wrote in message oups.com...
What would be considered the "minimum" equipment requirements to do
astrophotography? Is it essential to have a tracking mount, or can
short exposures be taken and then stacked?

Any advise for a newbie?

T.I.A.

Lurch

I'd appreciate comments too. I'm not a newbie, but a returnee.

From my reading, I expect stacking a CCD is fine for planetary and lunar, and not bad for the brghter nebulae.

For brighter galaxies the problem is the angular size. A 1/4 inch CCD will be looking at maybe 15 to 30 arc min. Eyepiece projection
means you lose intensity, and that means you hit the noise limit earlier, which has more impact on stacking images.

If you don't use stacking, you need (a) a realy good mount, and (b) guiding. What are the options for that.

Disclosu I'm using a smaller celestron in alt/az, not equatorial. I could wedge it, but the slack in the drive means I would not
trust tracking. So stacking is best. If I spend more money on a good mount 8 inch+, and SBIG, I can track AND look deeper into the
sky.

T.