Show me your Astro-Gear

[Mike]

Something I'd love to shoot is astro stuff but that's something for the future. In the meantime I'd love to see what your dedicated astro setup looks like so please show me! :D

Also, a quick explanation of what each item is would be nice - ie equatorial mounts/scopes etc. Cheers.

[caesar2164]

+1!!!

lets see what else I can start buying!!!
buying lenses has gotten boring...jk

[le_R]

i've got :
Skywatcher 80ED 600mm (deep sky use)
Skywatcher HEQ5-Pro Goto Mount (can support up to 12-15 kg - <30lbs)
EOS 400D
http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/sky_watcher/Evostar-80ED-PRO-on-HEQ5-PR.jpg



And for autoguiding :
Antares 80/480mm
Webcam Philips SPC900
TS duomount
and direct interface for the HEQ5-Pro goto Mount from Pierro-Astro (http://www.pierro-astro.com/EQMod.html#2) :

Other stuff:
UHCE filter (EOS clip version)
Powertank 17Ah power supply (and my car)
laptop
Plossl 6.5mm and 26mm eyepieces
barlow x3 lens
and more

i began astrophotography last year. the initial money sum is quite important : about 2500€ due to all the little usefull stuff.

[Adrena1in]

This is one of my setups. (I say "one of"...I've got three scopes, and here are the two smallest. I've got a 400mm Orion with an 80mm aperture, a 600mm Phenix with a 102mm aperture, and a 1200mm Phenix with a 127mm aperture. I tend to use the Phenix scopes for imaging with the Orion mounted on the back for guiding.)
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/5091/guidesetupae8.th.jpg (http://img243.imageshack.us/my.php?image=guidesetupae8.jpg)http://img243.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

My Canon EOS 450D sits on the Phenixs and my Meade DSI-C CCD Webcam sits on the Orion. I'm not saying the setup in the above image is a "good" one...they're definitely far too weighty towards the camera end whereas they should be evenly balanced. Need to figure out to fix that because I can't really move them.

Here's my 127mm f/9.5, set up the other day when I was preparing to shoot the partial solar eclipse. Bit of a bodge-job solar filter, but it worked. Doesn't give a particularly "nice" image of the sun...just a white disk. Not like those Solarscopes that show lovely orange sun images with flares and stuff.
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/8487/dsc00465lg9.th.jpg (http://img524.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dsc00465lg9.jpg)http://img524.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

I also made this simple wooden block on which I can directly mount my DSLR if I want to shoot wide-angle shots with my camera lens. Nice and simple.
http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/439/cameramountzh7.th.jpg (http://img502.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cameramountzh7.jpg)http://img502.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

The mount is an EQ-5 Equatorial Mount. Quite sturdy. It's got GOTOStar software, which is used for locating celestial objects at the press of a button. (Feels quite professional sitting by the machine, telling it to find something and having it whirr into life and move itself to the right location! :) ) It's quite useful in that it has a built-in Polarscope. When you set it up you look through this to align on the North Central Pole. However, it's not really worked as well as I would hope, so I've had to learn Polar Alignment. Think I got it pretty bloomin' close last night, as I spent an hour or so Polar Aligning without worrying about taking images. I've now put marks on my patio so I can put the mount back into the same spot and be pretty much spot on straight away.

[bowtie`]

Not much here. Just a 5D, 24-70mm, an ancient Bogen tripod and some 7X50 binoculars to sight-see while taking 5 to 30 minute exposures. Oh I took this with a 100-400mm but I have not had this on for a few months. Been having a love affair with the 24-70.

[Jeff]

10" Meade LX200 GPS - UHTC.
Also shown:
Finderscope which is 1/2 a 10X80 binocular with a diagonal and an eyepiece -- all held together with a high-tech rubber band.
Celestron f/6.3 focal reducer
Scopestuff 10:1 focuser (scopestuff.com)
2" Celestron diagonal
Losmandy counter weight bar
Astrozap dew shield
Piggyback camera adapter
http://www.seivertfamily.com/POTN/ASTRO_9460.jpg

http://www.seivertfamily.com/POTN/ASTRO_9464.jpg

[FlyingPhotog]

That's some nice lookin' gear people have...

How's the millimeter/dollar ratio in astronomy when compared to photography?

[Jeff]

How's the millimeter/dollar ratio in astronomy when compared to photography?

For just my used 10" Meade (254mm) it was about $2000. All the extras just get tacked on from there, eyepieces are probably the next most costly and can cost from $25 or so on up to several hundred each.

astromart.com is a great place to pickup well cared for used equipment.

[screxer]

No pictures currently unfortunately, but I used to work at Orion Telescopes and cherry picked a few fun toys after bench testing out better than a TeleVue comparison scope (can't remember what scope, sorry):

Orion 80mm ED
Orion ShortTube 80
Orion StarMax 127
Swift 60mm from the 1960's that has been retrofitted to work with 1.25" eyepieces
Orion 11x70 binoculars
Skyview Deluxe tripod
EQ-3 tripod
Paragon HD-F2 tripod

[renderwerks]

Ditto on the lack of images, but:

I'm getting my first scope! (should arrive Wednesday or so) :cool:
Here's what's coming in the mail:

Celestron Onyx 80mm EDF (500mm FL, APO doublet, Flourite glass, Crayford type focuser)
Celestron Onyx T-Adapter and T-mount
Orion 8x50 Illuminated Finder Scope
Orion 30mm Highlight Plossl Eyepiece (got as deal of the day at the Orion website)
No-Name 1-1/4 Dielectric Diagonal (eBay, looks to be high quality)

I'll be using my heavy photo tripod for now, but will build a barn door tracker around the first of the year (I have a post and pics of it here on POTN (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=6308236&postcount=253)).

Next in line will be a FR/FF...

Can't wait!!

[Nighthound]

No pictures currently unfortunately, but I used to work at Orion Telescopes and cherry picked a few fun toys after bench testing out better than a TeleVue comparison scope (can't remember what scope, sorry):

Orion 80mm ED
Orion ShortTube 80
Orion StarMax 127
Swift 60mm from the 1960's that has been retrofitted to work with 1.25" eyepieces
Orion 11x70 binoculars
Skyview Deluxe tripod
EQ-3 tripod
Paragon HD-F2 tripod

Nice gear screxer. Are you planning to image with your refractors? Maybe guide with the short tube and image with the ED or 127?

[Nighthound]

Ditto on the lack of images, but:

I'm getting my first scope! (should arrive Wednesday or so) :cool:
Here's what's coming in the mail:

Celestron Onyx 80mm EDF (500mm FL, APO doublet, Flourite glass, Crayford type focuser)
Celestron Onyx T-Adapter and T-mount
Orion 8x50 Illuminated Finder Scope
Orion 30mm Highlight Plossl Eyepiece (got as deal of the day at the Orion website)
No-Name 1-1/4 Dielectric Diagonal (eBay, looks to be high quality)

I'll be using my heavy photo tripod for now, but will build a barn door tracker around the first of the year (I have a post and pics of it here on POTN).

Next in line will be a FR/FF...

Can't wait!!

WOHOO! Congrats Rick. That's going to be an excellent set up. I was looking at the Onyx when I was trying to decide on a guide scope. I like the focuser and the glass sounds sweet. Looking forward to your first light report.

Now where's that delivery guy?

[screxer]

Nice gear screxer. Are you planning to image with your refractors? Maybe guide with the short tube and image with the ED or 127?


Yes, I do plan on doing some imaging with my new Canon XSi. Right now I plan on imaging with the 127 or 80mm ED. The ShortTube will be relegated to a guide scope if anything. However, I need to get a better mount to effectively hold all that gear. In the meantime, I"ll get a dual axis drive for the EQ-3 and do some 30 second shots of various things (is there a way to do longer than 30 seconds on the XSi?) I have a feeling the 80mm ED is gonna be a special scope for imaging. I used it today at the O'Neill Cold Water Classic....600mm focal length with ED glass yielded some amazing results.