Advise needed for an Astrophotography Setup

[flat reef]

Hi, i need a little help because i was thinking about 2 possible Setups for getting into Astrophotography. Budget is a secondary thought, my main Goal is a good Setup.

My plan is DSO imaging, so i thought about a Newt for it. I currently own a 10" Dob and i saw some People putting it on an EQ Platform. Do you have any experience with that? is it a feasible way to setup the Rig, or do you strongly advise a Setup with an EQ Mount? I was thinking about the EQ-6 with a 203/800 Newt, or a smaller Variant of the Setup with a Refractor.

Can you give me some Advise here too? Refractor or Reflector? To me it seems that they both have pros and cons but aslong as collimation isnt a problem, which isnt one, a newt is a good option - am i right with that? If not please correct and teach me. 🙂

[median hamlet]

Are you new if so don't spend that much money

[flat reef]

New to astrophotography atleast. Theres So many opinions out there to choose. Ive done visual several years now.

[median hamlet]

I am not the best person ask any advanced people

[light vigil]

it depends, refractors are great because they’re lightweight, require no collimation and give sharp images. If you want to use a newt, you’d need a pretty hefty mount and with the focal length a newtonian gives you, you won’t be able to take images of large nebulas in the sky, but you’ll be able to take pictures of galaxies, parts of those big nebulas, and small nebulas. Now if you live in a low bortle area, imaging galaxies isn’t a bad idea. It depends what DSO’s you want to image. For example i live in a bortle 8 (its hard to image galaxies from there) and i don’t have a very hefty mount, so i went with a refractor mounted on a heq5 to image nebulas in narrowband from my backyard.

I do also have a 16inch dob and a 8inch newt for visual and planetary, i tried mounting my 8inch newt on my mount but i didn’t like it as i had too much magnification.

[flat reef]

Thanks for your advise! After longer research on my own i kinda grew on the idea of getting a refractor.
Which one do you have? Is the higher price for a larger diameter refractor that big of a deal? i mean compared to reflector they are all pretty small.

[light vigil]

they’re small but they do a great job.. i have the redcat51 but there are many good options out there. Look at the f/ number, my redcat51 is f5 and my 8inch newt is f5 too, so they give images with the same brightness but the newt has simply more magnification which can resolve more details. I honestly prefer the redcat even tho it’s small, because it gives me wide-ish field of views of nebulas and the images i got are great, i can show you if you want

[light vigil]

and for the higher price id say it’s not worth it, all you get is more focal length and the price of a refractor goes up very fast when aperture goes up

[flat reef]

that helps me alot, thanks! yeah sure, if you want to show me stuff, im always in for that

[light vigil]

for reference, a good 8inch refractor is 50 000$, a good 8inch reflector is 400$

[flat reef]

yea, thats the thing. at some point you can just go with a reflector.

i heard good things about the redcat51. seems like pretty popular refractor.

[light vigil]

if budget isn’t a problem, id get a good hefty mount that can support 40lbs, so in the future you can upgrade to a 8inch reflector

[light vigil]

it doesn’t need any field flatteners, and the price is affordable

from bortle 8

what’s ur bortle ?

[light vigil]

and many more but i didn’t send them

[flat reef]

i was thinking about the skywatcher eq6-r pro synscan goto

i got a Bortle 4 region but we have bortle 3 and 2 in about 30-60 min road trip

Stunning images!

[light vigil]

ive only heard great things about it. What’s your current gear? Telescopes, camera etc…

[light vigil]

very nice, dark skies will give u good images

i was at a bortle 4 once for 15 minutes and it was stunning, i took some milky way shots. I wish i could live under skies like those lol

[flat reef]

im completely new to astrophotography. i dipped back into visual astronomy 2 years ago when i bought a 10" dob. I go a Skywatcher Flextube.
But with the current Smartphone technology i thought it was a good idea to point it through the telescope and i was stunned about how good a picture a smartphone can take these days.

thats why i want to get started into it. 😉 will keep the dob for visual tho.

[light vigil]

you could maybe even use the dob for imaging

[flat reef]

yea, planetary is kinda okay, but hard with the smartphone. i was thinking about upgrading it at some point with an Eartha Polar Wedge.

[light vigil]

yea i’ve done some stuff with my phone too

yesterday i used my 16inch for the first time

[flat reef]

16" sounds like pretty heavy chonker

[light vigil]

live view

with my phone too

with a deepsky camera it’s better

[flat reef]

thats incredible for phone 😮

[light vigil]

from your b4 and some good astro gear, you’ll get very good results

[flat reef]

this was through my 10" dob with a 2" widefield eyepiece.

yea, astro gear is what i lack currently 😄

i think i want to get a planetary cam next. maybe one which i could use for autoguiding later

[light vigil]

great

[flat reef]

Thanks alot mate! I think ill go with a small refractor for a Start, you convinced me that this is the better Option for me.

[flat reef]

@light vigil what do you think of the Redcat61 considering the Specs? https://www.astroshop.de/teleskope/william-optics-apochromatischer-refraktor-ap-61-300-redcat-61-ota/p,79115#specifications
i like the internal focuser vs. the helical one on the 51.

[light vigil]

of ur considering paying 1800 euros for that, don’t

i paid like 600usd for my redcat

maybe consider buying used

[flat reef]

fair point.
im not in a rush of getting one, maybe one comes up used. i really dont like helical focusers. but maybe i have to go with one.

[light vigil]

you can look for local deals on facebook marketplace, or buy from ppl around the world on cloudy nights and astromart

[flat reef]

thats a good idea. i didnt research any used products yet.

[light vigil]

before getting into that, watch some videos about astrophotography, such as different gear, what they’re used for etc

This video is pretty good aswell https://youtu.be/XlQJ6YYstnk?si=Cx3TYT9zyhuEcAsr

but you should do some deep research before getting into it

[flat reef]

yup, already doing that for a few weeks.

i like to watch nebula photos, astro backyard, and so on.

[light vigil]

great

[flat reef]

ha! watched that already

this video was shown me yesterday by youtube

[light vigil]

the quality of that video is pretty neat

[flat reef]

indeed.

also before i start i want to learn processing more.
doesnt help me if i can capture stunning data when im not able to get a nice pic out of it.

my way of getting into it was:

1. research which type of ap i want to do -> Deep Sky
2. research which gear is best for my plan -> small refractor, best an astrograph since its easier to handle
3. get more into processing
4. buy gear
5. endure shitty weather because of the bought gear
6. get started.

and the most important in all of these steps: have fun

[light vigil]

accurate

for processing, u can practice with other people’s data

there are free softwares such as gimp or siril

[flat reef]

yup. what do you think of pixinsight?

i see that alot

but i really want to stick to free software there for now.

at this point: massive thank you for helping me out! 🙂

[light vigil]

the best, i’ve gotten the free trial 2 times and it’s wayyyy better than anything and worth it

when i have the money i’ll buy it

[light vigil]

learn the basics and when u feel ready, get pix

[light vigil]

no worries! anytime

[flat reef]

mhm good to know. ill keep that in mind if i got the hang of it 🙂

im converting mp4 to avi rn. a dude in share ur data posted a thread where he needs help with a jupiter image. lets see what i can get out of it. 🙂 watched couple of tutorials today. but its 11:26pm here already XD

[light vigil]

planetary processing is a whole other thing

id try doing deepsky processing

[flat reef]

good to know 👍

[median hamlet]

For 1500 for the red cat 61 you can get a guiding and a zwo eaf kit with asi air

[light vigil]

eaf, asiair and guiding for 1500 seems a bit excessive

i got all 3 for like 450$

[flat reef]

depends on location. in germany this would be a hard amount to crack. ive seen a decent amount of usef zwo eaf for 250-280€ alone.
but 1500 is definately too much.

[median hamlet]

I meant with red cat 51 instead of 61 you can get 51 and all of those

[flat reef]

yea but maybe i rather want the 61 instead of the 51.
its not a question of money, i could afford the higher costs of the 61 vs the 51.
on the other hand i have to do some renovation stuff at home first, so i'll see whats up on the used market when i finish my more important things.

[light vigil]

ahh gotchu

[light vigil]

the only thing ur getting out of a 61 is higher focal length

which is 300mm

and the redcat 51 is 250mm

both have the same f/ ratio so i don’t think it’s worth getting the 61

[flat reef]

yea makes not that much of a difference.

• you can work around the helical focus of the 51 by an electronic focuser, already did that research.

thats why i tend to the 51.

even tho i despise the helical focus. XD

[light vigil]

it’s rly not an issue

if u use the eaf the helical focuser won’t bother you

[flat reef]

issue would be too strong of a word. i would rather frame it as an inconvenience at most.

[flat reef]

exactly

[light vigil]

why?

[flat reef]

because i think it could be inconvenient to focus by hand if its rigged with all the other equipment. (Pic of Nebula Photos Video "Rigging a WO Redcat 51 Telescope"

again: not relevant with eaf. as you said.

[light vigil]

even without eaf, the things are mounted on the other side of the telescope where there’s no focuser

but i get your point

[flat reef]

yea but my point is only from watching the redcat51 in videos and pictues. You have it and therefore you can tell me first hand that it isnt a problem.
thats the exact advise im looking for.