Focus using a camera - Skywatcher 130M

[watersblue]

Well, I've managed to modify my SW130 enough to achieve focus using my daughter's Pentax dslr. I first sawed off the top part of the focuser, but this wasn't enough. I then found that the eyepiece holder unscrews and thus being able to get the camera closer. However, the thread does not fit a 42mm T thread. SO I ordered a 42 to 39 mm converter from eBay; it didn't quite fit, but with a bit of a file, it now screws on a few turns. Great stuff! I took a photo of the moon to see what I could achieve, although the sky was still pretty light.

[pjac]

Thanks for that - useful information for the Skywatcher 130 mystery metal focuser thread discussion.

[JamesF]

Well done. Your persistence pays off

What you can do now is take lots of shots of the Moon in quick succession (I usually go for 100 or so, but even 20 would be a start), stack them together using Registax, play with the wavelets and you should be able to produce an image that's sharper than is possible with a single frame.

James

[watersblue]

Thanks, James. I tried to take a few but they were raw files. Registax didn't want to know. Should I have shot jpegs?

[JamesF]

Hmmm. No, Registax doesn't handle RAW files in the general case. If you have any tools that will convert the Pentax format to TIFF it would probably process the TIFF happily enough.

James

[watersblue]

Due to the fiddly nature of having to muck about with the filed-down adapter for the thread each time I take pictures , I took a new jigsaw blade to the end of my tube just now. I took off about 4.5cm. It was a tough job with the jigsaw, but I managed to get it all drilled for the mirror. Collimation, after all that drilling and sawing, was very near spot on, strangely. I couldn't focus on the distant trees, now not having enough up-focus; this was expected, and was fine with an extension tube. I'll be giving it a blast with the camera on the next clear night. That might be a while, I guess.