one for all you astro techs out there

As far as I know, any telescope can be used for Astrophotography, be that afocal or prime focus, there are limits though with some scopes that may make them far less suitable, like using 0.96" eyepieces, or not being strong enough to support the camera etc. The key to any telescopic Astrophoto though is a powered tracking mount. I've used my Bridge Z2, my 450d and a Philips SPC900 webcam to capture Astrophotos. The main difference is the digital cameras are, as far as I know, due to the filter, much less able to pick up Ha (Hydrogen Alpha) light bands and this makes it far harder to get some of the fainter nebulae that is out there. The option, of course, would be to mod the dSLR to remove the filter. The other option, is a purpose made, cooled Astro CCD camera, but that's also digital.
 
hi mate,

just started reading your blog from the beggining its very good reading. how would i go about modifying a DSLR to remove the filter? as i am going to have a D40x surplus to requirements in the next month or so which i will be able to use? and will i need some kind of adapter to attach the camera to the telescope? and are Dslr any good for astrophotography? also i've heard you mention on your blog about stacking images? i have no clue what this means lol

cheers
 
I don't know specifically about modding the SLR, but it'll involve a massive dismantlement. I haven't and won't be getting my 450d modded. There's lots of targets to get without modding, and you can get the nebs, but you need really long exposure times.
To attach the SLR you'll need one of these and one of these or these depending on the scope. I know people that use Sony, Nikon and Canon for Astro. The Oly apparently is unable to do unlimited time exposures in bulb mode so therefore isn't ideal. Stacking is a way of increasing the SNR of the final image by taking a series of images and combining them. Deep Sky Stacker is used for star fields, you load up the images and let it do it's stuff, nebula etc, registax is more normally used for AVI's of planets and the moon.
 
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