Starter telescope for astrophotograpy

[indigo hamlet]

Im looking to start astrophotography and take pictures of like galaxies, nebulas, and planets. I have a budget of around 400 ( I know its not much for this area but thats what I have) Whats the best bang for your buck telescope that takes pics in good quality?

[smoky kiln]

you know this hobby is exoensive right?

tbh you should save up more

[wraith wren]

The only thing I think could work is a SeeStar S30

[smoky kiln]

but its a waste of money

[wraith wren]

Why do you say that?

[sacred maple]

Nonono, stay away from that

Dwarf 3

[little wraith]

Check @dry zenith's images and think about that again

Go with the S50

[wraith wren]

Not familiar with the Dwarf 3, what's the advantage?

[sacred maple]

120s subs, EQ mode, widefield astrophotography too, has 3 built in filters

[little wraith]

Wowzers

[sacred maple]

Mosaic mode coming soon

[lethal harness]

you cant really do much at all with that budget. could get a smart telescope, but theres no upgrading that

also- you cant do deep space and planetary with that budget. pick planetary or dso and go from there

[indigo hamlet]

Thank you all for the help

if I want to do dso, for like a basic telescope, what would my price range have to be?

[tacit saddle]

Dslr and kir lens

Don't look at telescopes yet. They are way beyond your budget

[dry zenith]

S30 is a waste yes, but the S50 would be perfect for that budget.
I do longer integrations from B3/4, but the potential is onvlbiously there:
https://www.astrobin.com/users/Recretos444/

[smoky kiln]

agree with you

[dry zenith]

For 400 bucks you wont do everything, planets and dso, have to pick

[smoky kiln]

s30 is just too bad but s50 is the best smart telescope

but if that was me i woulf save up more

[dry zenith]

Dwarf 3 will give you a larger field of view and EQ mode from start, but you can kinda forget also about good images of galaxies other that M31 and M33, so you are leaving out one more category

But to be fair, the next budget step if you want to do astro imaging both nebulae and galaxies is probably quite higher

What the S50 and Dwarf3 do at their price range is quite substantial

Usually the rule of thumb for starters was a DSLR, but with the newer generations of smart scopes coming out, they are starting to be a prefered entry point, especially since they can do a lot for a lower price with far more simplicity and being more beginner-friendly. They are also just starting so will futher improve, while I am not sure about DSLR kits in the starting low budget really improving that much over time.

From my personal case, I would never get into this hobby if it werent for smart scopes, along with a whole bunch of people. The DSLR starter kits just somehow put me off. The image quality is no issue, but the hassle just wasnt for me, especially as I am more of a galaxy fan, so I didnt saw much return in it. But now after using the S50 and learning more about sky, processing, the theory and math of everything about this hobby, I am starting to look into scopes and cooled cameras for a proper first rig.

[dry zenith]

You can think of Astrophotography hobby like a huge metropolis city, and as a beginner, I never left my "small village", making it a daunting task. But what the S50 did for me is, it gave me a very cheap tour of the city. Especially processing-wise.

[wraith wren]

Smart scopes are based. There are tons of people who would never have gotten into the hobby without them. And tons of people who switched to them because of convenience or inability to handle a more complex rig.

[desert prairie]

its not

[smoky kiln]

s30 does not deliver

[desert prairie]

?

[tacit saddle]

Deliver what?

[smoky kiln]

its not good, does not deliver great images, exoected it to be a bit worse than the s50 but its much worse

[tacit saddle]

It's a smart telescope. You aren't gonna get award winning images with it.

[smoky kiln]

ik that

[olive scaffold]

you can get very good images with a smart scope

after all it's still an apo lens with astrocam and all the accessories

most of the time they're bad because people do like 30 mins int time and use the seestar process

[dense oracle]

The best for ur budget is either the seestar s50 or s30 this is prob the best quality for ur budget

[main seal]

Although the smart telescopes are a great price point and generally pretty good now, i feel that I’d miss the feeling of setting up my equipment. So I’d want to recommend some other things before jumping to a smart scope.

Used Star tracker, DSLR + lens.

SWSA 2i comes up cheap used fairly often now, and isn’t bad for the price it comes used. For DSLR you can get something really cheap like a t3i and then Astro mod it to make it much better. And for the lens there’s quite a few options, but ideally if you find a used Rokinon/samyang 135 in your budget that’d be great, if not then it may be abit harder and I’d ask around about lenses, I’m not too familiar with them.

Planetary imaging is a much different take and easily achievable in your budget.

Get a 8” dob or even a 10” dob, don’t get me wrong these are heavy and big, but bigger is better for planetary. For camera you could either try get lucky with a 585mc but you’ll realistically find a 224mc within the budget, or maybe a 715mc.

The smart scope isn’t a bad choice, but also I think setting up all the gear and getting it all ready is a big part of the fun

[dense oracle]

All of that would be well out of his budget

[main seal]

Nope, used 8" dob just seen one for £165, means a 224mc or even 715mc would be affordable new

Star adventurer up for £200 although definitely can get that down to £150, Canon t3i £75, Rokinon 135 £149, leaves you £26 out of that 400 (:

[surreal hound]

I don’t think you can get these dobsonians with goto for the price you mentioned. op is asking about AP so goto would be very useful. I have a 10” dob with goto and I wouldn’t call its tracking as suitable for AP…

[main seal]

Planetary and deep sky imaging are very different, planetary doesn’t require tracking at all meanwhile DSO ofcourse requires decent tracking

[surreal hound]

True, I assumed AP means DSO AP, my bad.

[dense oracle]

The do. Yes but the rokinon itself is like 400

[main seal]

That list included a used Rokinon I found for sale

[dense oracle]

Oh dang that’s a steal

[olive scaffold]

where are you finding a roki that low

[main seal]

https://www.lcegroup.co.uk/Used/Miscellaneous-Rokinon-135mm-f2-ED-UMC-Sony-FE-Mount_429489.html

mostly sony mounting at this price but theres some canons up for £50 more, theres some good deals here, MBP, Ebay, and occasionally astrobuysell but those are much more uncommon

[dense oracle]

I have never seen a t3i for that low ik u can get a good quality one for like 140 usd

[main seal]

Unfortunately the ad i saw yesterday has sold, but yeah majority of them are up around £100-140

Also cameras like the 600D have some good deals, not sure which is better between the 2 tho https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/canon-eos-600d/sku-2873954?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=UK|Google|Buy|Pmax|New|Pmax|All|All|UK&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA1p28BhCBARIsADP9HrNhge_2PldEvZ8yeggraWHiPidzRY98KGABjws2h06-NJvrFMft6nwaArhhEALw_wcB

[dense oracle]

Same thing 600d is the European version or something the t3i is the us im not completely sure but same camera

[main seal]

Ahh okay, thought the T3i was the 1100D, may be mistaken tho lol