Originally posted by Joe_Cool: Hey, I'm taking some astronomy classes with the local community college and wondered if it was plausible to get into astrophotography. So, I've got a few questions.
1) Is it expensive to get in? |
Depends on your expectations, you can just mount your cam on a tripod and point it up, but the people who are really into it and produce the kinds of shots you see in magazies etc are probably well into the high 5 figures in therms of equipment.
Originally posted by Joe_Cool: 2) What kind of equipment (think cheap and good) would u recommend? |
I'm not really sure cheap and good can be used when talking about astrophotography equipment at any but the most basic level
Originally posted by Joe_Cool: 3) Am I a moron for thinking I can just jump right in? |
No, you'd be a moron if you didn't check it out first, which is what you're doing here. So, in my book, you aren't a moron.
Originally posted by Joe_Cool: 4) Can I get decent pictures from the telescope and digital imaging software at my mediocre price? |
What do you consider decent? What Astronomic objects do you want to shoot? The moon is pretty simple. Anything that requires a long exposure will need a tracking mount.
This is my moon pic through my 480mm f5.6 refractor on a photo tripod. I'd love an EQ mount, to do long exposures, but it's not in the budget anytime soon.

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