G1 and Telescope

I'd like to mate my G1 up with my Meade ETX-60 telescope - any ideas on how to do it? I've been given some links to sites selling connectors, etc but frankly I'm not sure what is needed, how to do it, etc.

Thanks,
Dave Sparks

Ok...

In order to put the 35mm on the telescope you have to get an adapter that will fit the thread of you eyepiece and on the other side it will have a mount that you camera uses (Nikon, Canon, etc..). At this point your telescope become your telephoto lens.

Now with G1 you will do the same. Buy Kenko or Lensmate adapter that will convert you camera to have 52or 49mm opening at the end. Now all you have to get is an eyepiece adapter. Instead of getting one to fit a special mount you will get one that has threads on both sides. You attach you G1 and you are fine.

Now possible problem is:
When you mount a 35mm camera directly on the telescope you use the actual telescope to focus. Telescope becomes the lens. Now you can't remove the lens from the G1. So in reality what you are doing is putting another lens (not teleconverter) in front of perfectly good G1 lens. You may have big focusing problems. Unless the focusing distance on G1 (macro) is good enough you may find some compromising positions between telescope and camera that may give you a fair image. There is no way to prove it or check it unless you actually own a telescope and a camera.

What you can do before you invest any money is remove the eyepiece from the telescope and put G1 lens into the opening if that works and you get image that satisfies you go ahead and purchase the adapters to make it steady. Play with different focusing modes to find the best match up both on camera and telescope.

If that doesn't work try little different approach. Keep the eyepiece in and get you camera to take pictures through it. Problem is that images are going to be very small and lack details. To improve that try using Close Up sets that will allow you to work closer to the eyepiece therefore improve your image size and quality.

I never tried to put camera like that (without detachable lens) on a telescope. I always worked with 35mm and medium formats. If you have any questions go ahead and shoot. Maybe together we can find a better solution.

Try scopetronix.com
Regards,
Dick S, Temecula, CA

Dick -

Bingo! Thanks for the link.

Dave Sparks

If you have an ETX and have been asking questions, or you looking for support it won't take you long before somebody leads you to Mike Weasner's ETX site. Here's the URL :

http://www.weasner.com​/etx/menu.html

Lately some images have shown up on that site with ETX 60s.

I think they call the method of using a special mount to have your digital camera take pictures through it's own lenses without mechanical coupling "afocal" mounting, and the scopetronix site (as others, I believe) offer the hardware to do it.

But as one responder already pointed out, the image will be limited in quality.

Please offer back any experiences you have in this area.

Clear skies!