Adapting scope

[Septentrio]

Hello everyone, I've just signed up. I have a Meade 4504 114mm. What do I need to do to it/buy to enable me to do astrophotography? I have Canon mirrorless SLRs and also a couple of smaller point and shoot cameras . Thanks in advance.  

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Hi and welcome to the forum. What is it you're looking to do: solar, lunar, planetary, and/or DSO?

[Septentrio]

Lunar and planetary

 

[The Lazy Astronomer]

Simplest way to get started is just to hold a camera to the eyepiece. People usually do this with their phones, and there are several cheap brackets you can buy to hold a phone steady over the eyepiece.

Next step up would be prime focus photography by attaching your DSLR onto the focuser. Not familiar with your scope, so can't be specific, but assuming it's a fairly standard 1.25" focuser, you'd be looking for a t-ring that fits your camera. Newtonian telescopes can have a bit of an issue with focuser travel (i.e. not enough to focus a camera), so you may also need a 2x barlow to push the focus point out a bit - this will also have the effect of increasing your focal length 2-fold (which is good for planets - you want a lot of focal length, otherwise you'll just see a small fuzzy blob).

The "normal" way to do lunar and planetary work is called lucky imaging, which involves taking thousands of frames (basically shooting a video), then using software to select the best frames and stack those together to create an image. With a DSLR, though, I think you may have to take single pictures and stack those as I don't think DSLRs can take full resolution videos.

Next step up again is a dedicated lunar/planetary astro camera, this will allow you to capture objects using video, although they have to be controlled via a seperate computer, so you'd also need a laptop or some other portable hardware.

Obviously option 1 is the cheapest, option 2 a bit more expensive - maybe £100-ish - but will get you a better image. Option 3 should get you the best image, but you'd be looking at several hundred £s, and honestly at tis point, you might as well consider upgrading the scope as well, because the camera would have a much higher potential than would ever be realised your scope.

Edit: should also point out that all the software required can be had for free (eg. AutoStakkert!3 for stacking, Registax 6 and GIMP for image editing)

Edited April 16, 2021 by The Lazy Astronomer