Imager Question

[Music Junkie]

I know there is an astrophotography section, but I was not sure if this was more of an accessory question or not........

I own an 8" Meade Lightbridge. I have mixed emotions about it so far, as I have had trouble with my limited knowledge about collimation and other issues. That aside, I have gotten some truly breathtaking views of the moon through it and would be very interested in snapping some photos while doing so. Does anyone know of or can anyone recommend a good imager for this type of scope? Or, would it be possible to mount a standard digital camera and take photos that way.

Stupid question??????

Anyway, any help is appreciated.

MJ

[galacticphoto]

A nontracking scope will provide limited opportunities for photography. In the case of lunar photos, you may be in luck. I've taken photos through my XT10 using only a T-adapter attached to a 2" insert and a Nikon DSLR. Exposures on the order of 1/100 to 1/250 of a sec yielded decent results.

I've also taken shots of Jupiter and Saturn using the same, but good results are much more difficult to obtain.

You can't beat a tracking mount (like a GEM) for any photo work, even relatively short exposure sequences.

Robert

[RickJ]

A web cam is the best way to get moon shots as well as planetary images. They take a AVI file then Registax can process, find the good ones and stack for a surprisingly good result, often better than the eye sees once you master the software.

But this is hard to do without some tracking. It need not be accurate as the exposure times are fast freezing any errors. The stacking process aligns the images for you.

I'd build or buy an equatorial platform (Poncet table) to put under the Dob. They add only a few inches of height and can provide up to 2 hours of true equatorial tracking. Since you don't need all the bells and whistles you can find some rather inexpensive ones out there, far cheaper than an equatorial mount and far steadier as well unless you spend several thousand for the equatorial mount. Members of our club both made and bought them will good results for this purpose.

Rick

[AstroRockHunter]

Actually if you use a regular digital camera, and you are only trying to image bright objects, then you may be able to get away with some impressive shots. Mind you, your targets must be bright and your exposures very short. I have taken some impressive photos using film with a 4.5" Newtonian on a manual mount.

However, since it won't take you long to exhaust the targets that you can do with this setup and assuming that you will want to try more challenging objects, you should consider upgrading to an equatorial mount and I would suggest a small APO refractor.