Camera Labs

Hello everyone help please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I live in the North of Thailand and have always wanted to start taking photos of the stars. Everything here has to be imported to order, takes at least 2 months to arrive and is Very expensive after customs have added their bit. So any mistakes in ordering the wrong or unsuitable equipment has to be avoided.
I have already bought a canon 550d dslr (18mp) to use with the telescope. and had more or less decided to order a Celestron NexStar 8SE with gps. However, i read on Amazon that the scope is too lightweight to mount the camera and that a cpc is much better. Anyone have any comments please?

I have the Nexstar 4SE and don't know how it compares to its bigger brother, but I've used it with 50D and 7D without major problems. The only annoyance is that there is a clutch in the mount (in up-down direction) which can slip if there is too much weight at the wrong angle. It is hard to keep it balanced the more you attach.

Locally to me, the price of the CPC 800 compared to 8SE is not that much more, and the mount of the CPC looks more sturdy.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Hi Simon. For astrophotography you would benifit heavily from getting a scope with an equatorial wedge mount, as opposed to an alt az mount like the cpc or nextar. The tracking mount is really more important that the optical tube when imaging.

It's the tracking. Tracking will be much less of a strain on the mount, and will be much more accurate with an eq mount like this:
http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php ... ProdID=541

This setup shouldn't have any problems supporting the camera's weight.

Be sure that you polar align correctly. I don't know if you have any experience with astro imaging, but polar alignment can be a little tricky in the beginning depending on your exposure time. A .63 focal reducer/corrector could make things easier as well.

The Nexstar 4's mount has a wedge built in, although I haven't looked at the higher models in the range or CPC to know if they have it too.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

The 4SE is the only one with a build in wedge, the others do have wedges (sold separately) but almost nobody has liked that setup. It's better to just go with a mount that's equatorial to begin with like 901skennon said.

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--Zoeff
Panasonic GH2 user
My photos can be found on flickr.

For whats its worth I would consider looking at a German Equatorial Mount (GEM) and reflector which can be picked up reasonably cheaply.

A GEM is going to be far better than and Alt Az for AP and celestial tracking and you can get them with GoTo Built in and more expensive models have ports for guiding should you seriously get into AP.

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Lee Diggle
My Astronomy Blog | My Photography Gallery