Jumped in deep, some easy questions (I hope)

[mbellot]

Greetings!

I recently added a Meade LX200GPS 7" f/15 MAK telescope to my "lens" collection. :)

I've done a little poking around and found three ways to use it with my Canon bodies:

1. Afocal, using a T-Mount adapter with the eyepiece inside. Benefit is the magnification becomes variable depending on eyepiece used. The biggest con seems to be its the hardest to achieve acceptable results without a lot of screwing around.

2. Prime focus through the 1.25" eyepiece tube with an eyepiece to T-Mount adapter. Seems the "easiest" since I could get everything lined up using the eyepiece and then just swap to the camera+adapter.

3. Prime focus through the main tube by removing the diagonal prism and attachment of a Meade #62 T-adapter (or equivalent if one exists, the other two options seem to have many sources).


I'd like to get something ordered, so any input would be greatly appreciated.

[chris.bailey]

I would go option 3 and add a meade 0.63 focal reducer into the train too. F15 is going to be awful slow otherwise and you are hardly short of focal length.

[cspratt]

I agree with Chris that #3 would be the best. Even using the o.63 reducer would still give you a fairly long focal length. Meade make a focul reducer that will give you f/3, F/5 or F/6.3 (all approximate). Go for that.

Using #1 (afocal) would be good for planets but it is very tedious and tricky to get the focus just right.

#2 is "doable" but fiddling with such things in the dark is harder than it sounds. Doable but again tricky. (I've dropped a few things during my "fiddling with eyepieces etc. nights".)

Good luck with your new purchase and ty to keep us informed how things are going.

[mbellot]

Well, finding the #62 tube wasn't as easy (or cheap) as finding the 1.25" adapter, so I went with that as a first toss.

Cheap enough, so if I outgrow it I'm not out a pile of cash either.

My first (serious) attempt. The moon at 2670mm with my 1DIII, prime focus via the 1.25" to T-Mount adapter. Using Live View I could actually see the atmospheric disturbances. (!!)

I've read that shooting a full moon doesn't yield the best results, so I'll be trying again in a couple days.

Shot in RAW, converted in Bibble, resized to 1600x1200 (for a desktop wallpaper) and resized again to 800x600 for posting here.

[spit]

you can do it, its best when its higher, a variable polarizer would help,if you dont have one- just shoot 100ISO and dont blow out the histogram- option 3 would be the best and easiest though, check scopestuff com for a cheap adaptor and T-ring