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Camera on Telescope

Started by stevebedder, January 08, 2012, 06:18:47 PM

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stevebedder

Hi

Has anyone any experience of telescopes and in-particular mounting a Canon EOS onto one?

I'm looking at possibly getting a telescope but want to get one that I can mount may camera on so I can get some pictures. I know I will need a T-mount to attach the camera but wondered about the additional weight and how this will affect stability.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations of telescopes that you have used for taking pictures of the night sky?

Thanks a lot

Steve

Hinfrance

I know someone who does this with a Canon. I'll email him and see if he has any info. I know that he uses a cassegrain 'scope because it is easier to carry about.
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stevebedder

That would be great, thanks Hinfrance  :tup:

I've been looking at a Celestron Omni XLT-150 - but to be honest, that's only because I found some pictures on Flickr that were taken with this telescope and its what our local telescope shop seem to be pushing.

Thanks again

Steve

Hinfrance

Email sent. I'll let you know what reply I get. Don't hold your breath though, he's a bit busy so it might be a few days. :)
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The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil. H.L Mencken.

Oldboy

Quote from: stevebedder on January 08, 2012, 06:29:47 PM
That would be great, thanks Hinfrance  :tup:

I've been looking at a Celestron Omni XLT-150 - but to be honest, that's only because I found some pictures on Flickr that were taken with this telescope and its what our local telescope shop seem to be pushing.

Thanks again

Steve

Read this: http://homepage.mac.com/joebergeron/omni150.htm

Read an article some time ago, that to get the best photos from a telescope you shot use a webcam. http://www.orion-xt10.com/philips-spc900nc-webcam.html or http://www.davesastro.co.uk/techniques/webcams1.html The advantage of these is the pictures can be directly output to a computer.  :tup:

Cathus

I was considering this a couple of years ago and did a bit of research. Most people were saying it is really important to get a solid platform to put your telescope/camera on, almost as important as the telescope you buy.

Anyway, as it turned out I bought a new camera and didn't have any money for a telescope so that's on the back burner for a while.

I got lots of friendly advice and help over at the AstroChat forums http://astrochat.co.uk/forum

Hinfrance

It's true that a solid mount is important, preferably an equatorial, but if you are not touching the set up during exposure most mounts won't move. More of a problem is that the heavens are not static, so anything more than a short exposure will lead to blurring of stars. Then you move up to the need for both a solid mount and a motorised tracking system.

The Pentax K5 GPS unit moves the camera sensor to track stars, but obviously there is a limit to how much movement can be accounted for. I expect that Cankons will have some similar ability.

You need quite a healthy wallet to do this seriously.
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The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil. H.L Mencken.

Paul Montgomery

I've had a limited amount of success mounting my D700 on a Skywatcher telescope.
As said up there ^^^ the best results I've had have been holding a web-cam up to the eyepiece. The shot of Jupiter in my flickr stream used around 5 seconds of video from a small 720p Sony cybershot with the frames stacked by some free software. By comparison, there's a rather disappointing image of saturn taken with the slr in there too...

Using the slr presents a few issues -

you need to mount it - as you say a T ring mount is available for most cameras. My mount takes the telescope eyepiece internally so you keep the magnification that gives.

Balance isn't a major issue as most mounts come with adjustable weights to balance everything out.

Due to the high magnification, things appear to whiz past at a fair old rate - even with a high ISO, you'll be pushing it  to get a shutter speed faster than 1/250 s. Ideally you'd want slower, low ISO images - this is where a tracking mount comes in - more expense....

Hope that jumbled collection of random thoughts helps...

Mick

Steve, just browsing Warhouse express and checked out their Astronomy section while I was there.  http://www.warehouseexpress.com/list/?key=latest-astronomy-offers

Also found a range of camera adaptors whilst I was looking. http://www.warehouseexpress.com/camera-adapters/b3004  ;)
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stevebedder

Cheers Mick.

I popped over to the AstroChat Forums on Cathus's recommendation and had a some good advice from one of the users. Although I'm still a bit unsure as to which telescope will give the best results for my budget.

There's a specialist telescope shop not far from here so I'm going to pop down to have a chat with the guy and see what results different telescopes give.

I just don't want to get one and then be disappointed because our expectations were too high.

I found some pictures on Flickr that have been taken using a DSLR attached to a telescope and some are stunning, but some are not so stunning  :-[

Will let you know what I find out from my visit to the shop (which will probably be that my budget doesn't fit my expectations :2funny:)

Steve


Oldboy

Quote from: stevebedder on January 14, 2012, 04:04:25 PM

I found some pictures on Flickr that have been taken using a DSLR attached to a telescope and some are stunning, but some are not so stunning  :-[

Steve

I think you will find that the stunning shots were taken using a expensive telescope.  ???

stevebedder

Hence my final comment OB...  ;)

"Will let you know what I find out from my visit to the shop (which will probably be that my budget doesn't fit my expectations)"

Markulous

Youngest has the Celestron Omni XLT-150 and now she's at Uni we're thinking of nicking it for our Canons!  :tup:
We found an excellent shop in Manchester who gave us all the info and showed us various results - best were from the Philips SPC900 (which hasn't been made for years but you can still find) and used with stacking software. Results were from some guy who was shooting through light/smoke pollution when he couldn't even see his subject!
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Hinfrance

Finally got a reply from my astronomy loving contact (I told you he'd not be quick).

Here it is. But you'll note he completely forgot to mention what telescope he uses  :uglystupid2:

"Ah hello!

I use a Canon EF/S-T2-Ring Converter (http://www.telescopeplanet.co.uk/marumi-t2-ring/491) and a 1.25inch T2-Ring Adaptor as my scope is 1.25inch exit aperture.

The T2-Ring screws into the camera lens mount and then the T2-Ring Adaptor into that and then the whole assembly goes into the scope.

Best method for focusing is to get a lightpath splitter (http://www.opticstar.com/Run/Astronomy/Astro-Accessories-Imagers-Opticstar.asp?p=0_10_5_0_3_20) or if you are feeling flash then use a connected laptop like I do as focusing through the camera eyepiece is a rather eye-strain inducing nightmare.

Also for taking snaps I either pre-focus on the laptop and then move the scope around and use a wireless shutter release to take the shot or again, if feeling flash, use the laptop to control the camera exposure.

If he is using an EOS canon then the software comes bundled for the laptop control."

Not sure if this is of much assistance. But hopefully it's not completely useless to you.
Howard  My CC Gallery
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The theory seems to be that as long as a man is a failure he is one of God's children, but that as soon as he succeeds he is taken over by the Devil. H.L Mencken.

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