Dslr mount

[Goldmask]

Hi everyone  New to astronomy.. thinking of buying starter scope Celestron Fi6.  Can anyone tell me can I fix my Sony ARii Dslr to the eye piece.

thanks.

[Cornelius Varley]

1 hour ago, Goldmask said:

Hi everyone  New to astronomy.. thinking of buying starter scope Celestron Fi6.  Can anyone tell me can I fix my Sony ARii Dslr to the eye piece.

thanks.

The camera body should attach to the visual back (rear) of the telescope using the appropriate adapters. No need for an eyepiece, the telescope becomes a very long telephoto lens.

[Louis D]

I recommend using a cell phone holder to attach mobile phones to eyepieces if you want to do afocal photography.  DSLRs don't work well in this application.

[ollypenrice]

Stop before wasting your money. Astrophotography is not like normal photography.

If you look at amateur astrophotos of the deep sky and would like to have a go at taking them, it is vital to understand how they are taken.

They are taken using mounts which track the sky, and the Fi6 does track the sky but not, unfortunately, in the right way. It tracks by moving left to right and up and down. That is not how things track across the sky. When Orion rises he is leaning to the left. When he sets he is leaning to the right. Your photographic mount must allow for this, meaning it must be equatorial and not alt-azimuthal, like the Celestron. You can tilt the Celestron on a wedge to make it equatorial but, trust me, just don't.

Mounts simply switched on and left to guide cannot guide with the accrurarcy needed to take the pictures you may have seen here and elsewhere. They can get you started, though.

It is much better to start with a short focal length than a long and, at 1500mm focal length, the Fi6 is very long indeed, especially with modern cameras which have small pixels.

Take a step back, read as much as you can and ask away here on SGL.

Olly

[carastro]

Well said Olly. 

[Goldmask]

Thsnks guys for info and advice. It’s more complicated than I thought, but set on a budget.  Would like to get great photos of distant galaxies, nebula. What kind of telescope would give me these pics…

[Elp]

Sony Alphas are not the best for AP as they for some reason are adamant to enable Long Exposure Noise Reduction (Star eater), you usually cannot use Bulb mode which is best for AP, and this is before you get to how the sensors take in and convert the data. It depends largely on the model but i've looked at a few and they all seem to do similar things and there are work arounds in some instances. Canon are generally the most reliable for AP if you're adamant on using a camera body.

It's a decent camera that you have though, I'd suggest you use a 50mm or less lens on the sturdy fixed tripod and take hundreds of images and stack of:

Orion Nebula M42,

Pleiades M45 or any open star cluster,

Andromeda Galaxy M31.

All of these are possible with around 5-10 second exposures (10 might be pushing it as youll start to see elongated stars), no you won't get massive amounts of "deep" data and the targets will appear small but stack enough and you'll be surprised what you can get. Most other targets require an EQ mount or star tracker. The camera is also hindered in capturing hydrogen rich nebulae as the IR cut filter will make it blind to that wavelength of light.

I'd try with what you have first, telescope imaging isn't necessarily easy, and it certainly isnt cheap. Also good AP images require maybe 80 percent plus of post processing software editing effort from the 100 percent total, without these skills you might as well take images of a black wall, if you have the skills already then that's a bonus, and there's always more to learn.

[Elp]

For starting, wide prime lenses are best, think around 12mm, you can capture large portions of the sky but usually with such a lens you need to be in a dark area, in urban the lowest decent one i've got away with is 24mm.

[Cosmic Geoff]

9 hours ago, Goldmask said:

Hi everyone  New to astronomy.. thinking of buying starter scope Celestron Fi6.  Can anyone tell me can I fix my Sony ARii Dslr to the eye piece.

You can, but... that scope and mount is only fit for taking pictures of the Moon and planets, with a dedicated planetary camera.  if you want to take good looking photographs of deep space objects like gaseous nebulae, you should either buy a tracker mount for your camera and take wide field shots.  Or order a Seestar S50.

If you want better results than the Seestar produces, be prepared to spend large amounts of money on kit, and many hours figuring out how to make it work, and many hours processing the results.

[ollypenrice]

12 hours ago, Goldmask said:

Thsnks guys for info and advice. It’s more complicated than I thought, but set on a budget.  Would like to get great photos of distant galaxies, nebula. What kind of telescope would give me these pics…

This is the wrong question.  The right question is What mount should I use?  The mount is the most important part of the setup. If your hands are trembling, it makes no difference at all whether you shoot with a Hassleblad or a 50 euro compact. The pîctures will both be blurred.

There are tracking mounts for cameras with camera lenses.  https://www.firstlightoptics.com/star-tracker-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-star-adventurer-mini-sam-wifi-astro-imaging-mount-bundle.html

There are mounts for small telescopes. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/equatorial-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html

There are mounts for larger telescopes. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/equatorial-astronomy-mounts/skywatcher-eq6-r-pro-synscan-go-to-equatorial-mount.html

And there are mounts...  https://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/mounts/mesu-optics-mounts/mesu-e200-mount/

This was taken with a 130mm camera lens. https://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other/Emission-Nebulae/i-XjrmQNd/A

For starting in AP I would suggest a telescope with a focal length of less than 500mm. Beyond that, everything gets much more difficult.

Olly

 

[carastro]

If you're on a budget as you suggest  l would get a Skywatcher Star adventurer and a good camera lens like the Samyang 135mm.  This will give you a good start with your DSLR.  If you master this and feel you want to get something that will enable even better images and have more money to spare we can talk again. 
 

The minimum you will need then is an HEQ5 mount, a guide scope and guide camera and an Apo refractor approx f7.5 - F5.   Plus then a cooled dedicated astro camera.  

Edited December 17, 2023 by carastro

[Goldmask]

Hi again. Is a finder scope the same as a polar alignment … 

[Elp]

No. I suggest you look at a few YouTube videos showing starter setups.

A finder scope is usually the smaller scope you see sitting on top of scope packages. You visually look through them to "find" your object, hence the name. A guidescope is similar but there is no back eyepiece or viewing tube, it is replaced by a camera which "watches" the starfield it's pointed at.

Polar alignment, you align an equatorial mounts RA axis centre to the northern or southern hemisphere "pole star". By doing this and with the correct motor sidereal rate, the RA axis of the mount will rotate the same rate as the earths rotation so your centered target will stay in the centre of field of view. You can get a polar alignment camera to help with PA like the QHY Polemaster but most computer controllers/software have PA software routines built in so you can PA via your main imaging scope attached to the telescope, or if you really must (though not advised) you can set the guidescope camera as the main camera and polar align via that camera.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Elp

[Goldmask]

Thanks.  I’m looking at scopes and they come bare bone ..  need to buy addons. Flatteners / reducers. Which bumps the price up. I know I’m new to this but want a good set up that will last me years.. confusing me didn’t know it would be this difficult.

[Elp]

Watch on YT Trevor Jones Astrobackyard or Sarah Mathews Sarahmaths Astro videos, generally well explained stuff.

As mentioned you have a decent (though not ideal for AP) camera already, you just need a good tracking or goto mount to start. I wouldn't go head deep with a telescope, it's difficult enough using a telescope for visual use, never mind imaging.

Actually, if you're finding it difficult to put together, buy a ZWO Seestar instead. It's about the simplest all in one solution you can get for a decent price, you generally can't get any simpler for starter AP and experienced APers as well as beginners are getting good results out of it, search for and check the threads on here.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Elp