I a physics major and I've always been interested in astronomy, but now since I've become more interested in photography as well, I'm delving into the weird and wonderful realm of astrophotography! I've already taken some basic pictures with a home made piggy-back mount (on my 8'' SCT, a telescope for the uniniticated) but now I'm going to start trying some prime focus, and if successful, eyepiece projection photographs THROUGH the telescope.
If you don't know what I'm talking about up to this point, you won't be able to give me any advice, but to understand what I'm talking about, just imagine a telescope attached to a camera as a HUGE tele-photo lens.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anybody out there has experience with astrophotography and could give me some pointers. I'm not rich (as a university student) so I don't have the best equipment, but aside from experience, I do know what I'm doing. Classes in optics have helped immensely in understanding the focusing and optical related problems!
I've got the 8'' Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (with accessories like lenses and filters etc...) with a clock drive, but without any other tracking system. I have a nice Nikon Coolpix 5700 which is very good for taking piggybacked photos, but quite unsuited for prime focus stuff where I'd want a cooled system anyway. For that, I've got two Minolta SRT 201 backs (one has replaced seals and a lens) and I'll be setting the older one up to focus with as the focusing screens aren't removable, and they are quite dark. I've got a Meade variable projection adapter to connect the camera to the telescope and I've got little stuff like a remote for the camera etc...
Seeing no threads on astrophotography so far, I was wondering if any of you have tried it, and if you've got any advice. Also, I'd be willing to answer any basic questions if somebody is curious about astrophotography.
If you don't know what I'm talking about up to this point, you won't be able to give me any advice, but to understand what I'm talking about, just imagine a telescope attached to a camera as a HUGE tele-photo lens.
Anyway, I'm wondering if anybody out there has experience with astrophotography and could give me some pointers. I'm not rich (as a university student) so I don't have the best equipment, but aside from experience, I do know what I'm doing. Classes in optics have helped immensely in understanding the focusing and optical related problems!
I've got the 8'' Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (with accessories like lenses and filters etc...) with a clock drive, but without any other tracking system. I have a nice Nikon Coolpix 5700 which is very good for taking piggybacked photos, but quite unsuited for prime focus stuff where I'd want a cooled system anyway. For that, I've got two Minolta SRT 201 backs (one has replaced seals and a lens) and I'll be setting the older one up to focus with as the focusing screens aren't removable, and they are quite dark. I've got a Meade variable projection adapter to connect the camera to the telescope and I've got little stuff like a remote for the camera etc...
Seeing no threads on astrophotography so far, I was wondering if any of you have tried it, and if you've got any advice. Also, I'd be willing to answer any basic questions if somebody is curious about astrophotography.
