Hi,
After seeing Gary's amazing shot of Saturn with his 6" scope, I wanted to ask some questions to clarify my situation please.
I currently use a digital camera adapter to "look" into my eyepiece and the results on the planets are not too flash. Certainly nowhere near what I would consider worthwhile. Especially with the amount of time it takes to get everything lined up.
I would like to get bigger shots with more resolution and I understand that by using a camera in "prime focus" the telescope becomes the camera's lens.
Does this mean that I have to have a camera that does not have a lens on it, ie an DSLR, or a webcam that is adapted or screwed into a dummy eyepiece/adapter so that the normal point of focussing is directly onto the CCD sensor of the camera?
If so, will this allow finer resolution of images or am I just barking mad to think I can get any better than some of the planet shots I already see?
With the afocal technique, things should be bigger by using the 3x optical zoom of the camera into the FOV, but it seems that I am blurring things by doing so. When I DONT use the zoom, the image I capture is SO small that no details can be made out?
When at the "house of temptation" (Andrews) I noticed a 32mm camera projection lens, would this help? I thought a 32mm lens would only then mean that with a 2.5x barlow, the magnification from my scope would be a measly 78x and people are saying I should try 200x and up for planets.
Any ideas on what to try to improve things with what I have? I cannot set any exposures above 4 secs on both cameras, and the only camera I have with a thread is the 37mm ring outside the zoom lens on the Kodak and I cant find anything as yet to fit this to something. The Kodak only has a dodgy 320X240 video mode as well
My scope is a catadioptric Newtonian which Lee Andrews told me effectively has a built in 2x barlow so that it can double the FL of the scope as it only has a 500mm length tube. Is this whats degrading my images at high mag?
PS. I dont have a laptop currently but I do have an old webcam I can "mod", but nothing as yet to plug it into. I am also computer literate so dont worry about getting too technical. Also, I have pretty much used all funds available buying silly things, at the moment so shopping is a bit out of the question for anything over $50.
Any tips great or small would be appreciated, sorry for the essay, I am yet to find a short way to ask a long question.
Thanks
Chris