Cepheid:
Hey,
I was just wondering whether anyone had any recommendations for a startup camera for doing some astrophotography. I own a pretty small refractor telescope and was looking to photograph some stars and constellations.
Almost any kind of camera will work, some with more limitations than others. A simple point and shoot digital will work for afocal lunar and some planetary images, However, for anything else you really want a Digital SLR. If it is a 35mm SLR then you're going to want a mount with tracking abilities even for simple star and constellation shots. In that case any 35mm SLR will work. What you don't want is one that requires the use of a battery to operate the shutter. Olympus OM cameras are some of the more popular for film astrophotography. With a little luck you should be able to find one relatively inexpensive. These days everyone is switching to digital.
You didn't say what kind of mount you own, or what kind of budget you plan. Nevertheless if you want pictures of stars and constellations, when it comes to digital then cameras like the Canon Digital Rebel XT or XTI are good choices.
As for the size of your telescope, that's not as important as the mount. For star fields and constellations you don't need a telescope. Just a good camera and lens and you can get nice shots of the contellations in 30 seconds with a DSLR on a tripod.
Taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XT(350D) without telescope or mount. Just the 18-55mm lens and a small camera tripod.
Anything more than that you will want a good mount with tracking. With film it would have taken much longer to capture that above image. And if I were to only use a simple camera tripod then star trailing would be much more evident.
http://cs.astronomy.com/asycs/forums/t/19319.aspx
Have A Nice _________