Hey Ray ... ive i wanted to start imaging and didnt like have the money to buy lots of expensive gear. What are the basic instruments i need ? and what programmes would i need ... i want to mainly photograph deep sky objects and also planets .. ? could you help to sow me the direction to go with it as you are the right guy to ask :) Thanks
Matt

well ... all i have is a skywatcher reflector telescope ... not sure its D-114 F-500, see im a beginner ... but a guy i know does photography and does take pictures of stars without telescopes but i think has a selection of cameras,, ill ask him what hes got and stuff and get back to you .. sorry for the useless information :/ .. lol i have a programme called Registax,
Deep Sky Stacker,
PHD Guiding ,,, CCDNAV2 ,,, are any of these useful ? ... i think my scopes SKY WATCHER 1145,... if any of this is good infromation for you ... im a total newbie ... but i will ask him what he has and get back to you .. thanks Ray :)

Well you could start by reading my article on afocal photography :http://rays-place-on-the-net.blogspot.com/p/afocal-photography.html
but you also have the option of going prime focus with the DSLR though that would depend on how good your tracking is on that scope, but for short exposure stuff planets and bright nebula you should be ok. or may be even piggy back on the scope with the 24mm lens and try some exposures, you have some great options to start with, and you will have to try exposure settings. deep sky tracker will help. Take lots of photo's say 25 and take 10 blacks load them all up into the s/ware and see how it comes out, but for DSO's you need longer exposures and good tracking. you need to do lot's of experiments first to see how your scope tracks.

Hope that helps.
Ray

Can you tell me what the name of the device which goes into the telescope were the eye pieces would and the camera at the other end .. or is that just a barlow lens ? it looks like one .. but not sure and how much they cost ? :) thanks

It's just the 25mm eyepiece