Best lenses for APSC astrophotography?

NoQuarter72388 wrote:

Hey ya'll,

I recently joined the Canon camp by jumping on their refurb deals on the T6i, I got it with their 18-55 and 55-250. So far very impressed with the camera, although I'm still a newbie. At this point I plan on learning with these two lenses to determine the focal lengths I want most, but I know for a fact that I need one or two lenses specifically for astro. What are your recommendations? I'm interested in both milky way/landscape type stuff as well as moon/planet/deep space astro (I know I will have to invest in an expensive mount for tracking).

Thanks for any advice and happy new year to all.

Welcome, and congrats on the new camera.  It's a fine choice (that's one killer deal currently!).

If you google Astrophotography, you'll find that there is a very large (and helpful) community out there.  They can help get you pointed in the right direction.

For wide-field astrophotography, you might want a wider angle lens, though you're OK for starters.  The larger the max aperture the better.  A sturdy tripod and remote release are must-haves.

For shooting celestial bodies, the more reach the better.  I'd look at something that gets you out to 500 or 600mm, plus you'll want to add a 2x teleconverter on top of that (unless you plan to mount to a bonafide telescope).  Lens speed isn't absolutely critical (but helps), as you'll be stacking exposures most of the time (for noise reduction).

That equatorial mount you mention will be key esp when shooting anything beyond the moon.  If you want to shoot the sun, there are some very specialized filters for that (be very careful though).

For some great moon shots do a google image search for "Liquidstone moon".  He posts around here on Dpreview as "Liquidstone" (Romy Ocon).

Hope this helps some.  Specific lens recommendations depend on your budget and prefences.  Holler back if you've got a budget in mind.

R2