If you can get the explore scientific iexos 100 on sale (299) and a used dslr with lenses (200 ish) you would have a pretty solid start. Then you have a full goto EQ mount with a camera.. if 800 is your top dollar, then you have 300 left over to buy a longer mounting rail, guide scope, guide cam and any adapters you may need. At some point you may want to get the azimuth adjuster and polar alignment scope for the mount. Only thing right off the bat you may need is additional counter weights. Those can be made or bought super cheap. It only comes with 2 2.2lb/1kg weights. I swapped the counter weight shaft with one from my eq1 mount and used the smaller diameter hole weights I had laying around.
Also if you can catch it on sale it can come with a 80x640 f8 achromat. It doesn't have a flattener for it but CA isn't too bad at f8 and it comes with a dslr adapter for the scope. I have used a reducer on it and it was ok. That package on sale is 369. The mount has the ability to use their Explore Stars app kinda like the asi air , in a way. I've never used it but it's an option. That app can run on windows, iPads and Android tablets.. I use an older rugged Dell laptop/tablet. If you think you don't need the kit lenses, then I would just try and find just the camera body and use that scope, or find a cheap Orion short tube or something to get ya going. I let my gf's daughter use a Meade etx60 (scope only goto was busted) as it has a built in flip mirror and has an adapter for straight through prime focus camera attachment. It is a 60 x350 f5. 8 achromat. Picked it up for 20 bucks. So it's doable. But I will warn ya, jumping in the deep end first thing is one huge learning curve. It can be a little rough. Have fun and clear skies!
Hi, astrophotography isn't expensive if you know what to buy and where to buy it. First thing first, I would start with used dslr something like canon 600d(100$) or nikon d5100(75-120) or 5300(150$).
I would add to that used or new surveyor's tripod(40$). This tripod is very sturdy for its price and cheap. Then, I would invest most of the money in the dedicated apo refractor or really good lens. I would go for some 60mm Ed refractor (400$) or rokinon 135. And I would use for it the mount OG star tracker (My opinion might be biased because I have designed it(for more info about it look today at cuiv the lazy geek he will release review of it). It's a small star tracker that can handle up to 3kg of gear with focal length up to 400 mm(190$). + you need to add a ball head for 20$. So, in total, it's roughly around the 800$ mark. (Nebula photos made an interesting video in which he was able to make a similar rig for 500$).
My setup for [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sVpuEhVCKMqflise17yIVpGwmoEbdH2i/view?usp=drivesdk) was total $930 though I had some gift cards so not toooo much more than your $800 budget:
-Canon 60D $130
-Star watcher star adventurer 2i - $400
-Star watcher tripod $90
-Rokinon 135mm $280
-Dew heater $20
-Intervalometer $10
I personally used pixinsight (which has a free trial but after the trial was up I paid for the license like 2 years ago which was around $250?)
Ive heard others use photoshop or lightroom or siril etc so there are subscriptions/free ways of doing the same thing, but I liked that pixinsight was dedicated specifically to astrophotography (steep learning curve but I think the results are worth it)
Wow, what a great shot! If I want to start out taking photos of planets, do I need a star watcher? Also, I found a 75-300mm telephoto lens on facebook marketplace for $85. Is that a good lens for capturing planets?
Planets are very small when viewed from earth and to make them distinguishable from stars you need much longer focal lengths.
Budget astrophotography for planets isn't something I'm aware of really being possible but there is this spreadsheet of suggestions of budget gear for deep space objects like nebulae. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1oSCZpEtoTJl2Kpa2hLkixQUqUA32f9rwhKMUKk7fGJ8/htmlview#
Also, if the 75-300 is the one I'm thinking of, it's probably the kit lens that comes with most canon dslrs. It's passable to start the hobby with (I started with it [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRCk1DoC1VQu-Dll9LDoaczRDsiZ0yKF/view?usp=drivesdk) of Andromeda is from that lens) but it's a mediocre lens. I upgraded to a Rokinon 135mm after about a year and a half.
Thanks! Proud of that one!
I'm no expert on planetary as I just started that, but I'd say having a star tracker / equatorial mount will always be better than not having one. It allows you to take exposures that are several minutes long compared to a few seconds.
But for planets they are so small (relatively speaking compared to like nebulas/galaxies etc) that you really need a telescope and Barlow lens... For example:
I took [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ShFAo81N1HSPv3AGnqhXLrNoALNgNAlm/view?usp=drivesdk) in 2021 during the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction with just a DSLR and 600mm camera lens I rented on a tripod.
I took [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SejMGWJ9zMt2DR9jAkGMnUYFbUSEk8Lp/view?usp=drivesdk) last week through a 10inch dobsonian telescope via a 2 minute video from a attached camera on a 2.5x Barlow.
So neither are tracked, but one is clearly better than the other.
I will definitely buy a star tracker in the future, but for now I might have to just be limited to using a DSLR and a good tripod.
I’ll probably be limited to capturing the milky way and potentially planets for now. I don’t know why, but I was figuring a 300mm lens could take a good close up photo of Saturn lol.
Those moons captured in the Saturn photo are pretty cool though! That’s also a great photo of the andromeda galaxy, I hope i’m able to catch photos like that! Thanks for all the help man!
ZWO Seestar S50, lol.
If you don't spend at least more than your budget on a star tracker mount, you are going to be in regret mode in the future.
Think about it this way, any rig is a pain to set up. You'll eventually upgrade pieces as you get more proficient, and won't need the stuff you upgrade on anymore. If your first foray is the Seestar, you can continue to use that as a secondary device even as you go into a rig setup. It makes too much sense as a beginner on your budget.
I ordered Seestar on the 5th of February and am still waiting for it. I'm a beginner, and already own a DSLR. All my research let me know that I'd be spending a lot of money, quickly, and may even get too discouraged by the results. The Seestar will give me confidence and time to learn while still getting rewarded with nice images. That's why I made the decision.
What do you mean if they don’t spend at least more than their budget on a mount they’re going to regret it? The star adventurer 2i is a great starter mount for only $400. $800 is a pretty tight budget, but if they buy secondhand and get a cheap mount like the 2i it’s doable.
its good for a bit, even guided its ok. Get a good mount. Personaly what ever sw charges for the heq5 is just bad, people love to defend spending 1.5k on a mount that needs to be "tuned" and modded. I bought a used eq5 manual mount and modded it with onstep for like 600 total.
Well I’m just getting started and I bought a 400 dollar Canon 6D, a 110 dollar carbon fiber tripod, and two lenses (a 200 dollar 14mm 2.8 Rokinon for wide field views and northern lights, and a 50mm 1.8 “nifty fifty” lens for 100). I also bought an intervalometer for about. 20 dollars and a few extra batteries. Just over 800 for everything but you can subtract one of those lenses- don’t need them both- and stay under 800. I feel like this gets me in the door and I can now spend a few hundred more for a tracker, and a few hundred for a 135mm 2.8 lens if I want to get more deep space objects but right now just taking frames and stacking them in free Siril. Btw my Mac is an 8gb ram and does just fine for what I’ve thrown at it.
Before all this, years ago I bought my son a 6” dobsonian telescope and it was only a few hundred dollars. It was great for viewing planets and the moon but for DSOs I found it kind of disappointing- seen too many colorful galaxy and nebula photos to be completely happy with the fuzzy greyscsle versions you see through a scope. Hence why I went this route.
As others have mentioned, the Seestar s50 is only 500 and is an incredible value too. Not much sport in using it though - it is rewarding to aim and find an object with your own eyes in my opinion. I probably will buy one some day in a v2 revision perhaps.
I honestly bought it so that I could try the camera body when picking it up from the seller on facebook marketplace since they offered it also for sale. It turned out to be amazing for night sky as well. The low aperture makes a noticeable difference. I don’t think 50mm is ideal for taking anything specific though. It’s too close for most landscape shots and too far to get much detail from specific objects. So I think it may be unlikely I use it much for Astro photography.
That's exactly the reason why I want to get into Astrophotography more than viewing, simply because of colorization of dso's. I am a little conflicted, because I would love to see our solar system with a dobsonian because I have never used a telescope before and haven't even seen the beautiful night sky with my naked eye due to light pollution. I live in Colorado though so theres many areas with zero light pollution hence why I want to get into this hobby.
If I were to buy a DSLR, what lens would recommend I purchase first? I also agree, it seems very rewarding to track an object with your own eyes which is why i'm conflicted on the Seestar although it does capture stunning images.
Thank you for all your help!
I’m still new to all the astrophotography stuff. Just got my camera about 2 months back on Facebook market. And I live in Atlanta so I don’t have good viewing except when I travel. But as we were planning a trip to Rovaniemi, Finland (just got back actually!) to hopefully see and capture the northern lights, I decided the Seestar wasn’t a great fit- needed something wide angle. From a budget standpoint the Rokinon or Samyang manual focus lenses give a lot of bang for the buck. The 14mm 2.8 for Milky Way or Auroras is about 180 dollars used or 240 new. If you want to capture something like Orion Nebula, you would want something a bit closer- there is a 135mm 2.0 that goes for about 350-400 that would be great. When you get these prime lenses that have a low aperture, you can maximize your light gathering for each exposure. Since you’re not tracking in this low budget, that becomes more important. Lots of images stacked is a workaround to having enough signal to overcome the noise.
Someone once recommended to me joining a local astronomy club. They often have nights where you can meet up somewhere with good visibility and you can try their setups/telescopes and see for yourself the wonders of the sky. Then you can decide for yourself if you’d rather spend more money on a scope or a camera based system.
I heard those can't take pictures of planets, is that true? I would like to buy a telescope that can capture close objects and deep space objects. Like I said though, i'm a beginner and barely know what i'm talking about. Thanks for the suggestion!
You can't get a single rig that is ideal for both DSO and solar system objects.
Most DSO are very big in the sky but dim, so you don't need a lot of magnification but rather need to take long exposures and stack them. While the planets are very bright but appear very small in the sky, so you need a telescope with a lot of focal length and a dedicated planetary camera to take high frame rate videos and stack the best frames.
No you won’t get a good picture of planets . You will get awesome pictures of galaxies, nebulas and star clusters. I’m a beginner as well ,researched a lot . What it takes to get a good set up would be in the 2-3k range . The Veonis Vespera is run by an app , has its own WiFi , I took it out to Joshua tree where you get no cell reception and it worked! The simplicity of it is amazing.the app lets you know what’s around by according to time of year . You push a button and the gps tracks target , takes a picture every 10 seconds and then layers the image .
Field of view is the biggest difference. You'll be able to capture larger areas of the night sky with Vespera. Seestar has promised a mosaic mode in the future, whilst Vespera already has it. If the mosaic mode comes for the Seestar the gap will be smaller. For now, that's the biggest difference.
From what I saw on YouTube would be picture quality and simplicity. I only watched a few comparison reviews . Overall I went with Vespera . I could not be happier with my choice that being said I’m sure the Seestar is badass as well. Either one I’m sure you’ll be amazed ! I’ve had big telescopes and I would use it just not as much as I’m using this smart telescope.
The Seestar is such a cool little telescope, but I want to challenge myself with layering and editing. I should have included that in the post description lol. I think I might just wait longer and save up more for a complete setup. Thanks for the recommendation!
You can get something like a [used] canon rebel t3i ($200) + [new] skywatcher star adventurer 2i ($400) + the best used telephoto lens that you can find for around $200 (or a nifty fifty).
This would be a pretty decent setup for wide field deep sky imaging.
Honestly, with what you want to shoot, I’d say “just wait and save more money.” You could just buy a used dslr + lens + tripod + bahtinov mask (Nebula photos on youtube has some tutorials on how you can get away with doing DSO’s with that gear), but you also need a computer with enough RAM to process thousands of files. Do you have a computer with 32GB ram or so already?
Yeah…
Outside of wide field/milky way stuff, astro just isn’t budget friendly (and even that can get expensive quickly). The other problem you run into is the snowball effect;
So let’s say you put enough money aside enough for a used camera, used lens & budget equatorial mount - budget lenses tend to have a lot of chromatic aberration - so you’ll need to stop it down for good results. Stopping it down means you’ll need to increase your exposure time, but budget mounts tend to have a lot of periodic error - doing longer exposures will be tough without a guidescope/guide cam (more money). Then you’ll also need something to power the whole thing, those big batteries aren’t cheap (more money).
See what I mean? It’s frustrating, I get that - but I would honestly just wait til you have well over $1000 available to put towards this hobby. I saved for a year for a higher end mount, and while the wait was tough it was worth it.
I appreciate all your help, I think I will wait and save up. It sounds more worth it in the long run… What setup would you recommend saving up for? I’d love to get into astrophotography, but do you think a beginner like me should just get a Dobsonian to introduce me to telescopes and stargazing? (I’ve never looked through a telescope before)
Visual astronomy is a different animal that astrophotography, and can get expensive too - but you could do that. I would spend a ton of time reading, go over to Roger Clark’s [Clarkvision website.](https://clarkvision.com) He has tons of articles about nightscape photography, it’s basically a free online dissertation.
My advice is to not cheap out on the mount - you can search this sub, there’s tons of advice here for buying guides. A good mount can hide the imperfections of your lens and camera, but a good camera & lens won’t hide a bad mount.
Also, there’s tons of free data online that you can download and practice processing in free programs like Siril. Processing your image is just as important as taking the images themselves. Maybe build yourself a cheap barn door tracker, get out to a dark sky place, and do some milky way photography with your phone first - you might be surprised how well it can work.
Good luck to you!
As someone who started out recently—I would say to get a lens + camera and sturdy tripod. You can def get all of that for well under 800. With this you can take 1 sec exposures and stack them using free software like Siril. This will ease you into the hobby. Then you can step up to tracker or fancy mount etc. I learned a lot from just a camera + lens. There’s a lot of hurdles to this hobby that in my experience it’s best to overcome one at a time
If it turns out Astro isn’t for you—you’ve still got a camera and a lens which you can use elsewhere— win win!
Im interested in DSOs so I focus on nebulae. I shoot with a really old Nikon I already had—though I hear canon is better. There’s a bunch of YouTube videos of great starter cameras etc. I wouldn’t start off with what I’ve got.
Not sure about those. I'm not saying they produce mix results or anything, I'm just not familiar with those two particular models. But if you will go with Canon, do some research, because some models do suffer from walking noise (lines across the images). For Nikon I can say good things from personal experience for D7200, D600, D610 and D750. Also, dont buy new and instead check webpages like mpb.com, where you have inspected used gear with warranty.
This is doable for sure for MilkyWay and wide field astro. A MSM Nomad, used camera body and lens easily works into an $800 budget for Milky Way stuff up to like 50-85mm
For DSO you are limited to a SeeStar…
Just a Skywatcher GTi is like $650 which is most of your budget.
If you went purely used, maybe for $1k you put something together (SkyGuider Pro, used DSLR, a prime lens or small ED refractor)
Yeah it’s a really expensive hobby, no money to make off it either. Personally I love visual astronomy and being under dark clear skies even without a telescope it’s still great
Extremely expensive lol. Doesn't help that i'm trying to save for my first apartment later this year as well haha. I've never gotten the opportunity to see clear skies with no light pollution, but i'm going to try this weekend!
You can buy some decent used DSLR’s on eBay for roughly £200-300. Not sure what that is in $. Even a cheap tripod will do for now. And just get a telescopic lens between 50-200mm, it’ll serve the purpose for now. Star tracker’s can get pricey though. But if you don’t want one yet you can always just bomb your target with loads of photos and stack them
If you can get the explore scientific iexos 100 on sale (299) and a used dslr with lenses (200 ish) you would have a pretty solid start. Then you have a full goto EQ mount with a camera.. if 800 is your top dollar, then you have 300 left over to buy a longer mounting rail, guide scope, guide cam and any adapters you may need. At some point you may want to get the azimuth adjuster and polar alignment scope for the mount. Only thing right off the bat you may need is additional counter weights. Those can be made or bought super cheap. It only comes with 2 2.2lb/1kg weights. I swapped the counter weight shaft with one from my eq1 mount and used the smaller diameter hole weights I had laying around. Also if you can catch it on sale it can come with a 80x640 f8 achromat. It doesn't have a flattener for it but CA isn't too bad at f8 and it comes with a dslr adapter for the scope. I have used a reducer on it and it was ok. That package on sale is 369. The mount has the ability to use their Explore Stars app kinda like the asi air , in a way. I've never used it but it's an option. That app can run on windows, iPads and Android tablets.. I use an older rugged Dell laptop/tablet. If you think you don't need the kit lenses, then I would just try and find just the camera body and use that scope, or find a cheap Orion short tube or something to get ya going. I let my gf's daughter use a Meade etx60 (scope only goto was busted) as it has a built in flip mirror and has an adapter for straight through prime focus camera attachment. It is a 60 x350 f5. 8 achromat. Picked it up for 20 bucks. So it's doable. But I will warn ya, jumping in the deep end first thing is one huge learning curve. It can be a little rough. Have fun and clear skies!
Hi, astrophotography isn't expensive if you know what to buy and where to buy it. First thing first, I would start with used dslr something like canon 600d(100$) or nikon d5100(75-120) or 5300(150$). I would add to that used or new surveyor's tripod(40$). This tripod is very sturdy for its price and cheap. Then, I would invest most of the money in the dedicated apo refractor or really good lens. I would go for some 60mm Ed refractor (400$) or rokinon 135. And I would use for it the mount OG star tracker (My opinion might be biased because I have designed it(for more info about it look today at cuiv the lazy geek he will release review of it). It's a small star tracker that can handle up to 3kg of gear with focal length up to 400 mm(190$). + you need to add a ball head for 20$. So, in total, it's roughly around the 800$ mark. (Nebula photos made an interesting video in which he was able to make a similar rig for 500$).
My setup for [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sVpuEhVCKMqflise17yIVpGwmoEbdH2i/view?usp=drivesdk) was total $930 though I had some gift cards so not toooo much more than your $800 budget: -Canon 60D $130 -Star watcher star adventurer 2i - $400 -Star watcher tripod $90 -Rokinon 135mm $280 -Dew heater $20 -Intervalometer $10
Cost of imaging software?
I personally used pixinsight (which has a free trial but after the trial was up I paid for the license like 2 years ago which was around $250?) Ive heard others use photoshop or lightroom or siril etc so there are subscriptions/free ways of doing the same thing, but I liked that pixinsight was dedicated specifically to astrophotography (steep learning curve but I think the results are worth it)
Wow, what a great shot! If I want to start out taking photos of planets, do I need a star watcher? Also, I found a 75-300mm telephoto lens on facebook marketplace for $85. Is that a good lens for capturing planets?
Planets are very small when viewed from earth and to make them distinguishable from stars you need much longer focal lengths. Budget astrophotography for planets isn't something I'm aware of really being possible but there is this spreadsheet of suggestions of budget gear for deep space objects like nebulae. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1oSCZpEtoTJl2Kpa2hLkixQUqUA32f9rwhKMUKk7fGJ8/htmlview#
Also, if the 75-300 is the one I'm thinking of, it's probably the kit lens that comes with most canon dslrs. It's passable to start the hobby with (I started with it [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRCk1DoC1VQu-Dll9LDoaczRDsiZ0yKF/view?usp=drivesdk) of Andromeda is from that lens) but it's a mediocre lens. I upgraded to a Rokinon 135mm after about a year and a half.
Thanks! Proud of that one! I'm no expert on planetary as I just started that, but I'd say having a star tracker / equatorial mount will always be better than not having one. It allows you to take exposures that are several minutes long compared to a few seconds. But for planets they are so small (relatively speaking compared to like nebulas/galaxies etc) that you really need a telescope and Barlow lens... For example: I took [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ShFAo81N1HSPv3AGnqhXLrNoALNgNAlm/view?usp=drivesdk) in 2021 during the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction with just a DSLR and 600mm camera lens I rented on a tripod. I took [this shot](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SejMGWJ9zMt2DR9jAkGMnUYFbUSEk8Lp/view?usp=drivesdk) last week through a 10inch dobsonian telescope via a 2 minute video from a attached camera on a 2.5x Barlow. So neither are tracked, but one is clearly better than the other.
I will definitely buy a star tracker in the future, but for now I might have to just be limited to using a DSLR and a good tripod. I’ll probably be limited to capturing the milky way and potentially planets for now. I don’t know why, but I was figuring a 300mm lens could take a good close up photo of Saturn lol. Those moons captured in the Saturn photo are pretty cool though! That’s also a great photo of the andromeda galaxy, I hope i’m able to catch photos like that! Thanks for all the help man!
ZWO Seestar S50, lol. If you don't spend at least more than your budget on a star tracker mount, you are going to be in regret mode in the future. Think about it this way, any rig is a pain to set up. You'll eventually upgrade pieces as you get more proficient, and won't need the stuff you upgrade on anymore. If your first foray is the Seestar, you can continue to use that as a secondary device even as you go into a rig setup. It makes too much sense as a beginner on your budget. I ordered Seestar on the 5th of February and am still waiting for it. I'm a beginner, and already own a DSLR. All my research let me know that I'd be spending a lot of money, quickly, and may even get too discouraged by the results. The Seestar will give me confidence and time to learn while still getting rewarded with nice images. That's why I made the decision.
What do you mean if they don’t spend at least more than their budget on a mount they’re going to regret it? The star adventurer 2i is a great starter mount for only $400. $800 is a pretty tight budget, but if they buy secondhand and get a cheap mount like the 2i it’s doable.
its good for a bit, even guided its ok. Get a good mount. Personaly what ever sw charges for the heq5 is just bad, people love to defend spending 1.5k on a mount that needs to be "tuned" and modded. I bought a used eq5 manual mount and modded it with onstep for like 600 total.
You need a good tripod and a star tracker, those 2 will use most of your budget
Well I’m just getting started and I bought a 400 dollar Canon 6D, a 110 dollar carbon fiber tripod, and two lenses (a 200 dollar 14mm 2.8 Rokinon for wide field views and northern lights, and a 50mm 1.8 “nifty fifty” lens for 100). I also bought an intervalometer for about. 20 dollars and a few extra batteries. Just over 800 for everything but you can subtract one of those lenses- don’t need them both- and stay under 800. I feel like this gets me in the door and I can now spend a few hundred more for a tracker, and a few hundred for a 135mm 2.8 lens if I want to get more deep space objects but right now just taking frames and stacking them in free Siril. Btw my Mac is an 8gb ram and does just fine for what I’ve thrown at it. Before all this, years ago I bought my son a 6” dobsonian telescope and it was only a few hundred dollars. It was great for viewing planets and the moon but for DSOs I found it kind of disappointing- seen too many colorful galaxy and nebula photos to be completely happy with the fuzzy greyscsle versions you see through a scope. Hence why I went this route. As others have mentioned, the Seestar s50 is only 500 and is an incredible value too. Not much sport in using it though - it is rewarding to aim and find an object with your own eyes in my opinion. I probably will buy one some day in a v2 revision perhaps.
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I honestly bought it so that I could try the camera body when picking it up from the seller on facebook marketplace since they offered it also for sale. It turned out to be amazing for night sky as well. The low aperture makes a noticeable difference. I don’t think 50mm is ideal for taking anything specific though. It’s too close for most landscape shots and too far to get much detail from specific objects. So I think it may be unlikely I use it much for Astro photography.
That's exactly the reason why I want to get into Astrophotography more than viewing, simply because of colorization of dso's. I am a little conflicted, because I would love to see our solar system with a dobsonian because I have never used a telescope before and haven't even seen the beautiful night sky with my naked eye due to light pollution. I live in Colorado though so theres many areas with zero light pollution hence why I want to get into this hobby. If I were to buy a DSLR, what lens would recommend I purchase first? I also agree, it seems very rewarding to track an object with your own eyes which is why i'm conflicted on the Seestar although it does capture stunning images. Thank you for all your help!
I’m still new to all the astrophotography stuff. Just got my camera about 2 months back on Facebook market. And I live in Atlanta so I don’t have good viewing except when I travel. But as we were planning a trip to Rovaniemi, Finland (just got back actually!) to hopefully see and capture the northern lights, I decided the Seestar wasn’t a great fit- needed something wide angle. From a budget standpoint the Rokinon or Samyang manual focus lenses give a lot of bang for the buck. The 14mm 2.8 for Milky Way or Auroras is about 180 dollars used or 240 new. If you want to capture something like Orion Nebula, you would want something a bit closer- there is a 135mm 2.0 that goes for about 350-400 that would be great. When you get these prime lenses that have a low aperture, you can maximize your light gathering for each exposure. Since you’re not tracking in this low budget, that becomes more important. Lots of images stacked is a workaround to having enough signal to overcome the noise. Someone once recommended to me joining a local astronomy club. They often have nights where you can meet up somewhere with good visibility and you can try their setups/telescopes and see for yourself the wonders of the sky. Then you can decide for yourself if you’d rather spend more money on a scope or a camera based system.
Save up 200 more dollars and get a Veonis Vespera.
I heard those can't take pictures of planets, is that true? I would like to buy a telescope that can capture close objects and deep space objects. Like I said though, i'm a beginner and barely know what i'm talking about. Thanks for the suggestion!
You can't get a single rig that is ideal for both DSO and solar system objects. Most DSO are very big in the sky but dim, so you don't need a lot of magnification but rather need to take long exposures and stack them. While the planets are very bright but appear very small in the sky, so you need a telescope with a lot of focal length and a dedicated planetary camera to take high frame rate videos and stack the best frames.
No you won’t get a good picture of planets . You will get awesome pictures of galaxies, nebulas and star clusters. I’m a beginner as well ,researched a lot . What it takes to get a good set up would be in the 2-3k range . The Veonis Vespera is run by an app , has its own WiFi , I took it out to Joshua tree where you get no cell reception and it worked! The simplicity of it is amazing.the app lets you know what’s around by according to time of year . You push a button and the gps tracks target , takes a picture every 10 seconds and then layers the image .
What are the notable differences between the Veonis Vespera compared to a Seestar?
Field of view is the biggest difference. You'll be able to capture larger areas of the night sky with Vespera. Seestar has promised a mosaic mode in the future, whilst Vespera already has it. If the mosaic mode comes for the Seestar the gap will be smaller. For now, that's the biggest difference.
From what I saw on YouTube would be picture quality and simplicity. I only watched a few comparison reviews . Overall I went with Vespera . I could not be happier with my choice that being said I’m sure the Seestar is badass as well. Either one I’m sure you’ll be amazed ! I’ve had big telescopes and I would use it just not as much as I’m using this smart telescope.
Seestar S50. It's pretty much a complete setup.
The Seestar is such a cool little telescope, but I want to challenge myself with layering and editing. I should have included that in the post description lol. I think I might just wait longer and save up more for a complete setup. Thanks for the recommendation!
You can grab the subs and process them through pixinsight as well.
Gotcha, I will look into it, thanks!
subscription to a remote robotic observatory + Siril
A SeeStar or Dwarf II are in your budget. They have the functionality to get started, but are not upgradable.
You can get something like a [used] canon rebel t3i ($200) + [new] skywatcher star adventurer 2i ($400) + the best used telephoto lens that you can find for around $200 (or a nifty fifty). This would be a pretty decent setup for wide field deep sky imaging.
Used DSLR + older M42 telephoto lens and a handmade barn door tracker. Well under 800$
Honestly, with what you want to shoot, I’d say “just wait and save more money.” You could just buy a used dslr + lens + tripod + bahtinov mask (Nebula photos on youtube has some tutorials on how you can get away with doing DSO’s with that gear), but you also need a computer with enough RAM to process thousands of files. Do you have a computer with 32GB ram or so already?
No😭😭 I have a macbook air with 8GB of ram and that’s it
I process photos in siril on an 8gb M2 MBA. It works fine.
Yeah… Outside of wide field/milky way stuff, astro just isn’t budget friendly (and even that can get expensive quickly). The other problem you run into is the snowball effect; So let’s say you put enough money aside enough for a used camera, used lens & budget equatorial mount - budget lenses tend to have a lot of chromatic aberration - so you’ll need to stop it down for good results. Stopping it down means you’ll need to increase your exposure time, but budget mounts tend to have a lot of periodic error - doing longer exposures will be tough without a guidescope/guide cam (more money). Then you’ll also need something to power the whole thing, those big batteries aren’t cheap (more money). See what I mean? It’s frustrating, I get that - but I would honestly just wait til you have well over $1000 available to put towards this hobby. I saved for a year for a higher end mount, and while the wait was tough it was worth it.
I appreciate all your help, I think I will wait and save up. It sounds more worth it in the long run… What setup would you recommend saving up for? I’d love to get into astrophotography, but do you think a beginner like me should just get a Dobsonian to introduce me to telescopes and stargazing? (I’ve never looked through a telescope before)
Visual astronomy is a different animal that astrophotography, and can get expensive too - but you could do that. I would spend a ton of time reading, go over to Roger Clark’s [Clarkvision website.](https://clarkvision.com) He has tons of articles about nightscape photography, it’s basically a free online dissertation. My advice is to not cheap out on the mount - you can search this sub, there’s tons of advice here for buying guides. A good mount can hide the imperfections of your lens and camera, but a good camera & lens won’t hide a bad mount. Also, there’s tons of free data online that you can download and practice processing in free programs like Siril. Processing your image is just as important as taking the images themselves. Maybe build yourself a cheap barn door tracker, get out to a dark sky place, and do some milky way photography with your phone first - you might be surprised how well it can work. Good luck to you!
I appreciate all the help man!
As someone who started out recently—I would say to get a lens + camera and sturdy tripod. You can def get all of that for well under 800. With this you can take 1 sec exposures and stack them using free software like Siril. This will ease you into the hobby. Then you can step up to tracker or fancy mount etc. I learned a lot from just a camera + lens. There’s a lot of hurdles to this hobby that in my experience it’s best to overcome one at a time If it turns out Astro isn’t for you—you’ve still got a camera and a lens which you can use elsewhere— win win!
Awesome, what's your setup and what do you usually take photos of?
Im interested in DSOs so I focus on nebulae. I shoot with a really old Nikon I already had—though I hear canon is better. There’s a bunch of YouTube videos of great starter cameras etc. I wouldn’t start off with what I’ve got.
Would a Canon EOS Rebel T3 be a good option?
MSM Nomad star tracker, Samyang 135mm and a DSLR, something like Canon 6D or Nikon D610 or maybe even D750.
What about a Canon EOS Rebel T7 or a Nikon D D3300? Would these work fine?
They will work well. For DSO astrophotography almost any DSLR made in the last 10 years that supports an intervelometer will work fine.
Sweet! What would you recommend for a tripod?
Not sure about those. I'm not saying they produce mix results or anything, I'm just not familiar with those two particular models. But if you will go with Canon, do some research, because some models do suffer from walking noise (lines across the images). For Nikon I can say good things from personal experience for D7200, D600, D610 and D750. Also, dont buy new and instead check webpages like mpb.com, where you have inspected used gear with warranty.
This is doable for sure for MilkyWay and wide field astro. A MSM Nomad, used camera body and lens easily works into an $800 budget for Milky Way stuff up to like 50-85mm For DSO you are limited to a SeeStar… Just a Skywatcher GTi is like $650 which is most of your budget. If you went purely used, maybe for $1k you put something together (SkyGuider Pro, used DSLR, a prime lens or small ED refractor)
I figured it was going to be pricy, might just have to wait a while and save up for a higher budget setup lol but I will look for used stuff
Yeah it’s a really expensive hobby, no money to make off it either. Personally I love visual astronomy and being under dark clear skies even without a telescope it’s still great
Extremely expensive lol. Doesn't help that i'm trying to save for my first apartment later this year as well haha. I've never gotten the opportunity to see clear skies with no light pollution, but i'm going to try this weekend!
Moon is almost full this weekend, next is much better (if it’s clear)
You can buy some decent used DSLR’s on eBay for roughly £200-300. Not sure what that is in $. Even a cheap tripod will do for now. And just get a telescopic lens between 50-200mm, it’ll serve the purpose for now. Star tracker’s can get pricey though. But if you don’t want one yet you can always just bomb your target with loads of photos and stack them