Beginner What telescope for Nikon d5300

peter fran

peter fran

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Peter Francis
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I'm new to photography and recently bought the Nikon d5300.I,m wanting to take photos of the night sky using a telescope but was wondering what to get.Can anyone point me in the right direction of the best one I can get for 2-3 hundred pounds.I know its not a lot but I'm wanting to get the basics down first before I go spending any more.
Thanks
 
Hi Peter, the problem with Astro photography is that its not as simple as buy a telescope. You need a equatorial mount in order to do any reasonable long exposure or you will end up with star trails given the focal length of most telescopes.

once you have the telescope then you need a t-ring for your camera which fits into the telescope focuser. Then finding a target with out software can be difficult.

you can still achieve good images of the milky way with a standard 50mm F1.8 lens the nifty fifty as its called. but you'll be limited to 20 second exposures.

or if you have a telephoto lens try taking pictures of the moon.

if there's anything i can help you with drop me message
 
As Danny has said decent shots of the Milky Way and constellation can be had without the use of a telescope.

On your camera the maximum exposure to get stars showing as points of light rather than trails with a 50mm lens is about 6 or 7 seconds - 500/(focal length of the lens x the crop factor of the camera).

Your profile shows you have a 10-20mm lens. This would allow a longer exposure and then its a matter of getting a reasonable ISO - low enough to avoid too much noise, high enough to record the starlight, and finding a dark site. The maximum exposure to prevent trailing of the stars varies a little. Stars close to the celestial equator appear to move more quickly than those near the poles.

Shots of the moon are certainly possible with a telephoto - The photo in this thread -

https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/moon-shot.667931/

I took with a 55-300mm zoom at 300mm. 300mm isn't really big enough for the moon so this shot had a lot of cropping and its not the greatest of photos but I hope it gives an idea of what is possible without a telescope.


I don't want to put you off getting telescope and there are folks on here who can help, but also check out some Astronomy forums. They will be able to keep you away from cheap gear.

Dave
 
If you want to try out telescope for astrophotography without first making a purchase then you can hire a telescope on line ( includes a fitted top pro camera) and take some shots remotely from an observatory in a dark site in places like the Australian desert. See link below
http://www.itelescope.net
 
Pete. 1250mm D90 Spotting Scope. It's a powerful 1250mm objective focus length. It should increase to 1800-2000mm for most DSLR
 
Then of course how often are the skies clear enough anyway? at least here in the UK
 
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