Hey, looking to become an Amatuer Night Sky photographer..

[Jets743]

I do not yet own a camera, but I was looking into some cameras...and thinking of going the Canon route.

Id like to spend no more than $600.. but my question is...

If im interested in shooting the Moon, and the night sky (No deep field object, or Planets) just things like a Lunar Eclipse, groupings of planets...

What route should I go? I don't own a telescope, before buying one id still like to know what camera would be good for the things I want to photograph. I was told the SX40 HS would be good, but I kind of want to go the DSLR route: EOS Rebel T3 or something of the sort.


Can anyone point me in the right direction? Greatly appreciated

- Brian

[cyberon]

Any of the Canon DSLR including the most basic T3 will do the job. Within the budget you have, I would suggest the T3 with the 18-55mm kit lens, that will get you started. Don't expect the moon to look very big though.

[paulccsi]

I would say go with the DSLR. You should be able to get a 350D fairly reasonable from the Classifieds forum. I would start off doing things like star trails to get the feel of the camera and how to use it. There are a wide variety of lenses available also, and there is really no reason to use Auto Focus since the light from your subject will be pretty dim. Personally, I use a 40D with a ED80 Refractor telescope. But I've done quite a bit just using a camera lens. This link below should take you to a photo I took of the Ring Nebula using a 40D and a manually focused (Less than $100) Sigma 600mm mirror lens, on a motor driven Polar aligned mount. I of course had to stack several images to build up the brightness of the object, but that just goes to show you what you can achieve with standard lenses.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=739039
For pictures of eclipses, planets and the moon, no expensive mount should be needed. You should be able to capture all three with just a standard tripod.
Read through the messages in this group and you will find a lot of tips on just how easy photographing the moon is.

[Jets743]

Thanks a lot guys! Id love for even more input!

[R2duBot]

Being an amateur sky photographer myself, I have had great results with a T3/18mm kit lens for wide angle star shots. I also picked up the 55-250mm lens. It gets the moon fairly big with some cropping. With a bit of luck and ingenuity, I managed to mount my T3 on an old 700mm telescope. Now it takes a big picture of the moon! .

It seems most great sky shots are done with good glass, sturdy (tracking) tripods and dark skies as well as stacking images. If you like buying new, the T3 seems like it will be more than sufficient. Though you could save some cash if you went with an older body, and put more money into a tripod, etc.

The one feature I use all the time is "Live view" for manual focusing. I'm not sure how many of the older bodies do that. Anyone know?

Good Luck!

[cyberon]

Originally Posted by R2duBot

The one feature I use all the time is "Live view" for manual focusing. I'm not sure how many of the older bodies do that. Anyone know?

For XXXD Series, model 450D/XSi and up
For XXD Series, model 40D and up