Olly

Hi,

This is my first post, so please be gentle with me!

I am a keen photographer and have just purchased a 600mm Canon FD refractor lens.

I know very little about astronomy but am keen to start experimenting. I partially justified buying this lens to myself with the hope that I could also use it as a telescope. Of course I can use it as is with a camera on the end, but to get some real magnification I'm hoping that fitting a telescope eyepiece would work well - note I'm not talking about photography here, just using my eye. I'm interested mainly in our moon and the planets.

Various posts on the interweb have suggested that this is possible, but I'd like a bit of advice please?

I have read suggestions that adapters that will fit FD lenses are available but I have't managed to find anything. Most adapters seem to be to allow FD cameras to be mounted on telescopes and I'm looking to mount an eyepiece to an FD lens.

I'm happy to try and manufacture something myself, but I need to buy an eyepiece. With the 600mm lens what sort of focal length should I go for? Also could someone advise a relatively inexpensive brand/model please?

There are plenty of cheap eyepieces available and I don't want to spend a fortune, but I don't want buy something that isn't up to the job.

Also I don't have an equatorial tracking mechanism. For planetary observation is that going to be a real pain, or is it for deeper observation that it becomes really necessary?

Please feel free to say if you think I'm wasting my time here, I want to get a good image!

Thanks very much

Olly.

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