Imaging with a compact

[neilm]

I’m looking to try some astrophotography, on the cheap! I gave up all my 35m slr kit a while ago and now just have a couple of digital compacts, Olympus x-875 and a Nikon Coolpix, my scope is a Celestron 102 wide scope.

Is there a way that I can marry the camera to the scope? I’ve tried just hold the camera up to the eye piece which kind of works but not very reliable, it’s not exactly easy getting the two lined up correctly. Any ideas?

[Cornelius Varley]

There are brackets available such as the Baader Microstage Clickstop bracket that will hold the camera upto the eyepiece. Some digital compacts have a filter thread around the lens which will allow you to use a Digital camera adaptor ring. The ring fits around the eyepiece and the adapter screws into the filter thread on the camera's lens.

Peter

[Digz]

Peters given some great links there. To add a bit more info your talking about 'Afocal' astro-imaging, try googling this and see what opens up.

If your still stuck then we'll see what we can do

[barkis]

Some very fine lunar Images have been captured with point and shoot cameras, and hand held at the eyepiece too. Fixing the camera as close to the eyepiece is a much better way to do this sort of imaging (Afocal).

As mentioned by Peter in the previous post, there are several fixes available.

Ron.

[neilm]

Thats great, thanks for the pointers.

[neilm]

After much internet searching have just ordered the Baader Microstage from FLO, thanks for the recommendation, good reviews on various sites, so atmposheric conditions permitting we'll see how it all peforms.

[astromerlin]

Hi, This might be helpful for your Coolpix at a later stage if you have a laptop handy.

Snappixx v0.54 - Remote control for Nikon Coolpix cameras

[Digz]

look forward to seeing your results

[neilm]

The Baader Microstage from FLO arrived on Monday, looks to be well built and like everyone else now just waiting for the skies to clear to give it a test run.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Hi, This might be helpful for your Coolpix at a later stage if you have a laptop handy.

Snappixx v0.54 - Remote control for Nikon Coolpix cameras

Thanks for that Merlin. I have a Nikon Coolpix L5. I dont use it much but its always fun to try new programs.

[neilm]

Have finally managed to get some reasonable weather and maneged a few shots, the Baaader is a little bit fiddly to use but I'm sure I'll get used to it, will post in the imaging section.

Neil