AMD72 wrote in post #4594243
David
I saw your question on scopes and thought I had better put my hand up, after all I am a keen amateur astronomer. I can tell you that you can get attachments for connecting an SLR directly to a scope for prime focus photography. Unfortunately all the ones I have seen for prime focus are for 2" fittings and I think your scope would only be a 1.25" (focus tube, diagonal and eyepieces). Maybe some stepper rings and a doctored lens barrel might get you to where you would want to be, but you would have some serious vignetting.
attached is a pic I took a few months back of my bigger scope while out the other side of Toowoomba before a long night of observing. This scope doesn't have tracking, and with a focal length on 1890mm it kind of needs it for any night time photography. I also own a little 100mm f/5 refractor (500mm focal length) that is ok but as it is only an achromat it does suffer from chromatic aberations. I can stop it down to around f10 using the lens cap with the centre removed and this does improve things regarding the purple fringing. I haven't tried too much terrestrial shots with this little refractor, but I might try and do some over the coming week and I will post here if I do. I also have a 2" barlow that I can use to get the focal length up to 1000mm so I might give that a whirl too - just need to find a subject that far away
You could check out York Optical or perhaps Bintel (https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm - where I got my adaptor from) and see if there are any 1.25" options available. Also in Brisbane is Sirius Optics (http://www.sirius-optics.com.au/index2.htm) and Ron might be worth a try.
By the way, this is what I got:
Canon T-ring (EOS) and a 2" camera adapter. Unfortunately I can't link to the pages directly, but you can easily search the Bintel site for those things.
On the other end of the scale I got a 100mm f2.8 macro for Christmas and I am going through the same settings hunt with a 580EX II as you. I don't have anything macro-ey worthy of posting, but I am looking forward to the next macro get together to mooch some ideas off the experts.
cheers
Andrew
David
I saw your question on scopes and thought I had better put my hand up, after all I am a keen amateur astronomer. I can tell you that you can get attachments for connecting an SLR directly to a scope for prime focus photography. Unfortunately all the ones I have seen for prime focus are for 2" fittings and I think your scope would only be a 1.25" (focus tube, diagonal and eyepieces). Maybe some stepper rings and a doctored lens barrel might get you to where you would want to be, but you would have some serious vignetting.
attached is a pic I took a few months back of my bigger scope while out the other side of Toowoomba before a long night of observing. This scope doesn't have tracking, and with a focal length on 1890mm it kind of needs it for any night time photography. I also own a little 100mm f/5 refractor (500mm focal length) that is ok but as it is only an achromat it does suffer from chromatic aberations. I can stop it down to around f10 using the lens cap with the centre removed and this does improve things regarding the purple fringing. I haven't tried too much terrestrial shots with this little refractor, but I might try and do some over the coming week and I will post here if I do. I also have a 2" barlow that I can use to get the focal length up to 1000mm so I might give that a whirl too - just need to find a subject that far away
You could check out York Optical or perhaps Bintel (https://www.bintelshop.com.au/welcome.htm - where I got my adaptor from) and see if there are any 1.25" options available. Also in Brisbane is Sirius Optics (http://www.sirius-optics.com.au/index2.htm) and Ron might be worth a try.By the way, this is what I got:
Canon T-ring (EOS) and a 2" camera adapter. Unfortunately I can't link to the pages directly, but you can easily search the Bintel site for those things.
On the other end of the scale I got a 100mm f2.8 macro for Christmas and I am going through the same settings hunt with a 580EX II as you. I don't have anything macro-ey worthy of posting, but I am looking forward to the next macro get together to mooch some ideas off the experts.
cheers
Andrew
Hey Andrew - that's one impressive 'scope!
York Optical is where my wife bought the scope for me (similar size/mag to your "little" one by the sounds of it!). She wanted to make sure it was usable for up and out (ie night sky and day scenery) and price was the big factor. It is 1.25"
I'll check out those sites to see what adapters are available - thanks for the heads-up.
Meanwhile, you should keep an eye on this thread for the next local meet - the increase in knowledge is huge (it was for me) after mixing with people who have been at this game for a while longer than I have.
what a great setup Andrew. Any photos to share?
If it doesn't could you explain why? 
