Budget Astrophotography Setup

Budget Astrophotography Setup Many years ago, before digital photography revolutionized the medium, taking a beautiful shot of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), or even a detailed image of the moon, showing its many craters, rilles, and mountains, required a large wallet as well as access to highly specialized equipment and techniques. It was completely beyond reach for the typical amateur astronomer.

Budget Astrophotography Setup. With the mass production of high-end telescopes, innovative optical designs, and, most crucially, the digital camera in conjunction with dazzling new software solutions that substantially improve picture quality, the popularity of Budget Astrophotography Setup has grown enormously over the last two decades. What was almost unattainable twenty years ago is now accessible to anybody with a strong desire to learn the skill of celestial imaging and a willingness to put in the time.

Best Telescope to Buy under $300

My first telescope, a Polarex (Unitron) 50mm achromatic refractor, arrived when I was thirteen. It was a gift from my maternal grandmother, and I recall being blown away by its beauty and quality. My parents were both supportive of my new hobby, but whereas my father would take a quick look at Saturn and then return to whatever he was doing, I couldn’t get enough of it – I spent hours and hours behind my little telescope, never tiring of the ever-changing views that the moon, Saturn’s rings, and Jupiter’s four largest moons offered.

I immediately started capturing images via my scope, initially by just holding my camera behind the eyepiece, and subsequently using a cheap Russian reflex camera (Zenith B) and a special ocular projection adaptor (see photo). This method projects a picture on your camera’s film or a sensor using the same eyepiece you use to look through. It’s a terrific technique to photograph the moon and planets.

I had also constructed my own darkroom by this point, and I began experimenting with specialty film developers (such as Acufine and Diafine) to push my Kodak Tri-X film to ISO 1600. Given that it was merely a 50mm refractor with no motor drive or anything, the results were really rather good. I exposed the film by first opening the camera shutter and then putting a black piece of cardboard in front of the telescope, temporarily exposing the lens to reduce vibrations from the shutter and mirror. I still treasure that small telescope and refurbished its lovely wooden box last year (which over half a lifetime was pretty badly beaten up).

Fast forward to the present day. My fascination with the stars had been latent for a long time. Then, approximately two years ago, I got the urge to capture some new moon photographs after winning a bid on eBay for a Meade 90mm GoTo refractor at a wonderful price. Budget Astrophotography Setup

I immediately realized that my Photoshop talents were a valuable advantage in getting the most out of my tiny telescope. After a few attempts, using the same eyepiece projection methods that I had used as a youngster in Amsterdam, I was able to produce photos that were as crisp as some of the photographs I had seen by the “big guys” in the early 1970s—shot using a scope I had purchased for less than $100!

In March of last year, I purchased a big Dobsonian (10-inch mirror, f/5), brand new on eBay for a fairly low price. I was intrigued to see what the bigger aperture would do for my moon photos, and I obtained some extremely detailed photographs without any tracking, using a wireless remote for the shutter and turning up the mirror of my Nikon (to reduce vibrations).

There are various myths about Budget Astrophotography Setup equipment that still circulate:

bBudget Astrophotography Setup:MYTH #1: in order to take sharp photographs of the moon, you need an expensive scope with a motor drive, to track the motion of the moon along the night sky.

Not so. The movement of the moon across the sky with a 1/30 sec exposure is less than 0.5 arc second, much below the resolution of most amateur sensors. There is enough flexibility to stretch your focal length all the way to f/45 when shooting at ISO 400 to ISO 800, which I think is the optimum range for the moon; if your lens or mirror has a 10cm (4″) diameter, the effective focal length may be as long as 4.5 meters (15 feet). When the moon is high in the sky, it is best to shoot since turbulence rises and clarity degrades.

Here are some rough exposure guidelines for the moon:

Crescent Moon	f/32	ISO 800	1/30 sec
First and Last Quarter	f/45	ISO 400	1/30 sec
Full Moon	f/45	ISO 400	1/125 sec

Personally, I prefer eyepiece projection, but a decent Barlow works just as well, particularly with telescopes with large focal lengths. If you shoot prime focus, the pixels in the sensor of your DSLR (= digital single lens reflex camera) will not be able to record the finest detail of your telescope, especially with the shorter and quicker Newtonian telescopes. Of course, you can’t frame the whole moon with such long focal lengths, so if you want to display the entire disc, you’ll have to piece them together in Photoshop from detailed photos, as I did with the image on the left (click on photograph to see more detailed samples, shot with a 10-inch Dobsonian).

To summarize, photographing the moon is quite simple. All you need is:

• a simple telescope with a mount that provides good support
• a digital camera, preferably a DSLR (a used Canon EOS is fine)
• an eyepiece projection adapter to attach your camera to the telescope
• a so-called T-ring that is specific to your camera
• a wireless remote to trigger your camera shutter

Look around for the greatest telescope deals—here’s a great one from Optics Planet: Celestron Powerseeker 80 EQ.

T-rings cost roughly $15, such as this one for a Canon EOS camera: Celestron T-Ring for Canon EOS Camera.

And here’s a pretty good wireless remote for a variety of cameras (here for the EOS): Switch to a wireless remote. This one works with Canon 1D/1DS, EOS 5D/5D Mark II, 50D, 40D, 30D, 20D, 10D, 7D, and D60 cameras. Also, here’s a really cheap one that only works with selected models that have an IR receiver: IR Wireless Remote Control.

Let’s go through the procedure step by step. Budget Astrophotography Setup: First, you insert your eyepiece into the camera adapter (it’s better to start with a 20 or 25-mm eyepiece for a larger field) and then connect it to the camera and telescope. Set the ISO to 400 or 500 for the half-moon, which has the most craters. If the moon is almost full, ISO 100 or 200 is sufficient, while ISO 800 works nicely for a little crescent. Now, using the viewfinder or, even better, LiveView on the display screen, focus your telescope as accurately as possible. To prevent a hazy picture produced by mirror shock, it is best to lock the mirror before taking the photo. In manual mode, you may experiment with exposures ranging from 1/15 to 1/60 of a second. I don’t advocate utilizing automatic exposure, although it does work sometimes. Because touching the camera might produce vibrations, using a wireless remote will help keep everything stable.

By attaching the front half of the adapter straight to your camera, you may shoot in prime focus or with a Barlow lens if you wish (using the T-ring). So you leave out the part with the eyepiece entirely. The exposures will be even shorter, and you will be able to capture the entire moon rather than just a portion of it. It takes experience to produce good results, but you’ll be shocked at how many craters appear even on your first try.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Deep Sky Photography

With my freshly rekindled interest in the night sky, it was only natural for me to want to expand my efforts to Deep Sky objects in addition to planets. But how was I going to execute it with so few resources? I’d seen beautiful photographs of nebulas and star clusters shot by skilled amateurs using apochromatic refractors and high-end Newtonians or Schmidt-Cassegrain setups at this point (the difference between these telescopes will be explained later in the article). To monitor the night sky and locate stars, they always utilized solid equatorial mounts with accurate motor drives. I was reasonably certain that I would need to spend a significant amount of money in order to get comparable outcomes.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: MYTH #2: to photograph nebulas, star clusters, and other Deep Sky objects, you need an equatorial mount, with a motor drive and guide scope, to allow for sufficiently long exposures.

To be clear, if you can afford a nice equatorial mount with accurate tracking capabilities, your photographs will undoubtedly benefit from the more advanced equipment. However, it is now fully feasible to make dramatic views of our beautiful cosmos using rather simple tools, such as a simple GoTo Alt-Az mount.

Here is my list of must-dos to get decent outcomes without spending a fortune:

• A dark site, far away from city lights
• A fast lens or telescope (f/5.6 or faster)
• A tracking mechanism, Alt-Az is fine, equatorial is better
• Deep Sky Stacking software
• Basic knowledge of Photoshop
• A good DSLR, allowing settings from ISO 400 to ISO 3200
• Patience and the willingness to spend many hours in the dark

Budget Astrophotography Setup: The Dark Site

Most of us live in or near cities, and with a few exceptions (particularly the moon and planets), there isn’t much to view much alone photograph. On a clear night, we may get a glimpse of the brightest Deep Sky objects, such as the huge Orion nebula (M42) or the Andromeda Galaxy (M31); M13 in Hercules, as well as the Pleiades, may provide a lovely view (M45). However, when contrasted to the abundance of things visible once we travel away from the large cities (even with a basic pair of binoculars), the sky over our homes generally provides very little. For Deep Sky photography, a modest telescope in a genuinely dark location is much superior to a sophisticated 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain in the heart of a huge metropolis. Many pricey telescopes collect dust for the same reason: their well-to-do owners never took the time and effort to get the most out of their equipment.

A dark sky allows for longer exposures, resulting in photos with increased contrast and detail. If you live in a major city, try aiming your digital camera (on a tripod) toward the night sky and opening the shutter for a minute or two at f/4. Even with a modest ISO 400, what seems to be a pretty black sky in your eyes is likely to be entirely washed out in the shot. There is no way to acquire a decent photograph of your targeted fuzzies under such conditions. Investing in a high-quality Light Pollution Filter may help mitigate the issue, but nothing rivals the beauty of a genuinely black site.

Budget Astrophotography Setup:The Equipment

MYTH #3: you get what you pay for.

This is widespread knowledge, and it is completely incorrect when it comes to telescopes. I know folks who spent a substantial sum on a telescope they never really understood and couldn’t use. Years later, they’d be fortunate to get a fifth of what they spent for it on eBay. It is absolutely feasible to get decent outcomes using low-cost equipment. A more expensive telescope does not automatically imply a better telescope. It often indicates a bigger and more sophisticated instrument, therefore thorough study is highly advised before purchasing one. Knowledge and experience make all the difference: knowing the constellations, understanding the distinctions between refractors, Newtonians, and Schmidt-Cassegrain systems, and spending a lot of time studying the night sky… The fact is that a simple tool in the hands of an expert will provide many superior photographic results than a sophisticated telescope in the hands of a beginner.

The following is a list of the most basic items you will require:

• A small telescope with a short focal ratio (I used an inexpensive 80mm f/5 short-tube refractor for most of my Deep Sky images, you can often find them on eBay for well under $100)
• A mount with a motor drive to track the stars (preferably equatorial, but up to 20-second exposures can be done with an Alt-Az mount)
• A DSLR camera (I like the new 24MP Nikon 3200 and the Canon EOS series; for $700 or less you are in business, $300 if you buy used )
• A T-adapter (prime focus) to connect the camera to the telescope ($25 or less)
• A T-ring specific to your camera ($15 or less)
• A wireless remote to trigger your camera shutter (keep vibrations to a minimum for $20 or so)
• A computer with stacking software (Deep Sky Stacker, downloads for free on the Internet) and Photoshop, any version is really OK

Most small telescopes come with a mount; for a beginner, the GoTo features on the low-cost Alt-Az mounts will make locating things in the sky much simpler. For secondhand Astro-equipment, I strongly suggest Cloudy Night’s classifieds. Another excellent source is eBay.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: The Shooting Process

Set up everything in the most ordered manner possible so you don’t have to seek items afterward. If you’re using an equatorial mount, ensure sure the polar axis (also known as right ascension) is parallel to the rotation axis of the Earth, as shown in the figure.

 

A compass is quite useful for determining your overall direction before it becomes dark enough to view the stars. Most GoTo systems will also need you to use a compass to direct your telescope north at the start of your alignment. It is a good idea to plan ahead of time the celestial objects you will capture that night. Preparing by studying the night sky is vital, and I strongly suggest utilizing planetarium software such as Stellarium (free download). On Amazon.com, you may also find many wonderful books, such as Night Sky Atlas by Robin Scagell, for as little as $10 to $15 plus delivery.

Attach the camera to the telescope while it is still light, then use the T-adapter to shoot in prime focus. You may concentrate on a distant mountain or anything near the horizon. Even wonderful if the moon is visible. If your camera supports LiveView, you may zoom in on the LCD to help with perfect focusing. Once you’ve achieved perfect focus, use the lock screw to secure the focuser. (In case your telescope does not enable locking the focuser, all you can do is tighten the mechanism so it feels rather firm and will not move by itself).

We’ll need flat frames in the final processing of our photographs, and now is a fantastic moment to shoot them. No optical system is flawless, and the corners of your vision are less brilliant than the center, particularly with inexpensive telescopes. A flat may be a picture of an empty section of the sky that displays nothing except the brightness difference. Point your scope up well before any stars show and snap a few automatic photos, 10 is enough. Later, the stacking program will utilize these photos to deduct from the real shots, correcting the brightness disparities. You may also shine a light through a white T-shirt over the front lens, but I prefer this way.

We need to discover the Deep Sky objects on our shooting list once it is dark enough to start shooting (typically around an hour or so after sunset). Finding those faint nebulas in the sky that seem so rich and vivid in images is difficult, particularly at first. A decent pair of wide-angle binoculars (750 or 735) is an excellent tool for bringing them closer and getting a better understanding of their location. Once you’ve located them, a decent finder scope will help you center them in your telescope. To keep them focused, you will undoubtedly want a motorized tracking system. Of course, if you’re using a GoTo mount, the item will be found for you. It definitely makes life simpler, but it also breeds reliance; I am a firm believer in understanding the night sky and locating items based on the location of the stars.

When photographing Deep Sky objects, I normally set my camera to ISO 1600. You may go higher, but the picture will get noisier. I like to shoot in RAW mode, although high-resolution JPEG images from your camera would suffice. Take at least 10 or fifteen exposures of the same picture, which will all be layered afterward in the Deep Sky Stacker program. The more exposures you take, the less noise will show in the final processed picture, allowing you to capture more information. When using an Alt-Az GoTo mount, the maximum exposure time is around 20 seconds before the stars begin to exhibit trails. With a basic (unguided yet motorized) equatorial mount, you may go up to 30 seconds or even one minute, particularly if you’re using a telephoto lens on your camera. The larger the focal length, the harder it is to acquire pinpoint stars. Exact polar alignment makes a significant impact.

You must shoot the so-called dark frames at the beginning and conclusion of each series of exposures (individual exposures are referred to as subs). Deep Sky Stacker will utilize this data to fix the camera sensor’s intrinsic defects (the black signal), which are also affected by ambient temperature. A dark file is taken with the same exposure as your subs, but the lens is covered. Six black frames at the start and six at the finish are usually sufficient; if you need to move quickly, three or four will suffice.

So, at the conclusion of our shoot, we’ll have a dozen flat frames (taken early in the evening), all of our image files (or subs), and a sequence of dark frames for each thing we photographed. Finally, we must make the bias frames by taking ten or twelve images with the lens covered at the absolute minimum exposure our camera permits (the same ISO level as the picture files). Make careful notes regarding which frames are which, since a dark picture doesn’t reveal anything! To create our final pictures, we will mix all of these files with Deep Sky Stacker.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Processing

Deep Sky Stacker is available for free download at deepskystacker.free.fr/. We just let the program do its great thing after loading the photos with flat frames, dark frames, and bias frames. The final picture file will have most of the noise eliminated and will most likely have more information than the single frames we began with. The picture, however, is far from complete. Only during the last stages of processing does a picture actually come to life. To do so, we’ll need a velvety black backdrop, pinpoint stars (at least tiny ones), rich color, and a lot of detail in the nebulosity. I am astounded by the number of web photographs that might have been so much better if the approaches I am going to discuss had been used on them!!

The first step is to boost the contrast and color saturation. You may experiment with Levels (Ctrl-L) and Curves (Ctrl-M), but I like to begin with Brightness/Contrast (Image-Adjustments-Brightness/Contrast – top of the menu). I just move the cursors to the right till the concealed information appears. If your Photoshop version has Shadows/Highlights (also found under Image-Adjustments), shifting those cursors might give you a decent understanding of the information in the file. The technique is to continually brighten the picture and then darken the backdrop using contrast.

Color Balance is another useful tool for achieving this while also eliminating a color cast (Ctrl-B, also under Image-Adjustments). Click on Shadows at the bottom of the color balance box, where it reads Tone Balance. It will glow in blue. Then you choose the color you want to eliminate, which in this instance is largely red. Moving the red pointer to the left (adding cyan) not only corrects the color cast but also darkens and contrasts the backdrop. I also shifted the yellow pointer to the right (adding blue). It must be done discreetly, but it significantly enhances the overall look.

Budget Astrophotography Setup Finally, I go to Hue/Saturation (Ctrl-U, available under Image-Adjustments) and drag the saturation pointer to the right to enhance depth and color. Again, don’t overdo it; go as far as you can before it begins to appear a little phony.

The new picture is considerably better: the color and contrast have increased, and there are a lot of nebulosities where there were none before. Even the Horsehead nebula is beginning to emerge. Many people would stop here, and I have done so many times myself. We may, however, push the boundaries even further.

The Lasso tool, one of my secret Photoshop weapons, comes into action here. I usually use it with a feathered edge, which you can adjust at the top of the menu in the Feather window on the left (after you click on the lasso tool). You may set the feather anywhere from 3 px (for a small region) to 250 px, depending on the size of the area you wish to affect and the size of your original file (for a very large area). Typically, it will range between 10 and 50 pixels.

A standard DSLR could never capture a detailed Horsehead Nebula with such short exposures (30sec x 25). So it’s time to think beyond the box. We must isolate the nebula and operate locally to bring out the faint features. It helps to see a fantastic image of the item taken with more modern equipment so we know where to draw the lasso. After we’ve defined the region with a well-feathered border, we can enhance the nebulosity by going to Levels (Ctrl-L) and sliding the center cursor to the left, allowing the shadows to expand up. If the effect becomes too murky, we go to the Brightness/Contrast menu and increase the contrast to darken the backdrop. We may now experiment with color by going to Color Balance (Ctrl-B) and adding some red, maybe even a trace of magenta. We may enhance the color by increasing the saturation (Ctrl-U) until it looks exactly perfect. Again, don’t go too far!

Using this approach locally on the Flame Nebula and the Great Orion Nebula to the right has revealed characteristics that were previously unseen. To show the final picture, I did a little sharpness and enhanced the overall contrast slightly:

Two factors could significantly improve this photograph:

1. Using a modified DSLR with a much higher sensitivity in the H-alpha region would make the nebulas stand out even more clearly (more info at Hap Griffin’s website)
2. Using longer exposures (3 to 5 minutes each) would show a richness of detail that is impossible to get in thirty seconds. To further improve contrast at long exposures, a Light Pollution Suppression (LPS) filter is highly recommendable under less than perfectly dark skies.

Of course, we would be leaving the low-budget area here and moving into a more sophisticated field of astrophotography. Longer exposures require a very sturdy equatorial mount with precise tracking and a high-quality auto-guider. That will be my next stage of exploration.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Fun and Easy First Steps

If you are new to astrophotography, there are several simple methods to get started. It is possible to obtain some pretty excellent images of the stars with a modest digital camera on a tripod. You will need a camera with manual settings that enable you to employ time exposures and leave the shutter open for at least thirty seconds. First, set the camera’s focus to infinity. Then completely open the aperture (usually to f2.8 or f3.5 – the smaller the number the wider the aperture). In wide-angle mode, point the camera to a bright section of the sky with a lot of stars. Of course, you want to be as far away from city lights as possible; otherwise, the results would be unsatisfactory. Set your ISO sensitivity to 400. If you go too much higher (ISO 800 and above) the picture may be grainy, particularly on the less costly cameras.

Simply press the shutter button for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and 30 seconds. You may check how long you can expose the stars until they become little trails rather than points. Because the rotation of the Earth causes the stars to move, a static tripod cannot be used for long exposures.

However, if you position the camera North and keep the shutter open for an hour or more (you’ll need a really dark location for this, otherwise the picture would be totally blown out), the star trails will create lovely concentric rings. Keep the ISO settings low (ISO 200 or below), and you can even stop down a little (to f5.6 or f8) to keep the backdrop black. It’s amazing how much light a basic digital camera can capture in only a few minutes.

You can obtain some extremely nice results without tracking if you have a DSLR with a fast lens (f/2 or faster). All you need is a dark location and a strong tripod. You can picture the constellations and even see some of the brightest nebulae and star clusters with quite short exposures. In the summer, you may expose for up to 20 seconds before the stars show any trails if you use a wide-angle lens pointing toward the Milky Way. At ISO 1600, you may get a plethora of information, particularly if you take 10 or more exposures and edit the photographs using Deep Sky Stacker. Even ISO 3200 may be utilized since the stacking program reduces noise significantly.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Piggy-back Photography with a Telescope

If you have a tiny telescope, particularly one with a tracking mechanism, you may attach your camera to it and use the scope to follow the stars while the camera’s shutter is open. With an equatorial mount, you can expose for much longer before seeing star trails. Because the axis of an equatorial mount is parallel to the axis of the Earth, it totally compensates for its rotation once your tracking and polar alignment are accurate.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Overview of telescopes

There are many different kind of designs for telescopes, but most amateur telescopes fall into one of three categories:

• Refractors

A refractor is a basic tube with a lens (the objective) in the front and another lens (the eyepiece) in the back. The front lens is often made up of two pieces of glass, each having a distinct breaking index to regulate false color (chromatic aberration). These are known as achromatic aims. Apochromatic refractors are the best corrected and most costly refractors: they often contain three, and occasionally four, elements in their objective. For astrophotography they are perfect, but again, they aren’t inexpensive.

• Reflectors

Instead of a front lens, a reflector employs a concave main mirror:

A smaller secondary mirror at a 45-degree angle reflects light outside the tube, where an eyepiece may pick up on the focal point. Sir Isaac Newton designed this device, known as the Newtonian telescope. One version is the Dobsonian telescope, which is precisely the same design on a very basic and affordable mount. Because of the relatively easy construction and the big mirror size, they are wonderful tools for examining Deep Sky Objects, including nebulas and distant galaxies.

• Catadioptric systems

Finally, the catadioptric systems, such as the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes or the Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes, employ a glass corrector plate at the front of the tube.

These are complicated optical systems that have become more inexpensive as a result of mass production by businesses like Celestron, Meade, and Orion. Their small size and great light-gathering capabilities make them suitable for moon and planet studies, as well as Deep Sky Objects. Because of their rather large effective focal length, they would not be my first choice for shooting dim nebulae and galaxies, but they are fantastic for capturing the moon and planets.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Recommended websites:

Stellarium

Stellarium is a planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars. It’s easy to use and free to download. A great way to learn about the stars and prepare for nightly observations.

Cloudy Nights

Cloudy Night is a wonderful site with great forums, articles, equipment reviews, and classified ads for new and used equipment. It is free, all you need to do is sign up online for membership.

Deep Sky Stacker

Deep Sky Stacker is a revolutionary free software for serious astrophotographers, that will enable you to stack and align many exposures of a nebula or galaxy, to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. Try it out!!

George Kolb Astrophotos

George Kolb is one of the many experienced astrophotographers in the USA whose gorgeous images show you what is possible with lots of dedication and high-end equipment. we hope you have enjoyed reading this review Budget Astrophotography Setup.

Budget Astrophotography Setup Many years ago, before digital photography revolutionized the medium, taking a beautiful shot of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), or even a detailed image of the moon, showing its many craters, rilles, and mountains, required a large wallet as well as access to highly specialized equipment and techniques. It was completely beyond reach for the typical amateur astronomer.

Budget Astrophotography Setup. With the mass production of high-end telescopes, innovative optical designs, and, most crucially, the digital camera in conjunction with dazzling new software solutions that substantially improve picture quality, the popularity of Budget Astrophotography Setup has grown enormously over the last two decades. What was almost unattainable twenty years ago is now accessible to anybody with a strong desire to learn the skill of celestial imaging and a willingness to put in the time.

Best Telescope to Buy under $300

My first telescope, a Polarex (Unitron) 50mm achromatic refractor, arrived when I was thirteen. It was a gift from my maternal grandmother, and I recall being blown away by its beauty and quality. My parents were both supportive of my new hobby, but whereas my father would take a quick look at Saturn and then return to whatever he was doing, I couldn’t get enough of it – I spent hours and hours behind my little telescope, never tiring of the ever-changing views that the moon, Saturn’s rings, and Jupiter’s four largest moons offered.

I immediately started capturing images via my scope, initially by just holding my camera behind the eyepiece, and subsequently using a cheap Russian reflex camera (Zenith B) and a special ocular projection adaptor (see photo). This method projects a picture on your camera’s film or a sensor using the same eyepiece you use to look through. It’s a terrific technique to photograph the moon and planets.

I had also constructed my own darkroom by this point, and I began experimenting with specialty film developers (such as Acufine and Diafine) to push my Kodak Tri-X film to ISO 1600. Given that it was merely a 50mm refractor with no motor drive or anything, the results were really rather good. I exposed the film by first opening the camera shutter and then putting a black piece of cardboard in front of the telescope, temporarily exposing the lens to reduce vibrations from the shutter and mirror. I still treasure that small telescope and refurbished its lovely wooden box last year (which over half a lifetime was pretty badly beaten up).

Fast forward to the present day. My fascination with the stars had been latent for a long time. Then, approximately two years ago, I got the urge to capture some new moon photographs after winning a bid on eBay for a Meade 90mm GoTo refractor at a wonderful price. Budget Astrophotography Setup

I immediately realized that my Photoshop talents were a valuable advantage in getting the most out of my tiny telescope. After a few attempts, using the same eyepiece projection methods that I had used as a youngster in Amsterdam, I was able to produce photos that were as crisp as some of the photographs I had seen by the “big guys” in the early 1970s—shot using a scope I had purchased for less than $100!

In March of last year, I purchased a big Dobsonian (10-inch mirror, f/5), brand new on eBay for a fairly low price. I was intrigued to see what the bigger aperture would do for my moon photos, and I obtained some extremely detailed photographs without any tracking, using a wireless remote for the shutter and turning up the mirror of my Nikon (to reduce vibrations).

There are various myths about Budget Astrophotography Setup equipment that still circulate:

bBudget Astrophotography Setup:MYTH #1: in order to take sharp photographs of the moon, you need an expensive scope with a motor drive, to track the motion of the moon along the night sky.

Not so. The movement of the moon across the sky with a 1/30 sec exposure is less than 0.5 arc second, much below the resolution of most amateur sensors. There is enough flexibility to stretch your focal length all the way to f/45 when shooting at ISO 400 to ISO 800, which I think is the optimum range for the moon; if your lens or mirror has a 10cm (4″) diameter, the effective focal length may be as long as 4.5 meters (15 feet). When the moon is high in the sky, it is best to shoot since turbulence rises and clarity degrades.

Here are some rough exposure guidelines for the moon:

Crescent Moon	f/32	ISO 800	1/30 sec
First and Last Quarter	f/45	ISO 400	1/30 sec
Full Moon	f/45	ISO 400	1/125 sec

Personally, I prefer eyepiece projection, but a decent Barlow works just as well, particularly with telescopes with large focal lengths. If you shoot prime focus, the pixels in the sensor of your DSLR (= digital single lens reflex camera) will not be able to record the finest detail of your telescope, especially with the shorter and quicker Newtonian telescopes. Of course, you can’t frame the whole moon with such long focal lengths, so if you want to display the entire disc, you’ll have to piece them together in Photoshop from detailed photos, as I did with the image on the left (click on photograph to see more detailed samples, shot with a 10-inch Dobsonian).

To summarize, photographing the moon is quite simple. All you need is:

• a simple telescope with a mount that provides good support
• a digital camera, preferably a DSLR (a used Canon EOS is fine)
• an eyepiece projection adapter to attach your camera to the telescope
• a so-called T-ring that is specific to your camera
• a wireless remote to trigger your camera shutter

Look around for the greatest telescope deals—here’s a great one from Optics Planet: Celestron Powerseeker 80 EQ.

T-rings cost roughly $15, such as this one for a Canon EOS camera: Celestron T-Ring for Canon EOS Camera.

And here’s a pretty good wireless remote for a variety of cameras (here for the EOS): Switch to a wireless remote. This one works with Canon 1D/1DS, EOS 5D/5D Mark II, 50D, 40D, 30D, 20D, 10D, 7D, and D60 cameras. Also, here’s a really cheap one that only works with selected models that have an IR receiver: IR Wireless Remote Control.

Let’s go through the procedure step by step. Budget Astrophotography Setup: First, you insert your eyepiece into the camera adapter (it’s better to start with a 20 or 25-mm eyepiece for a larger field) and then connect it to the camera and telescope. Set the ISO to 400 or 500 for the half-moon, which has the most craters. If the moon is almost full, ISO 100 or 200 is sufficient, while ISO 800 works nicely for a little crescent. Now, using the viewfinder or, even better, LiveView on the display screen, focus your telescope as accurately as possible. To prevent a hazy picture produced by mirror shock, it is best to lock the mirror before taking the photo. In manual mode, you may experiment with exposures ranging from 1/15 to 1/60 of a second. I don’t advocate utilizing automatic exposure, although it does work sometimes. Because touching the camera might produce vibrations, using a wireless remote will help keep everything stable.

By attaching the front half of the adapter straight to your camera, you may shoot in prime focus or with a Barlow lens if you wish (using the T-ring). So you leave out the part with the eyepiece entirely. The exposures will be even shorter, and you will be able to capture the entire moon rather than just a portion of it. It takes experience to produce good results, but you’ll be shocked at how many craters appear even on your first try.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Deep Sky Photography

With my freshly rekindled interest in the night sky, it was only natural for me to want to expand my efforts to Deep Sky objects in addition to planets. But how was I going to execute it with so few resources? I’d seen beautiful photographs of nebulas and star clusters shot by skilled amateurs using apochromatic refractors and high-end Newtonians or Schmidt-Cassegrain setups at this point (the difference between these telescopes will be explained later in the article). To monitor the night sky and locate stars, they always utilized solid equatorial mounts with accurate motor drives. I was reasonably certain that I would need to spend a significant amount of money in order to get comparable outcomes.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: MYTH #2: to photograph nebulas, star clusters, and other Deep Sky objects, you need an equatorial mount, with a motor drive and guide scope, to allow for sufficiently long exposures.

To be clear, if you can afford a nice equatorial mount with accurate tracking capabilities, your photographs will undoubtedly benefit from the more advanced equipment. However, it is now fully feasible to make dramatic views of our beautiful cosmos using rather simple tools, such as a simple GoTo Alt-Az mount.

Here is my list of must-dos to get decent outcomes without spending a fortune:

• A dark site, far away from city lights
• A fast lens or telescope (f/5.6 or faster)
• A tracking mechanism, Alt-Az is fine, equatorial is better
• Deep Sky Stacking software
• Basic knowledge of Photoshop
• A good DSLR, allowing settings from ISO 400 to ISO 3200
• Patience and the willingness to spend many hours in the dark

Budget Astrophotography Setup: The Dark Site

Most of us live in or near cities, and with a few exceptions (particularly the moon and planets), there isn’t much to view much alone photograph. On a clear night, we may get a glimpse of the brightest Deep Sky objects, such as the huge Orion nebula (M42) or the Andromeda Galaxy (M31); M13 in Hercules, as well as the Pleiades, may provide a lovely view (M45). However, when contrasted to the abundance of things visible once we travel away from the large cities (even with a basic pair of binoculars), the sky over our homes generally provides very little. For Deep Sky photography, a modest telescope in a genuinely dark location is much superior to a sophisticated 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain in the heart of a huge metropolis. Many pricey telescopes collect dust for the same reason: their well-to-do owners never took the time and effort to get the most out of their equipment.

A dark sky allows for longer exposures, resulting in photos with increased contrast and detail. If you live in a major city, try aiming your digital camera (on a tripod) toward the night sky and opening the shutter for a minute or two at f/4. Even with a modest ISO 400, what seems to be a pretty black sky in your eyes is likely to be entirely washed out in the shot. There is no way to acquire a decent photograph of your targeted fuzzies under such conditions. Investing in a high-quality Light Pollution Filter may help mitigate the issue, but nothing rivals the beauty of a genuinely black site.

Budget Astrophotography Setup:The Equipment

MYTH #3: you get what you pay for.

This is widespread knowledge, and it is completely incorrect when it comes to telescopes. I know folks who spent a substantial sum on a telescope they never really understood and couldn’t use. Years later, they’d be fortunate to get a fifth of what they spent for it on eBay. It is absolutely feasible to get decent outcomes using low-cost equipment. A more expensive telescope does not automatically imply a better telescope. It often indicates a bigger and more sophisticated instrument, therefore thorough study is highly advised before purchasing one. Knowledge and experience make all the difference: knowing the constellations, understanding the distinctions between refractors, Newtonians, and Schmidt-Cassegrain systems, and spending a lot of time studying the night sky… The fact is that a simple tool in the hands of an expert will provide many superior photographic results than a sophisticated telescope in the hands of a beginner.

The following is a list of the most basic items you will require:

• A small telescope with a short focal ratio (I used an inexpensive 80mm f/5 short-tube refractor for most of my Deep Sky images, you can often find them on eBay for well under $100)
• A mount with a motor drive to track the stars (preferably equatorial, but up to 20-second exposures can be done with an Alt-Az mount)
• A DSLR camera (I like the new 24MP Nikon 3200 and the Canon EOS series; for $700 or less you are in business, $300 if you buy used )
• A T-adapter (prime focus) to connect the camera to the telescope ($25 or less)
• A T-ring specific to your camera ($15 or less)
• A wireless remote to trigger your camera shutter (keep vibrations to a minimum for $20 or so)
• A computer with stacking software (Deep Sky Stacker, downloads for free on the Internet) and Photoshop, any version is really OK

Most small telescopes come with a mount; for a beginner, the GoTo features on the low-cost Alt-Az mounts will make locating things in the sky much simpler. For secondhand Astro-equipment, I strongly suggest Cloudy Night’s classifieds. Another excellent source is eBay.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: The Shooting Process

Set up everything in the most ordered manner possible so you don’t have to seek items afterward. If you’re using an equatorial mount, ensure sure the polar axis (also known as right ascension) is parallel to the rotation axis of the Earth, as shown in the figure.

 

A compass is quite useful for determining your overall direction before it becomes dark enough to view the stars. Most GoTo systems will also need you to use a compass to direct your telescope north at the start of your alignment. It is a good idea to plan ahead of time the celestial objects you will capture that night. Preparing by studying the night sky is vital, and I strongly suggest utilizing planetarium software such as Stellarium (free download). On Amazon.com, you may also find many wonderful books, such as Night Sky Atlas by Robin Scagell, for as little as $10 to $15 plus delivery.

Attach the camera to the telescope while it is still light, then use the T-adapter to shoot in prime focus. You may concentrate on a distant mountain or anything near the horizon. Even wonderful if the moon is visible. If your camera supports LiveView, you may zoom in on the LCD to help with perfect focusing. Once you’ve achieved perfect focus, use the lock screw to secure the focuser. (In case your telescope does not enable locking the focuser, all you can do is tighten the mechanism so it feels rather firm and will not move by itself).

We’ll need flat frames in the final processing of our photographs, and now is a fantastic moment to shoot them. No optical system is flawless, and the corners of your vision are less brilliant than the center, particularly with inexpensive telescopes. A flat may be a picture of an empty section of the sky that displays nothing except the brightness difference. Point your scope up well before any stars show and snap a few automatic photos, 10 is enough. Later, the stacking program will utilize these photos to deduct from the real shots, correcting the brightness disparities. You may also shine a light through a white T-shirt over the front lens, but I prefer this way.

We need to discover the Deep Sky objects on our shooting list once it is dark enough to start shooting (typically around an hour or so after sunset). Finding those faint nebulas in the sky that seem so rich and vivid in images is difficult, particularly at first. A decent pair of wide-angle binoculars (750 or 735) is an excellent tool for bringing them closer and getting a better understanding of their location. Once you’ve located them, a decent finder scope will help you center them in your telescope. To keep them focused, you will undoubtedly want a motorized tracking system. Of course, if you’re using a GoTo mount, the item will be found for you. It definitely makes life simpler, but it also breeds reliance; I am a firm believer in understanding the night sky and locating items based on the location of the stars.

When photographing Deep Sky objects, I normally set my camera to ISO 1600. You may go higher, but the picture will get noisier. I like to shoot in RAW mode, although high-resolution JPEG images from your camera would suffice. Take at least 10 or fifteen exposures of the same picture, which will all be layered afterward in the Deep Sky Stacker program. The more exposures you take, the less noise will show in the final processed picture, allowing you to capture more information. When using an Alt-Az GoTo mount, the maximum exposure time is around 20 seconds before the stars begin to exhibit trails. With a basic (unguided yet motorized) equatorial mount, you may go up to 30 seconds or even one minute, particularly if you’re using a telephoto lens on your camera. The larger the focal length, the harder it is to acquire pinpoint stars. Exact polar alignment makes a significant impact.

You must shoot the so-called dark frames at the beginning and conclusion of each series of exposures (individual exposures are referred to as subs). Deep Sky Stacker will utilize this data to fix the camera sensor’s intrinsic defects (the black signal), which are also affected by ambient temperature. A dark file is taken with the same exposure as your subs, but the lens is covered. Six black frames at the start and six at the finish are usually sufficient; if you need to move quickly, three or four will suffice.

So, at the conclusion of our shoot, we’ll have a dozen flat frames (taken early in the evening), all of our image files (or subs), and a sequence of dark frames for each thing we photographed. Finally, we must make the bias frames by taking ten or twelve images with the lens covered at the absolute minimum exposure our camera permits (the same ISO level as the picture files). Make careful notes regarding which frames are which, since a dark picture doesn’t reveal anything! To create our final pictures, we will mix all of these files with Deep Sky Stacker.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Processing

Deep Sky Stacker is available for free download at deepskystacker.free.fr/. We just let the program do its great thing after loading the photos with flat frames, dark frames, and bias frames. The final picture file will have most of the noise eliminated and will most likely have more information than the single frames we began with. The picture, however, is far from complete. Only during the last stages of processing does a picture actually come to life. To do so, we’ll need a velvety black backdrop, pinpoint stars (at least tiny ones), rich color, and a lot of detail in the nebulosity. I am astounded by the number of web photographs that might have been so much better if the approaches I am going to discuss had been used on them!!

The first step is to boost the contrast and color saturation. You may experiment with Levels (Ctrl-L) and Curves (Ctrl-M), but I like to begin with Brightness/Contrast (Image-Adjustments-Brightness/Contrast – top of the menu). I just move the cursors to the right till the concealed information appears. If your Photoshop version has Shadows/Highlights (also found under Image-Adjustments), shifting those cursors might give you a decent understanding of the information in the file. The technique is to continually brighten the picture and then darken the backdrop using contrast.

Color Balance is another useful tool for achieving this while also eliminating a color cast (Ctrl-B, also under Image-Adjustments). Click on Shadows at the bottom of the color balance box, where it reads Tone Balance. It will glow in blue. Then you choose the color you want to eliminate, which in this instance is largely red. Moving the red pointer to the left (adding cyan) not only corrects the color cast but also darkens and contrasts the backdrop. I also shifted the yellow pointer to the right (adding blue). It must be done discreetly, but it significantly enhances the overall look.

Budget Astrophotography Setup Finally, I go to Hue/Saturation (Ctrl-U, available under Image-Adjustments) and drag the saturation pointer to the right to enhance depth and color. Again, don’t overdo it; go as far as you can before it begins to appear a little phony.

The new picture is considerably better: the color and contrast have increased, and there are a lot of nebulosities where there were none before. Even the Horsehead nebula is beginning to emerge. Many people would stop here, and I have done so many times myself. We may, however, push the boundaries even further.

The Lasso tool, one of my secret Photoshop weapons, comes into action here. I usually use it with a feathered edge, which you can adjust at the top of the menu in the Feather window on the left (after you click on the lasso tool). You may set the feather anywhere from 3 px (for a small region) to 250 px, depending on the size of the area you wish to affect and the size of your original file (for a very large area). Typically, it will range between 10 and 50 pixels.

A standard DSLR could never capture a detailed Horsehead Nebula with such short exposures (30sec x 25). So it’s time to think beyond the box. We must isolate the nebula and operate locally to bring out the faint features. It helps to see a fantastic image of the item taken with more modern equipment so we know where to draw the lasso. After we’ve defined the region with a well-feathered border, we can enhance the nebulosity by going to Levels (Ctrl-L) and sliding the center cursor to the left, allowing the shadows to expand up. If the effect becomes too murky, we go to the Brightness/Contrast menu and increase the contrast to darken the backdrop. We may now experiment with color by going to Color Balance (Ctrl-B) and adding some red, maybe even a trace of magenta. We may enhance the color by increasing the saturation (Ctrl-U) until it looks exactly perfect. Again, don’t go too far!

Using this approach locally on the Flame Nebula and the Great Orion Nebula to the right has revealed characteristics that were previously unseen. To show the final picture, I did a little sharpness and enhanced the overall contrast slightly:

Two factors could significantly improve this photograph:

1. Using a modified DSLR with a much higher sensitivity in the H-alpha region would make the nebulas stand out even more clearly (more info at Hap Griffin’s website)
2. Using longer exposures (3 to 5 minutes each) would show a richness of detail that is impossible to get in thirty seconds. To further improve contrast at long exposures, a Light Pollution Suppression (LPS) filter is highly recommendable under less than perfectly dark skies.

Of course, we would be leaving the low-budget area here and moving into a more sophisticated field of astrophotography. Longer exposures require a very sturdy equatorial mount with precise tracking and a high-quality auto-guider. That will be my next stage of exploration.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Fun and Easy First Steps

If you are new to astrophotography, there are several simple methods to get started. It is possible to obtain some pretty excellent images of the stars with a modest digital camera on a tripod. You will need a camera with manual settings that enable you to employ time exposures and leave the shutter open for at least thirty seconds. First, set the camera’s focus to infinity. Then completely open the aperture (usually to f2.8 or f3.5 – the smaller the number the wider the aperture). In wide-angle mode, point the camera to a bright section of the sky with a lot of stars. Of course, you want to be as far away from city lights as possible; otherwise, the results would be unsatisfactory. Set your ISO sensitivity to 400. If you go too much higher (ISO 800 and above) the picture may be grainy, particularly on the less costly cameras.

Simply press the shutter button for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and 30 seconds. You may check how long you can expose the stars until they become little trails rather than points. Because the rotation of the Earth causes the stars to move, a static tripod cannot be used for long exposures.

However, if you position the camera North and keep the shutter open for an hour or more (you’ll need a really dark location for this, otherwise the picture would be totally blown out), the star trails will create lovely concentric rings. Keep the ISO settings low (ISO 200 or below), and you can even stop down a little (to f5.6 or f8) to keep the backdrop black. It’s amazing how much light a basic digital camera can capture in only a few minutes.

You can obtain some extremely nice results without tracking if you have a DSLR with a fast lens (f/2 or faster). All you need is a dark location and a strong tripod. You can picture the constellations and even see some of the brightest nebulae and star clusters with quite short exposures. In the summer, you may expose for up to 20 seconds before the stars show any trails if you use a wide-angle lens pointing toward the Milky Way. At ISO 1600, you may get a plethora of information, particularly if you take 10 or more exposures and edit the photographs using Deep Sky Stacker. Even ISO 3200 may be utilized since the stacking program reduces noise significantly.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Piggy-back Photography with a Telescope

If you have a tiny telescope, particularly one with a tracking mechanism, you may attach your camera to it and use the scope to follow the stars while the camera’s shutter is open. With an equatorial mount, you can expose for much longer before seeing star trails. Because the axis of an equatorial mount is parallel to the axis of the Earth, it totally compensates for its rotation once your tracking and polar alignment are accurate.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Overview of telescopes

There are many different kind of designs for telescopes, but most amateur telescopes fall into one of three categories:

• Refractors

A refractor is a basic tube with a lens (the objective) in the front and another lens (the eyepiece) in the back. The front lens is often made up of two pieces of glass, each having a distinct breaking index to regulate false color (chromatic aberration). These are known as achromatic aims. Apochromatic refractors are the best corrected and most costly refractors: they often contain three, and occasionally four, elements in their objective. For astrophotography they are perfect, but again, they aren’t inexpensive.

• Reflectors

Instead of a front lens, a reflector employs a concave main mirror:

A smaller secondary mirror at a 45-degree angle reflects light outside the tube, where an eyepiece may pick up on the focal point. Sir Isaac Newton designed this device, known as the Newtonian telescope. One version is the Dobsonian telescope, which is precisely the same design on a very basic and affordable mount. Because of the relatively easy construction and the big mirror size, they are wonderful tools for examining Deep Sky Objects, including nebulas and distant galaxies.

• Catadioptric systems

Finally, the catadioptric systems, such as the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes or the Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes, employ a glass corrector plate at the front of the tube.

These are complicated optical systems that have become more inexpensive as a result of mass production by businesses like Celestron, Meade, and Orion. Their small size and great light-gathering capabilities make them suitable for moon and planet studies, as well as Deep Sky Objects. Because of their rather large effective focal length, they would not be my first choice for shooting dim nebulae and galaxies, but they are fantastic for capturing the moon and planets.

Budget Astrophotography Setup: Recommended websites:

Stellarium

Stellarium is a planetarium software that shows exactly what you see when you look up at the stars. It’s easy to use and free to download. A great way to learn about the stars and prepare for nightly observations.

Cloudy Nights

Cloudy Night is a wonderful site with great forums, articles, equipment reviews, and classified ads for new and used equipment. It is free, all you need to do is sign up online for membership.

Deep Sky Stacker

Deep Sky Stacker is a revolutionary free software for serious astrophotographers, that will enable you to stack and align many exposures of a nebula or galaxy, to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio. Try it out!!

George Kolb Astrophotos

George Kolb is one of the many experienced astrophotographers in the USA whose gorgeous images show you what is possible with lots of dedication and high-end equipment. we hope you have enjoyed reading this review Budget Astrophotography Setup.