Is my camera too heavy for astroimaging?

[boglin33]

Hi guys and gals - my first time on here, so treat me gently I've had our first scope (a Skywatcher Explorer) for a few months now, so recently went out to get what I thought would be a decent new "general" camera and that would, according to the reviews, pass muster for some astroimaging too. The one I ended up with is Canon EOS 7d. With a standard fixed lens on it, this is one heavy piece of kit to stick on the side of a Newtonian scope - I'm really wondering if the plastic of a t-adapter is going to be up to the job as it's about 1.1kg all told. I'm just wondering if anyone has had experience of relying on just a t-ring and t-adapter to do this? I see that there are some fancy brackets available, but they seem more suited to refractors rather than reflectors.

[Ant]

Loads of people use dSLR's myself included. The only issue you will come up against (apart from the usual pains of imaging) is that with a camera that heavy you will need to re-balance the scope when you change from eyepeice to camera.

Buying a decent 2" adapter and T ring will give you peace of mind that the camera isn't going to fall off and go crashing to the floor. In fact a lot of people keep the strap attached and put it around the focuser or finder so if it did fall the strap will save it.

Welcome to SGL

Ant

[Viv]

Hello & welcome

I have the 7d - amazing camera.

It's fine being attached. But as Ant has suggested (I do this also) wrap the neck strap around the finderscope (a just in case precuation).

It's a huge mine field, for astrophotography (as i'm finding out), but the lads & lassies here are fantastically helpful - so any questions - just ask.

[brantuk]

I agree with the above posts - the camera weight won't be a problem - the T-connectors will hold it fine - balancing the scope will be the issue.

Pop into the "Dob Users" social group (clink link below in my signature) and find the "Dob Mods" thread. There are some great dob balancing solutions in there

Edit - scratch that - I just realised you're on EQ5 - rebalancing the usual way applies except with the camera attached.

[ollypenrice]

Putting the camera on the mount side seems to be Newt imaging favourite. CCDs are heavier than DSLRs so no worries, I'd say.

Olly

[boglin33]

Thanks for your assurances and suggestions! I had visions of several hundreds of pounds worth of camera being dashed to pieces due to the failure of a cheapy bit of plastic! Will be sure to seek out a quality t-ring and adapter in that case. Thanks again

[Psychobilly]

Wrap the camera starp around the scope/mount... Having had a Nikon D200 fall off the scope once its hurts... The other option I use to keep things tidier is 4mm bungees through the strap bracket...

Billy...