Telescope Buying Guide

bastian915 asked:


Hi, I’m getting a telescope for the first time (an Orion StarMax 102) and it is coming with a german equatorial mount [em-8] and a celestron motor autoguide. I’m very much interested in doing astrophotography with it but where I’ve never owned a telescope before I’m not sure how to get it lined up so the motor drive will track properly. I’ve looked at a website online and it seemed rather complex in the way they worded it. I’m also not quite sure about how to take pictures with my camera. I currently own an olympus om-10 and an olympus E-300 digital camera and can get a t ring for it so I can connect them to the scope but i’m not sure about focussing. again I found a website but it seemed rather complex. I’m thinking I should use my om-10 as the exposure times are quite long and so the noise on the digital camera would be out of this world. Any ideas for a newby to astrophotography.

I disagree! asked:


Now don’t offer me different settings! I want to go out on a trip with my small telescope and shoot some mountains during the day and I am not going to carry a laptop and batteries for those CCD asto cameras and stuff!
I should say the money is an issue.
I looked through some camera bodies but the adapter I was thinking of won’t work with them…

Gaurav S asked:


I am an amateur at astronomy. For the past few months i have been reading books on star gazing and night sky. Now I want to start star gazing on my own. can anyone tell me where i can buy a good telescope from?

Kainkin asked:


I have a Canon Digital Rebel XTi with the standard 18-55mm lens that has an aperture of 3.5-5.6 I think and was wondering what is the best setting for that camera and lens combination to get the best results for taking pictures of the night sky (in terms of shutter speed, aperture, white balance, etc.). I do have a tripod but it is not equipped to move with the planets–no equitorial mount if that is what it is called. Also, I would like to get an inexpensive but still nice additional lens that may be better suited for astro-photography without a telescope, any suggestions?

fallenkitten asked:


I have a telescope and a tripod for that but i’m in to photography and I don’t have a tripod.can I use the tripod for photography instead of for my telescope?

water_skipper asked:


What’s the cheapest telescope with a camera mount? I want to put a Fujifilm camera on a telescope. Fujifilm cameras work with Nikon lenses. It’s an SLR obviously. I don’t have any specific needs. I want want something fun to play with so I want to spend as little as possible.

drsprite asked:


I have a Canon 30D and would like to hook it up to some sort of telescope to help get some good close ups.

What do you suggest?