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DIY put together wide-field camera


Hawksmoor

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I am a hoarder so never throw away stuff that might come in useful.  Being a tad environmental I try to re-purpose, re-engineer and re-use old kit that I purchased  back in the day when I was gainfully employed.  My old pre digital SLR lenses were first connected to my  DSLR with a shiny new adaptor but then fell into disuse when I realised my EOS lenses performed better. 

Now retired, with more time and reduced cashflow, I decided that rather than modding my DSLR, if I could attach my old lenses to my QHY5L-ii mono and colour cameras, I had the makings of a wide-field camera that would be more sensitive to H-alpha.  BUT - old Hoya lenses have male 42mm 1mm thread connections and modern 42mm kit comes with 0.75mm threads.  Try as I might none of the UK suppliers or even  China appeared to have an appropriate adapter. In the end I found what I wanted - a 42mm(1mm) to T2 adapter on the RAF internet site based  in Belarus.  I already had the spacer and the C/CS connector I needed to complete the camera.  After placing my order the adapter arrived in the post from  'Sergei' in Moscow. A very nicely engineered bit of kit! How a meerkat could make such a brilliant thing with small furry paws escapes me!

I do enjoy messing about in my shed with old bits and pieces!

I briefly tested the camera the other night in less than good conditions and it appeared to work delivering an image roughly 6 degrees square. The weather is forecast fair for tonight so  I might try it out properly on the realm of galaxies in Virgo. 

Ever onwards and upwards!

 

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I'm a bit late to this thread! Very interesting, I've done similar with some old FD lenses that I had to make an adaptor for, as no one seemed to sell one to go from FD lens to T2 (going from T2 to FD camera is easy to get!).

They work well, though I will have to add a stepper motor in the future to adjust the focus I think, as despite being manual focus lenses it is difficult to get spot on focus with the stars as the travel from in-focus/out-of-focus on stars is surprisingly small. Plus remote, auto focus is always easer!

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