Top Ten Deep Sky Astrophotography Gear List For Beginners

In this video I list ten pieces of deep sky astrophotography gear and accessories you should consider for your space journey!

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
02:08 The Mount
04:23 Telescope
06:30 Auto-Guider
08:25 ASIAIR
11:07 Light Pollution Filter
13:11 Astro-Modification
15:00 Duel Narrowband Filters
17:14 Power Solutions
19:45 Dew Heater
20:54 Bahtinov Mask
22:14 Outro

Mounts:

Telescopes:

Autoguiding:

Astro-Modification

Duel Narrowband Filters
Optolong L-Enhance
Optolong L-Extreme

Power Solutions
Dummy Batteries are camera specific. You'll need to search for a dummy battery for your camera model

Dew Heater:

Bahtinov Masks are specific to your lens or telescope. I recommend going to Ebay and searching for a Bahtinov mask with your lens filter thread size, or your telescope's aperture size.

[ScandalBeats]

Hundreds of hours spent on YouTube, watched all these channels trying to understand at least 1% of what’s going on in astrophotography even before I took my first shot. Got to say this, no one explained it better than you what all these accessories and gears do. Thank you!

[amodedoma]

I have the Redcat 51 and I LOVE it. Sharp well defined images with no chromatic aberration and it comes with a bahtinov mask. It's mounted on a Canon M50 and guided by Skywatcher AZ-GTI. I've been controlling the mount by wifi and the camera by bluetooth on my cellphone and the experience has been just amazing. My first photo was the lagoon nebula, just a 20 second exposure at ISO 3200 and it was just incredible there it was on the camera screen!

[grortyphx]

This is so useful! Your videos are so informative and straight-forward (funny, too). Thank you for spending your time so we can benefit from your experience, it's truly appreciated Walt!

[angelriper]

I just bought an redcat 51 and a heq5 and waiting for clear skys.I really like your channel and videos because you explain everything very simple.thanks a lot

[barrymak]

Just an FYI for those looking for power solutions. If you don't want to shell out the $400+ for a power pack, Talentcell makes mini power bricks that put out 12v power, and has enough amperage to power your camera. It wont have enough to power a full rig with just one, but even if you buy 1 for the mount and and guider and 1 for the camera you are still coming in at about 1/4 the cost of the big battery.

[xandergreer]

thank you thank you thank you thank you! you’ve answered so many of my questions! thank you for the detailed explanations and for leaving all the links finding this information in one place is surprisingly not easy. i respect all of your hard work you put into these videos.

[grortyphx]

The auto-guiding tutorial is a great idea! I'm about to dip my toe in that pond, so seeing you go through it will be sure to help me make decisions.

[pzellerphoto]

I am new to this hobby and just starting. Thank you so much for this great overview and summary. I took me nearly four week to collect all the information you just put together into this great video. Thank you!

[amithir]

I have been watching Astro explainer videos for years and this is the most easy to understand and follows a logical step-by-step process for beginners . Thank you very much!

[guillermohernandez-ching]

Thanks for this concise video.  
If I was looking for a way to start, your video eliminates years of trial and error selecting the gear.

[davidpippin]

Love the content. I grew up in Greenville just a shot down the road from you. Just getting into the hobby and your videos are a tremendous help. Thank you!

[jackbuchanan]

Recently got my camera astro modified and got a clip in H-alpha filter. Amazed with how powerful that combo is in a bortle 4-5 zone!

[swagonman]

Very nice video! Some comments: 1) Fujifilm cameras pass Ha red without modification. 2) I saw someone else’s video on dual narrow band filters, and they said that reflectivity of the filter causes halos around bright objects/stars if the filter is close to sensor. So clip-in filter might not be so good. I just bought the new SVbony 2” filter and a step-down filter adapter to attach it in front of my camera lens. It works well. The adapter ring was on Amazon, but took long to ship from Germany. 3) New cameras often have USB charging port, which you could connect to a basic battery bank. That would be cheaper/better than buying a dummy battery. 4) ASIAIR has power distribution built in. But I do like that humidity sensor with that little box you have.

[ianmacdonald]

As always Awesome!
I watch out for every video. I have the SWSA mount, a Samyang 135mm lens and a Skywatcher 72ED. My Canon 600D is Astro-modified and I use the same L-Pro filter. I’ve taken some great images but strive for better. I have for some time had the desire to upgrade to a Go-to mount and step into autoguiding.

This summer I ordered the ZWO mini guide scope, camera and the AA+. My priorities were to be able to more more easily find targets and take longer exposures. I was enthralled with your video using the AA.

I think I now need to familiarise myself with what I’ve just bought which in the northern UK is never easy during the summer with very little astronomical darkness. I’ve also added a declination scale to my mount and created an ‘Hour Angle’ chart courtesy of a fellow YouTuber (BobCo Astro). I should now get very close to what I want to find and use the AA+ to plate solve.

As autumn approaches I’m eager to get out and use it all ……… clouds allowing.

Maybe then a GOTO mount? But the rabbit hole is deep and I need to be able to balance what I already have with regards to the UK weather and the opportunities to use what I have.
Thank you so much for what you do 🤝

[marcusjancewicz]

Hey there, this is actually for your C11 video. I have pretty much the same setup but only just getting into AP and your video was really really really helpful. Thank you, Marcus in Florida

[hotflashfoto]

This is really good info. I've been struggling for 4 years (on and off) to get my EQM35 and Nikon D500 running from a laptop, but just can't seem to get it to happen. So I bought the ASI Air Plus.

I'm not sure I like it much. It does not have any means to control the aperture of my lens, and the shutter speeds available go only as fast as 1/1000, whereas my camera can go to 1/8000. This is helpful when doing solar imaging, but the complete lack of aperture control forced me to unplug the camera from the device, set the aperture, plug it back in, and then tell the device that it was plugged in and what it was! Hardly a very smart device, if you ask me.

It looks like I may be in line to buy an APO 'scope and a dedicated ZWO camera, but I'm trying not to do that if I can avoid it.

[jackbernstein]

Great video. My wife asked what I had and the answer was…. all except the ASIAir (it is on indefinite back order). I think that the AT60ED is also a worthy small wide field scope. It’s price point is great and I am very happy with the quality of the images I get. The Pegasus box seems interesting but is listed as the ‘micro’, not the ‘mini’. My Bahtinov mask doesn’t get used much since I focus using Backyard EOS, which I feel is wonderful software.

[bakerfx]

Great video! Thanks

Also, the Jackery power stations on Amazon are actually pretty awesome. I have the Jackery 300!

[leezbtv]

I found your channel and have enjoyed your videos. You make astrophotography accessible and understandable. One small request--a lot of your links in this video (one of the most useful!) point to OPT, which has since gone out of business. An updated list would be amazing! Thank you!

[LM-ekhb]

Pretty good top ten list. I think I might have included Pixinsight and SharpCap. Excellent to point out that an APOchromat is almost a must for imaging. Hopefully viewers won't make the mistake of seeing an achromat for such a low price and thinking it's the same thing! Happens in the club all the time :)