Hello, from Washington State

[Bill Hughes]

I have long been a photographer and I recently decided it would be fun to try astrophotography. My photo equipment consists of pro-level Canon 35mm (several 5D Mark IV's, 7D's, and a wide assortment of lenses). Also, I own several Olympus OM-D E-M1 cameras, and many professional micro-4/3 lenses, as well as a number of medium format cameras and lenses. However, I don't have any astrophotography equipment, so I'm considering buying a go-to mount and perhaps a refractor scope. First, however, I'm looking forward to learning from fellow members of this forum.

Cheers,

Bill Hughes

Edited June 26, 2021 by Bill Hughes

[AstronomyUkraine]

5 hours ago, Bill Hughes said:

I have long been a photographer and I recently decided it would be fun to try astrophotography. My photo equipment consists of pro-level Canon 35mm (several 5D Mark IV's, 7D's, and a wide assortment of lenses). Also, I own several Olympus OM-D E-M1 cameras, and many professional micro-4/3 lenses, as well as a number of medium format cameras and lenses. However, I don't have any astrophotography equipment, so I'm considering buying a go-to mount and perhaps a refractor scope. First, however, I'm looking forward to learning from fellow members of this forum.

Cheers,

Bill Hughes

 

Welcome to BYA Bill. We are a friendly bunch on here, always willing to give advice if needed.

 

Brian

[MarkAR]

Hi Bill, welcome to the forum.

 

Sounds like you have enough equipment to make a start, just need a tracker or EQ mount.

Many use camera lenses especially for Widefield imaging and you can always have one of you cameras astro modified.

[Jkulin]

Hi Bill and Welcome, as a very serious photographer prior to taking up Astrophotography 6 years ago, then be prepared to be skint as Astrophotography demands that!😲

[Marmot]

Hi Bill

Welcome aboard.

I am purely an observer so can’t help you with AP advice, but the members here are a knowledgeable and friendly bunch, who have a lot of AP experience, so I am sure you will find the assistance you need.

From previous threads on here involving novice APers asking advice, I do know that you need to get you’re scope and mount choices correct (AP has specific needs when choosing both)  so ask plenty of questions and do plenty of research so you make the right choice. Most of all, enjoy the journey.

[Carastro]

Welcome Bill.  You are wise to ask for advice before buying as many don't and end up buying the wrong thing.

 

A DSLR can be used for Astrophotography, but ideally is needs to be astro modified to remove the IR lens.  Without doing so much of the hydrogen alpha will get excluded from the images.  If you want to be able to use the camera for day time photography, you will need to replace the IR lens with glass or a Baader lens or you won;t be able to autofocus.   Autofocus of course is not used as night, but manual focus.  

 

Deep sky imaging needs to be done in long exposure, which means you not only need a tracking mount, but a mount that tracks in the correct way, i.e. follows the Earth's rotation, without rotating the  target, and for this you will need an Equatorial mount capable of guiding.  (Guiding tweaks the tracking to keep it more accurate).

 

Mounts are just as important as a good camera, as it's no good having nicely focussed images with trailed stars.

 

If you are just doing camera lens imaging to start with you don't need a hefty mount,  so something like a Skywatcher Star Adventurer would work, but if you plan on using a telescope eventually it would be sensible to dive in and buy a mount up to the job from the outset, this could be an HEQ5 or if you think you might want to buy a heavier telescope in the future, one in the NEQ6 range.  There will be American equivlents to these Mounts, I think they maybe the Orion range.  

 

So you've now spent your first cartload of money.

 

Carole 

Edited June 26, 2021 by Carastro

[rwillits]

Hi Bill. The Orion Telescope mounts have always been the same mount as Skywatcher (black not white) which until recently have not been available in the USA. You should like this site.