Focus Reducer Help

[Stephen]

Not sure if this should be in imaging or equipment so apologies mods if this is wrong!

With my setup (200P Dob + SPC900NC) prime focus is giving me some wonderfully close up shots of the moon, I can see about 1/8 of the surface at any given time I would say. (Rough figure, could be well off.)

What I was wondering is, is there any wisdom in obtaining a 1.25" focal reducer to attach to webcams eyepiece adaptor (I have seen a 0.5 and 0.6) to take some wider images of the moon?

Any problems with this set up you can suggest?

Cheers,

Stephen

[vulcan]

The good news is that a focal reducer, as it gives less focal length for the same mirror size, increases your aperture allowing shorter exposure times. The bad news is that like any supplemental lens, it introduces more reflective surfaces and compromises the optical geometry so your image won't be quite as crisp as it would be without it however, with a SPC900NC, you might not notice. Personally, I would be more inclined to try tiling the images you can get already if you want more FOV. Hint: use Photoshop's 'layer difference mode' to make overlapping images register accurately!

[Stephen]

I shall give that a shot before I fish the plastic out again, thanks

[Merlin66]

The x0.5 nosepiece reducers (ATiK etc) work very well with webcams...no real issues - they do what it says on the box.