What do I need for astro photography?

I have an older Orion Optics Europa 250 'scope with 1.25" eyepieces. I also have
a Canon EOS350D camera. I'd like to start some simple astro photography, but I'm
completely clueless as to what I need to mate the two together - just how does
the camera get attached to the 'scope?

Any advice gratefully received.

Jim
--
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Please help to bring two classic works of whisky literature back into print
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On Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:50:30 GMT, Jim wrote:

I have an older Orion Optics Europa 250 'scope with 1.25"
eyepieces. I also have a Canon EOS350D camera. I'd like to start
some simple astro photography, but I'm completely clueless as to
what I need to mate the two together - just how does the camera
get attached to the 'scope?

Any advice gratefully received.

Jim

The company that I bought my scope from (www.warehouseexpress.com)
had a variety of different mounting options for cameras. One setup
was called 'parfocal' or something like that - mounting it down over
the eyepiece.

You might need to counterbalance the setup though, as the camera is
probably going to be a bit on the heavy side.

Rexx Magnus wrote:

On Mon, 05 Mar 2007 08:50:30 GMT, Jim wrote:

I have an older Orion Optics Europa 250 'scope with 1.25"
eyepieces. I also have a Canon EOS350D camera. I'd like to start
some simple astro photography, but I'm completely clueless as to
what I need to mate the two together - just how does the camera
get attached to the 'scope?

Any advice gratefully received.

Jim

The company that I bought my scope from (www.warehouseexpress.com)
had a variety of different mounting options for cameras. One setup
was called 'parfocal' or something like that - mounting it down over
the eyepiece.

You might need to counterbalance the setup though, as the camera is
probably going to be a bit on the heavy side.

I have an Olympus E500 mated to my scopes. Using 1.25" eyepiece holder
is great, there are loads of attachments for that. Your scope may have a
screw thread mount on the focusser housing. If not you can easily get a
1.25" to 'T' mount adapter - I got one long enough to insert eyepieces
into. You'll then need a 'T' mount to Canon adapter ring.

The cheapest place to look is eBay, there are loads of these things on
there, but don't buy *the* cheapest ones you see, some of the adapter
rings are plastic. IIRC, I paid about £8 for the OM to 'T' adapter, and
about £20 for the 'T' mount to 1.25" adapter.

If you plan on doing long exposures, you will need a motorised mount, or
preferably a GOTO. I tried using some 8-15sec exposures the other night,
which was OK on the moon with a motor mount, but stars started to trail
after just a few seconds.

You may get some good shots of the planets though, although Saturn does
really move quickly, even for a motorised mount to keep up. Start with
the moon first, you can almost leave the camera on auto exposure
settings for that. The shots I recently took were set to -0.7ev.

--
Andy Hewitt
http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/

In article 1huhz07.6ywfdg1o5q1kdN%wildrover.andy@googlemail. com, Andy Hewitt wrote:

I have an Olympus E500 mated to my scopes. Using 1.25" eyepiece holder
is great, there are loads of attachments for that. Your scope may have a
screw thread mount on the focusser housing. If not you can easily get a
1.25" to 'T' mount adapter - I got one long enough to insert eyepieces
into. You'll then need a 'T' mount to Canon adapter ring.

The cheapest place to look is eBay, there are loads of these things on
there, but don't buy *the* cheapest ones you see, some of the adapter
rings are plastic. IIRC, I paid about £8 for the OM to 'T' adapter, and
about £20 for the 'T' mount to 1.25" adapter.

If you plan on doing long exposures, you will need a motorised mount, or
preferably a GOTO. I tried using some 8-15sec exposures the other night,
which was OK on the moon with a motor mount, but stars started to trail
after just a few seconds.

You may get some good shots of the planets though, although Saturn does
really move quickly, even for a motorised mount to keep up. Start with
the moon first, you can almost leave the camera on auto exposure
settings for that. The shots I recently took were set to -0.7ev.


Just spoke to a nice chap at Orion Optics (who are quite close to me) and a kit
to mate my EOS350D to my Europa 250 would be about 49quid. This is for a Canon
EOS T-Ring and a camera adaptor for the 'scope itself.

Sound about right?

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaMinorBeta.co.uk
Please help to bring two classic works of whisky literature back into print
by visiting http://www.ClassicExpressions.co.uk Thank you.
"The deil's awa, the deil's awa, the deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman."

Jim wrote:

You may get some good shots of the planets though, although Saturn does
really move quickly, even for a motorised mount to keep up. Start with
the moon first, you can almost leave the camera on auto exposure
settings for that. The shots I recently took were set to -0.7ev.


Just spoke to a nice chap at Orion Optics (who are quite close to me) and
a kit to mate my EOS350D to my Europa 250 would be about 49quid. This is
for a Canon EOS T-Ring and a camera adaptor for the 'scope itself.

Sound about right?

For dealer supplied stuff, yeah OK.

About £25 from he

http://www.scopesnskies.com/cat/astr...ography-camera
-adaptors-accessories.html

--
Andy Hewitt
http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/

On Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:35:23 GMT, Jim wrote:


Just spoke to a nice chap at Orion Optics (who are quite close to
me) and a kit to mate my EOS350D to my Europa 250 would be about
49quid. This is for a Canon EOS T-Ring and a camera adaptor for
the 'scope itself.

Sound about right?

Jim

Yeah, just about. I tracked down a T-mount for the telescope on ebay
for £12, and the adapter ring for about the same. To buy elsewhere
the former would have cost me £29 and the latter £12, but dearer
postage.

You can get the 1.25" eyepiece adapters as well, if your telescope
doesn't have a rear camera mount on it (the ETX scopes have a cap at
the base of the tube, which you can mount cameras on.)

--
http://www.rexx.co.uk
To email me, visit the site.

http://www.rexx.co.uk/runes/ - personal online rune readings

In article om, Andy Hewitt wrote:
Jim wrote:

You may get some good shots of the planets though, although Saturn does
really move quickly, even for a motorised mount to keep up. Start with
the moon first, you can almost leave the camera on auto exposure
settings for that. The shots I recently took were set to -0.7ev.


Just spoke to a nice chap at Orion Optics (who are quite close to me) and
a kit to mate my EOS350D to my Europa 250 would be about 49quid. This is
for a Canon EOS T-Ring and a camera adaptor for the 'scope itself.

Sound about right?

For dealer supplied stuff, yeah OK.

About £25 from he

http://www.scopesnskies.com/cat/astr...ography-camera
-adaptors-accessories.html


I know I'll be paying a bit more by going there, but I like the fact that in the
event of difficulties I can go back there and give them some grief in person :-)

Not that I've ever had to - great place.

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaMinorBeta.co.uk
Please help to bring two classic works of whisky literature back into print
by visiting http://www.ClassicExpressions.co.uk Thank you.
"The deil's awa, the deil's awa, the deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman."

In article , Rexx Magnus wrote:
On Mon, 05 Mar 2007 11:35:23 GMT, Jim wrote:


Just spoke to a nice chap at Orion Optics (who are quite close to
me) and a kit to mate my EOS350D to my Europa 250 would be about
49quid. This is for a Canon EOS T-Ring and a camera adaptor for
the 'scope itself.

Sound about right?

Jim

Yeah, just about. I tracked down a T-mount for the telescope on ebay
for £12, and the adapter ring for about the same. To buy elsewhere
the former would have cost me £29 and the latter £12, but dearer
postage.

You can get the 1.25" eyepiece adapters as well, if your telescope
doesn't have a rear camera mount on it (the ETX scopes have a cap at
the base of the tube, which you can mount cameras on.)

Thanks - I suspect if I get them it will be from Orion as they're local to me and
seem to have a high tolerance for stupid questions :-)

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaMinorBeta.co.uk
Please help to bring two classic works of whisky literature back into print
by visiting http://www.ClassicExpressions.co.uk Thank you.
"The deil's awa, the deil's awa, the deil's awa wi' th' Exciseman."

Jim wrote:

Not that I've ever had to - great place.

Actually I agree. I will usually pay a little more myself if I can buy
something locally and get good local support.

I really wanted to buy my E500 locally, but there just wasn't anywhere.
Curry's didn't have the good kit lens, and a local photo shop wanted
£120 more for the two lens kit.

We have no local telescope shops at all in the NE.

For the sake of a few pounds though, there's no argument if you can.

--
Andy Hewitt
http://web.mac.com/andrewhewitt1/

Jim wrote:

Any advice gratefully received.

Jim


Hey guys! How about keeping this on topic?

....Oops sorry... thought I was on ucsm :-)

--
Gareth
http://www.meroffice.com