How much does astrophotography cost? Realistic budgets from $500 to $10,000

4 November 2026 · 5 min read

Astrophotography can cost almost nothing or as much as a car. What decides it is the kind of imaging you want, and whether you buy parts in an order that avoids replacing them. Here's what each stage really costs, part by part.

Prices are rough ranges in US dollars for new gear in late 2026. They vary by country and change often, so treat them as a guide to proportions rather than quotes.

The short version

Then add $100–300 of small things at every stage, and the cost of travelling to darker skies if you want to.

Part by part

Mount: $350–3,000

The part to spend on first.

• Star tracker: $350–600. Carries a camera and lens, or a tiny astrograph.
• Small worm-gear equatorial mount (10–13 kg rating): $1,000–1,600.
• Strain-wave mount of similar capacity: $1,500–2,500, lighter to carry.
• Medium mount (18–20 kg rating, for SCTs and bigger refractors): $2,000–3,000.

Used mounts in good condition are common and usually sell for 60–75% of new. Ask for a guiding graph or a recent image taken with it.

Telescope or lens: $300–2,000

• A good used camera lens (135 mm or 200 mm prime): $150–500.
• Mini astrograph (135–250 mm): $300–800.
• Small flat-field apochromat (50–80 mm, 250–450 mm focal length): $700–2,000.
• Newtonian astrograph (130–200 mm): $600–1,500, plus a collimation tool.
• Separate flattener or reducer, if the scope doesn't have one built in: $150–400.

Camera: $0–4,000

• The DSLR or mirrorless camera you own: free. An astro-modified one (with the IR filter changed) costs $400–900 used.
• Uncooled colour astro camera: $250–600. Good for small sensors and as a guide camera later.
• Cooled colour (one-shot-colour) camera: $900–2,000 for 1″ to APS-C sensors.
• Cooled mono camera: $1,200–4,000, plus filters and a wheel.

Guiding: $200–500

A small guide scope ($80–250) and a mono guide camera ($150–300), or an off-axis guider ($150–400) for long focal lengths. Guiding software (PHD2, or the guider built into your capture software) is free.

Filters: $0–2,500

• No filter, or a UV/IR cut: $0–100.
• Dual-band filter for nebulae from a city: $200–500.
• Narrowband set (Hα, OIII, SII) for a mono camera: $600–2,000, more for larger sizes.
• Filter drawer or wheel: $100–500.

Controller and software: $0–500

• A laptop you own: free, with free capture software such as N.I.N.A. or KStars/Ekos.
• Raspberry Pi kit: $100–200.
• Mini PC: $200–400.
• Dedicated controller (for example the ZWO ASIAIR): $250–400.
• Processing software: Siril, GraXpert and DeepSkyStacker are free. PixInsight costs about $300 once.
• An electronic focuser: $150–400. Not essential, but most people buy one sooner or later.

Power and dew: $150–800

• Dew heater strips and a controller: $80–200.
• LiFePO4 battery or portable power station (500–1,000 Wh): $250–700. Mains power is free if you image at home.

The small things: $100–300

Bahtinov mask, cables and a powered USB hub, a flat panel (or a white T-shirt and a tablet), a red torch, dew shield, a case. These are easy to forget in a budget and annoying to be without.

Where to save, and where not to

Save on:

• The camera, at first. A DSLR you already own produces lovely images on a tracker or a small refractor.
• The controller. Free software on a laptop or a Raspberry Pi does everything a beginner needs.
• Used refractors and mounts. They last for decades if looked after.
• Filters. Most beginners don't need any. Buy one when you know what you want it for.

Don't save on:

• The mount. A mount at its limit wastes every other part. Buying one size up is cheaper than buying twice.
• A flat field. A scope without a matching flattener gives stretched stars at the edges, which no processing fully fixes.
• Compatibility. The most expensive mistakes are parts that don't fit: a filter wheel with no room in the back focus, a controller that doesn't support your camera, filters too small for your sensor. Check the whole rig in the rig builder before ordering anything.

Example budgets

About $700: a star tracker, the DSLR you own and a used 135 mm lens. Andromeda, Orion, the Pleiades and the summer Milky Way.

About $3,000: a 60 mm flat-field apo, a cooled APS-C colour camera, a small equatorial mount and a laptop.

About $5,000: a 400 mm astrograph, a cooled colour camera, a guide scope and camera, a dual-band filter, a Raspberry Pi controller and a LiFePO4 battery.

All three, with the parts that make them work together, are in the best beginner astrophotography setup.

Hidden costs

• Dark skies. If you live under a bright sky, fuel and time for trips to a dark site add up. A dual-band filter makes nebulae possible from home and often pays for itself.
• Clear nights. In many climates you get a handful of usable nights a month. A rig that's quick to set up gets more of them, which is worth more than a better telescope you rarely use.
• Storage. A night with a modern camera can produce 20–60 GB. An external drive is a sensible early purchase.

Questions

Is astrophotography an expensive hobby? It can be, but it doesn't have to be. A tracker and a camera you own produce real deep-sky images for well under $1,000, and the next steps can be spread over years.

What should I buy first? The mount, or a star tracker if you're starting with a lens. Everything else depends on it.

Do I need to spend more to image galaxies? Usually, yes. Most galaxies are small, so they need longer focal lengths, a steadier mount and guiding. Start with nebulae and the biggest galaxies, and plan the longer rig later.