New Astrophotographer Hitting Walls

[Big Tasty]

Hello everyone,

I haven't had a telescope for years and recently bought the Celestron Astromaster 130EQ.  Finding several planets came and even the ring nebula came easy.  But the astrophotography bug bit quickly.  I bought a cheap DSLR to learn, a Canon EOS Rebel from 2003 for $25.  I also purchased the t-ring and adapter followed by celestron's t-adapter which worked better.  

These last couple nights I've tried putting only the lens of my 3x Televue barlow to bring the focal plane closer to the secondary mirror.  I've tried eyepieces alone and with the barlow.  Ive tried the entire barlow sticking out of the telescope with the DSLR by a mile.  The t-adapter is too short for my barlows lens and the silber tube it screws into.  As a result, the tip needs to be kept somewhat in place by the set screw above it.  I've even tried holding it in place directly with the set screw.  

My last pictures showed the telescope spider after learning the camera a bit which was more frustrating.  Please help me with my camera settings and how to get better focus with a barlow.

My camera settings are as follows: ISO 800-1600, white balance at daylight, exposure at 8 to 20 seconds with a 10 second delay, and images are set to raw.

[PEMS]

Suppose that the bottom answer is the scope was not intended for astrophotography.

The mechanics of it just will not allow the image from the mirror to fall on the camera sensor. The scope as it stands is set for visual, as a barlow is intended for visual also I would expect that whatever image the barlow forms will also not allow the image to fall far enough out for the image and sensor to coincide. If it did then the barlow would not work with an eyepiece.

The usual change required is to gain access to the base and by whatever means the mirror cell allows move the mirror, with or without cell, up the main OTA. The will move the prime image outwards and so it should then allow the image and sensor to coincide. I gather that around 20-25mm is usual but never having tried it I could be wrong. Others may have a better idea.

This could raise the problem that the light cone from the mirror will now exceede the size of the secondary. It will also mean that an eyepiece is then too close in and to swap back to visual you would need to purchase and fit a short extension.

Yes you have a scope and an Eq mount and a camera. More exactly you have a visual scope and you want to use it now as an imaging scope. Usually suggested that people separate visual and imaging.

Some scopes can do visual and imaging without alteration but they seem to be not usually reflectors. Reflectors generally appear to have less focuser travel and that is the main reason. To oscillate from eyepiece to camera you need a wide range of focuser movement. And in general on a reflector that is not available.

[Big Tasty]

I hope that's not completely true.  Celestron's website speaks about good images and it was rated as a good astrophotography scope.  

[wxsatuser]

IMO the images they talk about is what you see via the eye piece.