My question is: What is a good lens for taking unguided or guided images with just the
Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
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Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
My question is: What is a good lens for taking unguided or guided images with just the
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15.
Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains.
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts.
Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces.
Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
- jrkirkham
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
I've never used the 17-55 so I can't comment on it.
Telescopes: 50mm refractor, ED80 triplet, 90mm makcass, 10" dob, 8"SCT, 11"SCT
Mounts: Celestron CGX, Orion Sirius + several camera tripods
Cameras: Canon 6D, Canon 80D, ZWO-ASI120MC
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- StarBru
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
jrkirkham wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2023 6:05 pm I usually just use what I have until it starts getting in the way of what I want to shoot. I once used a lens similar to the one you are using, but I just couldn't get it to shoot fast enough for the nightscapes I wanted. I switched to the Rokinon 14mm f/2.8. Your cameras are not full-frame. Rokinon also made a 16mm f/2.0, but it will not work on full-frame cameras. I like them both. They are good for star trails, nightscapes, milky way, etc. They don't have enough kick for DSO work. Between the two I would go with the 14mm, unless a found a good used 16mm for a much lower price.
I've never used the 17-55 so I can't comment on it.
I haven't been able to find the 16mm
I know my camera is not full frame. I have always liked the smaller SLR's when I started out with photography back in the days of film.
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15.
Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains.
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts.
Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces.
Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
- StarBru
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15.
Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains.
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts.
Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces.
Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
Did you decide to go with "overkill" and use your EQ6-R with just the camera attached? You'd be hard-pressed to get more stable than that.
Cheers,
∞ AP Scopes: #1: TPO 6" f/9 RC #2: ES 102 f/7 APO #3: ES 80mm f/6 APO
∞ G&G Scopes: #1: Meade 102mm f/7.8 #2: Bresser 102mm f/4.5
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- StarBru
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
I will probably just try a regular tripod at first, then maybe a piggyback of the lens and camera on the telescope. I need to start with the basics. I know I will be frustrated at first, with many, many failures to get what I want, so the simpler, the better!
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15.
Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains.
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts.
Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces.
Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
Good luck Bruce.
Can't wait to see your work!
Graeme
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
If you put your camera on the EQ6R you would aim for long exposure
- StarBru
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Re: Advice on DSLR lens for beginning Astrophotography?
SkyHiker wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2023 12:58 pm For tripod photography, keep in mind that the exposure time is roughly limited to 500 divided by the focal length in mm. For that you would benefit from a lens with short focal length. The objective would be Milky Way landscapes, featuring an interesting landscape background. A 135 mm lens would be limited to 3 seconds. The nifty fifty at 17 mm would get you 20 to 30 seconds.
If you put your camera on the EQ6R you would aim for long exposure DSOs at 135 to 300 mm, a completely different objective. For that, a 70-300 mm zoom lens would be good. Polar alignment will be an issue but more importantly, finding the target that you cannot see. Doing that with a DSLR is rather daunting so at that point you will benefit from a guide scope that you can use for that, or piggyback on a regular autoguided scope that does the plate solving and forget about your DSLR pretty quick. Just a DSLR and a lens on an EQ6R is not enough.
Thank you for the suggestions. I need to start with baby steps, right!?
I'm just now learning all this about my camera and lenses. My Canon Rebel T5 accepts EF and EF-S lenses. Because my Canon T5 is a crop sensor camera, it has a 1.6x factor for any lens I attach to it. So my 18 - 135mm zoom lens is equal to a 28.8 - 216mm zoom lens. If I understand it correctly, with the lens set at 28.8mm, I have about 17 seconds on a tripod and for my Rokinon 14mm lens, I have only about 22 seconds! I will be pretty limited as to what I can capture in by backyard, but at a dark sky sight it would be better.
Attaching the camera and lens piggybacked on my EQ6R mounted telescope will of course, as you know, allow me to increase those exposure times for the Milky Way shots. But to make things lighter and more simple I also have a Meade LXD-55
As much as I want to tackle photographing
Refractors: Meade AR-5 127mm f/9.3, Meade ST-80 f/5 and Meade 60mm f/12, Jason 60mm f/15 #313, Jason 60mm f/12 #306 S7, Bushnell Sky Chief III 60mm f/15.
Reflectors/Catadioptrics: Meade 10" F/4 Schmidt-Newtonian, Galileo 120mm f/8.3 Newtonian, Meade 2045D 4" f/10 SCT, Meade ETX-90EC f/13.8 & Sarblue 60mm f/12.5 Maksutov-Cassegrains.
Mounts: Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro & Meade LXD55 Equatorial mounts, ES Twilight II and Meade 2102 ALT/AZ mounts, a modified 10" SkyQuest Dobsonian mount, various 60mm EQ mounts.
Misc: Celestron 20x80mm binoculars, Revolution II Imager/accessories, & lots of optical accessories/eyepieces.
Projects: 8" f/2.9 and 65mm f/10 reflectors, Dobson-style binocular mirror mount.
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