Telescope adapter

[SeeingEyeHuman]

Hey everyone i have a nikon D40x and a MEAD reflector telescope... i have heard that camera/telescope adapters exist and i would love the ability to photograph what i see through my telescope... especially considering that there will be two comets this year (comet Pan-starrs and comet ISON) would love any information on these adapters as well as your expirience with them.

 

[brunerww]

Hi SeeingEyeHuman - Sounds like you need a $34 Meade 07356 Camera Adapter and a $7 Nikon to T-Mount adapter. Make sure to use your D40's remote release to minimize camera shake.

Hope that's helpful, and good luck with your astrophotographs,

Bill

 

[SeeingEyeHuman]

wow that price is much more reasonable then i expected... thanks for the info.. i am curious though... lets say that the moon fills the picture but i want to zoom in on a peticular crator... would i need a different adaptor to achieve this? or does it screw into whatever lense i have like a filter?

 

[BrianV]

The Meade reflector scope does not Zoom.

The Telescope Adapter takes the place of the Eye-Piece, the Meade acts like a lens. I have the Meade 1000/11 scope and used it with my Nikon film cameras.

Be sure to buy a T-Mount adapter that states it is for use on a Modern camera as the one linked to. Older T-Adapters, pretty common on Ebay and used camera stores, made for Manual Focus cameras will JAM on the Electrical connections for the lens. "Ask me how I know"....trip to Nikon for the OLD T-Mount adapter to have a hole drilled through it...

 

[SeeingEyeHuman]

my vocab on this subject kind if stinks so its hard for me to articulate the question im trying to ask... do they make different adaptors for different levels of zoom and if they do what are the different levels... right now looking through the scope i can see 4 of jupiters moons and faint cloud lines only perceptible if i really strain my eyes... just checked the lens on the telescope and its a "meade super plossl 26mm lp multi-coated" lense... i would like to have the equivalent to this eyepiece as well as one that zooms in more for planets

 

[480sparky]

You camera will act like a single eyepiece... no way to 'zoom' in other than the crop in post or use more powerful scope.

You don't use any eyepiece when mounting the camera.

 

[pgriz]

As Sparky and Brian already noted, the telescope does not "zoom", and the magnification you get with the eyepiece is meaningless as the camera, when attached, IS the "eyepiece". So your magnification is determined by the diameter and the focal length of your telescope main lens/mirror.

The other issue you will face is that the atmosphere is usually unsteady, and all objects in the telescope will have a bit of atmospheric jiggle to them. Experienced optical observers have learned to wait for moments (and they are moments) of good seeing to observe the detail. When using cameras, it is very common nowadays to use a bunch of relatively short exposures which are then processed and stacked. In the processing, all frames with blurred images (due to the atmospheric jiggling) are discarded, and only those frames with clear images are used. The stacking process will also serve to minimize the random noise that appears in each frame.

Some references that may help you are below:
Astrophotography - SkyandTelescope.com (General reference for Astrophotography from a well-known astronomy magasine)
Forums - Astro imaging - Astronomy Community (another astronomy magasine)
Digital SLR Astrophotography Tutorial (kinda complicated, but this is where you go when you really want to be good at this)
Camera and Photography forum | Cameralabs • View topic - Easy Astrophotography with normal DSLR equipment (a forum post discussing one member's astrophotography)
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-forum/223606-astrophotography-beginners.html (a TPF post discussing astrophotography)
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ving-trouble-succeeding-astrophotography.html (another TPF post discussing astrophotography)
Stuart's Photography & Astrophotography (site of occasional TPF poster "astrostu")

 

[480sparky]

..... When using cameras, it is very common nowadays to use a bunch of relatively short exposures which are then processed and stacked.........

I use Registax.

 

[BrianV]

my vocab on this subject kind if stinks so its hard for me to articulate the question im trying to ask... do they make different adaptors for different levels of zoom and if they do what are the different levels... right now looking through the scope i can see 4 of jupiters moons and faint cloud lines only perceptible if i really strain my eyes... just checked the lens on the telescope and its a "meade super plossl 26mm lp multi-coated" lense... i would like to have the equivalent to this eyepiece as well as one that zooms in more for planets

The magnification that you see with your eye is "about" 40x, computed by the focal length of the primary lens divided by the focal length of the eyepiece. So a 1000mm focal length of the lens divided by thr 26mm eyepiece. To get a 100x magnification with the scope, buy a 10mm eyepiece.

http://www.telescope.com/Astrophoto...iversal-Camera-Adapter/c/4/sc/61/p/101417.uts

The best quality images are attained by removing the eyepiece and using the camera in place of it. HOWEVER: there is also "eyepiece projection" adapters. Leave the eyepiece in place, use a special adapter for the camera. essentially, the telescope and eyepiece project the image onto the camera. I have not done this myself, just use the camera in place of the eyepiece.