Imaging Equipment
Canon EOS 300D
This is the camera I use for all my Deep Space work including galaxies and nebulae. One of the best digital SLR's for astrophotography with relatively low noise and capability to save to raw files uncompressed. It has automatic modes as well as full manual control which I use pretty much exclusively as it allows long exposures of >30s in bulb mode when used with a remote trigger. My camera is not modified and still has an IR filter though this can be removed to improve red response for bringing out the details in some nebulae. As it is an SLR you can attatch various lenses as well as telescopes though I mainly use it with the 300mm lens(also on this page). The sensitivity/gain can be adjusted by changing the iso setting from 100 to 1600, though for my position and light pollution levels I usually use 400 or 800. It is possible to take pictures remotely using a pc interface though I don't do this in the field. Images are taken at exposures of ~1min then stacked ontop of each other to improve the siginal to noise ratio(SNR) and build up an equivalent longer exposure(see stacking article for more).
Canon EF 300mm F/4 L
This lens is most used bit of equipment I own other than my camera, the lens was bought second hand off ebay for about £300 quite good value when you consider the amount of quality glass in it. With 77mm aperture it gives equivalent light grasp of an 80mm refractor with good correction at the edge of field. This lens is one of the sharpest ever made from canon and is apparently sharper than the new image stabilised(IS) version due to the lower quantity of elements. The L designates canons professional series of lens, this means it is solidly build with high speed autofocus(can even be used on stars for quick focussing)