T RING do I need more kit ?

[valandian]

Hi there,

Finally got our Skywatcher explorer 130pm working on Saturday night.

We have got a Sony Alpha a200 and were sold an adapter so we could hook up.

Only problem is it will fit to the scope but not with an eyepiece.

Am I right in assuming I'm lacking another bit of kit ?

I think I have a T Ring but, is it a T adapter I need as well ?

Presumably this goes around the eyepiece.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

valandian

[themos]

The DSLR (without lens) goes on the scope in place of the eyepiece.

[valandian]

Right, so no eyepiece ?

Well I can do that.

So the pics I have seen that were taken with the a200 & explorer 130pm are done this way (no eyepice) ?

thanks for your help

valandian

[themos]

That's right.

There are methods that use the eyepiece (in order to change the image scale) but very few people use them.

[valandian]

Nice one thanks.

What sort of time exposure and settings should I be aiming for ?

[themos]

With a polar aligned equatorial mount that is tracking you can start from 10 seconds up to however many minutes your tracking is good for. Set the ISO to something like 400 or 800. Take your time to focus properly.

[ItIsOnlyMe]

I have had some fun getting into fine detail of the moon with a Canon 350 connected to a Baader eyepiece. The Baader Hyperions have an adapter ring so that you can attach the eyepiece to camera and scope reliably, this way you get a much magnified view through to the camera.

But as has already been mentioned you can also connect the scope directly to the T ring.

[valandian]

With a polar aligned equatorial mount that is tracking you can start from 10 seconds up to however many minutes your tracking is good for. Set the ISO to something like 400 or 800. Take your time to focus properly.

Thanks,

well, I think the camra will only give upto 30 seconds but the ISO will go much much higher.

Is it a good idea to go as high as possible ?

Also I can change the apeture setting too but I'm not exactly sure what it does (the highest is F25).

Got a setting called creative style too with options of landscape, sunset, night view etc. I've set it to night view, is this right ?

This is all set on M mode.

Maybe I should just experiment with it.

[valandian]

I have had some fun getting into fine detail of the moon with a Canon 350 connected to a Baader eyepiece. The Baader Hyperions have an adapter ring so that you can attach the eyepiece to camera and scope reliably, this way you get a much magnified view through to the camera.

But as has already been mentioned you can also connect the scope directly to the T ring.

Hmmm,

that sounds interesting, what sort of price are we looking at for a Baader for the explorer 130 pm

[themos]

Check if your camera supports a RAW format, if it does use it as it retains more information than JPEGs. In my view, when shooting RAW there is no point going for very high ISO but the best way is to experiment. When you use your telescope as the lens, the aperture setting cannot be controlled by the camera. 30 seconds should be enough to get some interesting results from the Orion nebula. Do not use "night view" or other modes, stick to as much manual control as you can so you can change one parameter at a time in a controlled manner.

[DUBHE]

Hi Valandian, I think the A200 has “BULB” function so you should be able to get longer exposures than 30 seconds.

Check your camera specs.

[ItIsOnlyMe]

Hmmm,

that sounds interesting, what sort of price are we looking at for a Baader for the explorer 130 pm

I paid £93 ish for a 5mm, plus a few £ for the ring to attach from the eyepiece to the T ring. But these are a) Nice ep's for the money Very flexible

You can use the 5mm as a 22mm by removing the first group of lenses if you have a 2" focuser. Plus there are 2 fine tuning rings to get the ep down to just over 3mm, I have these but have not got around to using them yet. I have had a very fine view of Orion Nebula with the first group removed.

Here is a link to the details on FLO:

Baader Planetarium - Baader Hyperion 68 degree eyepiece