What equipment to buy for photographing and observing planets, stars. Budget ~ 7 thousand?

Question

Astronomy

There is a desire to take pictures, to observe the planets. I am considering buying either a 70/400 telescope, or a lens for a 420mm-800mm camera with a 2x teleconverter (As I understand it, this is the same barlow lens, only for the camera) It is clear that there will be no question of professional equipment. But I would like to see Saturn with its rings, if possible, not just in the form of a white dot. I would be glad for any practical advice or life experience in this subject.

Answer 1

There are not many forums for amateurs, I really hope you can easily find them. For example, https://astronomy.ru/forum/
1. A telescope - a diameter of less than 90 mm does not make sense to buy, the planets will be small, although you will see the rings of Saturn, but in poor quality. The most approximate calculation of magnification = Diameter times 2. With a diameter of 90 mm, we get a maximum magnification of 180. No barlow lens will help you, further magnification will give a blurry picture. So 70 mm is only the Moon or windows opposite))).
2. Rack (mount) - Pointing and tracking only. The telescope must guide the object. And it's not easy to choose. For example, due to the weight of the telescope.
3. Seekers - you need at least 2 of them. One can be an ordinary pipe or a magnification factor of 1-5. The second with a magnification factor of 30-50
4. Photo -

camera lens

Forget!!! The telescope itself acts as a lens !!!. It is necessary that the lens is removed from the camera, then a special ring is placed and the camera is inserted into the telescope. And it is better to need separate cameras. The cheapest (black and white) is somewhere around 5000-7000 rubles for the second finder, for the telescope itself it is better to be more expensive for 50000 rubles.
5. Software - you need it too. There are free ones.
What is this all for? To take 1 photo, you need to process 1000-1500 shots. The telescope should not stagger and should guide the planet so that the picture is not blurry due to the rotation of the sky.
I did not paint professional equipment. Pure practice. I have 90/900 - not enough)))
And we didn’t talk about eyepieces, filters, heating .... there are a lot of things)))

Answer 2

Unfortunately, in such a budget you will not buy anything useful.
Astrophotography as a hobby is very expensive. Taking into account the current exchange rate and the increase in limits on parcels, it becomes expensive to deal with it. This is complicated by the fact that in this hobby you cannot buy one universal telescope for all occasions. How much would this telescope not cost. You will have to collect different "setups" for objects of different sizes. Replacing a telescope almost always entails changing the camera to ensure the optimal ratio of lens resolution to sensor pixel, and switching from light to heavy equipment means changing the mount.
In my opinion, the initial budget for equipment, taking into account the fact that this equipment will allow you to learn and develop for a long time, will be as follows:
- 40k for a reflex telescope with an aperture of ~200mm or an apochromat with an aperture of ~80 (prices for BU from the astroforum);
- 60k for mounting;
- 70k for B&W camera;
- 20k for guiding camera;
- 20k per wheel;
- 60k for filters;
- 20k for related items: software licenses, heating/cooling, Bakhtinov's mask, anti-rust, power supplies.
Total ~ 300 thousand rubles. This is the minimum that will allow you to immerse yourself in the process for a long time, improve your skills and enjoy your hobby.
If you do not have money for such a setup, then do not buy cheap equipment. It will be a waste of time, effort and money. You also need to understand that the process of shooting is only half of the hobby. The second half is processing the result. To get acquainted with the volume of processing, I recommend watching the series "Lessons in astrophotography from Oleg Bryzgalov" from parts 1 to 6. The whole process is completely laid out there: from the beginning of shooting to obtaining the final image.
If there is no such money at the moment, but you really want to, then start collecting the setup gradually. For example, I collect equipment in my setups throughout the year, as I only shoot in the summer.
Setup assembly steps:
1) Telescope. This will enable you to see the sky with your eyes.
2) Mounting. At this stage, with the simplest manipulations, you can connect your digital household camera and try to shoot something on a color matrix.
3) BW camera. Change your household color matrix to BW with cooling and learn how to select shooting parameters.
4) Wheel/Filters, guiding camera.
5) Heating, hoods, power supplies, software.
I have been doing this for 2 years, here is one of the examples that I managed to collect this summer:

Answer 3

Write your question in this group https://vk.com/telescopes At one time they helped me choose equipment here. There is a separate topic about choosing a telescope.
You can look here This is the site of the group admin. He is a very intelligent guy, you can write to him, he will advise.
An example of what you see can be found here
To be honest, for 7 thousand you will not buy anything sensible. I bought a 150mm SkyWatcher 4 years ago, plus a HEQ5 mount with accompaniment. It cost 1300 euros. Ordered in Germany. Ours is more expensive. Then, over the course of several years, I bought more different things. Something on Ali, something with us. An entry-level astrocamera cost around 10 thousand, a dispersion corrector - the same amount, a 5x Barlow lens - 5 thousand, a set of eyepieces from Ali - the same amount. Etc. etc.
In general, if we talk about astrophoto, then you need to invest, plus take a photo outside the city. If we talk only about observations, then look at reflectors with a Dobson mount. They will cost less.