New to Astronomy: Explorer 130M + Panasonic TZ10 Camera

[Chris HK]

A few months ago my brother and I were introduced to astronomy when his wife bought him an Explorer 130M. Both have us have been thrilled to see good views of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, a vague outline of Orion's nebula and more recently a very faint smudge of light in the eyepiece which I believe was Andromeda- does'nt sound that amazing, but believe me we were shouting at each other to have a look( I'm 35, he's 40!).

Light Polution in West London is terrible with a combination of neighbours security lights firing up every time you move, a street lamp at the end of the garden and the general dull orange glow of London as a whole - however a clear night still be an amazing experience!

Recently bought a Panasonic Lumix TZ10 to see if I could get any shots just holding the camera to the eyepiece( will probably purchase a Digiscope adapter), but have noticed a black shadow in the centre of the image as displayed on the camera.

Once you engage the zoom a little the shadow seems to reduce, does anyone know what may cause this?

Apologies if post is a bit waffly, very first time posting anything on well, anything actually.

If anyone has any general advice regarding this kind of setup both for photography and just viewing would be very grateful.

In advance, thanks - Chris

[rowan46]

welcome to sgl chris, I am not an expert on photography or imaging but it may be that your camera lens isn't at the the sweet spot for the eyepiece. It is just a question of getting the camera in the right place and focussed. I am afraid afocal imaging without an adaptor is a bit of a trial and error affair. Here is a link for afocal imaging I hope it helps

Afocal Astrophotography

[Chris HK]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. Not expecting miracles as either a beginner or using this method to capture images, but definitely worth a go.

Once again many thanks for the link