ASTROFOTOGRAFIE de Alex Conu si Cristina Tinta

Our equipment
Here's a chance for you to get to an understanding of the sort of equipment we use to take our pictures. These days it's very easy to take a photograph whether it's with Mobile Phones, digital cameras or equipment like ours. We find, however to take pictures of astronomy you really need some very powerful lenses with good quality zooms. If you are interested in trying to take similar pictures then seeing what we are using will hopefully prove very helpful indeed.
Cameras
	Canon EOS 5D Maybe our most utilized camera. Full format chip and 12 MP resolution. You need good lenses to use this camera at its full potential. We're lucky enough to have few of those lenses.
	Canon EOS 30D APS-C sensor and 8MP. If we need a "longer" focal length we can benefit on the crop factor of this camera's chip. Having a smaller chip and resolution is more forgiving with optics.
	Canon EOS 300 We don't use this camera so much for astrophotography except for multiple exposure on a single film frame.
	Olympus OM-1 Maybe the best film camera for astrophotography. Small, light and almost vibration free when shooting.
	Canon AE-1 Also a very smooth camera but a little bit bulkier than the OM-1.
	Praktica MTL 5 B Alex started guided astrophotography using this camera. Now we only use it to photograph meteors.
	Zenit E Both Alex and Cristina started to shoot the skies with this kind of camera. It's not a very reliable camera, but it's a lot better than nothing. We have 3 of these cameras and we use them for meteors. In fact all our film cameras (except the EOS300) are used only for meteors right now and very rarely for other kind of astrophotography.
	Mamiya RB67 Alex adores this camera and he could build a shrine for it. He only uses it for fashion photography but he's very tempted to try some medium format astrophotography.
Lenses
	Canon EF 50 f/1.4 USM A very good allarounder that we use a lot in astrophotography. We love wide fields. We use it to shoot constellations, meteors, conjunctions, scenic frames or atmospheric phenomena.
	Canon EF 70-200 f/2.8 L USM Even though this is a zoom lens, it has great optics. I think we picked a great copy. Alex tested some other similar lenses and they were a little bit inferior to this one. We use it to shoot deep sky objects, comets, persistent meteor trails, atmospheric phenomena or eclipses.
	Canon EF 17-40 f/4 L USM Also a good quality zoom lens. Used for wide and very wide field guided astrophotography, multiple exposures, atmospheric phenomena, conjunctions or meteors.
	Canon FD 28 f/3.5 A very sharp lens. We use it in film photography.
	Canon FD 50 f/1.8 Also a lens used for film photography of meteors.
	MIR-1B 37 f/2.8 This lens surprised us with its quality.
	Pentacon 50 f/1.8 MC A classic for many European astrophotographers. We have a few of these lenses and we use them for meteor photography.
	Jupiter-8 85 f/2 Another lens with nice optics. Used only for film astrophotography.
Telescopes
	Borg 77ED We love this light and portable refractor. A very compact and versatile instrument. We use it to shoot comets, deep sky objects and the Solar corona during total solar eclipses.
	Skylux 70/700 An achromat of decent quality. Used mainly as a guide scope but also to shoot the Sun or the Moon.
	Meade SC-200 TA Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope used mainly for planetary, lunar and solar astrophotography or as a guide scope now and then.
Mounts
	Meade LX500 Not the greatest equatorial mount out there, but it's decent. We're planning to get a new mount and an autoguider soon.
	Astro 3 We have 2 of these mounts. We use them when we shoot simultaneously with many cameras or when we need a very portable equatorial mount.
	EQ-1 We seldom use this mount as it can't hold many things. But it worked quite a lot a few years ago.
	Tripods Maybe the most important piece of accessory for an astrophotographer is a sturdy tripod. We use one that has a Manfrotto 808RC4 head and Giottos MT9370 legs. This tripod holds 10 kilos.
Accesssories
	Meade 12,5 mm guiding eyepiece It's almost impossible to guide a long exposure without using a guiding eyepiece. It has an illuminated double reticle.
	Remote cable Another vital accessory for an astrophotographer. All our cameras are fitted with mechanical or electronic remotes.
	2x Barlow lens A Barlow lens is used to double the focal length of an astronomical instrument. We use it for details on Solar, Lunar or planetary surfaces or for occultations.
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These photos are (C) Copyright 1998 - 2009 Alex Conu and Cristina Tinta. All rights reserved. They may not be reproduced, published, copied or transmitted in any form, including electronically on the Internet or World Wide Web, without written permission of the authors. Thank you for respecting the intellectual property rights!