My first attempt at photographing the moon w/ my digital camera (with a telescope) *UPDATED*

[kami]

I took these with my 2.1mp digicam and my 80x910mm refractor telescope (using a 25mm eyepiece...effectively 36x zoom). It was a pain in the arse because you have to mount the digicam on a seperate tripod and basically line it up with the little eyepiece perfectly! And since the moon moves so quickly across the sky you gotta constantly reset it. For those interested in technical details...most shots were around 1/30 second, f/4.0. the moon is BRIGHT but when you take into account the telescope you gotta use that slow shutter speed.

I wish they were a little sharper, but I guess the human eye focuses differently than the camera. I'll have to figure out a way to compensate for that. Overall I'm pretty happy with the results for a first try.

anyway....

pic1
pic2
pic3

I just took them from my window...going to try Jupiter and Saturn later once they get on this side of the sky, but I'll use a 10mm eyepiece (91x zoom) instead. Plus I can (technically) triple that zoom to 273x with the 3x optical zoom on my camera...so we'll see what happens

UPDATE

Well, I tried again and this time captured some better ones. Better exposure (brings out more details) and slightly sharper:

pic4

 

[duke]

Those are very sweet pics.

 

[Jzero]

Great work, especially considering you were just sticking the camera up on the eyepiece!
Rocks!

 

[Czar]

extremely nice

You can possibly buy a lense adapter for your teliscope so you can just atach it to the camera as a normal lense.

 

[kami]

thanks dudes

czar, i'm thinking of getting one of these

 

[RedRooster]

Holy cow! Those are awesome man!
That's what it looks like through a telescope? I better get me one of those.

 

[kami]

<< Holy cow! Those are awesome man!
That's what it looks like through a telescope? I better get me one of those. >>



Looks WAY freakin better through a telescope with your eye!! The quality you get from a telescope with quality optics will blow you away. That was my lowest zoom setting too.

 

[Czar]

Kami,

handy device, the simplest way possible to solve the problem
What sortof a digicam do you have?

 

[Radiohead]

Whoa, nice pics!

Didn't know telescopes could "also" be used to look at the heavens

 

[illusion88]

Wht type of telescope do you have? If it is one that moves across the sky then just find a way to mount the camera to the scope, I did that on mine, even thugh my telescope doesnt move hehe. Then you can hold the shutter speed for like a min or something. That would produce nice results

 

[no0b]

nice pics
but dont bother trying for 273x your telescope doesnt have a large enough diameter lens
the image will be very blurry and very faint

 

[oLLie]

Did anyone get pics of the meteor shower? | stupid alarm! grumble grumble.. )

 

[kami]

I used a HP 618 digicam. I'm really looking to upgrade this sucker. It's alright, but I need better. Looking at the Canon Powershot G2...

this is my telescope
It has an equatorial mount so yes it's easy to move along with the sky (only have to adjust one axis) but every time I move it, i gotta move the camera tripod!! that's why I need one of those adapters big time



<< but dont bother trying for 273x your telescope doesnt have a large enough diameter lens
the image will be very blurry and very faint >>


Yeah i know..but trying can't hurt Even though my tripod/mount is pretty damn heavy and stable, at that zoom level you will get vibrations no matter what!! So i doubt anything is gonna turn out

 

[Joony]

what digicam and telescope?

 

[BP]

Nice pics.

The only 80mm scopes I know of that would do anything like 237x is a Tele-View or Takahashi.....$$$$$. Even my Celestron SP-102 will be fuzzy and dim at that magnification. Sure, you can try, but don't get your hopes up.

 

[joohang]

Nice, nice, nice!

You are inspiring me to look into these stuff again. Before I got into computers, I used to want telescopes and CCD cameras so badly.

 

[Mucman]

Kami is into astronomy too? Wow if you liked Rush and if were female I would have to ask you out!

Oh yeah, and send me the pamphlet

 

[kami]

Mucman..LOL!! Hey i sent your damn program on tuesday!!!

 

[kami]

Sure it is...but that damn thing would move across the tiny field of view so quick you wouldn't even get a chance to look!!

 

[Mucman]

Good I can't wait until it gets here.

 

[eakers]

nice!

*kat. <-- going to bed.

 

[StageLeft]

Not bad at all...

 

[judgejudy]

great shots man keep em coming

 

[TheVrolok]

Very very cool dude.

 

[RossMAN]

Very nice picts, hope to see more like that.

I used a HP 618 digicam. I'm really looking to upgrade this sucker. It's alright, but I need better. Looking at the Canon Powershot G2..

There are some mad hot crazy deals on digicams, just check the Hot Deals forum.