Weasner's Astrophotography Tips Page

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY - TIPS

Last updated: 12 May 2012

This page documents astrophotography comments, tips, and photos. Contributions welcome. Be certain to see the other articles on the main Astrophotography page.

Subject:	1996 - ETX - Looking to get in to astrophotography
Sent:	Wednesday, May 9, 2012 15:11:11
From:	Matthew Bixby (bixby.matt@gmail.com)
I am looking to get in to astrophotography and was wondering if you had any recommendations as far as hardware/supplier goes? I currently own two Canon EOS type DSLRs and I'm leaning towards some kind of prime focus kit. I've been digging through your site for the past couple of days, just a bit overwhelmed, any help is much appreciated.

Thank you,
Matt

Mike here: The OPT Camera Adapter (see the Accessory Reviews: Astrophotography) with a T-Ring for the Canon will allow prime focus imaging with the camera mounted at the eyepiece hole. This will allow imaging of bright objects. Long exposures at prime focus will be more difficult since the original ETX will not track accurately enough by itself to prevent trailing.

Subject:	Meade NGC60
Sent:	Wednesday, May 9, 2012 12:35:56
From:	M Weis (mandms-place@msn.com)
Mike is it possible to take eyepiece projection photos with Meade NGC 60
and a Minoltia XD11. I use eyepieces from 25mm to 12.5 and colored
filters which is great for the moon. I would like to have pictures of
closer messir objects as well as saturn jupiter and clusters. Thanks for
youre website and all the help. Mark

Mike here: With the proper adapters or mounting attachments, any camera can be used to take photos through any telescope. How good the resulting images will be will vary though, depending on the capabilities of the camera and telescope. You can handhold your camera lens over an eyepiece that has been focused to your eye. With the camera lens focused at "infinity", the camera will take be able to take a photo of what it "sees". On brighter objects auto exposure may (or may not) work. For fainter objects, meaning longer exposures, you will need a sturdy telescope mount and for even longer exposures, accurate tracking and/or guiding.

End of today's update

Subject:	Meade ETX-70AT Photography problems
Sent:	Tuesday, May 1, 2012 16:33:03
From:	paul@paulricedesign.com (paul@paulricedesign.com)
I was wondering if you'd be able to offer some advice or simply inform
me that I'm doing something wrong!

I recently bought the photographic rings that allow you to attach a
Nikon camera to the ETX-70AT, which work fine. However the photographs I
achieve through using it are almost pointless - there is very little
magnification, I feel as though I would be able to achieve the same shot
without attaching it to the telescope at all. Am I doing something
wrong? Is there any way to achieve actual proper magnified photographs?

Cheers & take care,
Paul

Mike here: When you image through any telescope at prime focus, the telescope acts like a telephoto lens on the camera. The ETX-70 has a focal length of 350mm, so you are essentially using a 350mm telephoto lens on your camera. If you want more magnification, you'll have to use something to increase it, such as a Barlow Lens or eyepiece. You may need additional adapters to do that. HOWEVER, keep in mind that with increased magnification comes increased challenges of longer exposures, mount stability, and tracking. While it can be done, the ETX was not designed for long duration astrophotography. But as a wide field instrument, the ETX-70 can do some types of astrophotography, as evidenced by examples on the ETX Site.

And:

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly and for your answer. I feel as
though the telescope doesn't seem to magnify the image (say the moon)
really at all, but perhaps I am expecting too much. 
Cheers,
Paul

Mike here: The short focal length of the ETX-70 is why you don't see much magnification.

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