Hi everyone,

Due to lots of hard work lying to the missus I managed to buy a Celestron Nexstar 8se and a few extras power tank eyepiece set and filters and a camera mount for a Nikon camera. I have a Nikon D80. trouble is I have no idea how to use the camera with the telescope, I can attach the mount to the scope and the camera to the mount but now what do I do?

Please help!



should I buy a dedicated imaging device? or stick with the Nikon?

Hi John,

Read the camera manual!

I'm not familiar with your camera, but can you get the camera to focus on something?

For example, try something bright like the moon (or even in daytime, like a distant tree or building) and see if you can get a focused image in the camera.

__________________
"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

and the telescope manual!

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Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

Point at moon, take picture?

From my limited experience:
If you're mounting it directly to the back of the telescope at prime focus, I think it will act as the equivalent of a 28.4 mm eyepiece since the CCD is 23.6 x 15.8 mm. So, you can take a picture of the entire disc of the moon. With your mount you wont be able to take long exposure photography without buying a wedge, but you can't take long exposures with a digital camera anyway -- they are too noisy after 30 seconds or so. With a tele-extender you can take photos through your eyepieces, but focusing can be very difficult since it's so dim and you probably have a frosted focusing screen in your camera, and planets are still tiny even at 9 mm. Even with bright objects like the moon at prime focus focusing is a pain. I generally take a picture, zoom way in to check the focus, adjust the focus, repeat ad nauseum until it looks sharp. DO NOT trust the little view screen on the camera to judge focus, EVER. Especially at weddings... Oh, and you should get a wireless remote to snap the picture, or use a timer to give the scope enough time to stop vibrating, perceptible or otherwise. Once you get focused on the moon you can probably swing over to something dimmer near by.

Anyway, after much playing it seems that my camera mounts were a waste of money. I guess I can use the t-mount to hook up my analog camera. But you apparently can't take photos of anything dim with a digital camera, and while I took some okay ones planetary photos come out a million times better when you use a barlow lens and a modified webcam and "lucky camera" stacking software. Example:
http://www.buytelescopes.com/gallery...o.asp?pid=5420

But it takes great pictures of the moon. Or you could get a job as a paparazzi depending on your location and view.

There are these things.

They're called, I believe.... books.

They come from.... a bookstore.

When you get into technical hobbies, they are very handy things to have around....

Very True, Books, Books and more Books.

John, do you have the wireless ( or wired ) remote shutter operator? This is pretty much essential to keep the camera and scope still while shooting.

What are you planning on photographing? Moon, Planetary or deep sky?

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“There's no denying the public's appetite for cosmic discovery.” ~ Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson

I strongly agree with skintigh, a webcam with good stacking software is a real winner. Ive seen DSO images in good dso vid cams that rival prime focus camera's for detail, color and contrast, even with just average tracking. Check out Peter Besters submisions in IceInSpace.com