Telescopes and SLR cameras?

Question

I'm looking to buy a decent telescope that will connect to a laptop computer, can have a Nikon D60 DSLR camera mounted through it to take photos of what I'm looking at and that has decent specs.

I own the laptop and the camera already, I'm just looking for the telescope and the piece that connected the camera to it. And I'm looking to spend under $1000USD.

What are some good options?

Answer 1

You've got some tough choices., because you haven't said that you have a mount.    You need a mount with tracking.

Before we go off on refractors, I have to point out that the cheap refractors suffer from chromatic aberration.   That means certain colors cannot come to focus and will cause fringing (purple and blue, typically) in your exposures.  But how to get where you need to go for $1 k?  

There's a double booby trap here.  If to reduce costs you get a small telescope you will have to increase your exposure times, and the cheapness of the mount will come back to bite you.  If you get a larger optic the cheapness of the mount will still bite you because now you can cut your exposure times but the mount will be less stable under the heavy load.  

Summing it all up, you need a mount with tracking.  

I will give it my best shot.  

The mount should be a Celestron ASGT.  The telescope should be something like the Astrotech 66mm f/6. It's an ED and will reduce false color.  That's if you go with a refractor.  The other good choice, and less expensive, would be an inexpensive Newtonian such as the Star Blast 4.5" or the newer Star Blast 6".  Both can be put on the ASGT mount.  

The reality is that first rate imaging takes $5,000 to $10,000.  However, the challenge is in meeting your budget here.  So I would suggest giving Highpoint Scientific a call and telling them you are interested in either a 66mm  Astrotech or a Starblast 4.5 or 6 inch Newtonian for photography (there is a Star blast photographic optical tube) on an ASGT mount given your budget constraints.  Listen to everything they tell you and take notes.

Then spend $12 and join astromart.com which is the world's center of used equipment with 80,000 members.  You can pick up an ASGT for as little as $400 and that will leave you more room for your optic, which you can also buy used.  The $12 you spend on a once only fee will save you hundreds of dollars.  There are also dozens of discussion groups where you can ask for opinons about "imaging on a budget" and there will be people there who have used your specific camera.

Hope that helps,  

GN

Answer 2

At the right time you can get a good Celestron for less than $1000. I have a Meade reflector I got for less than that, but I find it a bit shaky.

Answer 3

if you want to do astrophotography, there is nothing available in your price range. not only do you need a telescope, you need to be able to point it at the sky, hold it steady, and track with arc second precision.

this costs money - and if you don't know what a t ring is, you should spend it elsewhere.

Answer 4

You will not get suitable kit for astrophotography at that price, and you are going about it back to font.

You should start with the Mount, then the Telescope then the Camera.

Not many people use Nikon anyway, as they are not good at astro work, over 90% of DSLR astrophotographers use Canons, but they both need to be modified to have the IR filter removed to make them capable of useful Ha wavelengths. Also DSLRs have a lot of electronic noise which means you will have to learn a lot about digital processing too.

I reckon you would need to spend about US$ 5000 as a minimum to have a mount and Apo telescope that would be suitable for larger bright objects.

You would be better off if you had bought a CCD camera as these are designed for astrophotography. You will also need many other accessoties, but this will push the price up to about US$10,000.

Forget about doing it for US$1000, and expect an extremely steep learning curve before you even start..