Since I got into astronomy at the end of 2010 when I got my first telescope as a Christmas gift from my amazingly awesome fiance, I have been slowly collecting gear. I put together a video showing what I've collected over the years. I don't have a lot of money to spend on the astronomy hobby, but over time I've been able to get my hands on some good equipment. This doesn't cover the telescopes or mounts I have, just stuff from eyepieces, filters, cameras, guidescopes, and other astronomy and astrophotography gear. You can check out the video on my YouTube channel, or click play on the video below.
I'll admit, that sometimes I get a bit frustrated with the astrophotography aspect of the hobby. Mainly due to my own limitations in processing and post processing. There are free options such as Deep Sky Stacker and Gimp, which are the two I started with. Then I moved to Deep Sky Stacker, and Photoshop. I used that for a few years, then one year I figured I'd spoil myself and get PixInsight to streamline my processing and post processing all into one program for everything. I used the free trial before purchasing, but had life get in the way and didn't get an opportunity to dig deep into it before purchasing. Once the free trial ran out I decided to purchase it and just go from there. Switching from DSS and PS to PixInsight was -- and still is -- a very steep learning curve. As much as I have imaged and processed using PI, I have yet to be able to do it without referencing notes I have taken, or other online tutorials. So, my suggestion for anyone making the switch to PixInsight, don't give up, and keep pushing along!
Anyway, back to the gear. A lot of people will say it doesn't matter what gear you have, you can take amazing photos with it. While this is true, you still need to spend money on a decent telescope, a decent camera, an autoguider camera and scope if you plan on doing exposures longer than a minute or two (the max I did was 3 minutes unguided with a 6" newtonian with a F/L of 750mm). There are limitations to using a DSLR one shot color camera as opposed to a dedicated astronomy camera and filters. I don't have the time to get into using a monochrome camera and a filter wheel. My ability to get out is limited on clear skies on weekends, so when I get out I just want to take 20 or more images of my target and be done with it without having to get into shooting luminance, and RGB files. So, I take the limitation of using a DSLR. You can also get your DSLR modified to remove the IR filter to get better H-Alpha images, but that's something you'd have to look into to see if it is right for you. Getting the equipment you need to get into astrophotography can make quite the dent in your wallet, so be prepared to dump some money before you can really get into deep sky astronomy.
Now with that said, you can get some decent wide field astro photos just by putting a DSLR on a standard tripod and shooting 15-30 second exposures. You might get some star trailing, but you can play around with your ISO and exposure settings until you get what you're looking for. If you already have a camera, then you can probably get the telescope and mount for around $1500 and be on your way to doing some quality astrophotography.
With all that be sure to look into what you want to do with the hobby of astronomy. Do you just want to look through the eyepiece? Do you want to image? Do you want to sketch? Do you want to contribute to double star research? Look for exoplanets? There is so much you can do as a backyard astronomer, so be sure of what you want to do, and look into what you need for what you want to do. Good luck, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, or get a hold of me on twitter at @AdirondackAstro.
I'll admit, that sometimes I get a bit frustrated with the astrophotography aspect of the hobby. Mainly due to my own limitations in processing and post processing. There are free options such as Deep Sky Stacker and Gimp, which are the two I started with. Then I moved to Deep Sky Stacker, and Photoshop. I used that for a few years, then one year I figured I'd spoil myself and get PixInsight to streamline my processing and post processing all into one program for everything. I used the free trial before purchasing, but had life get in the way and didn't get an opportunity to dig deep into it before purchasing. Once the free trial ran out I decided to purchase it and just go from there. Switching from DSS and PS to PixInsight was -- and still is -- a very steep learning curve. As much as I have imaged and processed using PI, I have yet to be able to do it without referencing notes I have taken, or other online tutorials. So, my suggestion for anyone making the switch to PixInsight, don't give up, and keep pushing along!
Anyway, back to the gear. A lot of people will say it doesn't matter what gear you have, you can take amazing photos with it. While this is true, you still need to spend money on a decent telescope, a decent camera, an autoguider camera and scope if you plan on doing exposures longer than a minute or two (the max I did was 3 minutes unguided with a 6" newtonian with a F/L of 750mm). There are limitations to using a DSLR one shot color camera as opposed to a dedicated astronomy camera and filters. I don't have the time to get into using a monochrome camera and a filter wheel. My ability to get out is limited on clear skies on weekends, so when I get out I just want to take 20 or more images of my target and be done with it without having to get into shooting luminance, and RGB files. So, I take the limitation of using a DSLR. You can also get your DSLR modified to remove the IR filter to get better H-Alpha images, but that's something you'd have to look into to see if it is right for you. Getting the equipment you need to get into astrophotography can make quite the dent in your wallet, so be prepared to dump some money before you can really get into deep sky astronomy.
Now with that said, you can get some decent wide field astro photos just by putting a DSLR on a standard tripod and shooting 15-30 second exposures. You might get some star trailing, but you can play around with your ISO and exposure settings until you get what you're looking for. If you already have a camera, then you can probably get the telescope and mount for around $1500 and be on your way to doing some quality astrophotography.
With all that be sure to look into what you want to do with the hobby of astronomy. Do you just want to look through the eyepiece? Do you want to image? Do you want to sketch? Do you want to contribute to double star research? Look for exoplanets? There is so much you can do as a backyard astronomer, so be sure of what you want to do, and look into what you need for what you want to do. Good luck, and if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment, or get a hold of me on twitter at @AdirondackAstro.
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