Looking To Start Out

Basically, I'm fiddling with the idea of astrophotography, but I would need to save a bit to start.

The only thing I have that would be useful at the moment is my 5DII. Anyone have some good tips (and maybe some nice deals for scope, equatorial mount, etc...) for a beginner?

All help is GREATLY appreciated.

EDIT: I'd really like to do deep space photography, and could probably get around 3k for it all in time)

Hi Tiffany. A few questions to start the conversation and hopefully get you started in your quest for astrophotos.

Will you be traveling to darker skies or setting up at home?

How much weight are you comfortable with lifting at one time?

If you will set up and tear down each night out you'll want to keep in mind the physical requirements since German equatorial mounts can get heavy but most are able to be assembled in sections so that helps.

Deep space work is very cool and offers a vast amount of targets in the sky but also requires patience and determination to get the process and results consistent each night out.

You might consider wide field deep space shooting to get started. Less focal length means a lot less difficulty and when getting started that's important since there is so much to learn. While you are waiting for your savings you can always work from the tripod alone at very short focal lengths and play with image stacking to get a jump on the processing skills you'll need down the road.

Let's start with my questions above and go from there.

Nighthound wrote in post #10505020
Hi Tiffany. A few questions to start the conversation and hopefully get you started in your quest for astrophotos.

Will you be traveling to darker skies or setting up at home?

How much weight are you comfortable with lifting at one time?

If you will set up and tear down each night out you'll want to keep in mind the physical requirements since German equatorial mounts can get heavy but most are able to be assembled in sections so that helps.

Deep space work is very cool and offers a vast amount of targets in the sky but also requires patience and determination to get the process and results consistent each night out.

You might consider wide field deep space shooting to get started. Less focal length means a lot less difficulty and when getting started that's important since there is so much to learn. While you are waiting for your savings you can always work from the tripod alone at very short focal lengths and play with image stacking to get a jump on the processing skills you'll need down the road.

Let's start with my questions above and go from there.

I actually plan on starting with my tripod and stacking tonight if the skies are kind.

About the darkness, I live far out in the country and have a nice, big horse pasture I can drive the truck out to and set up. the same spot my dad used to take me at 3AM to see the best in meteor showers. I could probably handle 40 lbs at a time, since it would travel in a truck, but would be willing to take trips (and convince the boyfriend for help) if it ends up weighing more. It's

I really appreciate the help.

Tiffany, I've got a couple suggestions that are around half your total budget if you plan to buy a new mount. This would allow the other half for needed accessories and a telescope later on. You would need a dovetail plate that slides into the saddle on the top of the mount in order to mount your camera/lens and whatever you decide to use for attachment of the fore mentioned.

Pay close attention to what's included with each mount, for example keep in mind you'll want a polar alignment scope that is sometimes optional but necessary for long exposure photography. It fits right inside the mount neck and is used to get your alignment accurate at the beginning of each shoot. For now I'd suggest you do some reading about these mounts including reviews. Keep in mind I do not use these mounts and as a result I can't recommend one over the other. I only mention these because I have read good things about them and they fit comfortably in your budget. If nothing else these can be used as information on the equatorial mount design to get you better prepared the hobby.

As a side note. When setting up on soil or grass it's a good idea to have something solid for each leg of the tripod to set on. Once you are aligned and shooting the last thing you want is the tripod to settle into the soil and compromise your alignment. These sort of precautionary plans will help keep the nights from making you crazy trying to figure out why your tracking has been getting worse as the night goes on.

http://www.optcorp.com …ct.aspx?pid=439​-278-12183

http://www.optcorp.com​/product.aspx?pid=439-278-8164

Maybe you can get a good lens for the Canon 5DII and start with wide field shots using your tripod and stacking some images. This will help you improve your processing skills while you think about a mount, telescope and the myriads of options you have.

To stack I recommend DeepSkyStacker it's free and very good for the job.

About lenses you have several options depending on your budget, some good ones for WA astrophotography are:
- Nikon 14-24 F2.8 + adapter to EOS
- Zeiss Distagon 21mm F2.8
- Zuiko 24mm F2.8 + adapter to EOS
- CZJ Flektogon 20mm F2.8 + adapter to EOS
- Canon 14mm L
- Sigma 15mm F2.8 fisheye

On a larger focal and a very very good lens and not expensive: Canon 200mm F2.8L II

You want stars without trails, that limits your exposure time depending on focal length, a rule of thumb can be 600/FL but it depend on how high in the sky the objects are. You can expose for 20 or 30 seconds with a WA lens but only 2 or 3 seconds at 200mm.
Shoot at ISO3200 the 5DII is excellent at that ISO and with the lens wide open to maximize the light that enters the lens.

If you need further help send me a PM!

Great suggestions guys! I did a little messing the other night with the nifty fifty, and the results weren't great. But as they say, practice!

It's a fine start Tiffany. Here's a tip for focus.

Set your camera to manual on the dial.

Set your lens switch to AF.

Once set up on the tripod find a bright star in the sky, the brighter the better.

Point at the star placing it in the focus activated box. Once you see it snap to focus carefully switch the lens to MF. Do not touch the focus ring of the lens and carefully point the camera/lens to the portion of the sky you want to shoot and compose the shot. Remember the lens is already focused so you don't want to nudge it so be careful.

Now you're ready to shoot. Use the camera's delay timer or a remote cable switch to trigger and end your exposures if you aren't already.

Be sure to determine what your max exposure time before you see movement in the stars and set your ISO to 400-800.

The most important thing to have is Fun. You'll see improvements soon with practice.

Yeah, I assumed focusing to infinity would be fine, but I was wrong. Great AF tip, though.

I'll try turning up the ISO too, this one was 100 or 200.

Focus manually using live-view at 10x zoom

luigis wrote in post #10521114
Focus manually using live-view at 10x zoom

I'll definitely give that a shot!

Atsumi wrote in post #10518159
Yeah, I assumed focusing to infinity would be fine, but I was wrong. Great AF tip, though.

What was the shutter speed on this?

I was trying similar shots recently and I couldn't get focus to infinity to work on a 50mm either. But when I used a 24mm focal length, infinity focus worked just fine.

I couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't work on a 50mm, too. I thought maybe my shutter speed was too long and I was picking up movement. I dunno.

Anybody have any ideas?

The DOF is reduced on 50mm, you need to nail the focus better than in a WA lens.

thenextguy wrote in post #10529083
What was the shutter speed on this?

I was trying similar shots recently and I couldn't get focus to infinity to work on a 50mm either. But when I used a 24mm focal length, infinity focus worked just fine.

I couldn't think of a reason why it wouldn't work on a 50mm, too. I thought maybe my shutter speed was too long and I was picking up movement. I dunno.

Anybody have any ideas?

I had mine at 13 seconds. I think luigis pretty much nailed it, though.