Re: [APML] call for suggestion

[Jerry Lodriguss <jml@astropix.com>]

>I'm totally new in astrophotography. For a beginner, the choice between
>telescope and SLR lens puzzles me. Can somebody give me some advice? If
>your suggestion is telescope, can you recommend me a type wiith focal
>length larger than 800mm? Moreover, I'm hesitating on choice between SLR
>and DC, which one do you think is better? One more question, are there
>any telescope adapters for the SLR mount like EF, FD,PK and so on?
>Thanks for your patience.


Hi Eyesofall,

With a telescope you can use eyepieces and look through it at the stars, 
planets and nebulae.  An SLR lens is made to put on a camera, you can't 
practically use an eyepiece and look through it visually, only through the 
camera and groundglass and viewfinder, which make for poor views visually.

You can, with most telescopes, hook up a camera to them and take 
pictures.  In this case, the telescope acts as the camera lens.

What kind of camera to get depends on what you want to take pictures of. If 
it is the moon, and bright planets, you can use an inexpensive digital 
camera. If you ultimately want to shoot long exposures for deep-sky objects 
like galaxies and nebulae, you will need an expensive consumer digital 
camera like the Canon D-60, or a dedicated astronomical CCD camera which 
can only be used for astronomical work.

For long exposure astrophotography, a film camera will be much cheaper to 
use when you first start.

Take a look at:

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/AP_INTRO.HTM

If you want to get into the hobby inexpensively, it looks like this new 
Meade LDX 55  6 inch f/5 Schmidt -Newtonian is a good bargain, and may even 
be usable for long-exposure deep-sky work:

http://www.buytelescopes.com/product.asp?t=12&pid=4576&m=

It only has 762mm of focal length, but believe me when I tell you, that for 
deep-sky, that is good.


There should be T-adapters for pretty much all SLR cameras, certainly the 
Canon EF, FD, etc.

Jerry







Astronomical photography: http://www.astropix.com




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