Step 2...

[danielson23uk]

Hey everyone,

(Step 1) I finally managed to unbox and get to grips with my new Explorer 130P. Chuffed to bits with it although goodness knows where I'm gonna keep it. Had a bit of a play last night ignoring all the rules and had a quick look at the moon from just inside our open french doors. More a case of learning to use it really. Anyway, it all went well and I got to see the moon like never before.

Step 2... I now want to connect my DSLR to it so I can start to play. I must just stress here that I know I've not even given it a good hammer out in the garden but with the recent skies I'm looking at remaining productive while we're plagued with cloud cover and rain.

I get a bit lost here. T-Rings, T-mount adapters and Max DSLR adapters. I don't know what I need. I'm presuming the first 2 or the last one but I thought I can't be the only imbecile wondering this so I thought I'd post the question. I'll be using either a 350D or 40D.

Do I just use the T Ring and adapter to attach it to the eyepiece? How do I focus?

I looked at the SCP900 but I'm gonna crack on with DSLR for now till I know what I'm doing. Thanks in advance.

[Ant]

You need to remove the lens from the camera AND the eyepeice from the scope.

You'll need a T ring (the first link below) this fits onto the camera - where the lens screwed into...

Adaptors - T Rings

As the 130P has a 1.25" focuser you'll need the following which screws into the T ring and then fits where the Eyepeice goes...

Adaptors - 1.25" T mount camera adapter

As the camera has quite a large chip using it with a 1.15" focuser may cause some vignetting (dark corners) in the images that you take.

Also there is a distinct likely hood that you'll not be able to wind the focuser in far enough to get to focus with the dSLR.

I couldn't with my 6" F5 newt - but could just about with my 8" F5, so I suspect that you're not going to know till you try...

EDIT: the SPC900 will come to focus no problems.

HTH

Ant

[danielson23uk]

Thanks Ant,

What is it about the 130P that prevents a DSLR focusing properly?

It does sound so much more involved with a webcam which is why I'm erring towards the DSLR option. Not to mention because I already have the cameras. But they're useless if they won't focus.

The SPC900s available on ebay are all modified this way and that I'm getting confused as to which one I need and it concerns me that it may not be genuine.

[nightfisher]

hope this helps,

look at morgans computers (google) and go to astronomy section, they do a philips spc880 flashed to spc900 you will need the nosepiece and a good idea to get IR/UV filter this all comes to about the same money as t ring and adaptor roughly £40 all the software is free to use like craterlet capture software and registax, i thought i horribly complecated but once you get used to it its ok

[danielson23uk]

Thanks nightfisher, I'm being swayed now. But where to find one that has been modded for long exposures? Anyway, I think I need to continue the topic of the SPC900 on Lurker's "Webcam" thread which has me glued to it at the moment.

So in the interest of not going OT here, can't I just use an extender tube to get the DSLR to focus? Excuse the ignorance.