days I would possibly recommend buying it, but the trial was so limited in the free version I can’t say to one way or another. Maxim DL, I hear good things about, but again never tried it. once you have Photoshop, you can do many of the things those programs do, it’s just the programs make it easier for you to do them. Once you learn Photoshop, it’s not that bad. . . I do forget a step now and then and a real problem with this is that it’s after many times of trying that you learn what to apply where and why. That’s what I was looking for when I started and it took a lot of reading to figure it out. Focus magic is one I have heard of but never tried, I have downloaded it, but never tried it. I will though to see if it does any good.
A must have is Registax I should say that this is a must have depending on what camera you choose to use. If you use anything that is a video camera this is what you will need to make a picture out of it. These cameras are the CCD versions. you can go crazy with cameras and buy all kinds. but
why do you need software for cameras? well the reason is this, the CCD is nothing more than a very good webcam. a digital camera recorder, the programs like Registax and Autostakkert serve the purpose of taking your recorded video and staking the individual frames on top of each other, lined up and it then picks the best pixels out of all the frames creating a nice picture from your video.
Cameras:
There are a few routes to go here and I will only be covering what I have done and why. There are many cameras out there, you can buy the nice cameras from Canon or Nikkon. Canon made the Canon Canon EOS 60Da DSLR Astrophotography Camera, but it will cost you a few pennies. . .about $1,600+ it’s a darn good camera. They happened to have success and realized they were o to something when people used the 20 Ds series and had a bit of luck in using a good camera for astrophotography. They then made the 40Ds, and have since found it is a specialized tool and started with the 60 and jacked the price pretty high. I’m not fond of the cameras and Canon makes a damn good camera, however if I am going to spend that much cash on a camera, I’m personally going to go with a high quality CCD from a company that is specifically making the camera for the purposes of astrophotography. If you where a photographer and have one, great, use it. If not, I would recommend going this route of ccd cams made for the purpose of this hobby, yes you spend a bit of cash, and the camera is good for nothing but this hobby, but out will find more help and support and less frustration using the gear that is designed for the task.
I started with an I-Phone. My wife held the camera up to the eye piece and got a shot. We kept trying and trying this, it was annoying and hard to do. I came up with a way of recording video with a webcam. . .and made a mount. this was not the way to do it. So if you are looking for a way to start, you do not need to do it this way, let me save you tons of frustration.
The camera is the eyepiece, the telescope minus the eyepiece is a zoom lens. that’s it. You focus using the telescope directly shooting into the camera. Some folks have had a lot of success modifying a webcam and making it work. Let me let you in on a protip here. Don’t bother! The time and effort it takes to get it going as well as the money invested is more than if you just buy a damn camera. Yes a webcam costs you about $40, then you have to buy a box, another 8, then modify it and deal with the frustration that comes with this . . . I tried it and am thankful I just bought the camera. The webcam ended up getting ripped out and thrown in the middle of the street one night. . I left it there. The neximage5 is about $160-$200 and worth every penny.
Now what camera do you want to get? I first had a hard time asking this question and getting an answer, the reason, every piece of equipment seems to have a specialty. The neximager5 is great for solar system pictures, but crappy for much else. My Starshoot camera from Orion is great at some long exposure shots, and when I upgrade my system it will be useful for being an autoguider.
Of course we all want to get great pictures of lots of things, but if you had to start off, I would recommend the Neximager first, get your feet wet. The process if far different with the Orion camera. but I use the Neximager for planets, moon and sun. The Orion cam is for long duration shots to get galaxies, nebula and planetary nebula, things you have to leave the shutter open for a lot longer to get. To process these pictures is a whole different process, as in you skip the stacking and use a different process combining images you might have taken. Just know that all equipment is coming up as pretty specialized to some extent. from what I have found there is no one size fits all for equipment.
One other camera I have is the Orion StarShoot Deep Space Video Camera II. I find this camera does a really good job on bright objects like binary stars or single stars. You can also use it to do alive feed if you so choose. I have been able to get faint objects, just not as well as the camera designed for long term exposures. The Neximager is not as good for things like stars, but is better at planets than this camera. I find that the quality of color images for binaries and stars is really good and seems to capture color in those objects the best. Again, every piece has a purpose.
Solar equipment:
I have not purchased a solar telescope, I dipped my toes in the solar side by buying a solar filter and getting addicted. I thought “Meh it’s just the sun let me take a look. I probably won’t do it much.” boy was I wrong.
The sun is a star, you can see what happens here and picture it happening on distant suns. of color and size. once you see the bubbling surface, you start to get addicted to granulation.
there are what I see as two companies that make solar telescopes, Coronado and Munt. Personally I am leaning more towards the Lunt. I’ve read great things and shooting for the $1.5-$2k price range. if you are unsure if you want to drop that kind of cash you can get decent shots as well as see things just fine. I bought a solar filter to put over my telescope. In particular I bought a Seymour filter.I chose them over Baader because they were glass filters and not just film. I take the safety of my eyes serious and you should too. I have had some real good views of the sun and enjoy it as much as a night out. I don’t get quite the images that I would be getting with a solar telescope, but I can get good shots of spots and granules. I have not gotten proms, but I am finding it’s all technique and seeing conditions. As with the rest of the hobby, the more you do it the more you get better.
Summary:
Is this list the best equipment out there or is it going to be the best fit for you? no but it works for me and has allowed me to get into the hobby and expand my interests. It has allowed me to get better with what I have and learn. I have been able to figure out the right questions to ask, as I find that is the biggest frustration. . . how do you ask the right questions if you don’t even know what to ask.
But if you are looking to dip your toes in to this realm and see how much you like it, it’s a good way to step in cheap. Not so cheap it sacrifices quality and make you decide to stop, but skipping the errors I did. I hope this helps and leads you down the rabbit hole. I can say that if you are unsure how committed you are going to be, get the 6se, if you are not worried about a $300 price difference by all means get the 8se. But the rest of the gear I suggested should get you rolling.
Six Alberts Astronomy & Astrophotography 