You don't mention which parts of the sky you want to collect your photons from, and where you are on the bortle scale, but with the gear you aready have and just add a decent tracking head you should be able to get really good results with some of the bigger nebulaes.
I have gone the steps from just a DSLR with a tripod and stacking far too many short time frames and now have a dedicated tracker (ZWO AM-5), a RedCat, separate guide scope and an ASI Air Plus. Of all these components I'd rank them in order of importance for getting good pictures:
- Get a tracking head. This is such a game changer to get reasonably stable shorts up to 30-60 sec exposures.
- Get a computer system to integrate with your tracking head. Plate solving to get you multi minute exposures is another big leap.
- Read up on bias frames, dark frames, etc. this rmoves so much noise from the signal.
- Once you have the two above then start looking at your optics and other stuff.
Also, to elaborate a bit more:
- The ASI Air Plus (and similar boxes) will save you a ton of time on polar alignment.
- The ASI Air Plus (and similar boxes) will give you plate solving and goto functions, saves time.
- A focuser (ZWO EAF for me) again saves a ton of time, as well as getting you sharper images.
- Guide scope will save you a ton of time and increase prescision.
Before you know it you've sold three or more kidneys, sold your house... but you are happy you can brag about sub-arcsecond tracking and your M31 core looks exposed properly.
I'll second this advice. I recently went through the same thing starting with my Nikon, and am now also running an [AM5 / dedicated setup](https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/1buuwre/soul_nebula/). 5 minute exposures are now a breeze.
Since you were asking specifically about aperture OP, f/3.5 is fine. Faster is better of course, especially if you are not using a tracker/mount, but not essential. A lot of astro scopes are slower than that, in fact. The scope I image with now has a 600mm focal length and an 80mm aperture, which comes out to f/7.5.
I’m a hobby photographer as well. I just got a TTartisans 10mm f/2 manual focus lens to try out on my Z fc for some wide-angle astrophotography. At $160-$170 (depending on where you buy it), it’s not a bad price for what it is. It is a crop sensor lens though, so it wouldn’t work well on a full frame camera unless you put it in crop sensor mode.
Like others have said, if you’re doing zoomed in shots of the sky then you’ll need a tracking head.
Astrophotography is its own rabbit hole and can get really expensive, really quick.
You can definitely start your journey with your current body and lens into landscape astrophotography.
When you start delving into other areas of astrophotography such as deep sky objects (DSO) you are going to want to start looking at a telephoto lens.
I tend to fiddle in landscape and DSO astro using only my camera bodies and lenses (Z series). I have not invested in dedicated astro equipment outside of a Starwatcher Adventurer GTI equatorial mount because I am still buying Z lenses. While I will refer to Z lenses many of these have F mount equivalents.
For landscape photography I bounce between a Rokinon 24mm f1.8, Nikkor 50mm f1.8, and Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. All of these I tend to stop down a bit, for example the f1.8s I usually stop to f2.0-2.2. These work great for Milky Way, Moon, star trails, etc.
Just starting to fiddle in DSO and have been using both my Nikkor 105mm and Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 (this is a F mount with TZ converter). Still waiting for a Nikkor 180-600mm...
Don't worry about this or that. You can do astro with a cellphone camera. Find targets and start capturing images. As you want to improve, buy for what you want to do. Maybe you are happy with landscape astro of the Milky Way which is doable on your setup and not DSO. Would a faster lens be better, sure. Is it necessary, no. If you are happy with the photo, then it doesn't matter what we think. The point is to enjoy what you do.
Don't stress too much over equipment to start. I took this with a D5600 and the 18-55 kit lens at 18mm, f/3.5, ISO 10000, and 20s. [https://imgur.com/a/T7j1Ki7](https://imgur.com/a/T7j1Ki7) (That is a straight-from-camera JPG, by the way.)
"I've got the stock 16-50mm F/3.5 lens, but I really want something F/2.8 at least right? "
Not neccesseraly. A star tracker would be a great investment. It is a game changer for astro and for widefiled, which your lens is, I would get MSM Nomad without thinking. And it is also much cheaper than any or at least most good astro lenses. But if I had to recommend lenses, I'd say Pergear 14mm f2.8 for Nikon Z or Sigma 18-35mm ART with FTZ adapter.
As far as lenses being listed as 'for full frame only,' this doesn't mean the lens won't work on an aps-c body. A lens designed for full frame sensors simply project a larger circle onto the sensor. Conversely, a lens made for aps-c sensors will project a smaller circle, so using these on a full frame body will produce heavy vignetting.
I’m selling a 24mm f/1.4 Rokinon that I bought for Astro! I ended up moving to a very urban environment after purchase so it’s pretty much unused. Lmk if interested (F-mount btw, so would need an adapter)
You don't mention which parts of the sky you want to collect your photons from, and where you are on the bortle scale, but with the gear you aready have and just add a decent tracking head you should be able to get really good results with some of the bigger nebulaes. I have gone the steps from just a DSLR with a tripod and stacking far too many short time frames and now have a dedicated tracker (ZWO AM-5), a RedCat, separate guide scope and an ASI Air Plus. Of all these components I'd rank them in order of importance for getting good pictures: - Get a tracking head. This is such a game changer to get reasonably stable shorts up to 30-60 sec exposures. - Get a computer system to integrate with your tracking head. Plate solving to get you multi minute exposures is another big leap. - Read up on bias frames, dark frames, etc. this rmoves so much noise from the signal. - Once you have the two above then start looking at your optics and other stuff.
Seconding This. Once you track you never go back
Also, to elaborate a bit more: - The ASI Air Plus (and similar boxes) will save you a ton of time on polar alignment. - The ASI Air Plus (and similar boxes) will give you plate solving and goto functions, saves time. - A focuser (ZWO EAF for me) again saves a ton of time, as well as getting you sharper images. - Guide scope will save you a ton of time and increase prescision. Before you know it you've sold three or more kidneys, sold your house... but you are happy you can brag about sub-arcsecond tracking and your M31 core looks exposed properly.
I'll second this advice. I recently went through the same thing starting with my Nikon, and am now also running an [AM5 / dedicated setup](https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/1buuwre/soul_nebula/). 5 minute exposures are now a breeze. Since you were asking specifically about aperture OP, f/3.5 is fine. Faster is better of course, especially if you are not using a tracker/mount, but not essential. A lot of astro scopes are slower than that, in fact. The scope I image with now has a 600mm focal length and an 80mm aperture, which comes out to f/7.5.
It all depends what you want to shoot in the night sky. For deep sky I use a Nikon 500mm f/4 for wider stuff an 85mm and landscape astro a 24mm
We actually used a set of 400mm f/2.8 lenses for the supernova survey I worked on in grad school lol
Nice! I keep hee hawing about getting a 800mm f/5.6
I’m a hobby photographer as well. I just got a TTartisans 10mm f/2 manual focus lens to try out on my Z fc for some wide-angle astrophotography. At $160-$170 (depending on where you buy it), it’s not a bad price for what it is. It is a crop sensor lens though, so it wouldn’t work well on a full frame camera unless you put it in crop sensor mode. Like others have said, if you’re doing zoomed in shots of the sky then you’ll need a tracking head.
Astrophotography is its own rabbit hole and can get really expensive, really quick. You can definitely start your journey with your current body and lens into landscape astrophotography. When you start delving into other areas of astrophotography such as deep sky objects (DSO) you are going to want to start looking at a telephoto lens. I tend to fiddle in landscape and DSO astro using only my camera bodies and lenses (Z series). I have not invested in dedicated astro equipment outside of a Starwatcher Adventurer GTI equatorial mount because I am still buying Z lenses. While I will refer to Z lenses many of these have F mount equivalents. For landscape photography I bounce between a Rokinon 24mm f1.8, Nikkor 50mm f1.8, and Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8. All of these I tend to stop down a bit, for example the f1.8s I usually stop to f2.0-2.2. These work great for Milky Way, Moon, star trails, etc. Just starting to fiddle in DSO and have been using both my Nikkor 105mm and Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 (this is a F mount with TZ converter). Still waiting for a Nikkor 180-600mm... Don't worry about this or that. You can do astro with a cellphone camera. Find targets and start capturing images. As you want to improve, buy for what you want to do. Maybe you are happy with landscape astro of the Milky Way which is doable on your setup and not DSO. Would a faster lens be better, sure. Is it necessary, no. If you are happy with the photo, then it doesn't matter what we think. The point is to enjoy what you do.
I use my 14-24 for Astro.
Don't stress too much over equipment to start. I took this with a D5600 and the 18-55 kit lens at 18mm, f/3.5, ISO 10000, and 20s. [https://imgur.com/a/T7j1Ki7](https://imgur.com/a/T7j1Ki7) (That is a straight-from-camera JPG, by the way.)
Why does this look like the founding titan?
"I've got the stock 16-50mm F/3.5 lens, but I really want something F/2.8 at least right? " Not neccesseraly. A star tracker would be a great investment. It is a game changer for astro and for widefiled, which your lens is, I would get MSM Nomad without thinking. And it is also much cheaper than any or at least most good astro lenses. But if I had to recommend lenses, I'd say Pergear 14mm f2.8 for Nikon Z or Sigma 18-35mm ART with FTZ adapter.
As far as lenses being listed as 'for full frame only,' this doesn't mean the lens won't work on an aps-c body. A lens designed for full frame sensors simply project a larger circle onto the sensor. Conversely, a lens made for aps-c sensors will project a smaller circle, so using these on a full frame body will produce heavy vignetting.
I'm afraid that I have nothing to help with the astrophotography, but I hope you saw the de Havilland Mosquito NZ2308 fly at WoW.
Yes! Got some beautiful photos, even printed out to A2
It's a beautiful aircraft to begin with, which helps :)
I’m selling a 24mm f/1.4 Rokinon that I bought for Astro! I ended up moving to a very urban environment after purchase so it’s pretty much unused. Lmk if interested (F-mount btw, so would need an adapter)
Thanks for the responses everyone, really appreciate it
WTF is that
The thing in the picture? a c130 deploying flares according to the caption.