Mine has been a trooper and does good work. They have a poor and in my estimation an unjustified reputation. Probably the best, cheapest mount capable of guiding is the Celestron AVX if you are fortunate to get a lucky quality one for $900 new currently. You can buy the best scope in the world but it will be worthless on an inadequate mount.Īstrophotography is a challenging pursuit and is not cheap. The first recommendation for DSLR or any other astrophotography is to not worry about which scope to get, "nice" or not. It is difficult to get good images of everything with just one single lens.Įdited by Nicole Sharp, 13 August 2019 - 06:54 PM. For a DSLR camera, it's best to think of telescope OTAs as simply additional lenses for a DSLR camera system. Ultimately you will probably want multiple OTAs (and multiple cameras) to be able to image different objects with the right lens and the right camera. A C8 in general is a fairly versatile instrument for Solar-System imaging, but could struggle with DSO imaging without a HyperStar. Remember that you may need to travel and set up in a hurry depending on your location and the weather, so portability might be a consideration as well.
BEST TELESCOPE FOR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY PRO
I would consider the "best" telescope to image the Mercury transit with an APS-C DSLR camera to be something like a (reduced) C8 (2032/203) Schmidt-Cassegrain or a 1000/200 Newtonian on something like an iOptron CEM25P, Celestron Advanced VX, Orion Sirius (HEQ5), or Orion Sirius Pro (AZ-EQ5). Most people get DSLR cameras for DSO imaging, but you may want to plan for the upcoming November 2019 Mercury transit as well. Ultimately the best telescope is going to be whatever telescope you will use the most.ĭSLR astrophotography is also very broad.
"Anybody can do it, but it takes a special temperament.That's a pretty open question. "If you can't handle that, then you're not going to get to the point where you're getting these great pictures," he said. Most nights McCarthy walks away empty handed, but that makes successful shoots all the more meaningful. One of the most difficult parts of the job, McCarthy said, is practicing patience.Ī successful shoot relies heavily on clear skies and limited light pollution. Aspiring astrophotographers can take their work to the next level by purchasing a telescope, but the two said it's best to develop basic photo skills before taking that next step.īut astrophotography isn't as simple as point and shoot. All that's required is a camera, tripod and a star tracker. Matherne and McCarthy said though their work is technical, it's not out of reach for other photo enthusiasts. They spent the next nine months bouncing edits and ideas off one another about the edits, using photo editing programs to help produce the best image possible. "Andrew aimed purely for the detail side whereas I aimed purely for the color side," Matherne said. They combined their work by stacking the photos on top of one another to create a detailed image of the moon in spectacular color. Over the course of a single evening, McCarthy shot over 200,000 detailed photos of the moon from Arizona, while Matherne shot another 500 images from Louisiana to capture color data. Matherne, who prefers to shoot deep space photos, specializes in colors. McCarthy said he specializes in detailed photographs, taking tens of thousands of photos to capture the geographical features on the moon's surface. "The whole thing is assembled like a mosaic, and each tile is made up of thousands of photos." "When he and I put our heads together we were able to make something a little off brand for both of us, which is cool," McCarthy told NPR. After recognizing one another's strengths in photography, they decided to team up for a photoshoot of Earth's moon. The two stargazers first connected over Reddit and then Instagram, sharing and commenting on each other's work over the past three or four years. Their finished product was posted online Saturday, and is currently gaining lots of attention on Reddit. Two astrophotographers have teamed up to produce an out-of-this-world photo of the moon, capturing over 200,000 shots to create a single image.Īndrew McCarthy and Connor Matherne collaborated last November to push their photography skills to the limit.