New here and wanted to say hello and ask a few questions

[tazzilla]

First off I want to say hello, I am 45 and love photography and have always liked the stars and planets. I have become more serious with my photo hobby and would love to do some shots of the moon and more. I have been all over the web and this site seems to really be great.

I Shoot with a Nikon D3000 and the New Canon SX40 Digital camera. I plan on using the D3000 for my sky shots.

Last Night I purchased a Celestron Nexstar 4 Gt with a 25mm eye piece It is the model 11041 it is around 8 years old paid $80 seemed like a fair deal for my first scope. Any input on the scope would be great as I was 100% lost as what to get.

I am planning on using the D3000 with it My main question is what set up is better to start off with removing the rear cap and shooting in the prime focus with my DSLR or going with eye piece projection. I am at a total loss as what would be better and the limits or benefits either would provide me.

Thanks so much for any input I hope to get some great shots I know my D3000 has some limits as it has a 30 second max shutter time and is a entry level DSLR but I am not rich and it is a hobby that I plan to grow into as I get more free time.

Thanks Tazzilla from Idaho

[Peter Drew]

Hello Tazilla, welcome to the forum. The Nexstar 4 is a good telescope and well worth your $80. It is F13 which is rather slow for exposures limited to 30 seconds but it should provide interesting images of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and even Mars when closest. You will need a Barlow lens or eyepiece projection to get enough image scale with a DSLR, an inexpensive webcam might be a better bet. The specialist imagers on SGL will no doubt offer the finer operational details. Good luck.

[cyborg421]

Welcome to the forum Tazzilla.

Simon

[brantuk]

Hi Tazzilla and welcome to SGL

[tazzilla]

Hello Tazilla, welcome to the forum. The Nexstar 4 is a good telescope and well worth your $80. It is F13 which is rather slow for exposures limited to 30 seconds but it should provide interesting images of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and even Mars when closest. You will need a Barlow lens or eyepiece projection to get enough image scale with a DSLR, an inexpensive webcam might be a better bet. The specialist imagers on SGL will no doubt offer the finer operational details. Good luck.

So how will phots be when using just the adaptors for prime shooting. I just oredered the t adaptor and nikon t ring

[astroandy101]

Hi and Welcome

[Rapallokid]

Hi and welcome from me good luck and good viewing.

[Peter Drew]

The camera coupled directly to the DSLR will produce very small images of the planets, the Moon will be interesting. There will be a reasonable field of view for stellar images but the alt-azimuth form of the mount will not allow you to expose for long enough to record very faint objects.

[tazzilla]

what should I expect from using the rear camera mount of the scope with my D3000 just using the T adaptor #93635-A and a Nikon T ring