Astrophotography Beginner Set-Up Advice

SaKi-The-Killer

Hi all,

I've recently decided that I want to purse my interest in deep field astrophotography.
I'm wondering if any veterans have any advise in terms of a good beginners set up thats financially feasible! I'm hoping its possible in the hundreds as opposed to the thousands! Maybe I'm optimistic!

I've no equipment as yet, just a building passion!

Can anyone advise on the minimal set up for taking decent photographs? Or your beginning set up?
Also, can anyone advise on good locations? I'm assuming light pollution in suburban areas makes it pointless?
Has anyone any pictures from their beginners set up?


Again, highly ignorant of this area but hoping to learn!

Cheers for any advice!

Tzetze

Making every photon count is regarded as the best book out there for the beginner. This will prevent you from making what could be costly mistakes and give you a solid foundation on all you need to know starting out.

DSO imaging on a budget You may need to be registered on the stargazer's lounge in order to read that thread.

dmcdona

Ron Wodaski's "The New CCD Astronomy" book is very good - it has good intro chapters on a wide variety of setups and budgets and then progresses to how to get it all to work. See http://www.newastro.com/order.php

My beginning setup was a 8" SCT with a Meade DSI and an old laptop. I did some pretty useful stuff with it and took (at the time) some nice images. See www.astroshack.net for the results.

Roll on a few years and I've progressed into "science" - though that was always my goal. And I'm now doing pretty well.

But beware. If yor passion remains, you will have many frustrations with the steep learning curve and prepare to make some hard decisions on budget. Oh, and a truck load of mistakes.

As for your current situation, a budget of "hundreds" is pretty minimalistic but do-able, especially with quite a bit of (good) secondhand gear available.

Light pollution is always an issue but you'd be surpirsed at some of the images folks can take from heavily polluted areas. There are special filters available to help and you may need to limit your imaging to the brighter objects only (e.g. the planets, brighter galaxies etc.).

Most of all - lean on those who have been through all of this before - you will get lots of advice and will hopefully avoid most of the mistakes we all made...

Cheers
Dave

SaKi-The-Killer

Thanks a lot guys!
Much appreciated!