Begging Astrophotography

[Gardidien]

I have a Meade DS-127-EC and a Nikon D3000.

Here are the specs on the Meade:

Aperture:127mm (5") f Ratio:f/8 Focal Length:1020mm

It uses a plastic focuser.

I want to do some photography with it, mostly the moon and maybe some planets. I'm not sure the scope is capable of deeper space objects. I know I need a T Ring and a Camera Adapter and I was checking out a few from here:

Adaptors

I've read that I might have some problems focusing all the way down and I might need a barrow to correct this. I imagine that the shorter the pieces the better, since I'll have three adapters all lined up to the camera hanging off the side of the scope. I don't want to bend or crack anything, especially since the focuser is made of plastic.

Does anyone have any advice on what I want to do? I'm mostly interested in photographing the moon, but I want to be able to focus correctly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[astrokat]

Adaptors - Skywatcher 2 inch T Adapter dont quote me on this though if there was not enough inward travel you would need some thing like this bud

toby

[Gardidien]

Thanks for the advice. I went out tonight for about an hour to try and get some shots of stars. I was using my Nikon D3000 though the scope with a 30 second exposure, but all I got was blackness.

I took the camera off and used my 25mm eyepiece that came with the scope to gaze up at the stars and I saw nothing. In the past, I am usually able to soak in a few stars as long as I'm focused right. There was no moon yet, so the sky was very dark and there were more stars than I'm used to. I still couldn't see anything.

I noticed that as I moved my head around I would pick up a clear star in my eyepiece, but not when I looked directly into the eyepiece. Could this be a collimation issue, and also explain why I only saw darkness with my camera?

I also bought a 2X Barlow lens in the event that my focuser didn't offer enough forward travel. I tried using that and it didn't make any difference.

I'm going to try and colliminate tomorrow evening and try again when it dark. I'll post back then, but in the meantime, any ideas on what could be causing this?

Thanks!

[astrokat]

If you can't achive focus you may need a 2" adapter bud

[Gardidien]

The weird thing though is that I was able to focus and view the moon, planets, and stars for the past two years with the scope just fine. I have 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, both 1.25". Now out of the blue, I can't focus on anything, and most of the time I just see blackness.

I bought an Orion 1.25" Camera adapter and T-Ring. Nothing shows up on the camera either, even after a 30 second exposure. You'd think I would at least get light, even unfocused after staring at the sky for that long.

[astrokat]

sounds odd bud you should get some thing with 30 sec what was your iso setting if you having probles getting focus or finding anything using a 25mm i would look at your collimation dont give up your get there i think you need to a half decent focus though with the camera in place how are you focusing the camera to the telescope

[Gardidien]

I tried ISO settings of 100, 200, 400, 800, and 1600. I didn't capture anymore light as i went up, the blackness just got more grainy. I took the scope apart and cleaned it as its about 15 years old and never been touched. The mirrors were filthy, and definitely out of alignment.

I put it all together and colliminated it for an hour. I'm able to see stars in my eye piece again, but photos are not coming out. I don't know what else could be wrong.

I'm using the standard focus that is on the scope. It's made of plastic, but it seems to be sturdy.

[SlipperySquid]

No pictures would seem to me that it is not focusing, I no expert though so don't quote me.

Focus on the brightest star you can find in the sky! look through the camera view finder if you can't see it try going through the full focus range.

I hope this helps in some way?

[Gardidien]

Thanks, I'm going to way until the moon is back in the sky here and see if I can view that. I suspect my cheap plastic focuser is thrown out of alignment with the heave camera hanging from it. I guess I'll find out in a week or two.

[Gardidien]

Tried it out a few nights ago. I was able to see light from the moon but I couldn't get it clear enough. I think its the cheap focuser on the scope and the limits of the scope so I took all my stuff back. Thanks for the help everyone. Maybe one day I'll have a scope capable of taking better pictures.