Best option for photography on my Newtonian

Jon G Wrote:
Hello folks,

I'm very new to all this and am keen to take a few photos to show
friends
and family what the views through my telescope are like. I'm confused
as to
which way to go because I have three camera options! Scope is a 8"
Bresser
Messier Newtonian.

Cameras a
Pentax MZ5n film SLR Pentax KA bayonet
Pentax ME Super film SLR circa 1980 Pentax K bayonet manual focus
Fuji Finepix 4900 3 Megapixel digital seee
Trust webcam

Jonathan

I would recommend getting yourself a Phillips Toucam Pro II and the
required adapter and have a go at planetary imaging. Your mount should
be perfectly adequate for this; there's many more problems in getting
a night with good seeing and with little or no wind. There is a
learning curve to get up when processing the results in Registax but
it's not too hard and when you get a decent result one feels
exceeedingly chuffed to have an image of a planet that's 1200 million
kilometre away.

- Mike

http://www.geocities.com/evmurph/images

OK - lots of good advice here and I'm most grateful. The next question is
whether to go for a Philips Toucam pro or a Meade LPI. I'm mostly wanting
to photograph planets and brighter deep sky objects such as Orion Nebula etc
and Andromeda. Which is most suitable because there isn't much in it
pricewise if you buy the Toucam £40 + IR blocking filter (£25) and an
adapter (£25) - would the Meade be a better bet for a beginner?

Thanks,

Jonathan
"Mike Murphy" evmurph.zetnet@co@uk wrote in message
...
Jon G Wrote:
Hello folks,

I'm very new to all this and am keen to take a few photos to show
friends
and family what the views through my telescope are like. I'm confused
as to
which way to go because I have three camera options! Scope is a 8"
Bresser
Messier Newtonian.

Cameras a
Pentax MZ5n film SLR Pentax KA bayonet
Pentax ME Super film SLR circa 1980 Pentax K bayonet manual focus
Fuji Finepix 4900 3 Megapixel digital seee
Trust webcam

Jonathan

I would recommend getting yourself a Phillips Toucam Pro II and the
required adapter and have a go at planetary imaging. Your mount should
be perfectly adequate for this; there's many more problems in getting
a night with good seeing and with little or no wind. There is a
learning curve to get up when processing the results in Registax but
it's not too hard and when you get a decent result one feels
exceeedingly chuffed to have an image of a planet that's 1200 million
kilometre away.

- Mike

http://www.geocities.com/evmurph/images

"Jon G" wrote in message
...
OK - lots of good advice here and I'm most grateful. The next question is
whether to go for a Philips Toucam pro or a Meade LPI. I'm mostly wanting
to photograph planets and brighter deep sky objects such as Orion Nebula
etc
and Andromeda. Which is most suitable because there isn't much in it
pricewise if you buy the Toucam £40 + IR blocking filter (£25) and an
adapter (£25) - would the Meade be a better bet for a beginner?

Thanks,

Jonathan
"Mike Murphy" evmurph.zetnet@co@uk wrote in message
...
Jon G Wrote:
Hello folks,

I'm very new to all this and am keen to take a few photos to show
friends
and family what the views through my telescope are like. I'm confused
as to
which way to go because I have three camera options! Scope is a 8"
Bresser
Messier Newtonian.

Cameras a
Pentax MZ5n film SLR Pentax KA bayonet
Pentax ME Super film SLR circa 1980 Pentax K bayonet manual focus
Fuji Finepix 4900 3 Megapixel digital seee
Trust webcam

Jonathan

I would recommend getting yourself a Phillips Toucam Pro II and the
required adapter and have a go at planetary imaging. Your mount should
be perfectly adequate for this; there's many more problems in getting
a night with good seeing and with little or no wind. There is a
learning curve to get up when processing the results in Registax but
it's not too hard and when you get a decent result one feels
exceeedingly chuffed to have an image of a planet that's 1200 million
kilometre away.

- Mike

http://www.geocities.com/evmurph/images

"Robin Leadbeater" wrote in message
...

"Jon G" wrote in message
...
OK - lots of good advice here and I'm most grateful. The next question
is
whether to go for a Philips Toucam pro or a Meade LPI. I'm mostly
wanting
to photograph planets and brighter deep sky objects such as Orion Nebula
etc
and Andromeda. Which is most suitable because there isn't much in it
pricewise if you buy the Toucam £40 + IR blocking filter (£25) and an
adapter (£25) - would the Meade be a better bet for a beginner?

Thanks,

Jonathan

Ehem.... as I was saying ;-)

Hi Jonathan

I personally would go for the Toucam. With it you have the potential to take
high quality planetary images. Neither are any good for DSO. Both would just
about be able to show the brightest objects (the LPI perhaps a bit more so
because of its longer exposure limit) but you will not be able to produce
anything you would want to show anyone else.

Your other choice might be a NexImage which is a Toucam in Celestron
clothing and like the Toucam, can be converted for long exposures using the
Steve Chambers mod. The mod involves some microsurgery but is much less
fiddly to do on the Neximage compared with the Toucam.

Robin