Yet another stupid question....

[hozepipe]

I have an old Sigma zoom lens (multi coated) for my SLR and wondered if there a reason why it can't be pressed into service as a small telescope. So I held a 26mm EP up to the back of it and had a look through. It seemed to work very nicely on the sky with pin-point stars and not much colour that I could see (though it was hard to tell being hand-held). It also provided an extremely wide field of view. The aperture is only about 45mm but still... So I wondered is there any technical reason that you couldn't buy a larger camera lens s/h to make a home-brew refractor on the cheap? Wondering if camera lenses might be high-quality but cheap because of the vast numbers produced compared to astro scopes?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

No reason not to at all. Naz did this about a year ago and had good results and I use a camera lens quite a lot for imaging.

Nikon used to sell an adapter for the back of their lenses for converting them to a 'scope.

Captain Chaos

[Naz]

Yes I had adapted a rear cover plate to fit on the back of a 500mm mirror lense. The results were pretty impressive, but the aperture being f8, about 62mm, the light gathering was below what I wanted. Still you could use it as a grab and go.

Jessops used to sell an adaptor for this very purpose, but have long since stopped it. Occasionaly one turns up on ebay.

The origional posting seems to have been deleted with the photos.

naz

[russ]

I think Teleskope Service in Germany may sell an adapter for this. They sell a range of mirror lenses with 1.25" adapters. Worth a try.

You'll need to look on the German part of the site as thats where the quirky stuff is usually found. Or send them an email. Here'sa link to their website:

http://www.telescope-service.de/

Russ

[Ambermile]

I've just made an adapter or two for this very thing.. one for a large format (6x7) lens and one for a Canon. Fairly simple to do...given the right equipment of course

Arthur

[hozepipe]

Thanks for the info guys - It certainly would make a cheap grab and go, or one to just leave in the car for 'opportunistic' scoping

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I suppose it would be simple to make a Nikon lens to T mount adapter as well, given the right equipment of course?

Captain Chaos

[Ambermile]

Well, the Canon one came with a Canon extension bit - Simple to take off one end and mate something else to it, only four M2 holes :shock:

Arthur

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I wanted to do it the other way round Arthur, Nikon 50mm lens on the SC3 for example. I might end up sawing my cheap teleconverter in half and aralditing a T thread bit in it.

Captain Chaos

[Ambermile]

I wanted to do it the other way round Arthur, Nikon 50mm lens on the SC3 for example. I might end up sawing my cheap teleconverter in half and aralditing a T thread bit in it.

Captain Chaos

Hmm. Watch this space - I have a T>nikon adapter on the way

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Would be way cool Arthur, as there are loads of old Nikon lenses on E-Bay that don't do autofocus. All these carp lenses are begging for it.

Captain Chaos