Astrophotography Gear for the Milky Way, Deep Sky and Moon

The Milky Way asks for three things besides the camera: a tripod that stays still, a fast wide lens and a way to keep dew off the glass. A first kit is a solid tripod, the Rokinon 14mm F2.8 at about $250 and a $20 dew heater, on any camera with manual exposure. The Move Shoot Move Nomad tracker, about $260, is the next buy for sharper shots.

Galaxies and nebulae need a tracker that can carry a longer lens, which is what lets the shutter stay open for minutes: the iOptron SkyGuider Pro while it is on sale, otherwise the Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i at about $585. A smart telescope such as the Seestar S30 Pro, about $700, drops the rig and the camera and does the whole job from a phone, the Moon included. Everything else here is the gear around the camera, not the camera.

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The Milky Way kit

The Milky Way is big and faint, so the lens matters more than anything else you buy.

A fast wide lens

The cheap way in is the Rokinon 14mm F2.8, a manual-focus lens sold in six camera mounts. Rokinon’s US store has it for about $250 in Canon EF or Sony E mount, and between about $225 and $320 across its other mounts. The Series II version, about $260 to $360 by mount, adds weather sealing and a lock that holds focus at infinity through a long exposure. Rokinon says astrophotographers will love that, and for once the sales line is the reason to pay the extra. Rokinon 14mm F2.8 on Amazon

For more light, the Rokinon 24mm F1.4 costs about $370 to $500 by mount, gives an 84-degree view on full frame and lets in four times what an f/2.8 lens does. Rokinon 24mm F1.4 on Amazon

The Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN Art, about $990 for Sony E and L-mount cameras, is built around this job. Sigma lists a switch that locks the focus ring and a lip at the front that stops a heater band sliding into the picture. Its 14mm F1.4 was replaced by a new 14mm F1.4 DG Art at about $1,840, which Sigma sells by special order only. Sigma 20mm F1.4 DG DN Art on Amazon

A tripod that can take a tracker later

Any solid photo tripod will do for a wide lens. If you expect to add a tracker, buy a tripod made for one. Sky-Watcher’s Star Adventurer Tripod is about $105, and iOptron’s steel-legged one about $125. The Sky-Watcher 2i and iOptron trackers below also fit an ordinary tripod with a 3/8-inch thread, by their makers’ descriptions. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Tripod on Amazon and iOptron 1.25-inch tripod on Amazon

A dew heater

On a cold, damp night the front of the lens fogs. Sigma describes the cure as a belt-shaped heater wrapped around the lens to stop condensation forming. Move Shoot Move sells one for about $20. It plugs into any 5-volt USB power bank, has three heat levels and wraps lenses up to 13.5cm across. Move Shoot Move dew heater on Amazon

A light-pollution filter

The Hoya Starscape runs from about $42 in 49mm to about $175 in 82mm on Hoya’s US store. Hoya says it blocks part of the yellow-orange glow from sodium and mercury-vapour street lamps, and that it is not adding blue or changing the colour of the scene. Its description says nothing about LED street lighting, so find out what your town uses before buying. Check that your lens has a front thread in a size Hoya makes: Sigma’s 14mm, for one, takes only a rear gel filter. Hoya Starscape on Amazon

What a star tracker does

The Earth turns, so over a long exposure the stars slide across the frame and come out as streaks. A star tracker is a small motorised mount that sits between the tripod and the camera and turns the camera the other way at the same rate. Sky-Watcher’s has separate speeds for the stars, the Sun and the Moon.

To work, a tracker’s axis has to be pointed at the celestial pole first. Makers call that polar alignment, and they supply a small sighting scope, a laser or a phone mount to do it.

The Nomad for wide lenses

The Move Shoot Move Nomad is the lightest and cheapest here, at 430 g and about $260 in a kit with a ball head and a laser for alignment. Move Shoot Move says it follows wide Milky Way scenes, comets and deep-sky objects such as Orion and the Andromeda galaxy. For a wide lens it is all the tracker you need. Move Shoot Move Nomad on Amazon

Trackers that carry a long lens

A long lens wants an 11-pound tracker from the start. At its sale price of about $360, the iOptron SkyGuider Pro is the cheapest way to one. iOptron’s list price for the full package is $539. It carries 11 pounds when balanced, has a built-in rechargeable battery and comes with a polar scope and a counterweight. iOptron SkyGuider Pro on Amazon

The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack, about $585, has the same capacity, with Wi-Fi so a phone app sets it up, and a shutter cable that fires the camera on a programme. Sky-Watcher notes that the camera, tripod and telescope are not included. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer 2i Pro Pack on Amazon

The Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi, about $830 with tripod, also carries 11 pounds and finds the target for you. Sky-Watcher calls it full GoTo, controlled from a phone, and says it will carry a small telescope as well as a camera. The head alone is about $720. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi on Amazon

Smart telescopes, no camera needed

A smart telescope has its own lens, sensor, mount and battery in one case. You pick a target in an app and it points, tracks and adds up short exposures by itself. The trade is that the lens and sensor are fixed.

The ZWO Seestar S30 Pro, about $700, is the cheapest self-contained one we found in stock on its maker’s store. ZWO lists a 30mm lens with a 160mm focal length, a 4K Sony sensor, a second wide camera, a built-in light-pollution filter, 128GB of storage and six hours of battery in a 1.65kg body. The cheaper S30 and S50 were marked sold out on Seestar’s own store, and an S50 Pro is about $1,000. ZWO Seestar S30 Pro on Amazon

The Vaonis Vespera II, about $1,590, has a Sony IMX585 sensor behind a four-element lens, a catalogue of more than 4,300 targets, autofocus that keeps working through the night, and a mosaic mode that builds images of up to 24 megapixels. Vaonis also sells a Vespera 3 at about $2,490. Vaonis Vespera II on Amazon

Unistellar pitches the Odyssey, about $2,600, at planets as well as deep sky, with a catalogue of more than 5,000 objects and a full-height tripod in the box. It is hard to argue for at nearly four times the price of the Seestar unless planets are the point. Unistellar Odyssey on Amazon

The Moon on a phone or a long lens

The Moon is bright, so exposures are short and you do not need a tracker to get started. What you need is reach.

The cheapest route is the Vaonis Hestia at about $190. It has no electronics. Vaonis describes it as six lenses that sit in front of a phone’s camera and multiply its zoom by 25, with a free app to guide you to the target, and it names lunar craters and sunspots among its subjects. Vaonis Hestia on Amazon

The smart telescopes above also cover the Moon. With a camera and a long lens, the Sky-Watcher trackers have a lunar tracking speed that holds the Moon in the frame for a sequence of shots.

Star trails and time-lapses

An intervalometer fires the shutter again and again on a timer, which is how star trails and time-lapses are made. Before buying one, look in the camera’s menu for an interval timer, and at the tracker: Sky-Watcher says the Star Adventurer 2i needs no separate intervalometer, because it triggers the camera through a shutter cable. If you do buy a remote, match the plug to your camera’s remote socket.