Anybody using MFT bodies for astrophotography?

HI Bruce,

Good luck starting your astrophotography hobby, it really can be fun.  In fact I need to get out this weekend now that is it finally getting darker earlier and do some more.

Couple things I posted before but will reiterate.  Astrophotography is not really like visual astronomy.  Visually a 100 or 120mm scope would be far better than an 80mm scope, but maybe counter-intuitively that  is not the case in astrophotography.   For the scope the important things are the F-stop (aim for f6-f7), the weight (determines how big a mount you need and cost rise exponentially for good mounts based upon what load they can accurately carry ), the focuser (it's all pointless if you can't get anything in focus), and double vs triplet (personal call, a good doublet isn't much different than a low end triplet, both will serve a beginner fine, depends on your budget).  A 120mm scope is awesome for visual use but is gonna be big and heavy and a monster to mount properly for photography, I would almost say undo-able for a novice and cost at least $5000-$7000 including the scope.

It depends what you want to shoot honestly.  No single type/size scope is best for all types of astrophotography, so either need multiple scopes or determine your compromises.

Moon/Sun (with filter)/Planets - These are very bright objects and the "speed" (F-stop, usually in photography called aperture, but aperture means something else in astronomy, so confusing) is not critical.  Besides bright, the are typically small (except sun and moon).  So for planets and moon closeups you want a big scope (like an 8-inch SCT or bigger f/10 scope).  Even with a big scope, the planets will appear very small in photos/videos, but their brightness will make them easier to photograph.

Deep Space (anything besides Sun/Moon/Planets) - Telescope speed and mount stability are the two biggest material drivers to a decent photograph.  That f10 8-inch SCT is just too slow and heavy to use.  A long tube f9 refractor, while cheap is just too slow and too long (unstable) to work and optically OK for visual, but poor for imaging.  An 80mm f6 scope is just about the perfect starter, I use a 72mm f6 often.  The diameter of the lens isn't all that important.  It only matters in terms of overall magnification and honestly being a bit less magnification (wider field of view) is perfectly good for deep space and in fact better if you are not very experienced or have less than great equipment as the lower the magnification the more tolerant of tracking errors your set up will be.  Most of the targets aren't necessarily tiny, they are really really faint, like can't see with the naked eye or small scope faint.  BUT the telescope doesn't care it is faint as long as you can accurately point it in the right direction and give the camera sensor time to record enough photons to form some sort of image.   Basically the whole battle is to hold a fast scope steady enough for about a minimum of 2 minutes.  Once you can do that you just take a whole lot of 2-minute shots and stack them to equal one really long exposure.  You may be able to get away with 1-minute, and people good at this with good equipment can easily do 5-10 minutes.

You have to stop thinking as a photographer and start thinking like an astronomer.  All those great camera stores like B&H are great for camera gear, but you need to go to true astronomy sites and look at the scopes available.  I strongly urge you to buy used.  A site called Astromart is the place to look and ask questions.

I don't know how serious you are in your goals with astrophotography, but  if you want to just shoot planets, be prepared to spend at least $1000 on a  larger scope and basic style mount, used (that's are very low end number).  This scope will be completely unable to shoot deep space objects.  To shoot the deep space stuff, double that, this type scope will shoot the moon fine and can in a pinch get you some planetary shots.  If you are not willing to invest that much you can shot the moon with basic telephoto lenses for cheap or even uses a small telescope for about $350, but that is all you will be able to shoot.  You can spend a bit less, but honestly, the results are not going to be satisfactory unless you just want to have some fun and get a few "recognizable" images and move on to other interests quickly, in which case spending $3-5,000 is of course silly.  To me, the worst decision would be to try to do it partially and spend a fair amount of money, but not enough and be stuck with equipment that is neither good for visual use or photographic use and a whole lot of frustration and no good photos.

Scopes I have used and like or heard good things about that won't break the bank as a first scope:

Astrotech 72mm or 80MM

Meade 5000 800 Triplet

Explore Scientific 80mm

Equinox 80mm

Many others, but these are good ones to search for on the used market.  Make sure a duel speed focuser.

Sadly there really aren't any "out of the box" astrophotography packages, you have to sorta piecemeal it together yourself, stumbling along.  There will be a whole bunch of little widgets you need (attach the scope to the mount, attach the camera to the scope, spacers to reach focus, extra stuff if you want to start doing guided photography, which I didn't even want to get into on this level, but you will need to literally buy a second scope and camera when you reach that point, and getting to that 2-minute tracking accuracy without guiding will be impossible), eyepieces and polar alignment attachments, field flatteners (at some point)...all critical and all way overpriced.

Anyway, good luck, I am not an expert, but if you have an questions I can try my best to answer.