ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHY

New to astronomy and thinking about astrophotography

If you do not know the depth of the water, you might want to check first before you leap,
especially when you do not yet know how to swim. What the heck does that have to do
with astrophotography? Well read on and see.

You look up in awe at the night sky and realize you want more from it than the mere
naked eye views you are limited to currently. You want to venture into a new hobby that
can introduce you to the many wonders of our Solar system and beyond the stars into the
deep space of the Universe. You want a telescope so you start shopping around and
reading magazines. Then you are finding an overwhelming abundance of information on
the Internet. All the while you are exposed to beautiful images of various nebulae, distant
spiral galaxies, dense star clusters, all in the colorful glory. Then the light comes on in
your head, you want to see objects that look like that; Surprise! You cannot see objects in
their full colorful glory like those pictures in magazine or throughout the Internet. To the
human eye, the universe is mostly black and white with various shades of gray. Some
brighter objects when under the right conditions can reveal very subtle colors. However,
in reality it is not much and definitely nothing like those pretty pictures reveal. Now
what? You want to capture images on your own so you can keep and share with your
family and friends what you see out there beyond the stars. Be Prepared! If you have a
small limited budget, you might be in for a shock. However, do not despair.

So are you ready to venture into the wonderful hobby of amateur astronomy?

If you are then you are in for a wonderful adventure that will never end. As long as you
are prepared with a little knowledge, you should be good to go. Knowledge that you will
find many more experienced amateur astronomers are willing to share with you. All you
have to do is ask.

Now I ask you this: Are you considering starting this new hobby with the intention of
jumping right into astrophotography so you can capture some nice pictures of what you
see through a telescope? Yet you have no idea of what to get, or how to get yourself
started do you? If so then please sit back, relax and enjoy; read all this and you should
have a better idea of what to expect and what you will need. At least I hope you will be a
little better prepared when you are done.

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If you are aiming to capture those nice colorful images of deep sky objects, or the moon
and planets, you are not alone. Astrophotography is a wonderful hobby to occupy your
nights. I must warn that it can be quite lonely out there in the dark by yourself.
Nonetheless, just getting started in amateur astronomy itself can be quite overwhelming
when trying to decide on what kind of equipment to purchase. There is a lot you will need
to consider before taking that first big leap. So many different kinds of telescopes,
mounts, and much more. So many different accessories are needed, accessories you are
going to want just because they might be useful and so on and on. There are so many
choices to consider with so much available and so many experienced people telling you
what their experiences are with their favorite equipment, or not so favorite. Information
Overload! Stop, I have a headache!

To top it off, you want to jump directly into a more advanced and complicated area of
amateur astronomy. Well, like I said already you are not alone, and it can be
accomplished. Although there are many different methods or techniques used, levels of
expertise and/or proficiency to achieve varying results; as long as you are properly
prepared you can achieve some wonderful results yourself.

Be careful, you may find or see an appealing telescope setup for a reasonable cost. It may
appear as though it will work for your desires; however, not knowing any better you could
easily get in over your head very fast. You will soon find that it is not as simple as
connecting a camera to any telescope and taking a picture. You could end up with
equipment that is suitable for visual astronomy, but on the other hand, it will be very
inadequate for astrophotography, giving you less than desirable results, and causing a lot
of disappointments and discouragement. You will probably want something suitable for
both. In this case, you will need to be more careful in your decisions getting something
more suitable for astrophotography purposes rather than visual.

You can either start out with equipment that is just adequate, and then add to it overtime
as you go. Alternatively, you can save up, put out the cash, and get a very nice proper set
up that will last a lifetime, and overtime will have actually saved you money and
headaches.
You might probably make a few replacement purchases, which overtime can turn out to
be a very costly investment by the time you tally it all up.

Note: You will see it is very common for people involved in both visual and photographic
astronomy to have multiple telescopes and mounts with one dedicated astrophotography
setup. Alternatively, you might just learn some people once into astrophotography
dedicate themselves to photography rather than the visual enjoyment many others get
with a telescope.

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Let me tell you I must admit right off hand, there are many people that are much more
qualified than I am on the topic of astrophotography, However, I still wish to make a few
comments and suggestions.

I am not going to go into all the details of exposure times etc, although related that is a
different more complex topic. I am only going to discuss various methods and equipment
considerations so you become aware of the actual commitment and possible costs
involved. At the bottom, I have provided some web links where you can learn much
more about astrophotography. Included also at the bottom of this post are two very good
book recommendations.

With the advent of new and ever improving technology of digital imaging, it is now more
accessible, affordable, and, easier for the average person. More people are taking up
interests in photography of all kinds. It also seems that more people are becoming more
aware of what is above their heads in the night sky. With publicity of such things as the
(HST) Hubble Space Telescope and the many wonderful images it has produced, I believe
things such as that are playing a large part in the ever-growing curiosity in the personal
visual exploration further into space by people of all ages.

Be aware however, those nice looking Observatory or HST images are processed and
manipulated by technological advances in equipment and software applications for image
processing to bring us the colorful images we see as an end product. Image manipulation
and processing can be very misleading to the average person. Some people want to, or
think, they can see the same through their telescopes that they see in those pictures. Well!
Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. Those images are long exposures and/or
multiple long exposures with cameras that are many times more sensitive than the human
eye can ever be. They are also processed and manipulated to correct and enhance color
and detail within them to make them more presentable.

Once people realize and understand the facts about color in images, and what they
actually see through a telescope, they can learn to enjoy amateur astronomy much more.
Many will eventually want to capture their own images such as those seen all over the
Internet and in magazines. After all, who can blame anyone for wanting that? Those are
some beautiful images that can give you some very nice memories to reflect back on.
Hey, that is all fine and dandy, I recommend it to anyone who can afford it, and is willing
to put the time and effort involved into it. Moreover, I would also like to make a point to
get people to understand there is much more to it than getting any Ole telescope and
mounting a camera to it. Many people imagine themselves getting pictures similar to
those that are published in magazines or found on the Internet. No problem right? Well,
we will see! Not to say you cannot do it, in fact quite the opposite, this can be
accomplished; it is done everyday by many amateur astronomers of all ages. As long as
you meet a few prerequisites first, then you will be able to create some very eye pleasing
results. You may need to, or want to, set a little more money aside than you initially
planned on if astrophotography is your goal.
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More often than not, I have seen people with extremely limited budgets wanting to take
the giant leap into astrophotography without taking the first learning steps. They want to
get right up there where others are that did take those necessary learning steps. Most
astrophotographers with more experience took many months and possibly even years to
get to the level they are at now. So hopefully everything I am about to tell you here will
help the awareness process so you will be prepared for some of the possibilities.

Never fear though, there are different techniques or methods of astrophotography that are
suitable for all levels of experience in amateur astronomy. I will start with the easiest
method working on up to the most difficult, briefly explaining each in the easiest way the
best that I can to include what you will need as far as equipment and accessories, and the
concerns of each method. If you want more you can refer to those web links I placed at
the end.

First couple of methods require one of two types of cameras: a 35mm SLR camera with
(B) bulb setting for the shutter, and a remote cable to lock the shutter open. Alternatively,
a Digital SLR camera with (B) bulb shutter setting/programmable exposure and or remote
to control the shutter.

With a 35mm SLR camera you will lock the shutter open and let it go for a long timed
exposure. Time would depend on the film and how dark your skies are, and what method
you use. With a DSLR depending on the object, you will take long and/or multiple short
to long exposures, and then stack the individual image frames on your computer with the
appropriate software. You will need to learn about image stacking and the purpose for it
which I will not be covering here.

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Method 1: all you need is your SLR or DSLR camera and a simple but stable camera
tripod. With the camera on a tripod, just angle the camera toward an interesting star filled
area of the night sky and take a long or set of long exposures for a lengthy amount of time
to record “Star Trails”. These make very interesting pictures and are a great start for
experimenting with exposure times. This is the easiest and least expensive method to get
you started in astrophotography. Many people enjoy the open sky toward the celestial
poles so they get that nice circular rotation of star trails around the pole.

Method 2: is more difficult and becoming more and more popular with almost any
telescope. You can get some very nice single shot digital planetary and lunar images even
with a simple Alt-Az Dobsonian mounted telescope. This Method is known as "A-focal".
You can use almost any kind of camera for this method. The proper mounting hardware
to help hold the camera in place over the eyepiece can make it easier or more stable,
although it can and has been done by hand which some people might say is easier for
them. If you try it that way, you will need a steady hand or you will get a very blurry
image.

A-focal photography is simply bringing the image to focus in an eyepiece of your choice
in your telescope, then taking a picture of that image projected through the EP with your
camera. With the object focused in the eyepiece of the telescope, if using a SLR or DSLR
you will set the lens focus to infinity and take the shot. Difficulty increases as you
increase magnification, especially with a telescope without tracking such as a Dobsonian.
You can, if you have steady hands just hold the camera over the eyepiece and take the
shot. Not as easy as it sounds, believe me. You will probably take dozens of shots just for
that one you will keep.

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This method is great for very short exposures of the moon or larger planets such as
Jupiter and Saturn using a point and shoot digital camera or digicam. If you have a
Digicam or single shot point and shoot digital camera with a video mode, you can also
take short videos then stack the individual frames into a nice crisp high-resolution image.
Some people will use multiple short AVI videos then stack the frames from all the videos
to combine into one single high detail image. You may have to convert the video from
.MOV to AVI with any available conversion software such as RAD Video Tools. Web-
cams such as the Phillip SPC900NC are becoming more popular for A-focal / planetary
imaging.

Below is an example set up for A-focal photography with a simple point and shoot single
shot digital camera.

A few examples of single shot A-focal images with a Kodak EasyShare digital camera
held to the EP of a 10" DOB

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If you dare, A-focal could also be used for long exposure DSO photography, however I
would not recommend it. Other than the possible intrusion of unwanted stray light
between the camera lens and EP, which will ruin a picture, you will need a more
expensive mount with extremely precise tracking with very precise polar alignment and
guiding. Any and all errors will be detected immediately by the camera and can ruin what
otherwise might have been a good picture. Not many people do DSO photography using
this method; in fact, I do not know any, especially with the newer DSLR and CCD
cameras. IMO it is not worth the trouble, I have tried and failed a few attempts.

Note: Unless you have a large aperture telescope with a very long focal length, (although
it is still possible), a DSLR is not the preferred camera of choice for planetary imaging
regardless of photography method used. The field of view with a DSLR is too large
making the image scale of the planet very tiny.
Additionally, Digital magnification and/or image enlarging does not produce a desirable
planetary image.

For the next few methods, you will need a good mount, preferably an equatorial mount.
Although a fork mount will work with limitations, or the addition of an EQ wedge. You
want a good hefty mount with a load capacity that is more than suitable to handle at least
twice the weight of the telescope and all necessary accessories required for
astrophotography. You do not want to approach, reach or exceed the instrument load
capacity of a mount for astrophotography. The closer you're equipment weight is to the
maximum capacity, the more undue stress and strain on the motor drives there will be
possibly compromising the accuracy of tracking/guiding, and the stability of the mount
can or will also be compromised. Tracking will be more difficult, tracking errors will be
more frequent and corrections will be slower.

I cannot emphasize strong enough the importance of a good quality, heavy duty, sturdy
and accurate mount for this purpose. Preferably an (EQ) Equatorial Mount. This is often
where people on a limited budget will run into problems. Their desires often overrun their
budgets, and they may shy away from trying. That is not the purpose for what I am
writing, I am not trying to discourage anyone away from astrophotography, I only want to
make sure the expenses that can be involved are understood, and the different methods
available to them.

A good heavy-duty mount capable of quality Deep Sky Astrophotography can get very
expensive. For some people it might even be cost prohibitive. The mount itself can cost
several hundreds, or thousands of dollars. Starting around $700.00 for a 35 lb capacity
mount. Other than the camera, the mount is the single most important piece of equipment
required for astrophotography, then the telescope. There are things you can get away with
on visual astronomy where the mount is concerned that you do not even want to consider
for astrophotography.

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That being said, you can take a picture through almost any telescope with the proper
camera and accessories. The Field Of View, Object Size/image scale, and Resolution will
be determined by the aperture and focal length of the telescope, and the film plane or
sensor chip of the camera. However, that will all be meaningless if you do not have a
mount good enough to meet the task.

With DSLR’s and CCD’s it is easier to manipulate the object size and detail with image
post processing software. Provided there is the proper amount of quality clean error free
image data collected. You can also manipulate scanned film images on the computer,
although there is not as much needed, or that you really can do to film as you can with
digital image data.

At this point, I will continue with some of the equipment needs, or equipment that can be
used for the following methods of astrophotography. .
You will obviously need a telescope; the size of the aperture is up to you and what you
can afford. Optical quality is a great concern for photography. The better the quality of the
optics in the telescope, the better the images will be. A camera will surely pick up any
optical defects that cannot be seen with the human eye. Achromatic refractors are famous
for Chromatic aberration / false color in images. Too much of that can leave you with less
than desirable effects.

Anyways, as I already stated above you can take a picture through almost any telescope.
Just remember this though, "Aperture rules". The larger the aperture the more you will get
out of astrophotography, the deeper you can go into space capturing those faint distant
objects. You want to mount your telescope on a good sturdy mount with motor drives on
the RA and Declination axis. Additionally, do not let the fact that the mount has tracking
mislead you; you will still need some way of guiding the telescope during the imaging
process / exposure, especially if you are using film. Even though a mount has tracking,
unfortunately they do not do it perfectly. There will be periodic errors (PE) in sidereal
tracking. There may also be drift caused by imperfect polar alignment, imperfect balance
and the wind. Many mounts will have Periodic Error Correction (PEC). You can train the
drives and it will learn to correct and track a little more precisely to allow for longer
unguided exposures. However, you still want some way to make sure it is tracking the
object accurately while imaging. There are just too many variables that can cause tracking
errors that will need to be corrected.

There are a few methods of guiding for photography. Many people use a second smaller
telescope mounted piggyback on the primary telescope called a Guide-scope.
Alternatively, the smaller telescope can be used for photography while the main telescope
is used for guiding and carefully observing at the same time.

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Manual guiding with a Guide-scope will also require the use of an illuminated reticle
eyepiece so that you can center on a star and keep it centered. This will allow you to keep
an eye on the star making any necessary adjustments if you see any drift or tracking
errors.
Note: The added weight of a guide scope will also be a major consideration for you when
thinking about the mounts load capacity. Everything you load onto the mount to include
the camera must be considered. In addition, trying to guide on a star in less the ideal
atmospheric seeing can prove to be difficult. The guide star can be shifting and jumping
all over the place due to atmospheric instabilities. It could cause you to make
unnecessary adjustments that could also be detected in the picture. Manual guiding is
something that will take practice. However, it is not suggested you try to take images in
bad seeing conditions anyways.

Illuminated Reticle or Micro Guiding Eyepiece

With Illuminated Guiding and Measuring Scales

Or with Adjustable Crosshairs

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 Dual refractor setup for manually guided prime focus photography.

The above setup is the Celestron C6-R GT. A 6” achromatic refractor on the Celestron
ASGT CG5-GT mount. The small telescope mounted piggyback is the Celestron C80 ED
refractor that is currently my primary photography telescope.

Another way of using a Guide-scope is with a mount that has Auto-guiding capabilities.
This method will require a PC or laptop and/or Auto-guider to connect to, a CCD camera
or web cam. (Web cam is essentially a CCD video camera). With the CCD or web cam
connect to the Guide-scope focused on a selected guide star, through the Auto-guider or
computer with Auto-guiding software connected to an auto-guider port or the hand
control on the mount, the Auto-guiding software on your computer will make all
necessary adjustments as they are detected by the camera and computer. This can be the
most accurate way of guiding and will make your nights of imaging much easier and less
straining on the neck. All you need to do is set up and configure everything to do what
you want for whatever length of time and you can virtually fire and forget until it is
finished. Auto guiding is great on those long cold nights so you can head into your nice
warm house, or if you have a second telescope and want to do some visual observing as
well.

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The following is my Celestron C6 R-GT and C80ED setup for auto-guided DSLR
photography. A Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT attached to the C6 R, and Philips
SPC900NC (ToUcam Pro III) as the CCD sensor camera for Auto-guiding attached to the
C80ED.

Estimated cost of all this is about $3200.00 and this is a lightweight modest set up.

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 Auto-guided image with above setup.

There are a couple more methods that do not require a guide scope. One way is with an
Off-Axis Guider (OAG), another special accessory that attaches to the telescope between
the camera body and the focuser. They have a special built in mirror that allows the image
to be seen off axis from the camera through an eyepiece while still allowing the light to
reach the film plane or sensor chip of the camera. This way you can guide and take
pictures through the same telescope and focuser without increasing the load too much on
the mount.

Off Axis/Radial Guider

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Another but more expensive way and often preferred by many is with a dual chip CCD
camera. One sensor chip is for gathering all the image data and the second smaller sensor
chip is used to focus on a guide star and used along with the image capture / Auto-guiding
software.

SBIG Dual Sensor Self-Guiding CCD Camera

At this point, you might be able to see where this can start getting expensive. Not
including the cost of a good mount and telescope, a good quality DSLR or CCD camera
can get costly too. However CCD cameras are becoming more commonplace lately and
less expensive. You can use almost any DSLR to achieve satisfactory images for a
reasonable cost. However, the more expensive higher quality DSLR such as the Canon
EOS 20D DSLR or its successors can get expensive. Alternatively, the Canon EOS 20Da
which was a limited edition DSLR designed for astrophotography purposes that can cost
on-wards of more than $2100.00 just for the basic camera body. However if you look
around now that the 20Da has been discontinued you can find the Camera body for a
relatively much lower price.

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Method 3: Piggy back photography. This method requires a 35mm SLR or a DSLR
mounted piggyback on the telescope or a special mount attachment to mount the camera
to the telescope. This is great for long exposure wide field images of the night sky with
your camera and its own lens system. The field of view will depend on the lens you use. If
you use a Zoom lens, you will want to make sure there is some way to lock the
zoom/slide ring in place so it does not slip when the angle of the telescope is vertically
aiming high in the sky. A simple rubber band is often suitable for this purpose of the
zoom does not have a lock.
With piggyback photography you can still, although carefully, observe the object through
the telescope while the camera is taking the picture. Be careful not to bump the telescope
when looking into the EP.
This method is the least sensitive, more forgiving, to any alignment and tracking errors
unless you use a long focal length zoom lens. With a good set up and polar alignment,
and, properly trained PEC or precise motor drives you can take some very long exposures
before seeing any visible errors in the image.
I have seen some very impressive images / panoramas of the summer milky way with a
short focal length lens such as a wide view 15-20mm lens.

Wide field piggyback image of the North America Nebula in the Cygnus constellation

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Wide field piggyback image of The Orion Constellation

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 A typical piggyback mounting method

Orion Telescopes makes a little mount with tracking drives just for a camera that can
achieve the same results as piggy backing on a telescope.
http://www.telescope.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=296&item
In addition, a nice simple method used to capture wide field shots with your camera
similar to piggyback photography, without an expensive mount, is to build a Barn Door
tracker, or Scotch Mount. These are excellent for entry into long exposure photography.
Refer to the following link to learn more about them.
http://www.astronomyboy.com/barndoor/links.shtml

Method 4: is "Prime Focus Astrophotography" in effect, you are turning the telescope
into the Camera lens. With this method if you are using a 35mm SLR or a DSLR, you
will need an additional accessory called a T-ring. Depending on the telescope and focuser,
you may also need a T-adapter to slip into the telescopes focuser.
Remove the Lens from the camera and replace it with the T-Ring and if need the T-
Adapter. Then attach to or insert into the focuser of the telescope. Now you have a large
and powerful prime focus lens attached to your camera. If you are using a purpose built
CCD camera designed for astrophotography then it will have a nosepiece that is already
designed to be fit into the telescopes focuser. If you are using a Web-Cam such as a
Phillips ToUcam Pro, then you will need a special adapter to attach to or replace the lens
so that it will fit into the telescope focuser. Aka Mogg adapter

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Prime focus is probably the most common and practical method of astrophotography to
capture those (DSO’s) Deep sky objects or lunar images. IMHO, when using a SLR or
DSLR camera, this is not the best method for planetary images. Not near enough
magnification/image scale with the average amateur instruments, and it is very hard to get
correct and even exposure without overexposing the planet. For planetary images at prime
focus, you would want a purpose built CCD camera for planetary imaging such as the
(LPI) Lunar planetary imagers or Solar System Imagers that are sold by Meade, Orion and
Celestron. These are designed specifically for those objects and are very affordable. Web-
cams such as the Phillips ToUcam are also very useful for lunar and planetary imaging at
prime focus with the suitable adapter to fit to the telescope focuser.

In Primary focus photography, you will want a quality, heavy duty, sturdy mount with
accurate tracking. You will also have to ensure proper telescope balance and accurate
polar alignment. For long exposures, you will need to either manually guide or use an
Auto-guider as described above.

If you attempt this method with a less than stable or substandard mount, you will
probably not be satisfied with the results of your images and soon become discouraged.

Prime focus image of the Orion Nebula complex: Unguided and you can see the tracking
errors when looking at the stars.

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Some short manually guided prime focus photos with Fuji 400asa slide film using a
Pentax 35mm SLR on 80mm ED refractor.

M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules Exp:12min

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M57 area of Lyra Exp: 25min (Tiny red dot is the ring nebula)

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M17 Swan Nebula in Sagittarius Exp: 15min

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M8 Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius Exp: 22min

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M31 Andromeda Galaxy, total Exp: 90min

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Method 5: Next and final method is called (EP) Eyepiece projection. You will need an
additional accessory for this method of photography called an EP projection adapter. This
item threads onto the T-Ring and allows you to place an eyepiece inside it then connect to
the focuser. This method is probably the hardest and most sensitive to any stability
problems with the mount along with any polar alignment and tracking errors.

This is probably used more often for lunar and planetary photography than it would be for
DSO’s. IMO, the exposure lengths required for many of the fainter DSO’s is often too
much to achieve satisfactory results without too many noticeable errors. (Not unless you
are willing to invest a small fortune into a premium mount capable of tracking accuracies
within a few parsecs rather than arc-seconds).

Nevertheless, it can and has been done. It is just more difficult and the need for a stable
accurate mount is even more important. This is the least forgiving method because you
are effectively increasing the focal length quite a lot, which in effect is the same as
increasing the magnification. The more you increase your focal length, the more likely
you are to introduce visible errors into your image.

EP Projection through Celestron 6" refractor using with 25mm plössl eyepiece
Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT / 350D
Single 1/20 second exposure, ISO 100.
Converted to gray-scale.

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Equipment considerations / requirements for astrophotography dependent on
method:

Mount:
The Mount is probably the most critical component of any good astrophotography
platform. It is the foundation of the complete set up. As a general rule of thumb, you do
not want to exceed 50% to 60% of the maximum instrument load capacity of your mount
for photographic purposes. Stability issues are not the same for visual as they are for
photographic uses.

What type of mount? For some people it is a personal preference, however in my honest
opinion I would say preferably a German Equatorial Mount. (GEM or EQ for short). If
not then a stable alt-az Fork mount, with a fork mount you will also want an EQ wedge
for prolonged exposures without detectable field rotation.
Note: Newer digital technology and post processing software and processing methods
can overcome many minor tracking and other issues caused by the mount, sky conditions
and noise inherent with electronic devices.

Most mounts will come with a tripod, this is very much one of your stability
consideration. You definitely do not want a flimsy little tripod. There are some that you
cannot even breathe on without sending vibrations through and into the telescope.
You may want to consider a pier in place of a tripod. Especially with a Large telescope, or
if you plan on a permanently mounted telescope in a personal observatory of some kind.

Power supply:
You will need some kind of portable power supply and or an ac to dc adapter if you have
access to an ac power source.

Telescope:
Newtonian, Schmidt Newtonian, Schmidt Cassegrain, Maksutov Cassegrain, Ritchey-
Chrétien, Achromatic refractor, Apochromatic refractor.
So many to choose from! That is more often a personal preference issue. Each different
type of telescope will perform better in some ways that another may not. That is up to you
and what you learn in your endeavors to learn all you can. .
Guide Scope w/guide-scope rings:
Usually a smaller refractor. Generally no less than half the focal length of the primary
telescope used for photography.

Guiding EP:
Illuminated reticle or micro-guiding EP.
You will want one of these regardless if you manually guide or not. They do come in very
handy for other purposes, such as polar alignment, that you will find is very important.

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Attachment Accessories:
T-Ring, T-Adapter, EP projection Adapter, Off-Axis Guider and/or piggyback mounting
hardware.

Computer:
PC or Laptop and necessary cables and cord consideration for the computer and camera.
(Not necessary for manually guided film photography)
Image capturing software and/or Auto-guiding software. Most purpose built CCD Camera
will include their own image capture and editing software with original purchase.
Image processing and editing software. Adobe Photoshop CS is a common but expensive
program. It will do wonders with your images. However, you can find suitable programs
on the Internet for less or no cost. GIMP or Pleiades PixInsight LE are both good.
A popular Image stacking program is Registax which is more useful for lunar and
planetary image stacking, and Deep Sky Stacker for Deep Sky images, both of which you
can get at no cost also. Nebulosity by Stark Labs for capture and stacking is my personal
preference but has a small cost, amount dependent on which version you want to
purchase. Please remember, many of these programs might be freeware, however, if you
like the program a small contribution never hurts. These people invest hundreds of hours
of their own time developing these programs that make things easier for us. If you can,
show your appreciation.

Camera:
(35mm SLR, Web-Cam, Digital, DLSR or Purpose Built CCD)

35mm SLR camera with T-ring universal EP projection adapter and T-Adapter.

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Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT/350D with 2" T-Adapter attached, Remote Switch, AC
Power Adapter.

A popular web-cam used for Lunar and planetary imaging.

The Phillips SPC900NC

Sorry but this particular web cam has been discontinued from production. You might
however still be able to find one for sale somewhere or from someone.

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Adapter required using web-cam with telescope (aka Mogg adapter)

A good web-cam such as one of the Phillips ToUcam pro series web-cams can perform
just as good as or even better than some of the more expensive (LPI) Lunar Planetary
Images or (SSI) Solar System Imagers you can find on the market.

One of my Web Cam images of Jupiter

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Once again, I will emphasize to you that the Mount is the most important piece of
equipment when considering a venture into astrophotography.
I will also add that many people get a smaller high quality refractor to sit piggyback on a
larger telescope for use as a guide-scope. You can also use the smaller piggyback
telescope for wide field photography and use the larger telescope for guiding, depending
one the object or your desired goal.

Most important for astronomy and especially astrophotography is:

Dark Skies
Sturdy quality precision mount
For greater light grasp and resolution, "Aperture Rules".

As promised, a few links for more detailed information about astrophotography

http://www.allaboutastro.com
http://www.astroimages.com/
http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/astro/astrowhat.html

Books:
Michael Covington Digital SLR Astrophotography
Robert Reeves Introduction to Digital Astrophotography

Another link you might want. This is a CCD calculator that will calculate the Image Scale
and FOV for your telescope camera combination
http://www.newastro.com/book_new/camera_app.php

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 A few of my more recent images

Prime focus images using Canon EOS 50D @ prime focus on Celestron C80ED.

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Piggyback images with Canon EOS 50D w/ EF 100-400mm L IS Lens

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