Telescope

[zedron]

I know someone here is into astronomy and remember they bought a new telescope. Have a few questions/inquiries.

[Stealth]

I know someone here is into astronomy and remember they bought a new telescope. Have a few questions/inquiries.

i believe seigler was also into astronomy, i never bought one but i used to barrow my schools 7ft one lol

[zedron]

i believe seigler was also into astronomy, i never bought one but i used to barrow my schools 7ft one lol

LOL.

Siegler, get out of the vag. Answer my telescope questions, meow!

[Harry]

I used to be into it many moons ago. What are you wondering about?

[zedron]

Mainly about astrophotography and what I need to get to get decent results. I already have a Canon DSLR T2i that I am going to get the hydrogen-alpha filter modification but need to know what I need to link to my scope/mount. I think I am going to be replacing my 3" reflector with the Advanced VX 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain from Celestron for photography use of deep sky objects. Not sure on reducers, adapters, etc I will need.

[Harry]

I wouldn't know. Never got into the photography of it. When I was into it it was still film and required a lot of skill. Is be interested to see some pics if you do it. I also have a t2i.

[Stealth]

I used to be into it many moons ago. What are you wondering about?

just google images, youi'll get better results

[Siegler]

This site is still alive??? I've been out of astro for quite some time, so unfortunately I do not know, nor have the resources I once did. What I do remember is it's advantageous to invest in a good telescope mount, that has good tracking, and a stable platform to reduce vibrations. I'm sure there's some good information on the web.

[zedron]

Yeah. I went ahead and got some stuff already.

AstroTech AT65EDQ Scope
Orion Atlas EQ-G Mount
Orion 50mm Guidescope w/ QHYII Mono Guide Camera

[Harry]

Did you change your telescope?

[zedron]

Did you change your telescope?

Yeah I changed everything really.

Went from a non computerized mount to a computerized one and the OTA is now a small refractor compared to my 8" SCT I was using for visual.

[Harry]

Cool. Post some pics when you take some.

[zedron]

Here we go.
M31 - Andromeda Galaxy
1.6 Hours of Total Exposure Time (12x300" ISO800, 6x300" ISO800)
Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Post Processed in PixInsight

Now that it is finally starting to cool off here, the galaxy season is over and Nebulas are in full effect so Ill start getting them now.

[Harry]

Beautiful shot. Wow. That's with an 8" scope? Is that one image of that length exposure or is it multiple images layered? I would love to get back into this but there is so much to catch up on and so much has changed its kind of discouraging lol. Last I was into it digital cameras were just starting to be experimented with for this. Now I could hook up my dslr and tell it where to look and track. That's what interests me. So many more capabilities.

[zedron]

Its multiple images layered taken over two different nights.
First night was over 15 5 minutes shots with 12 being used.
Second night was about 10 5 minutes shot taken with 6 being used.

18 shots were then stacked (layered) with some calibration shots to get a raw calibrated image. That image then was used in PixInsight to post process.

This was taken with a 65mm (2.5") refractor and not a huge 8" SCT or reflector. My imaging scope is an Astrotech AT65EDQ.

[Harry]

2.5 refractor really? That's impressive. no trails whatsoever. Very nice.

[zedron]

Yes its fairly quick at f/6.5 but I was doing guiding to eliminate trailing. My guide camera is a QHY5L-II Mono CCD mounted to a 50mm Orion Guide Scope. Without guiding and by just using the tracking capability in my mount I can get a decent minute of exposure time depending on seeing conditions, etc.

Its actually not much involved to get into it. My budget was around $2500 because I already had a laptop and DSLR.
Mount: 1500
Scope: 500
Misc Adapters: 100
Guide Scope: 100
Guide Camera: 220
Plus software of choice: price varies on what you want to use.

[Harry]

Nice set up! Yeah that's kinda what I expected, and if you're buying used there's some really quality stuff around here. I want to get a scope again. I'm gong to keep my eye out for a good package. It sucks for astronomy up here though lol. I remember the biggest problem over here was weather. Seems every time you were able to get out there it was no good. Being a night time hobby you're always in the cold, the clearest nights are the coldest and 60 percent of the year it's below freezing or right around it. you're fine in the summer but the clear nights, no overcast or no clouds are few and far between. It's kind of like having a motorcycle. You gotta be dedicated to do it while you're shivering and it's not as fun, but it's worth it for the times where it's perfect.

[zedron]

M81 Group.

8 hours of exposure time and another 4 of post processing.

[Harry]

Holy shit you got that from your setup? That's amazing!