What type of telescope is best for astronomical photography (college student budget)?

You just have no idea what you're getting into! Astrophotography with a telescope is by far the most technically difficult and most expensive part of the astronomy hobby. You'll need to spend a thousand bucks for a motor-driven equatorial mount, another thousand bucks for the telescope, and then another thousand bucks for the software to process the images. And that's a bare minimum. What you need to do is forget about a telescope, and instead build a simple scotch mount for your camera and concentrate on wide field imaging of the sky with the camera's own lens. Even for visual observing the little Celestron reflector is the bare minimum, probably good for a few nights viewing before you find yourself longing for something bigger. This is strictly a VISUAL telescope. Its simple mount will not track the stars, and the mount is too light-weight to even attach a camera for simple Moon photography. Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner's telescopes: http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telescope.pdf http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington's Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley). You'll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these: http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~VIEW_INDEX=0/~VIEW_SIZE=1000000 http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106 Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don't buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy. Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley).

You just have no idea what you're getting into! Astrophotography with a telescope is by far the most technically difficult and most expensive part of the astronomy hobby. You'll need to spend a thousand bucks for a motor-driven equatorial mount, another thousand bucks for the telescope, and then another thousand bucks for the software to process the images. And that's a bare minimum. What you need to do is forget about a telescope, and instead build a simple scotch mount for your camera and concentrate on wide field imaging of the sky with the camera's own lens. Even for visual observing the little Celestron reflector is the bare minimum, probably good for a few nights viewing before you find yourself longing for something bigger. This is strictly a VISUAL telescope. Its simple mount will not track the stars, and the mount is too light-weight to even attach a camera for simple Moon photography. Here are a few web pages with good information on beginner's telescopes: http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0702_Buying_a_Telescope.pdf http://www.scopereviews.com/begin.html http://observers.org/beginner/j.r.f.beginner.html For more advanced information, read Phil Harrington's Star Ware, 4th edition (Wiley). You'll get the greatest value for your money with a Newtonian reflector on a Dobsonian mount, such as these: http://www.telescope.com/control/category/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=telescopes/~VIEW_INDEX=0/~VIEW_SIZE=1000000 http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/product.php?class1=1&class2=106 Buy from a store which specializes in telescopes and astronomy, either locally or online; don't buy from department stores, discount stores or eBay as mostly what they sell is junk. Find your local astronomy club and try out different telescopes at one of their star parties: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/community/organizations I strongly recommend that beginners steer clear of astrophotography until they have learned their way around the sky. Astrophotography is by far the most expensive and difficult area of amateur astronomy. Many people who buy telescopes have no idea how to find interesting things to observe. A good introduction to finding things is NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly). A more advanced book is Star Watch by Phil Harrington (Wiley).

what i would do is up the budget because 100$ is going to get you no place accept for a crappy one

At best, you can use you camera to take star trails with a wide angle lens. To keep costs down, you can get an older wide angle lens (24mm or thereabouts) that has a Pentax screw mount (also known as a M42) and an adapter plate that connects the M42 to the Canon EOS system. http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-manual-lenses/ You will loose your electronic focusing and exposure control, which is not needed since your taking pictures that are minutes long. For crude guiding you can make what is called a barn door mount (also known as a Scotch or Haig mount) http://www.jlc.net/~force5/Astro/ATM/Barndoor/barndoor.html If your handy with a soldering iron and basic hand tools, you can make your own shutter control cable - http://martybugs.net/photography/remote.cgi http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/dslr/CanonRelease.html Or purchase one - http://www.amazon.com/YN-Shutter-Release-Digital-Cameras/dp/B002W4Z7E6 One other thing to consider is power. invest in a couple more batteries for the camera and maybe a camera grip that holds two batteries for added power - http://www.yallstore.com/phottix-builtin-grip-for-canon-350d400dxti-bge3-p-31310.html For more information on astrophotography - http://www.covingtoninnovations.com/dslr/EOS300Dastro.html

You really can't get a decent telescope for less than a few hundred, and you're going to pay more for one you can attach a camera to - not to mention the camera itself. Have you looked into whether or not your college has any telescopes you can use? Many schools have their own observatories of some sort.

Sorry, you're not going to be able to do it for $100. For $100 you can build yourself a 'barn door tracker' and use your current lens to take some long exposure shots. But if you want to use any magnification over 10x or so, you're going to need a decent tracking mount - that's a few hundred bucks right there. And if you want to attach a telescope, just the t-ring and t-adapter are going to set you back $50, and no $50 telescope is worth taking pictures through.

Sorry, you're not going to be able to do it for $100. For $100 you can build yourself a 'barn door tracker' and use your current lens to take some long exposure shots. But if you want to use any magnification over 10x or so, you're going to need a decent tracking mount - that's a few hundred bucks right there. And if you want to attach a telescope, just the t-ring and t-adapter are going to set you back $50, and no $50 telescope is worth taking pictures through.

You really can't get a decent telescope for less than a few hundred, and you're going to pay more for one you can attach a camera to - not to mention the camera itself. Have you looked into whether or not your college has any telescopes you can use? Many schools have their own observatories of some sort.

all these answers are great, I think giving her something with alot of thought- like decorating her room, or breakfast in bed. Then later in the day take her to get a pedicure. they only range from about $20-$45, any woman would love it (: