Just want to take a picture! (Celestron 8SE)

[Jeff Gardner]

Dumb question alert! I just got a celestron 8se for Christmas and am having fun just playing around and looking at things, but now I just want to take some pictures. I don't want to dive deeply into things, just something to post on Facebook or something once in a while. Is there a better solution than just holding my phone up to the eyepiece? Are there apps that allow you to extend your exposure time? Is that even useful? Is there a sort of mount that anyone has had success with?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

[Pete Presland]

give a go you have nothing to loose as shown in the thread below. i am pretty sure you can buy a bkt to hold your phone in front of the eyepiece.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/204933-heritage-130p-first-images/

maybe something similar to this?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Universal-Telescope-Digital-Astrophotography-Digiscoping-Black/dp/B0039ZPJPY

[Astrosurf]

Yes, you can take pics of the Moon and planets with a webcam and stack them in the freeware Registax. You'll have real fun here! What people consider the best webcam is now no longer sold but comes up second-hand (unfortunately quite expensively) from time to time: the phillips SPC900NC or the 800 which has been flashed to 900, usually ready-modded for astro work. There are other ones out there which are pretty good though they all have to have the IR filter removed, have a nosepiece put on and then preferably attach an IR/UV filter. There are modding tutorials on the Web. Here's one for a cheap-ish webcam for you to have a go at if you're interested. At least if you break the cam it hasn't cost you an arm and leg! But you can mod really cheap cams from supermarkets etc.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/131246-xbox-livecam-mod-cliff/

You can buy nosepices here:

http://www.pulsar-optical.co.uk/prod/astro-engineering/webcam/nosepiece/ac624.html

FLO do them but they're out of stock at the mo. Check online for other models. Ask on here too!

Good luck!

Alexxx

[RikM]

There are a few ways to attach compact camera or smart phone to a telescope eyepiece for afocal photography.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/baader-microstage-clickstop-digital-camera-adapter.html

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adaptors/skywatcher-universal-camera-adapter.html

http://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/Products/Orion_SteadyPix_Telescope_.html

[Kirscovitch]

You can modify a simple webcam if you have some DIY skills. Or there are tons online that you can buy. 

For afocal shots (holding a camera up to the EP) there are also some adapters out there for cameras as well as Iphones.

[starnut]

I use this one

http://www.scopesnskies.com/prod/Astro-Engineering/Ultra/PH047.html