Anthony's Astrophotography

I think one of the most misunderstood items for people starting out in astronomy (specifically Astrophotography) is the importance of the mount your equipment will sit on top of, most people think they need the biggest and best telescope to get a nice astrophoto image. While there is merit in the thought process I can’t stress enough how wrong this approach is to Astrophotography. For visual use by all means save $$$ on mount and invest in bigger telescope as you will need this for your eye’s to see faint objects. However if you are aiming to do Astrophotography then “the mount is by far the most important piece of the puzzle”, don’t scrimp on your budget here, you will end up paying for it later both financially and in frustrations.

the mount is by far the most important piece of the puzzle

notice the emphasis here :), this is good advice, listen to it.

So what should you get? if you ask around on many forums they will point you to the Sky Watcher series of mounts. The main reason being cost!, they are mass produced and cheap by comparison to other brands, specifically many will say get the EQ5 or the EQ6 (some over zealous person will say to get a Losmandy G11 or some other similarly priced mount, ignore them!), Let me make a suggestion for you, just get an EQ6. Why? because I have one, am very happy with it, purchased it second hand and saved lots of $$$, and it does the job very well for my ability. Will I always have this mount, probably not but it will be easy to sell to someone else starting out in Astrophotography for a good price and help me fund my next step. All in all a good investment.

Let me digress for a moment: – If you have very large amounts of money to pour into your hobby of choice then by all means get a Losmandy mount or “insert other high end brand name here”, I still suggest you DON’T. Why? I hear you ask, It’s my money? We”ll yes it is and if you do fall in love with Astrophotography you have the best of the best to keep you going for years and years. If however you have bought the Losmandy etc. and decided you don’t like the hobby (it is a huge learning curve and not for everyone) or your life changes directions the G11 will be a lot harder to sell (even second hand these things are expensive). If however you purchased an EQ6, you will be able to sell this very easily to help fund you new purchase or move out of the hobby if required. (Hold Up Grimmy!!!!, Better yet, I recommend you buy the Losmandy, hate the hobby, call me and sell it to me really really cheap 🙂 🙂 🙂 ).

 Ok back to Mounts, I would personally suggest you get the EQ6 rather than the EQ5, it can carry more weight, does not cost by comparison a lot more, is better built and more stable. These factors all directly = better quality astrophotos. You will still need some sort of guiding assistance for longer exposures but hey even with a guider set up it’s cheaper than our Losmandy mounts.

Other valid reasons for choosing the Sky Watcher EQ6 (Synta Brand, so this includes the Orion Atlas Mounts as well) is there is heaps of free software out there to control these mounts from a computer, they support many cheap and effective guide cameras, lots of people have them and can offer you quality help setting them up and they are not too heavy to transport (this of course is relative to the person but I find it OK to move around).

Here are some images of the mount as you would expect to see it either new from the box or second hand, let me know if you would like more specific ones added. Oh and of course some places to buy them at reasonable prices Andrews Communications, Bintel, Sirius Optics, Astro Pete’s and lastly second hand from Ice in Space like i did.

Cheers

Anthony