#Beginner recommendations

43 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

dense crest
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Hi

I have been hooked on the YouTube channel and I'm going to buy my first telescope.
Hoping to capture images of nebula etc.
Complete novice.
I already have a nikon d3100, which I've heard mixed reviews about for this application but I'm hoping I can get something to work. I'll buy an intervalometer. And I have the 18-55 lens that comes with the camera.

Telescope wise, I've seen recommendations of skywatcher 70 or pds-130.

Are either of these going to be any good?

Any other recommendations, I have around £200 give or take for the telescope.

floral star
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tracking is the most important part when shooting deep space objects, without a mount or star tracker that does it you won't really be able to shoot anything with the sw 70 or 130pds. to avoid trailing exposures would be in the order of tenths of a second

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just the nikon with a tridpod and the intervalometer are good enough to start with very widefield photos (like milkyway shots), athough light pollution won't help at all with that type of images

dense crest
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OK thank you.

Does that mean I need a motorised mount or a star tracker or both?

floral star
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the star tracker is just a cheaper and lighter tracking mount that's usually used with just a lens or very small telescopes

dense crest
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Ah OK.
I'm just trying to piece together which items I'm going to need.
So if I used a mount like the az gti I wouldn't need the startracker?

floral star
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The azgti is a tracking mount so no

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That mount in particular is a bit weird to star with, if you're planning on using it like astrobiscuit did on the video va stellina then don't bother

dense crest
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Sorry I just used that as an example as I've seen them reasonably cheap used.

I'm just trying to get together the basics on a budget without buying unnecessary equipment that will need to be replaced once I realise they aren't suitable for my needs.

So far I have the camera. Will see how that works.
I need the telescope.
A tripod.
And I guess a goto mount of some sort.
And that's it as a bare minimum?
With the t adapter for the camera also.

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I appreciate these replies BTW.
There is a lot of differing info online and it's hard to get a solid idea of what is needed

floral star
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my idea will also be different from others on this server

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I hope you cam is able to take longer than 30s exposures with the intervalometer, for some reason a bunch of nikon cameras are limited on some things for absolutely no reason

dense crest
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That's something else I need to look into.
I could just use multiple 30second exposures though right?
Or does overheating then become a problem?
I'm a complete noob so this is going to be a steep learning curve

floral star
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yeah you can take only 30s subs but it's an issue of signal to noise ratio rather than overheating, that's how I first started

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I had an azgti in eq mode, a 1300D and an evostar72, admiteddly it wasn't a great choice for a first setup but it gave me a nice introduction to the more advanced stuff that a goto mount can do

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In regards to your list, you don't necessarily need a telescope. First because if you get a lighter mount it might not be accurate enough to track longer focal lengths and second because you really don't want a cheap achromatic telescope

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apochromatic scopes get expensive fast so it's easier to start with cheaper lenses, although they're a bit of a pain to focus

dense crest
floral star
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That's an alt-az mount, you want an equatorial mount for dso

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Also the scope is achromatic

dense crest
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OK ill looks for equitorial mounted scopes and I'll Google what an achromatic scope is what

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OK so I just had a really quick look and it looks like apochromatic will be way out of my price range for now I guess, mount etc taken into consideration also.

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When I see 'motor drive' on adverts, that isn't the same as tracking/goto is it?

floral star
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Motor drive mounts are "dumb", they track but can't be connected to a pc, can't slew on their own, etc

dense crest
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OK so I definitely need a goto mount then?

rapid jetty
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The d3100 has lots of downsides, like the huge noise, automatic video (which means it’s very hard to focus in live view) and low quality LCD
However, it’s still capable of taking some good images

The image below consists of 190x8” exposures at ISO 800 in a Bortle 6 with a 18-55mm kit lens

Untitled-1.png
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I’d stand with fenice and recommend a star tracker

dense crest
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So as a bare minimum I'd just need a camera, tripod and star tracker?
When do guide scopes etc come into it?

rapid jetty
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Guide scopes are used to correct tracking errors from a tracker or mount so you can take long exposures

floral star
dense crest
# floral star telescopes, guiding, etc come when you have enough money to get a proper setup, ...

true. but i have a habit of sinking more money than id like to admit into things and then giving it up after a short time.

im just looking for something that can give me ok results for not a huge amount of money.

i know that some money will need to be spent just for this but i want to just get a realistic feel for it without spending thousands and without trying to do it on absolute bare minimum equipment as i know that it would probably not be a fair intro to the hobby

floral star
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second hand star adventurer or skyguider pro and a lens with a longer focal length (like 100-200mm) are a good starting point

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the 18-55mm you have is great for widefield but you can't really shoot single targets

rapid jetty
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If you just want to take Milky Way images, your d3100 and kit lens will already give some fine results

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It all comes down to what you want to take images of really

dense crest
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Perfect. I'll maybe go for a lens first and see how it goes and then a star tracker next.
I'm really interested in nebula images so hopefully I'll work towards that, I'm in no rush so will see how it goes

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I'm also in the north east of England and it's cloudy almost all of the time so I may end up not ever getting any good photos due to weather

floral star
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right now there are andromeda and in some time orion will start to rise at a reasonable time, they're pretty much the easiest targets to start with. Light pollution will have a massive impact especially when shooting untracked so that will limit you choice of targets

dense crest
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I'll give it a go when the skies clear up.
Thanks for all of the info, really helpful.

One thing I just realised is that the 3100 has the screen fixed to the rear so I imagine that will be a pain

floral star
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yeah that's a bit of an issue, my camera has wifi so I focused using my phone to check

dense crest
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Also, will I need any filters?