SingAstro

Hi all,
I am a newbie in astrophotography. I would like to learn more about it before I spend $$$ amount to buy those expensive DSLR camera. I am interested in taking those "milky way' photos using my old Sony DSC H50. What kind of investment and equipment should I buy ? Please advise. Any tips?
Thank you
Rapheal

rapheal wrote:Hi all,
I am a newbie in astrophotography. I would like to learn more about it before I spend $$$ amount to buy those expensive DSLR camera. I am interested in taking those "milky way' photos using my old Sony DSC H50. What kind of investment and equipment should I buy ? Please advise. Any tips?
Thank you
Rapheal

Hi Rapheal. Welcome to the forum!

I am not an expert in astrophotography. So just sharing my 2 cents and hopefully the experts will share theirs.

You camera can exposure for 30 seconds max. Good enough to take decent milky way shots. But for better ones, you may need a camera that can expose longer (e.g. 2 mins and above).

Longer exposure means stars will trail. So the next issue to take care of is tracking. You can DIY a barn door tracker or buy commercial products like Astrotrac (http://www.astrotrac.com) or Vixen Polarie (http://www.vixenoptics.com/mounts/polarie.html).

Then you have to take care of cooling solutions to reduce the noise from such long exposures. And of course, a good steady tripod. Read the Astrophotography subforum here for more info.

In case you have not visited this site yet, check out The World At Night (http://www.twanight.org).

Good luck and looking forward to see your first milky way photo!