EQUIPMENT
TELESCOPE
A standard astrophotography setup would need at least three main components, a telescope, a camera and a tracking mount. The configuration I use for capturing the night sky is composed mainly of the above plus a guiding telescope, a small laptop and a anti dew heating system.
The optical system I use is a fast 8” (200mm) Newtonian carbon fiber telescope with a focal length of 900 mm (F4.5) manufactured in the UK. Additionally I have flocked the interior tube and upgraded the spider support for the secondary mirror.
CAMERA
A dedicated astronomy camera is the way to go when it comes to high quality astrophotography. The main feature of theese cameras is that they can be cooled to 35 degrees bellow tha ambient temeprature. This will basically enable pictures to be less "noisy" and more data to be captured.
The camera I use is a color CMOS camera that uses a Sony 4/3 sensor with aprox 12Mpixels.
The camera is usable only connected to a PC using dedicated astronomy software such as the one I use, AstroPhotographyTool.
MOUNT
The mount is a mechanical assembly that tracks the telescope so that it compensates for Earth's rotation. There are three main components: the mount head which contains the motors and electronics; the counterweights which are used to balance the telescope and the tripod. So basically the main features are to support the telescope weight, deviate as little as possible to the relative rotation of the sky and easily align to the celestial pole (polar allign).
The mount I use, the Skywatcher AZEQ6, does all of theese beautifully. I also control the mount with my PC using EQMOD and Stellarium.
GUIDING
The second telescope is used to precisely guide objects in the sky. This is only a simple refactor telescope and a cheap CMOS camera.
Together they snap on a random star and detect any tracking deviations relative to this star. These deviations are transmitted to the mount and corrections to tracking are made every split second.
ANTI DEW
When humidity arises, lens and telescope mirrors will certainly start forming dew on their surface.
To counteract this I use a simple and cheap dew heater system composed of a adjustable controller and heated strip bands which wrap the sensitive areas.