Need some advice

[mPtr]

Hi Guys,

I'm still a beginner when to comes to astronomy (on and off for about a year now), but the times I do pull out my telescope and view the heavens, I'm always amazed. I remember seeing the rings of Saturn for the first time, I felt like I had won the lottery.

Lately I've been considering about getting into some basic astrophotography but I am not 100% sure what equipment I should get. At the moment I have a Celestron Nexstar 4se as my telescope and a Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera. My plan is to try and combine the two but I'm not sure if the correct T-rings/adapters are a available to make this possible. I've had a look on a few sites but could not see a Celestron branded t-ring for my camera.

The other idea I have been playing around with is getting the vixen polarie star tracker as it looks like it could be a good start in astrophotography.

At the end of the day, what I am trying to do is take some photos of the moon, stary sky and possibly photos of Saturn and Jupiter (although I would image these would be very small).

If someone could provide some advice or point me in the right direction, I would greatly appreciated it.

Thanks.

[loki78]

Firstly, welcome to IIS and dark art of astrophotography!

I could see heaps of Olympus T Rings just when googling 'olympus t ring' so unless yours needs a specific type you shouldn't have too much trouble. I didn't notice any locally so you might have to get from a place overseas. The other option to start with is afocally which is holding or ideally mounting the camera with a lens up against the eyepiece on the telescope. You would be surprised with how good a shots can come from this, especially of the moon to start you out. If you go the prime focus and T ring option and don't want to ship overseas, try calling/emailing some more local astro stores. They may have the part but not advertise it or may be able to get it in for you.

[loki78]

This thread might get moved by Mike or one of the moderators to the beginners equipment section so if so, don't think it was deleted, just moved :)

[mPtr]

Thanks for the assistance Jon.:)