Help with connecting camara to scope

[Tommo72]

Hi, i have a fuji S5500 digital camara and also a Panasonic HDC-SD20 camcorder. I would like to connect either of these to my Mak 127. Which camara would be best suited to photographing the night sky and what would i need to connect to the scope. I have read that i need a digi T-ring to connect to an EP but i cant seem to find one out there. Any ideas!

[barkis]

I'm not familiar with that camera Tommo, but from what I've seen of it, it looks as though the lens is a zoom fixed in place. I'm not sure if there is a thread in the lens housing to take a filter, if there is, the filter size is usually marked on there somewhere.

My Olympus e-500 for example has a filter size of 58mm.

I was able to acquire adapter rings from Telescope House, so you could check their online catalogue to see if they have the filter size of yours, assuming it has one.

Of course, connecting the camera to the scope that way, is the Afocal method, which means your camera is attached to the telescope focuser by the adapter in the lens, and it is also required that an eyepiece is also in the train.

Afocal Imaging is usually restricted to imaging the moon, and/ or planets, and great results can be produced.

Imaging Deep Sky targets is possible, but very difficult, as the telescope will need to be guided to get long enough exposures for satisfactory results.

Ron.

[Tommo72]

Cheers for that Barkis, there is a 55mm thread in the camara lens but not being a 'true' dsrl camara ie not a removable lens, it seems that i would require a method of attaching the camara to the EP. Is this where the t-ring adaptor comes to the party?. Any thoughts on the panny HD camcorder?

[barkis]

Cheers for that Barkis, there is a 55mm thread in the camara lens but not being a 'true' dsrl camara ie not a removable lens, it seems that i would require a method of attaching the camara to the EP. Is this where the t-ring adaptor comes to the party?. Any thoughts on the panny HD camcorder?

Afraid not re. the camcorder. Never been inclined to use one as a photo device.

I did record the last transit of Venus though, I had projected the Image through my 152mm refractor on to a white card, and it came out well.

Ron.