Give imaging a go

[Guest]

I've got a 14inch skywatcher dob without guiding. I never intended to do imaging but I thought I might just give it a go, take some pictures of the moon maybe. So, what's the minimum kit I would have to buy. I already have a canon 450D DSLR. I think I need something called a T Mount and a cannon bayonet type adapter at minimum. There are so many adapters I get confused.

One more question, with a setup like that do I take a picture with the eyepiece in the telescope or in effect does the telescope act as the camera lens on its own?

Cheers

Steve

 

[Marky1973]

Hi Steve, you are on the right track - you will be largely limited to the moon with the Dob - I know some people have done some planetary via manual tracking, but it isn't easy.

You are right, you will need the t-ring/adaptor to fit to the front of your Canon as you would a lens. This then screws into the a nosepiece that willl go into your focuser. My old dob had that as part of the focuser, so you may have that with yours, so it was only the T-Ring I needed to purchase.

But even without that you can simply hold the camera up to an eyepiece and take a photo - even with a mobile phone camera. It can be fiddly, but you can get some nice pictures. 

Keep the ISO low and the exposure low and just experiment until you get something you like.

You can also use this method to take some solar images, but you will need to buy/make a solar filter before you even start thinking about looking at the sun through a telescope!!!

The important thing is to play around and have fun!

[Cornelius Varley]

I think the 350P has a 2"/1.25" focuser with a direct slr connection so you only need a Canon Eos t-ring. Unscrew the eyepiece adapter and you should find a t-thread on the other part. You can then attach the t-ring directly to this.

[ShrewView]

Hi Steve

As the above posts have said you probably just need the canon t-ring and your scope becomes your lens. That said, I know my canon 400, which was the previous model to yours, could not reach focus with the ordinary t-ring. The solution for me was to put a barlow with a t thread in the eyepiece holder to attach the t-ring to. So if you have a barlow with a thread on it like the pic below that could work.

Alternatively FLO have a short t-ring on their website that should work.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-ultra-short-canon-eos-t-ring.html

Daniel

 

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone, I think I'll play around with it first.

Cheers

Steve