telescope and DSLR

[Artyom87]

Hi, i'm new in astronomy and i need bit help. I've got Skywatcher 150p as my first scope, and as i already own DSLR i wanna try astrophotography. I'm just a bit confused about connecting my DSLR to telescope, i'm not sure what i have to buy, t-adaptor, t-ring or both of them. It is also possible to use DSLR with filters? I'm also planning to buy baader solar filter, do i need to buy some extra protection for my DSLR to shoot a sun?

Thank you.

 

[SyedT]

48 minutes ago, Artyom87 said:

Hi, i'm new in astronomy and i need bit help. I've got Skywatcher 150p as my first scope, and as i already own DSLR i wanna try astrophotography. I'm just a bit confused about connecting my DSLR to telescope, i'm not sure what i have to buy, t-adaptor, t-ring or both of them. It is also possible to use DSLR with filters? I'm also planning to buy baader solar filter, do i need to buy some extra protection for my DSLR to shoot a sun?

Thank you.

 

Hi mate,

1. To connect your DSLR to your 150P, you need a T-ring AND a T-adapter; the T-ring will slot into your camera and screw into the T-adapter, then you simply fit the nose of the T-adapter into the focuser of your scope. This is a good visual explanation (from thenightskyinfocus.com): 

2. Filters - These can certainly be used with a DSLR. Solar filters only need to be put on to the objective end of the telescope where light enters the tube. You can then hook up your DSLR to the focuser tube of the telescope and image away, no other parts needed; something like this (image from company7.com):

Hope that helps!

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. The previous post answers your questions. The only problem that may arise is that you might not be able to reach focus without the use of a Barlow.

[Artyom87]

 

1 minute ago, laudropb said:

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. The previous post answers your questions. The only problem that may arise is that you might not be able to reach focus without the use of a Barlow.

Do i need some special equipment to connect barlow with a dslr?

[laudropb]

No the T piece will fit inside the Barlow. Try it without the Barlow first. It may work.

[Artyom87]

Thank you

[rockystar]

I'm not sure what extensions come with 150p, but you may find you already have a t-adaptor. When I had my 200p one of the extension tubes that came with it was threaded for a t-ring.

[Artyom87]

31 minutes ago, rockystar said:

I'm not sure what extensions come with 150p, but you may find you already have a t-adaptor. When I had my 200p one of the extension tubes that came with it was threaded for a t-ring.

It come with direct SLR adaptor. Where can i also attach filters when using t-adaptor?

[JoakimN]

Similar question found here: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/108329-camera-mounting-to-skywatcher-150p/

 

[happy-kat]

Be very careful with solar observing and/or imaging make sure you use the correct filter used in the right place.

[Cornelius Varley]

12 hours ago, Artyom87 said:

Hi, i'm new in astronomy and i need bit help. I've got Skywatcher 150p as my first scope, and as i already own DSLR i wanna try astrophotography. I'm just a bit confused about connecting my DSLR to telescope, i'm not sure what i have to buy, t-adaptor, t-ring or both of them. It is also possible to use DSLR with filters? I'm also planning to buy baader solar filter, do i need to buy some extra protection for my DSLR to shoot a sun?

Thank you.

 

Your telescope has a direct slr connection so the minimum you will need is a t ring. The eyepiece holder unscrews into two parts revealing a t ring on the part that fits into the focuser tube. Attach the ring to this and then the camera. If you need more magnification for the image you can use a barlow lens plus a 1.25" nosepiece like this one or a barlow with a t thread. For solar white light solar imaging you will only require a Baader solar filter or similar that fits over the aperture of the telescope. No other filters should be necessary because the filter blocks about 99.999% of the sunlight. Note : there are two versions of the white light filter film, one is for visual/imaging and the other for imaging only.

[Artyom87]

Thank you all for great advices (especially for newbie like me). I found i'm not able to reach focus without a barlow lens, as laudropb stated earlier, what is not a problem as i got one but this advice saved me a lot of time and nerves. Now to the point, i've found this article about EP Projection, and i just wanna make sure before ordering stuff. Picture on webpage shows bacis setup for EP Projection, i'm just bit confused about focuser adaptor and adaptor extender. Skywatcher 150P has a dual-fit 1.25"/2" Crayford focuser, so do i need 2" focuser adaptor? And if i understand correctly, EP is inserted into focuser adaptor, so it means i can't use barlow lens with that setup? 

 

[carastro]

One more piece of advice.  A barlow is not recommended for taking astro-photography, it vastly increases the focal ratio  making the optics slow to capture data.    If you can manage to get focus with an extension piece instead of a barlow this would be much better.   

However I can never get my head around which way the barlow affects focus (i.e. do you rack the focusser in or out?  as I stopped doing visual some years ago), so if it is inwards and there is not enough focusser length, the best way to get focus without having to use a barlow is to move the 2ndry further up the tube.   Not something I would tackle.  Also you would need to allow for focusser ingress inside the tube biting a chunk out of stars.  

But having said all that, I am sure you must be able to get focus with the 150P as I owned one last year and bought it off of some-one who was taking DSLR images with it and I certainly used it with a CCD camera.  

I now own a 130PDS (Larger FOV) and this already has the OTA shortened (as in PDS version).  

You are going to need a coma corrector to make sure the FOV is flattened, so you might prefer to buy one of these rather than a T piece.  

Astrophotography is not just a case of putting the camera to the eye piece and taking a shot, deep sky images require long exposures and therefore very accurate polar alignment as well as guiding.  So be prepared for a big learning curve.

By the way I took some images of the Sun with a DSLR and provided you have a solar filter over the telescope aperture it works quite well.  (Make sure your finderscope is covered too). 

Carole 

[JOC]

FWIW I've got a Canon 1100D (T3 Rebel) and I can reach focus without a Barlow using my telescope (see sig.) and also with it :-D

[Peco4321]

If you have the 150p on eq3-2 I have the exact set up, down to the same camera ?  

I can achieve focus both using ep projection for lunar and planetary imaging and at prime focus for DSO's . One tip is to move the primary mirror by screwing the 3 screws tighter, not too tight, but doing this has given me approximately 1cm spare in the focus tube when camera attached at prime focus. A side note for this though is to only mess with those screws if you are able/comfortable with collimating the scope. 

Another tip, get a bahtinov mask http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/starwave-bahtinov-masks.html

I have had great fun imaging with this set up over the last year. 

Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. 

[Artyom87]

OMG i just found i can unscrew eyepiece holder and connect my DSLR straight to focuser instead of inserting T-Adaptor to EP holder, now i've no problem to reach a focus   I'm able (but not comfortable ) to collimate the scope, well, it took me about 2 hours to collimate both mirrors first time so i don't wanna mess with them until i will get some more experience. Reason i'm looking forward to EP projection is budget, i can't afford motors + synscan right now. 2 days ago it was also first time i've seen Jupiter with all 4 Galilean moons nicely lined up, it was AMAZING, one more reason to save money for motors and synscan, but now i'm stuck with EP projection.

[Artyom87]

I have one more problem (with collimation specifically). My primary and secondary mirrors seems to be aligned, but there is a black circle out of alignment "see image". What is it? It's a focuser? How to fix it?

[Alan64]

4 hours ago, Artyom87 said:

I have one more problem (with collimation specifically). My primary and secondary mirrors seems to be aligned, but there is a black circle out of alignment "see image". What is it? It's a focuser? How to fix it?

The black circle is the secondary mirror, its silhouette or shadow.  The misalignment is normal with faster Newtonians, like your 150mm f/5.  This is the secondary scene from my 150mm f/5, taken through a collimation-cap, and the scene identical to your own...

That misalignment is intentional, and is called the "secondary off-set".  The misalignment occurs automatically during a normal collimation procedure, and ensures that all of the light gathered by the primary mirror, that forms the image of an object, reaches your eye, or camera.  Here, the secondary off-set explained...

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-equipment/offsetting-your-secondary-mirror/

From your own image, your Newtoinian looks to be collimated quite well.

I see that you have a Cheshire; very good.  Do you have a collimation-cap in addition?  A collimation-cap allows you to see exactly what's going on inside your telescope...

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/rigel-aline-collimation-cap.html

Collimation instructions...

http://www.forumskylive.it/Public/data/serastrof/201281510358_Astro Babys Guide to Collimation.pdf

I would just look them over, and for future reference, as I don't see a pressing need to collimate at this time.

[Artyom87]

Thank you. It was my first time collimating telescope and i thought i've done something wrong. And there's no mention about secondary offset in telescope manual, even pictures shows that it's supposed to be aligned with both mirrors. I've also one more question, just to make sure, the second part on this picture (2" extension tube) is the same as this and this ?