Originally Posted by andnowimbroke
This is an exciting question.
I'm assuming you don't want to know what I would get (I have an Astrophysics Mach 1 GTO mount, an AP130GT refractor, and a 5DII, + accessories)
I think you're wondering, what should *you* get. And that, of course, depends on what kinds of pictures you want to take and how much money you are willing to spend.
I think Daniel has it about right: location is the most important thing. Assuming you've got that settled (or are willing to drive and port all your equipment to a dark site), the mount is next most important, followed by telescope, followed by camera.
Personally, I would want a high end mount (Astrophysics or Takahashi), but this will cost $7000+ new. One can sometimes find nice Takahashi mounts used for 2-3K. Others have gotten great results with less expensive mounts (such as the Losmandy G11, around 3K), but these people have far more skill than I do. It depends on how much tinkering you're willing to do.
For wide field astrophotography, I'd get a small refractor (the Orion ED80 is Daniel suggests is supposed to be great, an 85mm Takahashi FSQ would be even better). For photos of galaxies, I'd want something with a little more aperture (4" +, depending on what you can afford... larger scopes will require larger and more expensive mounts).
For the camera, I'm partial to DSLRs, and any of them that have live view will be great. If you have the $$$, you can get better results with a $10K camera with active cooling.
Getting good shots of galaxies (esp ones that would stand up to large printing) is very difficult. It requires skill, expensive equipment, and excellent conditions. Bernal Andreo gets really good galaxy pictures with fairly modest equipment (though sill probably around 30K for scope, mount, and camera). You can check out his website, with sample pictures and a description of his equipment.
Reply With Quote