could anyone provide a recommendation for a telescope that would allow for video to be recorded while using it? thank you
Are you doing terrestrial or Astronomy applications? The choice of telescope should reflect the application of the telescope, not the camera equipment. The camera equipment for telescopes is universal - that is, that the CCD camera that I use on my Spaceprobe 3" is also useable on a 60mm Refractor, or a 6" Reflector, or even a 24" Obsession telescope. Telescopes vary and can serve in a wide variety of niches. Similarly, the CCD cameras for it vary in wide ranges of price, quality, and capability. Sorry, but we need to know these things before we can give you some good suggestions. Oh, and don't give up on your topic so quickly. We all have other things we do, and post here when we have time. I'll get back to you by this evening for sure if I just get a bit of input from you.
My initial impression is to go with an inexpensive 60mm Refractor, and grab an inexpensive Meade Electronic Eyepiece, Orion CCD, or Galilero CCD Camera.
CCD camera and barlow eyepiece Does anyone know if you can use a barlow eyepiece with a CCD Camera Dribler I like the SpaceProbe 130 EQ Reflector with a 5.1" primary mirror from Orion, I find it a little more handy than the Space probe 3'' + it is now on sale for $179, but if you get anypowerful scope be sure u get an astrotrack or something so that objects dont float out of view, however if ur going to use it for terestrial purposes and not astronomy, u wont need an astrotrack
You can use a barlow with a CCD - sometimes you absolutly have to just to get the darned thing in focus!
Also there is an eyepiece on the market wich you can connect to a tv, so also to a vcr. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005QWZ4/103-8961694-4727836?vi=glance that one
CCD Camera A CCD camera from orion or other companies are just regular eyepieces and it comes with a yellow video cord, you plug one end of the yellow cord into your ccd eyepiece, and the other end into the "Video IN" plugin on your vcr or tv, thats how most work. however ive heard that most ccd "live" cameras are 'pos's, and you would probably be better off buying a 35mm or 50mm camera and buying a mount and mount the camera in front of your eyepiece and take still pictures
The bigger the telescopes aperture is, the fainter the objects it can see. This has to do with how sensetive to light it will be. The human eye is a good example. The eye has a pupil which allows more light in to your eye or less light as conditions demand. Do you notice that when you first wake up in the morning, you are highly sensetive to bright lights? This is because your eyes are used to being in the dark, and so your eyes are used to letting in more light so that you can see in the dark. After a few minutes, your eyes adjust of course and you can see just fine. But, you will also notice that if you turn out the lights like you did before, the room looks very dark you cannot see many of the things you were able to see before you turned the light on the first time. This is because your eyes adjusted to having more light. The eye adjusts by letting in more or less light as conditions demand. The inside of the eye has what is called an IRIS - it is basically a hole which can be made larger or smaller to let in more or less light as you need. When you turned the lights on, the Iris closed up so that less light gets to the optic nerve (the cell that creates the image your brain sees). When your eyes are adjusting to night-time or a dark room, the iris opens so that more light can be let into the eye. The same basic principal - that the amount of light being let in determines how faint an object can be seen, applies to any optical system from cameras, to microscopes, and of course, telescopes. Thus, the bigger the telescopes aperture: that is the size of it's primary or front lense in refractors, or the mirror in a reflector, determines how faint an object it can see in ideal circumstances - that is, interfearance from other light sources, ect. If you are looking in someone's window from long distance, then you might want to look for something with descent grasp, like say a 70mm refractor. If you are trying to look into a dark alley you might want something bigger like a 100mm.
