[Lvas] (no subject)

[paul erickson]

2008/2/19 Marc Levy <marclevy at gmail.com>:

>  I am new to astronomy and would like to attend one of your next meetings.
> Any advice on buying a scope that has the ability to take photographs (DSLR)
>
>
Hello Marc,

A simple setup can be cheaply made or purchased that allows you to take
photos of the night sky with just your photo tripod, camera and available
lenses without purchasing a telescope.  That might be a good way to whet
your appetite and get going while you learn some more about scopes and the
hobby in general.  This simple setup is called a barn door mount and can be
quite effective for lenses up to a few hundred mm in focal length.  I did a
quick google search and this was the first URL in the list that shows the
device I am talking about.

http://www.homebuiltastronomy.com/barndoor/index.htm

A few pieces of wood, a hinge, some nuts and bolts and a timer motor and you
are ready to go.  I made and used one of these to photograph several comets
over the years,and photos of the sky in general.

Photography thru a telescope for bright objects like the moon and planets
can be done to some degree of success with just about any scope since they
require fairly short exposures.  A photo T-ring and adapter that mates your
camera body to the telescope is recommended, however I have held my Canon
DLSR to the eyepiece and shot a few quick and candid photos of the moon that
came out OK.

For fainter deep sky objects like galaxies, clusters, gas clouds, etc, it
becomes more complex, mainly because you need a good, stable, well made
tripod and drive assembly which is collectively known as the mount.  Long
exposure photographs means your mount needs to track objects so an
equitorial mount should be on your list of requirements if this is your
goal.  But there are ways around this issue as well.

It is hard to recommend 'one scope' since the requirements are somewhat
different for planets than it is for deep-sky objects.  Planets are better
with long focal length optics, on the other hand deep sky objects are better
photographed with telescopes with large apertures and shorter focal lengths.

There are special gadgets called focal reducers that will take an f/10 scope
and turn it into an f/6.3.  This is the setup I have on my Meade LX-200 so
it is kind of a good fit for both worlds.

An odd consideration: night photography when it is windy means a lot of
blurry images unless you have a good mount, or shelter from the wind.

There are many possibilities so I hope this helps a little, but probably
raises more questions than anything.  It would be a good idea to go to a few
star parties and club meetings to get a better picture of what is required.
In the meantime be happy to answer more questions.

Regards,

Paul Erickson
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