Baader FfC...

[Mr Jones]

So right now I'm enjoying being able to nip out with my Tak DL and grab clear skies as they show up. Purely visual observing.

I do like to document what I see, though, but using my Note 20 is becoming a right chore. So I figured out that with a bunch of adapters and extentions, I can create an easy to use set up with my camera and a Baader FfC that can mimic pretty much most the fov's I get with my eyepieces. And it would be a simple twist of the lock to drop the prism etc out and pop the T2 FfC and camera in. This saves me the hassle of laptops, cables, etc required for a full astrophotography set up.

I've been waiting for a used FfC to show up, but nothing doing. So are they worth the high retail price? And if not, are their other flexible magnification options that work on the T2 system?

[CraigT82]

Baader VIP barlow works as a T2 modular system. Very good barlow by all  acounts 

[vlaiv]

I'm not entirely sure what you plan on doing but that Baader FfC sounds like overkill for whatever you are planing to do.

If you want to take snaps of what you are observing - how about simple micro stage clamp and camera with zoom lens (if you want to zoom in/out)?

I think that you can leave clamp attached to scope as you observe and then just attach camera to it and snap the image.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-microstage-clickstop-digital-camera-adapter.html

After that, it is simple matching of eyepiece AFOV to camera lens min magnification. For example, if you want to use Canon 18-55mm with APS-C sensor size - you'll want 70° AFOV eyepiece. At 18mm setting that lens captures about 73° along diagonal.

[Roy Foreman]

I have a Baader FFC and can confirm that it is a top notch piece of kit. As well as amplifying the image it doubles up as a field flattener, and a coma corrector as well, and provides a flat field 90mm in diameter. But be warned, it is not an item to be trifled with.  Two of it's four elements are made from REAL calcium fluoride, with all the thermal limitations that go with it. Take it from the cold night air into a warm room and it will damage beyond repair. And the warranty does not cover for this.  The minimum magnification is 3x, for which requires 100mm of spacing from lens to sensor. Maximum 8x magnification requires a substantial 370mm spacing !  Telescope balance very quickly becomes a problem.  You need to be using a pretty serious setup before thinking about acquiring an FFC.