I want to begin astrophotography but don't know where to start?

I want to start astrophotography but I don't really know what equipment is required. I already have a vixen custom 60-l telescope and a Nikon camera, when I'm observing I use a diagonal and Barlow lens. So I want to know what do you need to connect the camera to the Barlow lens and is there any other equipment that could enhance my experience?

Sorry you didn't get any answers yet.

I assume that your Nikon is an slr. You need an adaptor. It's called a T adaptor that will allow you to connect your camera, minus lens, to the eyepiece tube of your telescope (after removing the eyepiece).

You need a very steady mount, and a very clear night. You will need to experiment with exposures. I have done this sort of thing with a film camera years ago and got good results. I haven't tried it with a digital camera.

If your camera is not an slr, you will be in trouble. It is still possible, but as well as worrying about the stability of your mount, much fiddling will be required to line everything up and get the focus right.

Most Nikon DSLRs are fine for astrophotography (a few early models were dodgy). I don't know about the scope, but remember you can use your camera lenses too.

First, get the book "Making Every Photon Count".

Then, you want the best and most solid equatorial mount you can afford. The mount needs to track the stars to high precision as they appear to move; any flaws will blur your images when you're taking exposures that are many seconds or even minutes long. It's absolutely the most important part of any astro imaging setup.

Ok… Seems your telescope will not be good for anything, 60 mm refractors on cheap mounts will be unusable.

You should read up or join an astronomy club.

You can put you camera on a tripod and shoot time exposures of the sky. See what you get.

Next step up is to use some kind of tracking mount under the camera, look up "barn door tracker"

You can shoot bight objects - moon - planets, through a telescope without a tracking mount but the Vixen 60L will simply fall over if you try to attach a DSLR to it. This is where joining a club comes in handy, you need advice before you start buying equipment.

I've pointed a camera through the eyepiece of a non-tracking scope and gotten pictures of the Sun (filter), Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn a comet, and the North Star - Polaris with Polaris B. I've got a widget that holds the camera to the eyepiece. It's better than hand holding.

http://www.telescope.com/...uctId=5228

Hint. When you press the shutter button, it moves the camera, widget, telescope, etc. So i use the 10 second delay on the camera to give the system some time to settle.

This isn't very serious astrophotography.

I would try it without the barlow first, with low power, and with bright objects.

The other thing to try is talking to locals at an astronomy club, in person. No matter what you think you're doing, someone has already done it. The learning curve is faster if someone can see what you're doing and suggest.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations

I'm sorry but you need a better telescope. The 60mm are not enough to take astrophographies.