Astrophotography Fundraiser Results!
In July of 2024, I ran a fundraiser through PayPal to help me purchase some specialized equipment for doing astrophotography. The reason for the fundraiser, and the reason for the shift in focus of my photography from travel photography, was due to my worsening orthopedic health related to my former military service. You can read in more detail about this here.
The fundraiser ran for the entire month of July. With the help of several supporters, I raised a total of $530 with which to purchase some specialized equipment for astrophotography, and a few items that can also be used for other types of photography as well. In order to make the most of the money donated, much of the equipment was purchased used through various websites. Here’s what I bought with the donated money.
Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
The Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi is a motorized, computerized equatorial GoTo tracking mount for astrophotography. With proper polar alignment, this mount follows the apparent motion of the stars, allowing for very long exposures of night sky objects without the blurring or star trailing that will occur in even shorter exposures without using an equatorial mount. This allows more light to be collected by the camera sensor at lower sensitivity settings, leading to clearer images with less electronic noise.
Additionally, this mount has GoTo functionality, mean that once aligned, you can pick from it’s very large database of night sky objects an the mount will automatically direct the camera at the selected object. As you can imagine, this will make a HUGE difference from trying to locate very distant, very faint objects manually, not to mention the time saved as well.
It’s capable of supporting up to 11 pounds of gear, so it’s very capable of handling my current gear, and allows for room for upgraded gear in the future.
This mount retails new for an average price of around $600. I found and bought a used one from Amazon for $395.
Kase Clip-in Filter Neutral Night Light Pollution for Canon RP
The Kase clip-in Neutral Night light pollution filter fits in my Canon EOS RP camera body in between it’s sensor and the lens. Filters are designed to block specific wavelengths of light from reaching the camera sensor. This particular filter blocks the most common wavelengths of light caused by man-made light sources such as street lights. The result is significantly less visible unwanted light in the resulting image.
The amount of light pollution in a given area is rated on the Bortle Scale. Ratings go from 1, which is a near pristine dark sky with virtually no light pollution, to 9, which is is near total light pollution such as in the inner city. My location is rated at Bortle 4, which is suburban/rural transition. It’s fairly dark, but there is still a decent amount of light pollution, especially from a car manufacturing p[lant about 7 miles from me. Having this filter will allow me to cut out some of the light pollution that is present, resulting in clearer resulting images.
This filter retails for around $70, and was bought new through Amazon.
Tamron SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4 Lens
The Tamron SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4 Lens is a vintage, fully manual lens first manufactured in 1983. The SP designation stands for “Super Performans” and was given Tamron’s top of the line lenses of the time. It’s optical quality is excellent. It’s focal length range from 60mm-300mm allows for a range of options for the selection and framing of many differently sized objects in the night sky. It’s aperture range goes from f/3.8 to f/5.4 is decently wide to allow in enough light to image somewhat faint objects.
This lens can be used for other types of photography as well. It’s minimum focus distance of just over 6 feet and it’s zoom range makes it useful for some macro photography, and it’s longer focal lengths can be useful for bird and other wild animal photography.
This lens is easily found on the secondary market for $33-40. I purchased my copy for $33 from Used Photo Pro.
K&F Concept Adaptall 2 Mount to Canon RF Mount Adapter
K&F Concept Adaptall 2 Mount to Canon RF Mount Adapter allows met to attach lenses that use Tamron’s Adaptall and Adaptall 2 mounts, such as the lens above, to my Canon EOS RP and Canon EOS R7 camera bodies.
Adapters like this are made for nearly any lens mount and camera, which opens up many options for astrophotography and photography in general.
There are many great lens options in the Tamron SP line that would be useful to me, and having this adapter makes them all a viable option in the future.
The adapters vary in price depending on the lens mount and camera combination. This one I bought new directly from the manufacture for $34.
The items above total to $532, plus in some cases some additional taxes or shipping, which I covered. In addition to this, I also bought some needed accessories such as a remote shutter release cable to allow the mount to control the camera’s shutter, a dummy battery for the Canon RP to allow for it to be continually powered so I’m not limited to the camera’s battery life, and a dew heater to keep the lens warm to prevent fogging of the lens during long night shoots outside.
All in all it was a very successful fundraiser, and I did my best to make the most of the donations and make it go as far as possible. I truly appreciate everyone who donated or shared the fund raise. I can’t thank you all enough!
If you missed the fundraiser and would like to donation, you can make a donation directly through my PayPal account.
***I man earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of my links.***
