How should I go about getting a digital camera mount for my telescope?


telescope
Ben asked:


I have a 900mm reflector telescope with a manual powered mount, and would like to get into basic astrophotography. Should I just bring my telescope into the camera store and ask, or is it a bit more involved to get the right gear? Where should I go?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Astronomy & Space. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “How should I go about getting a digital camera mount for my telescope?”

  1. bill Says:
    June 2nd, 2010 at 10:46 pm

    e-bay, i would think there is a attachment to a high powered telescope but i would think your digital would have to be a SLR in order to correctly attach, and be ready with some knowledge about shutter and aperture settings …. high aperture, low shutter.

    here is google’s shopping results for the item.
    “http://www.google.com/products?q=slr+telescope+adapter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=tRv6S5LJBsKblgfVmsHMCg&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CD8QrQQwAg”

    (yea, yea, i’m on yahoo using google, so what) and i guess they do not like google links so go to google and open the shopping results for the search term “SLR telescope adapter” bill

  2. Nyx Says:
    June 6th, 2010 at 2:14 am

    Astrophotography has a very steep learning curve, above and beyond what it takes to learn telescope astronomy. It does help to have the right equipment and it can get very expensive very quickly.

    However, you can do planetary or lunar photography pretty simply by using a webcam.

    That way you can dump the video into a laptop and run software that will help you in acquiring a better image -

    It does help to have a equatorial mount for the telescope so that it can counter act the rotation of the Earth. Which means that you need to know how to do accurate polar alignment. The mount and tripod need to be as vibration free as possible and having motorized tracking is a must anymore.

    Your scope needs to have a way of attaching the camera (and hold the weight) and be able to focus easily and hold focus securely. A focus mask is a huge help -

    Finally, the camera. A suitable DSLR such as the Canon XSi. Then you can use removable lenses, computer control of the camera and transferring the image from the camera to the computer.

    This is a very simple overview of the whole process. Do a little digging for Astrophotography books and tutorials to see what would work best for you. Nyx

  3. GeoffG Says:
    June 7th, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Let’s see: 900 mm = 35 inches. You will need a truck to transport such a large telescope to the camera store! Something wrong here!

    Most camera stores don’t sell couplers to use cameras on telescopes. You need to go to a store which specializes in telescopes. What you get depends a lot on the type of camera: DSLR, point-and-shoot, etc., as well as the telescope. But first, get the correct specifications for your telescope. GeoffG

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