4. Astro Photo 104  

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    Stars, nebulas and galaxies, you said? Now we need a motorized mount to track our object. 
    As mentioned in the "Tools" article, there is two ways to do this. Either buying a so called German Equatorial Mount (GEM), a beastly contraption rubbing my skin the wrong way, with some form of drive to it. Or you could look at something like the the Celestron 4/5SE, either with a +500 mm tube. If a refractor as the previous mentioned Skywatcher Startravel102, a semi professional ED tube, like my current f-8.5 Evostar 80ED or even something like Skywatchers 650/130 mm f-5 Explorer-130P Newton telescope or something from the competitors, well that on your budget. 
    Sure, a GEM works and you can get some results even with manual EQ2 or EQ3 $200-300 mounts and a $100 battery driven radial "RA" battery motor. You need to adjust and point manually, but when the target in sight, you start the motor and it follows the target nicely. These also exist as computerized from ~$700, up to several $1000:nds. 
    Good trackers for long exposures, but beasts to handle in my mind. Stable ground and no move-a-round. Loaned one from my astro club, me at the sea coast in southwestern Sweden, the telescope usually tried to align with the Southern Cross under my feet !!! But, when having a motorized mount, what ever choice, we're set for start learning how to do "major" astro photo ;-). 
    Just mentioning, a "cheap" route could be the Skywatcher table AltAz Heritage-114p Virtuoso motorized telescope at ~$250 (you can switch between the tube and a camera mount). But do not expect to do real photo through that tube. Have tested it and is't a very light and good 400 mm Newton tube, but prime focus (where we focus with a webcam or DSRL) is 5 mm down into the focuser, not above it. But with a good 3-400 mm tele lens, it is a starter option. But I still would go for a EQ enabled AltAz. 
    That is, as mentioned in "Tools", we also need a bit better camera than mentioned in the first article, no digicam:ing here. If buying a new DSLR, my choice, as earlier mentioned, would be a mid-sizes mirror-less camera with Android/iPhone support, like my Nex-5 (Sony Alpha series today). There's no idea paying more, look at this guy's,  razor2277's, Nex-5 photos. Or my picture of M13 star cluster to the right. 
    But also keep an eye out for the new Olympus AIR 01 (summer 2015). If it comes with a bulb setting, I would seriously consider it as my next astro camera, due to size and price, really needing a new one, after my some 50.000 pictures. Sony do have a similar camera, the ILCE-QX1, but having removed it's bulb setting, they have killed the best beginner astro camera of this decade. Sony has a an absolute top notch time-laps function, that has served me extremly well over the past 2.5 year. 
    But, while camera brand is less important today, remote control is the most important choice and having low sensor noise up to at least ISO 1600 or better ISO 3500. Also, having a minimum of 1/2000 sec to 30 sec exposure time range + "Bulb" setting is a must. 
    To this, after using my Nex with a Google Nexus 7 tablet for some time now and having a remote control of my mount; a tablet or phone app improves "working conditions" a lot. It allows you to sit indoors, when cold outside, so those ones is a sure winner for me in mid-December/January ! 
    However, though some of the options in the first article and above gives you a real telescope, again, invest in a good telephoto lens, a 400 mm one. It should be one with ED glass quality. Expensive, yes, but (!) it does not need to be a brand new one. 
    My 400 mm from the late 1980:ies, apart of the mentioned coronas, it works fine, $200 bucks. I wish it had been a 1990 though. But all needed, was a Minolta MC/MD converter to the Nex. Same goes for the other brands. Ahh, yes, you also need a ring fastener with a "dovetail" bar, that allows the lens to be mounted on the telescope mount. I loans the Bresser ring/dovetail, perfectly fitting my 400 mm. 
    We loose all automatics, but we do not need all that camera focusing stuff etc. needed for daylight photoing, so simplest fastener possible. Even if it blocks/jams focusing; simply use some electrician tape to lock the lens at the infinity mark and your good. Also use f-6 for best resolution, if the mount ring hinders you to set that to. 
    OK, the camera and lens mounted, we have adjusted the tripod and mount, directed it to the evenings study object and have the drive going, following the target. Take a 30 sec picture (at some distance via the remote, avoid vibrations). Is the stars pinpoints? If so, we're ready, time try to take some 50-200 pictures of our object of interest (which shifts over the year :-). 
    We sit down where not disturning the mount, then press the trigger via the remote. If using an phone app, most cameras, my Sony, Olympus, Panasonic, Samsung, Canon and Nikon now have, use that. Some even allows for earlier mentioned time-laps series, but unfortunately my Sony app doesn't. I have it in the camera instead. The apps is far better than sitting/standing outside, releasing the shutter via a remote wire as in the old days, likely inducing vibrations. 
    I recommend using ISO 1600/3200 settings for the best results. If you adjusted the mount good enough, not having any elongated stars, always run the camera on 30 sec exposures, taking at least some 50 pictures of the object. Best is to chose max 2-3 objects per night and concentrate on these. Plan with a star map and maybe Google Sky or similar tools before you go out. I also recommend  this site's amazing free star atlases. 
    After some hours work, we're set for processing our catch, which will be explained in the article "5.How to process my astro pictures"