I have a sony digital camera. I have a bushnell reflector telescope. What do I need to be able to take good pictures of telescope images? I am a complete amateur so treat me like a dumbass Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!...
I've got a pretty crappy digital camera too, so I guess I'll ask the same question. Can I take cool astrophotos without having to buy anything else? Also, treat me like a dumbassPlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
You can buy a Digi-T adapter from www.scopetronix.com that will mate your camera to an eyepiece. I'm going to be frank, though -- the images you're going to take with a consumer-grade digital camera and a Bushnell telescope are not going to be great, by any stretch of the imagination. - Warren
Hmmm 60 bucks. Cool thanks. Hehe, I had a feeling this was the case. I wasn't exactly expecting NASA quality pics. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Anyway, the telescope was a gift from my dad. It is uh...big. I am just learning stuff. I know the quality isn't great but I am having a tough time looking at things with high magnification besides the big ol moon. Is it because the telescope sucks or do I just need make sure I am calibrated perfectly?
Well, despite the common belief, the main purpose of a telescope is not to magnify things. In fact, many of the best objects in the sky, like the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy, are enormous! You don't want high magnification. What the telescope gives you is a larger light-gathering area, and higher resolution. Magnification is purely a side-effect. If you take a dim, fuzzy object, and magnify it, you'll get a bigger, dimmer, fuzzier object -- which is no help. Always start at your lowest power (30x-50x is "low power" to most people), and move to higher powers only in periods of excellent seeing. A general rule of thumb is that the maximum usable power for a scope is about 50x per inch of aperture. As far as calibration, if the telescope is a newtonian reflector, YES, calibration is important. The idea is that all of the optical elements (the primary mirror, secondary mirror, and eyepiece) need to be all centered around the same optical axis. This is known as collimation. To give the best views, the telescope must be collimated from time to time. The procedure is beyond the scope of what I can type here, but "collimation newtonian" should reap loads of rewards on google. Another factor is that the eyepieces supplied with your telescope are most likely of abhorrent quality. You may find that spending $50-$100 on a good eyepiece will radically improve the telescope's performance. Another factor is that you just may not be looking in the right places. Have you had luck finding objects? What have you been looking at (or for)? - Warren
Warren, Muchos gracias. I have read about some about collimation and will check into it more. A new eyepiece might be a better investment than a camera adaptor. Or would you say to just save my money for a new 'scope? I think I am just trying too great of a magnification. I will eyespot say a planet with the help of starry night...then I will find it with lowest magnify...and then immediately try & bump up to greater magnification. But any touch of the telescope at this magnification will send it veering to the depths of space hehe. I think I'll just stick to the lower mag for now...
Eyepieces are an often-overlooked part of a telescope; many people think of eyepieces like they think of car tires: necessary, but not really important. The truth is that eyepieces are half of the telescope!. If the eyepieces that came with the scope are tiny Kellners, throw them away and get something better. Planetary work does generally demand higher magnification than deep-sky work, because planets have small angular sizes. If your telescope is like many department-store scopes, it's sold as "1000x" or other non-sense to attract the eye of unsuspecting buyers. Can you tell me more about the scope? It's design, aperture, focal length, and the design and focal length of the eyepieces that came with it? How about the mount? What's it like? - Warren
Eyepieces Yeah, I have noticed that the eyepieces make a major difference in viewing. Chroot, do you have any reccomondations for a really awesome eyepiece or two?
Re: Eyepieces Well, the TeleVue Naglers and Panoptics are the best eyepieces made. They're also in the $350-$500 range each. If you're talking about "best bang for the buck," I can recommend the TeleVue Plossls, which are around $100 each. Orion, Pentax, Meade, and Celestron make decent (slightly cheaper) Plossls as well. University Optics makes a fine set of orthoscopics, but orthos have small apparent fields-of-view. In general, I would recommend you don't buy any eyepiece of more primitive design than an orthoscopic. Plossls are very cheap these days, and are great general purpose eyepieces. - Warren
It is similar to: http://www.visiongear.com/navigator2.asp?productId=95 but not as nice. I have the 78-4501: -Reflector -Eyepieces: H20mm & SR4mm -It has a mount with a weight and such. -4.5" -675X! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! My main problem I think is fine tuning the view. I never know what way I need to turn the knobs or if I should use the two position screws. Its just a basic lack of understanding how to work a damn telescope hehe. I haven't been able to find a link that explains it...and I don't know anyone that can show me...
Okay... the Huygens and Spherical Ramsden eyepices are junk. People often take the lenses out of the Huygens eyepieces, and use the carcass as a sight tube for collimation. I can guarantee you that a decent $50-$60 Plossl eyepiece will make your views much clearer by getting rid of the false color and field flatness problems inherent in Huygens and Ramsden designs. By "fine tuning the view" I think you mean "pointing the telescope." If so, learning to use your mount and slow motion controls is definitely a learning experience. Do you have a telrad or other unity-gain finder? If you can be more specific, I can try to help. Let's say you'd like to look at Saturn... what specifically do you do, and what specifically causes you problems? - Warren
Cool. Not sure what these are...yep I am just learning. Perhaps I should have said beginner instead of amateur Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I actually gotta run to dinner....I'll post more tomorrow and start a new topic. Thanks!
