Quote Originally Posted by andnowimbroke
how much to you have to spend to get solid 16x20 shots of fairly close galaxies?
  • Camera: $500
  • Telescope: $1000
  • Mount with motor drive: $2,000
  • Moving to the mountains to get away from light pollution: $4,000
  • Divorce after your wife refused to go with you: $80,000
  • Getting solid 16x20 shots of fairly close galaxies: Priceless.



There's some things money can't buy, for everything else, there's living as a hermit in the mountains.


A $50,000 telescope, mount, and camera in the city can be outdone by a $1000 in optimal locations. I consider myself lucky to live only four hours away from some nearly-world-class night skies (in the high Oregon desert), so that's where I drive to do my imaging.


Another important thing to consider is that, in general, the motor drive is the most important part of the system -- it will determine the maximum length of exposure.


A good starter kit, IMHO, is a T3i ($700), Orion ED80 ($400), and<span>Sirius EQ-G ($1200). When you're ready to take on the added complexity of autoguiding, you can add a second scope (e.g. 60 - 70mm or so) and something like a Meade DSI Pro.


For the next level up might look something like this: T3i (because it's lightweight!), Vixen ED103S ($2000), Losmandy G11 ($3,000), plus auto-guiding setup.


The rabbit hole just keeps going deeper. $5,000+ SBIG cameras, $5,000+ refractors, $10,000+Takahashi mounts, etc.