Re: [APML] Astrophotography 2004 - Price Shock Horror

[glenn shaw <glennshaw@alaska.net>]

This argument that prices in our hobby have increased is both and not true. 
For example, I was able to buy a war surplus Aero Ektar from C&H surplus in 
Pasadena for $25 (f2.8, 7 inch focal length, quite good optics, Tessar 
design) and build myself an adequate system to photograph the stars and 
galaxies in 1964 for nothing more than a poor starving student's wage 
income. It did, however, take considerable creativity and work.

I'm sure its just the same way now, except the possibilities are much 
greater for a creative person.

However, its surely true that there are more high end manufacturer's 
building more high end products, this being possible because of the 
generally excellent economy and style of living that we have in this 
country. It therefore can be very frustrating for a guy who wants a Posche 
to be frustrated because of his lack of the $60k or so that it takes. 
However, there are plenty of opportunities if you are willing to cludge a 
little and not insist on designer products.

I know darn well that one can buy an excellent Newtonian and a good used 
mount and get set up with a CCD consumer grade camera, used, by expending 
no more than probably $1k.

Glenn Shaw

At 04:39 AM 6/3/04, you wrote:
>On Wed, 2 Jun 2004, Chris Schur wrote:
>
> > [...]
> > ccd cameras, a new $12K mount because that mount that
> > worked so well with film isnt good enough anymore, and
> > of course a complete digital darkroom wtih the
> > software alone costing more than the 35mm SLR was.
>
>Chris,
>
>I have similar feelings from time to time - however, there are many niches
>in astrophotography where one can obtain unusual results without making
>huge investments. 20 years ago, we saw good astrophotos in small, monthly
>doses in the well-known astronomy magazines. Today, we see a stream of
>high-quality images each time we check our email. Using high-end equipment
>is one way of producing pictures that stand out from the rest - but not
>the only one.
>
>I have to admit that I did start CCD imaging last year, but I tried to
>minimize equipment cost by using as much of my old equipment as possible.
>My Minolta lenses work very nicely with the SXV-H9 (and due to the
>smaller chip size I can even shoot at a faster f-stop: 50 mm @ f/2.4 gives
>pinpoint stars on CCD, but shows severely elongated stars in the
>corners of a 35 mm film image). Besides, I continue to shoot on film
>(sometimes in combination with CCD-Halpha).
>
>As for software cost, there are a lot of free alternatives. True, the
>learning curve of packages like IRAF, MIDAS, Gimp, etc. may be steeper,
>but it saves you $$ that can be spent on new hardware.
>
>
>Clear skies,
>
>Axel
>
>--
>Axel Mellinger  <http://canopus.physik.uni-potsdam.de/~axm/astrophot.html>
>
>
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