Beginning astro, which 2nd hand APS-C/FF & lenses to shortlist.

MartinPrince · 18 Jul 2020 at 13:00

I'd like to dip my toe and try my hand at some Milky Way shots. I'm looking to spend as little as possible (maybe a couple hundred £'s in total) starting out though I'd like to get passable shots that I can play and improve in LR CC.

What cameras/lens should I probably be considering? Thanks.

Raymond Lin · 18 Jul 2020 at 14:08

You will need like a 24mm or wider and 2.8 and bigger lens.

something that can shoot iso1600 without falling apart.

£200 isn’t going to cut it I wouldn’t think...

SDK^ · 18 Jul 2020 at 16:20

There are loads of tutorials on YouTube on this subject - I briefly got interesting earlier this year. The lower end you can start with a mobile phone, then move up to a camera with interchangeable wide lenses that have a wide aperture and finally going up to a full telescope tracking system.
Finding an area with no light pollution is a major advantage, as is using software which shows a map of the night sky, which direction to face and what time you need to get into position.

Some useful links:

A light pollution map : https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=5.00&lat=6638075&lon=776786&layers=B0FFFFFTFFFFFFFFF
Sky mapping tool : http://stellarium.org/

Youtube

Star Photography for Beginners (Astrophotography) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNwx3xo_PVk&list=PLihzHmZVFu6tTBKFCNr9-YW58376z6bbl
How to plan, shoot, and edit the Milky Way : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMN_rpSe7MQ&list=PLihzHmZVFu6tTBKFCNr9-YW58376z6bbl&index=4&t=0s

MartinPrince · 18 Jul 2020 at 16:31

Raymond Lin said:
You will need like a 24mm or wider and 2.8 and bigger lens.

something that can shoot iso1600 without falling apart.

£200 isn’t going to cut it I wouldn’t think...

I've been looking at the Sony NEX 5N/5T/7 and have seen this go with kit lens for just over £200 and sometimes much less.

MartinPrince · 18 Jul 2020 at 16:44

SDK^ said:
There are loads of tutorials on YouTube on this subject - I briefly got interesting earlier this year. The lower end you can start with a mobile phone, then move up to a camera with interchangeable wide lenses that have a wide aperture and finally going up to a full telescope tracking system.
Finding an area with no light pollution is a major advantage, as is using software which shows a map of the night sky, which direction to face and what time you need to get into position.

Some useful links:

A light pollution map : https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/#zoom=5.00&lat=6638075&lon=776786&layers=B0FFFFFTFFFFFFFFF

Sky mapping tool : http://stellarium.org/

Youtube

Star Photography for Beginners (Astrophotography) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNwx3xo_PVk&list=PLihzHmZVFu6tTBKFCNr9-YW58376z6bbl

How to plan, shoot, and edit the Milky Way : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMN_rpSe7MQ&list=PLihzHmZVFu6tTBKFCNr9-YW58376z6bbl&index=4&t=0s

Thanks though I've got the basics of the process and have been using Photopills and Stellarium for a few years now. I'm just looking for entry level kit and glass. I've even seen how to build my own tracker but I will just be stacking ~15 images for now using Sequator.