Attaching a camera

[Marc1980]

Hello all,

It's been a while since I have posted on here and since I have imaged the sky. It's amazing how much you can forget when you don't do something regularly. The problem I'm having is when I attach my DSLR camera to my Skywatcher 250pds I am struggling to get it into focus. I know I have done it before because I have imaged with the same setup. I have taken the primary out to clean it but put it back and collimated. I have had to order a new eqdir lead as my old one is no longer compatible so am using the time to swat back up. Any thoughts you may have would be great.

Many thanks

Marc

[Owmuchonomy]

Could be you can’t get enough in-focus. Are there any superfluous adapters, accessories or tubes between camera body and focuser? I remember with my 130pds I had to have a specially ‘thin’ adapter for my DSLR.

[edarter]

Are you attaching the dslr directly to the end of the focus tube? (you should be) don't use the extension tube, that's for the eyepiece. 

The only other thing I can think of is when you put the mirror back in and collimated that it's too far up the threads of the adjusters. 

[Marc1980]

On 06/02/2021 at 23:33, edarter said:

Are you attaching the dslr directly to the end of the focus tube? (you should be) don't use the extension tube, that's for the eyepiece. 

The only other thing I can think of is when you put the mirror back in and collimated that it's too far up the threads of the adjusters. 

Hi, yes I am attaching it straight to the focus tube with the adaptor. I see what you are saying about the position of the mirror up the threads. The threads don't allow a massive amount of travel, would that be enough to knock it out of focus? I can get focus when observing visually just not with the camera. When I took the mirror out to clean it I did shear one of the clip screws but this was when undoing it, not doing it back up. Could this have messed it up?

Many thanks

[alacant]

On 06/02/2021 at 22:03, Marc1980 said:

struggling to get it into focus

Hi

A DSLR reaches focus easily with a pds. Could you post a shot of the camera attached to the focuser and tell us how you are viewing the focus e.g. through the viewfinder on the camera or via an app? Otherwise, we're guessing.

Cheers

[Marc1980]

Apologies for the slow response. This is how I have the camera attached (see photo). I have a 1.25" adaptor which I mount via the eyepiece holder. This is what I did last time. Last time I did the majority of my viewing through backyard eos however when struggling with the focus issues I was just using the viewer and live view on the back of the camera.

Hope this helps

Marc

[shedifice]

If you unscrew the 1.25" bit in  the middle, can you not put the camera Tring directly onto the 2"ring shown on the arrow?

[Marc1980]

Thanks so much for the speedy response and the awesome little diagram. Oh yes so I can. I'm now wondering if this is how I had it set up. I must start taking photos of my set up so if I need to take time away I don't have so many brain farts when I pick it back up again. Just got to wait for a clear night (sat here listening to the rain pounding on the conservatory roof).

I will post back and let you know how I get on.

Many thanks

Marc

[major tom 1]

Hi everyone first time posting , and a very steep learning curve,

I have just got an svbony305 and fitted it to my  skywatcher 127     I managed to capture some pictures of the moon with sharpcap  albeit very green colour but eventually after lowering the saturation slider got a reasonable  picture. But when I try to find a star the image just does not seem to show a very wide field of view and only the brightest star seems to show on the screen, and also not very sharp

1st question is the small field of view normal for this set up.

2nd  in sharpcap could someone point me to a standard set of settings to try that should capture a star. then I can work from those standard setting please

Very kind regards

Henry

[chris_E]

anyone answer this elsewhere. I have the same problem

[Clarkey]

I can't answer the second question as I do not use Sharpcap (yet). With regards the FOV I suspect this is normal. The Mak 127 has a 1500mm FL and the sensor on the SV305 is fairly small. You can look it up here astronomy.tools

[AstroNebulee]

The FOV will be quite narrow as you've shown, my zwo asi120mc-s is the same on my skymax 127 around the equivalent of a 6mm ep. As regarding your settings question try more gain and exposure time to image stars and work around that.