Moon and Mars

[masraum]

Yes, if you want to do photo, you need a good German equatorial mount. I'd love to get a good mount and do some astrophotography. Ive done some very basic stuff of brought objects like andromeda and the nebula in Orion with my camera and a telephoto lens. Out was fun, but nothing like a good mount and some long exposures. The digital age had really done amazing things for AP.

[Jim Richards]

I imagine for long exposures, a person needs a tracking mount. Or is there some technique that works for manual mounts?

[GH85Carrera]

If you are really interested in astronomy find a local astronomy club. I joined our local club years ago and it is so much more fun to have long time astronomy geeks show you some sights with their HUGE scopes out in a dark site. They can show your the fun things to see, and give one on one advice on what to buy and what to avoid.

Astronomy can be the cheapest hobby around. Go outside and look up! A good set of binoculars can be a great start and you likely can borrow some from a friend if you don't own some.

[Rusty Heap]

I've droolled for a 10" or larger Dobsonian, and you can build them pretty cheap once you get the mirror.

But, me and a buddy were just talking about the CCD cameras you put on the eye piece, have a tracking mount, and view/observe from your couch on the big screen or on your computer to digitally record time lapse.

Google it, but people are using webcams with the lens removed, or a DSLR body only, and such.

1st Attempt with DIY Astro CCD Cam - YouTube

Another project I don't have time for......

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Jim727

Steve - thanks for the Stellarium link. Looks excellent! May have to get a 'scope - I really lusted after a Questar (quartz optics, of course) but they were a tad over $1K at a time when $15K would buy a tract house (late '50s).

I had a 1970 Questar for several years, which traveled with me to Aruba for the solar eclipse, traveled to Cocoa Beach to photograph a night launch, traveled with me to, oh, probably 5 major observatories around the US. They really were as high of quality as they claimed to be...

There's still a market for them, look into it. a decent workhorse version can be found for about $1500.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

I imagine for long exposures, a person needs a tracking mount. Or is there some technique that works for manual mounts?

Yes, for long exposure, you absolutely need a tracking mount, but even then, if you are doing long focal lengths, you can have issues with just an auto tracking mount. Most folks will use a guide scope. I think the general idea is to mount a smaller scope with a smaller camera to your main scope, put your target or a target in the center of the view, then your computer will monitor the image in the secondary scope and make fine adjustments to the tracking over time.

Cost if you want to do AP can add up very quickly.

The good news is that you don't need as much exposure time now as you once did, well, you do, but you don't. Instead of trying to take a single long 2 hour exposure of an item, lots of folks will take many 5, 10, 15, 20 minute exposures, and then use something like photoshop or one of the specialized bits of software to stack the exposures electronically. I've taken static exposures of a second of bright objects like Andromeda or Orion's nebula and "stacked" 50 or 100 together to make fun images. They aren't award winning, but I took them and you can see detail in them that you can't see with your eye viewing through a scope (well not my scope in my yard).

Here's one of my favorite pictures that someone else took of Orion. It's the whole Orion constellation. I think this is an effort of a year or more taking many, many shots and merging them together.
From Here: Orion, from Head to Toes | Deep Sky Colors - Astrophotography by Rogelio Bernal Andreo


Here is a huge version.
http://deepskycolors.com/pics/astro/2010/10/mb_2010-10_OrionWF.jpg

[Jim727]

Great pic, Steve.

Mike - one day.... Alas, today isn't it yet. I did a search and found that they are still in biz and still producing telescopes.