Telescope camera mod

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2009/11/06 @ 2:15 pm
Category Art & Design, Photography & Video, Science

Craig Smith sent us these pics and note:

My telescope is low end in the scope-world, a 60mm refractor. But I discovered the eyepiece is the same size as my digital camera telephoto lens. My digital camera is low end in the camera world, too, a 3.2MP. But put them together with a custom PVC sleeve aligning lens-to-eyepiece, and I’m getting awesome moon shots. Here is the moon on 11/5/09. I added a camera support arm also, a quick adjustment of the tripod leg’s wing nut, and I’m all aligned to photograph the skies.

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3 Responses to Telescope camera mod

Michael Covington on November 6th, 2009 at 3:23 pm said:

Nice setup! Now a couple of suggestions:

(1) Minimize vibration. Try different shutter speeds. You might even add a dark filter so that you can open the main shutter for perhaps 1 second, and in the middle of that, use a piece of cardboard handheld in front of the telescope which you move away for only 1/4 second or so.

(2) Use RegiStax software (free at registax.astronomy.net) to sharpen the image.

Michael Covington
Author, Digital SLR Astrophotography and other books

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Craig on November 6th, 2009 at 7:29 pm said:

Thanks for the tips. I do plan to get a nicer scope, something like a 5″ reflector. Perhaps our 10MP will work with that. Also I have no moon filter or city light filter. Funny thing is with my cheaper camera, the one plus second delay between pressing the button and the picture being taken always cheesed me, but with the telescope mod, that delay lets the vibration/movement cease between pressing the button and picture taken.

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Anonymous on November 7th, 2009 at 3:57 pm said:

Nasty chromatic aberration!

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