Telescope Reviews: New to Astrophotography...need advice!

If I was going to get into astrophotography, and I had $500 to spend right now, I would first restrict myself to the concept of planetary photography. The reason that I suggest this is that planetary photography (with "snapshot" exposures of less than 1 second) is a good basic introduction to astrophotography without trying to go overboard.

For planetary photography, it turns out that a humble webcam (like the $50 eyeball cam that you may have attached to your computer already) is the camera of choice. Because webcams can shoot "movies" at many frames per second, they have a good chance of being able to "beat the seeing" and catch a planet in that split-second moment of perfectly clear atmosphere. Even if that moment never occurs

, you can take the individual frames out of one of these movies, and stack them together, which tends to increase the details on the planet, while minimizing the "noise" and effects of bad seeing, etc.

So, look for a webcam. The Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 is available at brick and mortar retailers (such as Best Buy and others) or online, and makes a fine planetary camera for about $50 or $75. An adapter to mate it to your telescope (I'll get to the scope in a sec; hang in there

) will cost about $20, or you can make one in about 5 minutes using one of those plastic 35mm film canisters (which turn out to be exactly the right size) and some tape.

You'll also need a telescope. Well, hm. You're looking at a telescope for about $450 (if you don't have a webcam already) to $500 (if you do) that will do a good job on planets. The Konus Mak that you suggest will probably do a nice job on planets. However, the long focal length leads to a very restricted field-of-view, so if it was your only telescope, I think that you might find it a little hard to find objects when you're using the scope for visual use.

I don't know (but I assume) that you are looking for a telescope that will be a good performer visually, too. In that case, a Newtonian reflector in the 6" to 8" range would probably fit the bill nicely. Plenty of aperture for shooting planets, a bit wider FOV than the Mak, nice size for all-around visual use. Neither of the two scopes I've linked to here have GOTO, but I think that if your budget is $500, you should spend your money on a better telescope and mount than to spend $150 or so of it on a GOTO computer. Each of the telescopes I've suggested comes with a single-axis (Right Ascension) drive to keep it pointed at the object you pointed it at (by rotating along with the Earrth's rotation), which is a helpful addition. My wife, for instance, likes the idea that I can point the scope at Saturn, then go find her, get her to come look, and Saturn's still in the eyepiece when she gets there.

Both of these scopes are a lot (physically) larger than they look in the pictures! Pay attention to the specs regarding length, weight, etc.

But these will both do a nice job of being a good, solid first telescope, good for planetary photography, good for visual use, and more or less within your budget.

You may notice that I haven't mentioned your 300D yet. Well, since you're going to be using a webcam to do your planetary photography, the 300D will be available for you to experiment with shooting widefield swaths of the sky. From a fixed tripod, I've seen pretty nice star trails photos coming out of this camera, and, once you figure out what you're doing, you can let the 300D ride "piggyback" on top of the telescope, and do widefield photos that can track with the rotation of the Earth.

Before you get to a point where you're going to be doing "prime focus" photography, though, where you're using the telescope as a really long telephoto lens for the 300D, you're probably going to find that you need a different mount, some extra photography equipment, and probably even a new OTA (telescope tube). This type of astrophotography rig has been coming down in price recently, and for about $1500, you can have a nice setup that will probably take you to the limit of what you and your 300D can do. But by the time you get to that point, you'll have a lot better idea of what you're looking for, and also hopefully a better idea of whether this astrophotography thing is really something that you want to pursue.

I'm sorry that I can't really give you any suggestions that aren't going to end up needing a total upgrade and overhaul later. But a nice planetary rig and one that will do good widefield piggybacked shots is actually pretty nice, for $500. Man, what I wouldn't give for a 300D right now... drool.

Hope that helps!

Clear skies,
Jimbo
PS: Welcome to Cloudy Nights!

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Order of the Unblinking Eye

G-11 D70 ST4 8"f/5 AT66ED (Rig)

I used to shoot film.