Digiscope?

[Guest i-am-kloot]

Hello to all,

 

Newbie here again!. 

I have had some lovely views of the moon and saturn over the last few weeks and wondered what your thoughts on digiscoping as an inexpensive way to capture some of the sights.

I have virtually no money to spend after the purchase of my new telescope (celestron nextstar 130 slt) so was looking for some advice on a very inexpensive set-up for my sony point and shoot camera, advantages/disadvantages or even if the results would be worth it?, in your experienced opinions!.

 

Regards.

Mick.

 

[T A WOW]

Hi. I use my smartphone for taking photos in my scope. You just hold the lens to you eyepiece and click away. It can be a bit frustrating, it shouldn't be to bad for you though as your scope tracks.

If you can stretch any money get one of these

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/skywatcher-universal-camera-adapter.html

Here is a pic i took of Saturn a while back.

And one if Jupiter.

Edited May 21, 2013 by T A WOW

[Guest i-am-kloot]

Thanks Tobias,

 

Those images are amazing for saying they were simply held to the eyepiece and taken with an iphone......I will try it with my camera on the next clear night!.

 

The camera mount is a great idea and a lot cheaper than I imagined a gadget of that sort........ may stretch to that on payday!!.

 

Thanks again.

Mick.

[Brantuk]

For imaging planets most folks use a webcam. For imaging deep sky objects (dso's) it's more common to use a DSLR or a Ccd astronomy camera.

But reasonable results can be achieved on moon and some planets using a hand held camera to the eyepiece as seen above. There's a whole range of gadgets for attaching cameras to telescopes either at prime focus or afocally through the eyepiece.

Anything in the solar system can be shot from an alt/az mount - anything else needs an equatorial mount - and in either case you would need a right ascension (RA) tracking mount with an electronic motor at very least.

There's also a host of software techniques you can use for processing images - fortunately most of the specialist software can be obtained free to download.

The size and type of telescope chosen is very important and a lot depends on exactly what you want to capture - and ultimately budget.

[Guest]

I find it is the best way of getting a photo of the whole lunar or solar disc. I enhance the technique by taking lots of shots (usually 15+) and stacking the best ones. A bracket helps but I've even managed to get credible 8 second exposures of deep sky objects without one.

[Brantuk]

I'm always amazed how good a shot can be obtained with hand held cameras. I've even seen a total newbie hold a phone camera up to the eyepiece and got incredible results. It's deffo worth trying every which way.

[Guest i-am-kloot]

For imaging planets most folks use a webcam. For imaging deep sky objects (dso's) it's more common to use a DSLR or a Ccd astronomy camera.

But reasonable results can be achieved on moon and some planets using a hand held camera to the eyepiece as seen above. There's a whole range of gadgets for attaching cameras to telescopes either at prime focus or afocally through the eyepiece.

Anything in the solar system can be shot from an alt/az mount - anything else needs an equatorial mount - and in either case you would need a right ascension (RA) tracking mount with an electronic motor at very least.

There's also a host of software techniques you can use for processing images - fortunately most of the specialist software can be obtained free to download.

The size and type of telescope chosen is very important and a lot depends on exactly what you want to capture - and ultimately budget.

 

Thanks Kim, thats interesting

 

I will be honest, you have lost me on a few of the technical terms here (when I say newbie, i really mean it, lol) but the webcam thing is very interesting and something else I had not thought of. I can get my hands on a webcam from a work colleague who lives for everything technical,  this will allow me to experiment with both.

My telescope does track, but exactly how I'm not sure. I can align it to the stars and the solar system!.

 

At the moment its more about learning where things are in the sky and my son is interested as well but more often than not, by the time I get something in the eyepiece he is fast asleep in bed so it will be nice to show him a photo in the morning!.

 

Regards.

Mick.

[Brantuk]

I don't know about all webcams Mick but the popular ones used for imaging are the Toucam Pro (very old model) and more recently the Philips SCP880 or SPC900NC. All are discontinued but make very good astro cams if you can find one second hand.

 

You can get a nosepiece adaptor for them which allows you to slot it the scope where the eyepiece normally goes. Or you can pop a barlow in between the cam and scope to get a bit of magnification. If you want to see any of the kit involved you'd be welcome to drop over here any time and I can take you through it all.

 

This is the kinda thing - just unscrew the lens and screw one of these in and you've got a basic imaging camera:

 

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/125-nosepiece-to-webcam-lens-thread-toucam-pro-spc900nc.html

 

[Guest]

There is quite a learning curve with webcams. I came into it late for financial reasons but more and more practice using a telescope and afocal projection will do you no harm at all. I sometimes think there's still techniques out there I can use but haven't yet found.

[Guest i-am-kloot]

Thanks Kim and Phil,

 

Theres a lot of good advice there to be going on with.  As you have both indicated, I may as well experiment with my digital camera first before I get too carried away, and I do have a hell of a lot of learning to do in the meantime in the sky and my telescope!

 

Cheers.

[Guest]

Thanks Kim and Phil,

 

Theres a lot of good advice there to be going on with.  As you have both indicated, I may as well experiment with my digital camera first before I get too carried away, and I do have a hell of a lot of learning to do in the meantime in the sky and my telescope!

 

Cheers.

Don't worry, all of the people I look up to as experts admit they're still learning. It sort of makes it fascinating.