Buying a telescope for astrophotography and need advice.?

Question

As a child I had a few basic telescopes... I'd like to begin my dream of astrophotography. From the research I've done, it looks like the SCT's (thinking 9.25) are the most versatile but I am thinking about starting with a Meade, Stellarview or Orion 80mm refractor that I could later use as a strong finder scope on a SCT? Does this sound logical? So much to consider!!!! Please, any and all advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

My advice? Don't.



You should have learned from your research is that astrophotography has a serious learning curve, and you need to have your visual astronomy down pat before you even think about it.



SCTs are useful all-round scopes, but are not the first choice of astrophotographers. This makes me wonder about your research. What sources did you consult?

Answer 2

Woa, hang on a minute, you want to view planets, galaxies, nebulae, comets, the moon, the sun, etc. and want to do some astrophotography with it!?. It seems pretty obvious to me you do not have any experience in using any sort of telescope. If you are as you say a serious amatuer, then such things as a motor drive, preferably GPS, and either a built-in database of celestial objects or an interface with a computer, so that you can easily locate known objects without a lot of time and effort is the wrong approach and gonna cost you dearly. Most serious amatuers start out with the naked eye and a good set of charts to learn the sky and progress to binoculars long before they purchase a telecope. I suggest that you learn the fundementals before you spend up to about $4,000 which is probably not sufficient if you want to do Astrophotography as well. The best advice is to join a club where you can try them out and decide which is best for you, not to jump into the deep end straight away before you can swim. Having said that, if what you want is to view planets, galaxies, nebulae, the aperture of the scope is most important, which will need to be at least 8-10" this may fit in your budget, but if you want to do astrphotography proper I would reccomend a good quality 4''-5" apochromatic refractor such as a Takahashi, Astro-Physics or similar quality make, that will cost 3-5k. The mount needs to be as good as the telescope, at a cost of about 4-5k and then you will need a guidescope, say a small WO66ED, and of course a CCD camera which will set you back another 2-3k. This will need to be supported by good software which is also expensive, not to mention a laptop computer with at least 4GB RAM and a fast hard disk. So you see your $4k is not going to be enough. To do all the things you want to do (including all the necessary accessories) will set you back about 10k. If I were you I would spend much more time on visual work first, before you start thinking about astrophotography, which you clearly have not considered at all in any detail. Good luck though, and welcome to the hobby.

Answer 3

I am not experienced in that particular side of the hobby, so please take my words with a grain of salt. I do know the following:



1. If you are trying to save money by starting with the 80 mm, you are probably not going to succeed. Astrophotography is going to cost thousands of dollars if you want acceptable results, so you might as well take the leap if you have decided to do so. If you cannot afford thousands, I would postpone leaping until you can.



2. Some SCTs are good for astrophotography. I have seen some great results with simple Schmidt-Cassegrains, although I think you are optically better off with a Richey-Chretin or similar configuration. Since aperture has a diminished effect in photography vs. visual applications, the ideal option is probably an apochromatic refractor with the biggest aperture you can afford on a rock solid equatorial mount with a good tracking motor, periodic error correction, a quality CCD, and a decent autoguiding system. But again, that requires a pretty hefty investment.



I am assuming that you are sufficiently familiar with the hobby of amateur astronomy and with the night sky that you are confident in your ability to do this well. If that is not the case, I would frankly advise against this course of action until you gain that confidence. Forgive my probing in this regard - no offense intended - but most of my friends who are successful in astrophotography are sufficiently knowledgeable about scope hardware that they do not need advice from a forum like this one. They have a pretty good idea of where they will spend their next thousand and why. Good Luck and Clear Skies!

Answer 4

Almost no serious astrophotography is done nowadays with SCTs because of their long focal ratios. Apochromatic refractors seems to be the instruments of choice. You'd do best buying the best mount you can, and then mounting a small apo refractor on it.