I upgraded ... big time

[D-B-J]

Looks like you could trade that in for a D810... [emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[pgriz]

Nice set-up! Next, you need a "real" camera such as: STX-16803 With the filter wheel, it'll only put you back $11,5K. Then, of course, with that level of light-gathering/recording ability, you'll need to find some REALLY dark skies, so you'll need to move to one of the dark-sky parks in Arizona or New Mexico, preferably on your own 10,000 ft. mountain. Then you need to build a proper all-weather observatory. Then you'll need to upgrade your processing equipment to do automated image aquisition. And you thought photography was expensive?

 

[astroNikon]

Nice set-up! Next, you need a "real" camera such as: STX-16803 With the filter wheel, it'll only put you back $11,5K. Then, of course, with that level of light-gathering/recording ability, you'll need to find some REALLY dark skies, so you'll need to move to one of the dark-sky parks in Arizona or New Mexico, preferably on your own 10,000 ft. mountain. Then you need to build a proper all-weather observatory. Then you'll need to upgrade your processing equipment to do automated image aquisition. And you thought photography was expensive?

Ummm .... NO

 

[Patrice]

Nice scope AstroNikon!

I went from 6" Nexstar to a second hand 8" Meade ACF. The Meade SCT's are nice scopes! I mount mine on an EQ6 Pro for which I've poured a pier this summer. A backyard observatory is next. My guide scope is an ST80. I also use an ED100 for planets and sometimes an AR152 for wide field. I was a visual observer until lately and just getting into astrophotography. I still need to do a lot of learning and improving before my photos are worth showing to anybody.

Seems like you got a good deal on your 10" SCT, have fun with it.

 

[astroNikon]

Thank Patrice
The guy offered me a refurbished "R" (aka ACF) but for $2k. I got the refurb'd 10inch for about half that with all the latest software, capacitors and upgrades plus a few other things thrown in when he saw my pics of Uranus & Neptune with what I currently had.

I looked at a 12inch too but with that i would definitely would have to have a pier ... so maybe my next house as my backyard doesn't have enough room for one. That 12" is way too big to drag up from the basement.

I might be good for portraiture too as it should compress the background really well .. oooh .. well, maybe not lol

 

[Patrice]

Thank Patrice
The guy offered me a refurbished "R" (aka ACF) but for $2k. I got the refurb'd 10inch for about half that with all the latest software, capacitors and upgrades plus a few other things thrown in when he saw my pics of Uranus & Neptune with what I currently had.

I lucked out when I got mine, ota only, from a guy across the continent, at less cost than a new 6" Nexstar ota to replace mine which suffered a broken corrector plate. Sold the old Nexstar mount and recouped a fair bit of the cost.

That 12" is way too big to drag up from the basement….. might be good for portraiture too as it should compress the background really well .. oooh .. well, maybe not lol

Never know, someday you might have to photograph a really shy model,… from a couple of hundred feet away. But you'd get those weird doughnut highlights typical of catadiotric lenses.

 

[astroNikon]

donut bokehs !!

I had a nikon 500mm Reflex lens up until last year. That was a good "training" lens for telescopes with the interesting donut hole bokeh like any catadioptic.

it's that darn secondary mirror right smack in the middle that gets in the way.

 

[astroNikon]

Wow,

I had the scope out this morning just for a familiriaty run
The 8x50 guiding scope is clearer than my old scope!

And WOW .. can I see details in the moon that I haven't seen before but just in pictures.
The focal length only lets me see part of the moon because it magnifies too much. BUt I plan on getting a focal reducer so I can shoot the entire moon as one image. Or maybe learn to stitch together multiple shots to make one.

And Jupiter was just coming over the horizon in front of the sun and I could see multiple colors and line segments AND 4 moons at the same time!! I usually can only see Jupiter then when I take a photo I have to expose for either Jupiter, or over expose to get the 4 moons.

This should be very fun

 

[sscarmack]

Can't wait to see some results. And the fact that you need a reducer is hilarious!

 

[astroNikon]

The moon fits the frame about 95% at 1,900mm
I'm now at 2,500mm @ f/10 which only gives me a big chunk of the moon. A focal reducer to f/6.3 will give me about 1600mm I think.

I may just learn to stitch photos together.
Something else to learn versus something else to buy = MORE FUN.

 

[mmaria]

yeah, agree with Sean and can't wait to see some results!

 

[astroNikon]

What really has me impressed too is my switch to FF.
The amount of objects that the camera captures now is astounding in a still image using a camera lens.

So far when I take a shot and don't note what I took a photo of I have a hard time figuring it out because of all the extra objects the camera now captures.

In this example this is using my 80-200/2.8 @ 2.8 @ 80mm
HorseHead Nebula
then cropped in and you can see tons of objects. I was never able to attain this with my crop camera as a still photograph (no tracking, and no trails/elongation.

Can't wait to attach it to the scope .. still working out some kinks in relation to focusing.

 

[D-B-J]

What really has me impressed too is my switch to FF.
The amount of objects that the camera captures now is astounding in a still image using a camera lens.

So far when I take a shot and don't note what I took a photo of I have a hard time figuring it out because of all the extra objects the camera now captures.

In this example this is using my 80-200/2.8 @ 2.8 @ 80mm
HorseHead Nebula
then cropped in and you can see tons of objects. I was never able to attain this with my crop camera as a still photograph (no tracking, and no trails/elongation.

Can't wait to attach it to the scope .. still working out some kinks in relation to focusing.

Sweet deal! I look forward to the real pictures [emoji106][emoji106]

 

[astroNikon]

So I did an outside focusing test today. I took a picture of a building about ... ooh .. close to 3/4 of a mile away. here's the result. I did *not* use a remote to take the photo so there's a bit of camera body movement blur

 

[astroNikon]

Let me show you the building from my back yard.

There ...
do you see it ?