Advice please?

[Alanmads]

Hi everyone.

Well here goes.............

My partner bought me a Konusmotor 130 (with 10mm/17mm plossl and a 3x barlow) for Christmas and i have to say, i have honestly and seriously already caught the stargazing bug!

So!........I decided to purchase a DSLR camera which is a Canon 350D (best i could afford im afraid) which came with a 58mm Canon EF 28-90mm zoom lens which has a filter thread on it and also bought a wireless remote.

The reason i am telling you all this (PLEASE dont fall asleep just yet lol) is i am in desperate need of some good advice and from what i have seen, this is the place to get it.

What is the best way to attach my camera to the telescope? I have seen i can get a 58mm filter thread adapter as one option and also t-mounts as anotgher option?

I would be very grateful if someone could give me some advice as i am seriously itching to go now.

Regards

Alan

[Alanmads]

P.s. Is my set up any good at all lol ??

[John]

Hi,

I've moved your post on this into this section as you will get more responses here.

I've not used the scope you have been given myself but I did find this review of it on the US forum "Cloudynights". I hope that helps a bit:

Konus 130 Maksutov-Cassegrain - Review

Edit: Ooops ! - I've just realised that the above is not the model you have. Sorry about that. I'm sure someone will post soon who does know a bit about it

[Alanmads]

lol thanks John. Appreciate it.

Alan

[Ags]

You take the lens off the camera and attach the scope instead of the lens... Alternatively you can attach the camera alongside the scope so that it is 'piggy-backed' and then you take wide field images using the tracking of the mount and the camera lens.

By the way the '58mm' is the size of the filter thread, not the size of the objective of the camera lens.

I am not familiar with your scope but unless it is an equatorial mount it is not suitable for long exposures of deep sky objects. If the scope is a left-right up-down sort of mount it is an alt-az mount, if it is tilted at an odd angle towards the pole star it is an equatorial mount.

If you attach the camera to the telescope (so the telescope is the camera lens) then you can take quite good pics of the moon. If you want to photograph planets the DSLR is not suitable, but a cheap webcam and a laptop will do the job.

[Alanmads]

Thanks Ags Really appreciate the advice.

[umadog]

I think the best advice for astrophotography is for you to buy a book or two on the subject and get studying. People here are more than happy to answer questions but the volume of information you need to take in is pretty substantial. This book is one possibility:

Beginners guide to astro-photography

There are various different forms of astrophotography and you should aim for the one with which your equipment will give the best results. Don't rule out fixed-mount shots using just the camera with a regular lens (no telescope). You will learn a lot by doing that. Start easy and work up!

[Tinker1947]

If this is your scope and mount it will track stars, you will need to polar align the mount, and you will need a T-ring to attach the Canon to the focusor, plus a adaptor between the T-Ring and the Focus tube i would think, so before we type a wall of texted, is this your Scope.

http://www.365astronomy.com/konusmotor130-130mm1000mm-f8-newtonian-telescope-p-1447.html?zenid=7bca50c59d380de28da1ee6b153fb0f5

[todd8137]

hi and welcome from me ,take ya time choosing your next scope

[Alanmads]

Thanks everyone.

'Tinker1947' yes, thats my scope. I know its not the best but as it's my first ever scope i can't really complain. I knew that i needed to get one with a decent amount of light capture and from looking on various forums, 130mm is hopefully not too bad a start. Based on the advice from Umadog, i think I will invest in a couple of books, can anybody recommend one for using a telescope at entry level? I have been reading up on telescope maintenance and have had had a tinker with it, specifically collimating. I have to say, factory set collimation is appalling! It took me about 40 minutes on my 1st attempt at understanding it and then doing it. Now the difference it has made it staggering. It's amazing really because prior to collimating my scope, i actually thought that what i was viewing was the best my scope had to offer, how wrong could I have been!

Next task...............getting rid of that gunky sticky porridge like substance that the Konusmotor factory call 'grease' on the focuser and replace it with something better that doesn't make it stutter when fucussing..............Any recommendations???