Direction please

[Rols]

I have a Nikon D60, I'm hoping to be able to take some pictures of the planets with my Meade LX200 while i build the kitty back up for an APO and a more fitting camera but in the mean time this is all I have.

so as not to be overly disappointed when coming to set my camera and scope together for the first time could i grab some information as to what kit I essentially require to make this work?

I have the camera adaptor and the T adaptor, do i require a focusing aid? or a focal reducer?

Please point out anything I'm missing (make every Photon count in the post) I'm a little green under the gills with all this still and not embarrassed to admit it.

Thanks in advance of your help.

[ollypenrice]

Well, for the planets a cheap webcam will knock a DSLR into a cocked hat. It may seem unreasonable but it's true.

You need to boost the focal length with a Barlow (or two) or a Powermate.

The apo will be far better for deep sky then the SCT but the SCT will be far better on the planets.

Olly

[michael8554]

By the time you've cropped your megapixel DSLR image of a planet you'll have the same pixel size image as a webcam.

Barlowed webcams produce a "movie" that you can edit, throwing away the frames that are blurred and keeping the ones that have good seeing.

Furthermore you can "stack" these good frames into one still frame that is dramatically better quality than the beat of the single best frames.

DSLRs are great for big DSO's

[Rols]

I was going to take a shot or two of m42 as well. I have a power mate and a cheap Barlow, I kept one of my Phillips cams back and I do have a dsi when I get round to the install, I need to use the d60 to get used to it but take on board your experience, I shall get the dsi and have a play.

So no other hardware required? Just plug and go?