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DSLR + Barlow & the Moon...

LaLuna

By LaLuna
in Getting Started With Imaging

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LaLuna

LaLuna

Posted
Posted

Hi there,

This is my first post so apologies if its the wrong section of if i'm treading on toes but after a bit of advice.

We bought my 5 year old son a Skywatcher Heritage 100p for Christmas and we are loving it. Below/attached is his first ever photo with my D7000 attached and edited on-line (don't have my Mac at the moment).

I've been reading on here that you can achieve sharper pictures bypassing the Barlow but for some reason we can't get the telescope to focus at all. Its not a blurry image of the moon, its completely out of focus.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Sean

post-49178-0-60678800-1453204548.jpg

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miguel87

miguel87

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The focus issue is to do with the focusser tube. Without the barlow the camera can not 'reach' the focal point which is very close to the telescope.

It is exactly the same with my skywatcher 200p.

What barlow do you have?

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Astrosurf

Astrosurf

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It's lovely hearing about such young kids getting into astronomy, especially astrophotography. Well done!

miguel87, I'm surprised you have focusing problems with the 200P. I've never had to use a Barlow to achieve focus. How are you connecting the camera?

Alexxx

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LaLuna

LaLuna

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The focus issue is to do with the focusser tube. Without the barlow the camera can not 'reach' the focal point which is very close to the telescope.

It is exactly the same with my skywatcher 200p.

What barlow do you have?

Thanks for your reply :) Its a 2x Barlow that came with the scope.

Hi LaLuna and welcome to SGL :)

Despite it's shortcomings that's a good first attempt at the moon - I've seen worse (including my own first attempt lol). Enjoy the forum :)

Thank you! I've read a lot about stacking and bracketing to improve the images so will have to see how I get on.

It's lovely hearing about such young kids getting into astronomy, especially astrophotography. Well done!

miguel87, I'm surprised you have focusing problems with the 200P. I've never had to use a Barlow to achieve focus. How are you connecting the camera?

Alexxx

My Son has two passions. Superheroes (Avengers) and Space. I'm trying to keep his attention on Space as it may be a bit more worth while :D

Just an idea but can the element bit of the barlow be unscrewed leaving you the tube bit, then try that.

I'll take a look later. :)

p.s I didn't seem to get a notification that there were replies to this thread. Should I have?

Thanks again

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LaLuna

LaLuna

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On screen or email?

Could check your settings in your profile.

When you get your mac back simple webcams are great to use on the Moon. Take short avi and use free software like registax

On screen. The little bell at the top doesn't display that someone has replied to the thread. (not sure if its supposed to or not though. haha)

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miguel87

miguel87

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Hi astrosurf, i havr a dslr connected with a T ring adapter. Have found that I onky achieve focus with my barlow. Its a Tal 2x barlow and i can only just achieve focus using the screw on lense for 1.5x mag.

Are you managing better than I am? Would appreciate any tips.

Mike

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Astrosurf

Astrosurf

Posted
Posted

Hi astrosurf, i havr a dslr connected with a T ring adapter. Have found that I onky achieve focus with my barlow. Its a Tal 2x barlow and i can only just achieve focus using the screw on lense for 1.5x mag.

Are you managing better than I am? Would appreciate any tips.

Mike

Mine's just connected to a T-ting too, and I'm having no problems getting focus. See the link to my images, some of which were done with the 200P.  Maybe you should start a specific thread about your problem. I'm pretty clueless about these things!

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cjdawson

cjdawson

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Hi and Welcome to SGL.

Great first image.  It's much better than my first attempt at anything in the sky - it turned out as a blurry mess. ;-)

Tell your son that I'm jealous of his Heratige 100p.  I've been drooling over getting one form myself for months, but can't afford or justify it.  "I want one of those" ;-)

There seems to be a bit of confusion over the problems you are having achieving focus.  I understand that with the barlow everything is fine, but without, you can't get focus.

The confusion for me is when you try to focus, is it because the camera has to be too close to the scope, or too far away?

To solve this problem there's a simple experiment, push your focuser in all the way then look at the image of the camera, then as you bring the focusser out, does the image get better or worse?   If it's better, loosen the camera and pull it slowly out of the focusser and back until you get focus.  This will tell you how much extra tubing you need to be able to get focus.  you can get adapters that will let you extend the tube, and provided you know how long a piece you need, it shouldn't be too costly to get something that will fit.

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brsseb

brsseb

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Im actually having similar issues with my Celestron 114EQ and the Celestron 2x Barlow+T-ring adapter that I got. Trying to get my very first shots of the moon with my Nikon D5300, but focusing is very difficult. Only about a millimeter or so to go on. And since the scope vibrates while u are playing with the focuser, its a pretty difficult and tedious work. I will to pull back the camera slighty away and see if that helps to make the focus easier, and Ill see what kind of Barlow I need. Im using the 2x Barlow that came with the official Celestron AstroMaster eyepiece kit (the smaller kit), so Im  abit supprised that it doesnt work better than this..

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cjdawson

cjdawson

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I know I said about the Batinov mask - which is fantastic for focussing on stars.  For the moon, you might also want to try a Hartman mask.  These are really easy to make.  use a piece of card big enough to cover the front of the scope.  Cut two holes in the card, one on each hemisphere of your scope - further away from each other the better.  Make the holes about 1/3 the size of the hemishphere.  basically small holes.  Then point your scope/camera whatever at the moon.  When you focus, bring the two images together and when they look like one image, hey presto perfect focus.  Works great on the moon.

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