Just starting out

[Nepulae]

Hi Nep,

JT @JayTee and Glenn @Caddman are spot on with taking images of the night sky with just a dslr camera and tripod.

I remember the first time that I caught a “smudge” of the Andromeda galaxy I was on vacation in Santa Barbara. My wife was inside the house watching tv and I was outside playing around with the dslr.
I just set the 15 second delay timer on the dslr camera and layed (actually tilted) the camera on a porch railing. Took a bunch of tries messing around with different exposure settings, but I eventually caught Andromeda. It was only an elliptical smudge, but I was so fired up!

Henk @SkyHiker suggestions somewhat mirrors how I started. I retired in 2018 and had saved 2k in unused vacation that I cashed in for my AP budget. Like you, I already had a camera, and I found an open-box AVX mount and a great sale on an Explore Scientific ED102. That took care of my 2k!
I added the field flattener later (much needed) and eventually added a guiding setup (also much needed). But, even though I just started with a basic setup, I learned so much about astrophotography!

Also, like Henk mentioned, I added a Sharpstar 61 APO several years later to give me much wider views of nebulae and I absolutely love using that little scope!

There are so many different aspects to master with AP. Taking small steps not only allows you to master single skills, but also allows you to enjoy the conquests.

Looking forward to your first images of the night sky. Before you jump to the mount and scope, please let us know and we can share our learnings.

Hearing stories like these make me more and more excited to jump into the endeavor! Thank you for sharing that. Like you said I will be taking my camera out this weekend hopefully and will also be looking into purchasing a tripod for it as well. There’s a lot for me to learn but I cannot wait!

I will keep this thread updated once I finally get outside!

-Nep

[gcisko]

I would say my main goal is to start off small and maybe capturing different star constellations and possibly the moon. I guess I don’t know exactly where a good point of entry would be for this hobby taking my equipment into consideration! However I would love to at some point make my way up the totem pole and start capturing different deep sky targets!

Actually you may want to try imaging now with just your camera and tripod. Use the lens which is as close to a prime lens as possible (low mm focal length lens) and try taking constellation pictures. ISO 800 with a 5 second exposure is a good start take a bunch of exposures and try stacking with sequator.

You also can imaging the moon now with your 300mm lens. Either way you won't have to worry about a tracking mount now for this stuff.

The telescope and mount needed is quite an ordeal and not something that will happen immediately.