Moon over Colorado

work2fish

I received a prime focus adapter in the mail this past week and decided to try it out tonight. So here are some photos of our favorite subject, the moon. Prime focus means that you aren't using a telescope eyepiece but are effectively using the telescope as a giant camera lens:



It was much easier to obtain sharp focus with this setup, even though I had to point the scope and camera pretty much straight up. Here is a zoomed in shot (but perhaps a bit over sharpened):


and here is what the camera/telescope setup looks like:


Under normal conditions (when the telescope is not pointing straight up ), I can spend quite a while looking at all those craters. Tonight, however, I think I'll just look at them on the laptop from inside...

Regards,
Mike

pathfinder

Did you purchase your adapter from Meade or somewhere else?

I have a Meade 90 ETX I could use this way also.

work2fish

pathfinder wrote:

Did you purchase your adapter from Meade or somewhere else?

I have a Meade 90 ETX I could use this way also.

I bought it from www.opticsplanet.com (scopetronix is who I usually shop with but they were out of stock):

http://www.opticsplanet.net/meade-ts-07363.html

I assume you know that you also need a T-Ring for your brand of camera:

http://www.opticsplanet.net/celestron-rings-35mm-cameras.html

Hope this helps,
Mike

work2fish

Here also is a version that has some labels on it...

Bodwick

Nice shots.

I was also out last night making the most of a rare clear night in the UK.

Don't forget the Feb. 20th eclipse. (21st for UK/Euro)

Here's how it looked at 200mm+x2+x1.4 f8 1/60 from the UK.

work2fish

Bodwick wrote:

Nice shots.

I was also out last night making the most of a rare clear night in the UK.

Don't forget the Feb. 20th eclipse. (21st for UK/Euro)

Here's how it looked at 200mm+x2+x1.4 f8 1/60 from the UK.

Bod,

Nice shots from you as well! So you were using an effective focal length of
560mm? (a 2X adapter and a 1.4X adapter together) Tripod mount I assume? What sort of post processing did you do?

Sometimes adjusting sharpeness, contrast, brightness and shadows/highlights can make a drastic difference in the image, don't you think?




Again, very nice shots, and thanks for the reminder about the eclipse!

Cheers,
Mike

Bodwick

Yes 560mm and a bit more sharpening than is usual. Not much else other than cropping. No curves adjustment.

Do you have dark skies in your area?

Bodwick

I'll add that the mirror is locked with 10 secs before the shutter fires via a TC-80N3 remote.

A solid tripod (an old Celestron with wedge) holding the lens and a monopod attached to the camera body. 13lbs = camera + convertors + 1.8 200mm

Bod.

work2fish

Bodwick wrote:

Do you have dark skies in your area?

Not where this shot was taken, but outside the cities. We also have those big things called "mountains" which both bring you closer, get away from the pollution and can be very dark as well... :-) My sister owns a cabin in the mountains and I've been telling myself I should try some shots up there soon...

Cheers,
Mike