Got my scope - FRUSTERATED already :(

Okay!

Frustration is my new middle name!

Little background;

I am a photographer who has moved to using a telescope in order to get better moon shots i do shoot with a 70-200 2.8L and 50-500 F5.6 however the shots I have wanted to get lack the details, focal length and tend to come out really soft when adding my 2X Tele-converter to my 500 making it a 1000mm

So with talks with some of the local guys who get the shots i wanted it has come down to needing a 1200-1500mm telescope which i have now picked up Sky-watcher 127mm.

It's pretty new to the market and talking with the local shop we decided this was best. To save cost as i was going to go with a cheaper scope on a EQ mount we decided to just order the tube with no mount and use my Video tripod being that i am shooting the moon only.

So it has come in and i am kind of freaked about the way things are suppose to attach, i should have brought some better details with me to work however for attaching the camera I have a EOS T-Ring which seems really lose.. And requires Allen key to tighten up which I don't have and will pick up tonight on my way home.

He also sold me a eye piece adapter tube thing which I am only suppose to use a piece of which threads into the T-Ring that attaches to my camera body and the other end is just a tube that I slid into where the eye piece goes and there are two thumbscrews to hold it in place, Now this is where I get nervous… I mean holding a 4 thousand dollar body up 4-5 feet in the air tilted down only held on by a couple of thumb screws really does not seem good to me  Can I drill holes or would this ever be adjusted later on? I was thinking drilling a couple of holes so the thumbscrews go in or is it pretty safe?

Also,

I understand my mount is not going to do anything other than the moon and I can live with that for now, I have seen a lot of the deep space stuff you guys are doing and would love to get into that and have been looking at something like a GOTO mount for tracking and stuff and was looking to build a mount for attaching a second DSLR and my other lens to for shooting that sort of thing. What kind of mount would be recommended and what would be entailed?

Attached is a shot of my rig thus far.. and I hope to get a clear night this weekend ( all these dam snow storms ) to get a shot off or two to make sure everything is working.


my rig.

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First of all, I know exactly what you mean about the little thumb-screws holding the camera into the eyepiece focuser. What I do, ALWAYS, is loop the camera neck-strap around the finderscope, should the thing work itself loose...just in case. The worse that will happen then is that the camera will swing and perhaps knock a tripod leg, but it won't hit the concrete.

You will find there are occasionally extra bits you need or want, but you know what, I think it looks like you've got a great scope there and you'll be getting great lunar pics soon. Word of warning though...I'm sure you know...the moon will move out of frame extremely quickly. What you'll end up doing, if your tripod allows really accurate adjustments, is position it slightly ahead of the moon, so you can snap away as the moon moves into the frame. Nothing worse than spending an age getting it lined up, checking a few things, taking a shot, and finding the moon has already moved too much. That's what happens to me, but then I've got a crumby cheap tripod!

Yea i have heard about the issue of the moon moving - ideally this 1500m on my 1.3 crop body i should just have the moon in the full frame. I Figured this was the way to go for now but might find a bullhead or something that allows for micro adjustments? Of if i can find someone who wants to give up a EQ mount for really cheap

Wow,
This is freaking hard ! lol

We have had alot of snow around here and very little clear skies.. today i seen one bright star so grabbed my gear ran out side set it up and the star was covered.. lol But waiting 15 mins and it came back.

I for the life of me could not get the dame thing to work... Was able to line up the star in the finder scope however i could not get the start to come in.. YES I removed the lens cap

So i guess my next issue is how to aline my finder scope..

Also turning that dial to focus for stars should i be turning it clockwize or counter?

Good luck. I have a t-ring and adapter on the way for my scope (not as nice as yours), can't wait to try it out.

Well i could hardly see the moon through the snow clouds and it only stuck around long enough to get off one shot!

This is what i got out of it, The one thing i like is i know i can get the whole moon with in my frame!

Sorry for the crappy shot

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Hey, It's a start!

Maybe someone can help.

When i look up at the sky i find the brightest start i can and its pretty much one bright star... So then i look through the finder scope and to my amazement i see 3-4 stars and not just one bright one.. Cool... So then i look through the scope using my 26m eye peice the one that came with it and start focusing until they come into view and see a couple more bring it in as close to focus as i can.

Remove my eye peice and attached the camera turn on live view and see nothing hummm whats going on here.. take a shot at like 20 seconds and i can see some blurred spots so then i have to spend the next 10 mins going bcak and forth trying to bring them into focus...

Why can i see them through the eye peice however not on the live view of the camera??

Your camera's sensor is not at the same focal point in the light path as an eyepiece. You only need to move a hair in either direction to demonstrate this. If you loosen the eyepiece at the set screw and slide it out a bit from where it is seated for focus you'll see why your camera is seeing blurred stars. You need to focus through the camera viewfinder. This is why a quality crawford focuser is so helpful with astrophotography. It will allow minute adjustments, much finer than that of a lens for instance. I'm not sure how you focus your scope, just by sliding the camera in and out after loosening the three set screws?

Also, did you align your finder scope with your telescope for accurate pointing? Not so critical for the Moon since it's big enough and bright enough but very important for more challenging targets.

Nighthound wrote in post #7226570
I'm not sure how you focus your scope, just by sliding the camera in and out after loosening the three set screws?

Also, did you align your finder scope with your telescope for accurate pointing? Not so critical for the Moon since it's big enough and bright enough but very important for more challenging targets.

Yes i did aline the finder scope and thats not an issue. As for focusing i just attached the camera pushed on as far as it went and tightened donw the two screws.. Then turn on the live view on the camrea and started turing the one knob for focusing the scope. and no once could i get any stars to show up.. however if i focused with the eye peice where i could see everything then attache the camera nad shoot at a 20 second exsposure i then could see the stars however htey where not in focus.

Should i be moving the camera in and out as well as the focus on the telescope?

Unless you can find a really bright star, most will be extremely difficult to see either through the camera viewfinder or on live view. If you are going to concentrate on taking photos of the moon, I would suggest you use that to get everything in focus.

Focussing the scope through an eyepiece, and then replacing the eyepiece with your camera will inevitably mean that any shots you take will not be in focus. As Nighthound says, the camera sensor is not in the same focus plane as your eyepiece. It is not necessary to move your camera in and out to achieve focus; you should be able to do that with the focussing knob on your telescope.

Again the moon is your friend when first experimenting with these issues; it's easy to find and see, either through your viewfinder or in live view, and if you are using live view, zooming in to 5x or even 10x will help even more.

If all else fails, try constructing a Hartmann mask to help you focus. I haven't tried one myself, but they are spposed to work fairly well, and are quite easy to make.

What I would do is focus your eyepiece on a distant object in the DAYTIME and mark the position on your focus tube with tippex or similar. Then focus your camera on the same object and make another mark on the focus tube. You will then have two reference points to refine your focus in the dark. The amount of movement required for accurate focus is very small and you can check how you are doing by taking a picture of the star then reviewing it on the LCD and zooming in 10x. After a few iterations you will see a pin sharp picture with diffraction spikes which then shows your focus is spot on.
Sometimes the air quality (twinkling) of the stars will make accurate focus impossible to achieve so you'll just have to wait for a clearer (air quality wise) night. There's also much less atmosphere to shoot through as your object moves higher in the sky.
HTH.

Michael_Lambert wrote in post #7227463
Yes i did aline the finder scope and thats not an issue. As for focusing i just attached the camera pushed on as far as it went and tightened donw the two screws.. Then turn on the live view on the camrea and started turing the one knob for focusing the scope. and no once could i get any stars to show up.. however if i focused with the eye peice where i could see everything then attache the camera nad shoot at a 20 second exsposure i then could see the stars however htey where not in focus.

Should i be moving the camera in and out as well as the focus on the telescope?

From your photograph of the scope the focus knob is not visible so I wasn't clear on how you focused this model(one I'm not familiar with). From that angle it almost appeared to be a helical type focuser. You should have no need to move the camera as long as your focus tube has enough travel inward and back then it's just a matter of looking at a bright star with through the camera viewfinder and tweaking focus with the scope focuser knob. The same would apply for focusing on the Moon. Be sure the dioptric dial(next to camera viewfinder) has been adjusted for your eyes at infinity before attempting critical or final focus.

I haven't tried this yet but it's said to be far superior to a Hartman Mask. See the FREE template section to make your own.
http://www.focus-mask.com/

I have attached a better shot of the focuser.. just simple little dial.. But i agree i need to get out during the day with this thing.. out of urban land i am in.

Maybe if its nice tomorrow i will pack it up and head up in to the contry side of town and see if i can work on some objects in a distance. during the day to get an idea of how it all works.

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Live View on my 450D can only pick up the brightest of stars...for example, the seven sisters or Pleiades it can just about see, but any dimmer than that and no chance.