Astrophotography Equipment

Photographing the night sky requires a variety of equipment. The basic tools are a camera and lens. As time goes on the the amount of equipment used to capture images tends to grow.

A permanent observatory is very useful. On the right is a photograph with the observatory open to allow the nights dew to dry up. After three years as a simple open air platform I finally completed the roll-off roof in the final days of 2004.

Additional information about the observatory construction will be added later.

Astro-Physics 130mm Starfire EDFS Refractor

A superb, 130 mm diameter, f6 APO scope. I acquired mine used in December 2001. The EDFS model has a 2.7" focuser and for photography I use the dedicated field flattener (FF) with the AP 67RT adapter for 35mm. The stars are perfect across the field of view (FOV). This is the configuration pictured to the left. I also use the AP .75x focal reducer (reduces focal length to 585mm, f4.5) and AP 2" 35mm adapter for wider field shots but that setup has slight aberrations at the edges of the field as well as greater vignetting than the FF setup.

Stellarvue 80/9D Refractor

This is my current guidescope for the Starfire, as pictured on the right. A two element, 78mm f9.6 achromatic scope. The optics perform very well with minimal color on very bright stars. The 2 inch focuser is sturdy and locks down fairly well. It came with a 2 inch adapter that screws into the flipmate body on my ST4 which provides a very solid fit in the focuser.

Televue Genesis Refractor

A near APO, 100 mm diameter, fast f5 scope with a 2 1/2 by 4 degree field (35mm film). It requires a 2" adapter to T-ring for imaging. I acquired mine second-hand in 1999 and used this as my primary imaging scope for several years.

The picture on the right shows my early photography setup with the Genesis and ST80 on the G11. Taken early morning, February 7th 2000, by Bethany, MO. After a cold night of imaging it had clouded over and everything was covered in heavy frost.

Orion Short Tube 80 Refractor

A two element, 80mm f5 achromatic scope, I primarily used it as a guidescope for the Televue Genesis. The focuser is not as sturdy as it could be with a ST4 attached. Overall a great little wide-field scope.

Celestron C8 SCT

The standard Celestron 8 inch SCT, purchased new as a Celestar 8. This telescope was used to take many piggy-back photographs, both on the original mount and the G11. I do CCD imaging with this (planetary) but I mainly use it as a visual telescope.

Hutech Canon 350D Digital Rebel XT

My main camera is an 8 megapixel Digital SLR (DSLR) I purchased in 2005. This is a Hutech Type I modified camera that captures Halpha (red) better than the factory model. Possibly the best low cost astrophotography camera you can buy.

Canon 300D Digital Rebel

A 6 megapixel DSLR I purchased in 2004. My camera is unmodified as I use it for normal photography as well. An early consumer grade DSLR, while a good performer it is not as good as my modified 350D.

SBIG ST4 CCD Autoguider

A stand alone CCD autoguider, no longer manufactured. After many manually guided exposures I acquired a used model with a flipmate accessory which greatly helps in finding and focusing on a guidestar.

Olympus OM Series Camera

The Olympus 35mm OM series is a favorite camera for astronomy use, the most popular model is the OM-1. It is a fully manual (i.e. no battery required to operate the shutter) model. These cameras are no longer manufactured. I use both a OM-1 and a OM-4 (which is a automatic camera but it has a B setting that does not require batteries for shutter operation).

Pentax 67 Series Camera

The Pentax 67 series is a medium format (120 and 220) camera. At this time I am only using it for wide-field, piggy back astrophotography. Destined for use on the Starfire.

SBIG ST237 CCD Imager

A lower-cost CCD imager using a TI CCD chip that is 640 x 480 at 7.4 um pixels. Interface to the camera is through a parallel port making data transfers pretty slow. This model is not longer manufactured.

Losmandy G11 Mount

A excellent german equatorial mount, the standard in it's weight capacity range. All of my telescopes are fitted to rid on this mount. I acquired this used and it has worked very well. In 2002 I added a Casaday Dovetail saddle for additional stability and ease of mounting the Starfire. I highly recommend this saddle plate. I also added the Losmandy Clutch knobs and highly recommend those. They allow you to quickly tighten the clutches with more force than the standard knobs.

Clone CG5 Mount

This little mount works fine for smaller telescopes. It is able to track acceptably for piggyback astrophotography when it has been properly polar aligned. I put the old G11 saddle plate on this for mounting my scopes.

Knife-Edge Focuser

I used to build my own focusing device. I have an article about building one online. Now I use a Mitsuboshi knife-edge focuser for the Canon EOS DSLR cameras. While I also use DSLRFocus (noted below) I find the knife-edge method significantly faster.

Computer

Since switching to DSLR cameras I use a notebook to sequence the acquisition of images. I use DSLRFocus software. While it is possible to travel lighter using a Canon remote control (or equiv.) to automate the exposures, the notebook allows for other astronomy programs and image storage.

Lumicon Model 600 Hypering Tank (essentially obsolete)

A hypering setup is used to increase the sensitivity of film by exposing it to forming gas (92% N2, 8% H) and higher temperatures. Unfortunately, as of 2005 no film currently manufactured seems to benefit from hypering.

Nitrogen Purge (nearly obsolete)

When using hypered film one thing becomes painfully clear: moisture or high humidity will cause signifcant problems. Hypered film is very dry and will swell up as it absorbs moisture, adversly affecting the quality of the image. A nitrogen purge setup allows you to flow a very small amount gas into the camera or close to it. This prevents moisture from contacting the film.