Hi all, newbie and seeking advice already :)

[Boins]

HI everyone, glad to have found this place.

Long time space nerd, recently undertaken an Open Uni course on astronomy and was bought a telescope for my last birthday.

Still don't really know how to use it I must confess. I still haven't got round to learning the coordinates system, something I keep meaning to do. BUT ANYWAY

I stared in awe at the moon through it and decided to buy an adapter for my camera which is a Canon EOS 400D.

I tried to use it a few times but the image is always blurry and seems that I cannot focus it, but did some research and found that perhaps I need another piece of equipment.

I bought:

Celestron T-Adapter, Universal 1-1/4": Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

and

Canon EOS T Ring: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

along with a moon filter. I saw someone mentioning that I might need an omni barrel lens or something like that?

Anyways, any help would be much appreciated, look forward to spending some time in here learning how to look at those twinkling lights in the sky

Thanks

[Daniel-K]

what scope do you have?

[ronin]

Also what is the mount that it is on and where are you?

[Boins]

Can't believe I forgot to mention the scope.

Celestron Astromaster 76

[Boins]

I believe (as it was a present) that it was this model bought from here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-31035-Astromaster-76EQ/dp/B000MLL6QY/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1315825702&sr=8-6

[Boins]

Anyone?

[Boins]

Ok.... I've done some research and apparently this is similar to what I might need

Celestron 'Omni' Series X2 Barlow Lens: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

[Boins]

anyone?

[Neil McRae]

Agree you need a Barlow

Neil

[Boins]

Thanks , guess that's going on the birthday list.

[John]

I don't want to be a pessimist but the barlow is going to cost 50% as much as your scope did and I'm honestly not sure it's going to help. The Astromaster 76's are OK for a quick peek at the moon, the brightest planets and a few star clusters but the mount is just able to support the scope for visual use, not provide a steady platform to allow a DLSR to be plugged into the scope. Doubling for effective focal length of the scope (which is what a 2x barlow lens does) is going to make matters worse, I would have thought

I just don't want you throwing money at the issue without realistic expectations.

[Boins]

Well so far during my tests I've found that the mount with the DSLR attached has been fine, if not I can buy the universal camera mount attachment no?

As for focal length with the barlow lens, I don't know, I need advice with that one, I just assumed that because I can view the moon perfectly through an eyepiece, and it remains just out of focus with the camera attachments, that all I would need to do is use the barlow lens, but seeing as how I'm completely new to all this and still learning I don't really know.

interested to find out what any one else things as so far I've had two differing opinions...

I guess at the end of the day I can try the barlow lens I posted and if that doesn't work then I can always send it back...

[ronin]

It would make more sense that the camera is being held too far away from the prime focus of the mirror. SO even when wound fully in the image is not coincident with the sensor chip.

A barlow should simply manage to have it's object plane at the right place then it's image plane will be further out so can get that and the camera sensor to coincide.

In these OU courses do they cover basic optics and opticala design? I ask as the instruments used in this hobby are optical, either mirrors or lens so a basic idea of the optics of scopes is useful.

Your scope may be a spherical mirror. The mount looks fairly light but may do for the moon. It appears to have no motors so tracking is not an option. If the barlow is poor then the image after the barlow will be worse. If no motors then you will probably have to stop at getting images of the moon.

How is a universal camera mount attachment going to make the mount more stable?

The scope is really intended to be a first introduction to astronomy. As such it isn't great but it does do what it is sensibly aimed at. A first go and not expensive.

Rather like photography, the supermarkets have cheap digital cameras at £60, the camera shops have nice digital cameras at £3000.

[wrinkly]

Bolin,

As you have completed a course, you probably know more about the sky than the majority of members.

As for "a newbie and seeking advice already", isn't that the best time to seek it? You also help everyone on the Forum by reminding us of how little we really know and allow us a little glow when we can give a helpful answer.

Please keep asking.

[onesmallstep]

Hi

Not really into imaging and astrophotography at the moment (that's item number 385 on the To Do list).

As mentioned above the scope you have is aimed at beginners and casual observers so isn't really robust enough for full on AP duties. A possible compromise is to set the scope up for visual observing only and buy an off-the-shelf digital compact camera. Take photos through the eyepiece so that the camera is seeing what the observer would see. Not ideal but the alternative is to buy a new scope setup costing several hundred pounds.

HTH!