Eyepieces and Accessories

stargazer · Post by **stargazer** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:49 am

Hello all...a question on astro-photography: for starters, what accessory do I need in order to take astro-photography using Sony digital camera? Is it a T-ring? Or do I got to get the Pentax or Nikon Coolpix I been readin about?

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:56 am

Sony DSLR? or Sony point-and-shoot?

What sort of scope do you have?

Pete · Post by **Pete** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:18 pm

andeelym wrote: I am planning to buy the baader clickzoom cos i am lazy to change eyepieces and it has receive good reviews so far

The Baader zoom looks nice and I would've bought it myself except there was a long waiting period earlier this year. I ended up going with 8mm, 21mm and 31mm Hyperions and I'm extremely happy with them (I also have an Ultima 2x barlow).

One thing to be aware of though is that the zoom's eye relief is 12-15mm, whereas the individual EPs are 20mm. Apart from that there doesn't seem to be much difference.

stargazer · Post by **stargazer** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:29 pm

I using 4.5" newtonian and Sony point-and-shoot

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 1:38 pm

I'd go with a Hyperion eyepiece (as mentioned above) and get the appropriate adapter ring for your camera. This is assuming your camera lens has threads:
http://www.alpineastro.com/digital_phot ... m#Hyperion Digital T-Rings

If your camera doesn't have threads, use a universal digiscoping adapter like this one:
http://www.telescope.com/control/astrop ... mera-mount

BTW: Joo Beng / Astrobargains sells the steadypix for $85. You can check with him if he has some stock...

andeelym · Post by **andeelym** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:45 pm

@Pete: I know about the eye relief, but I think 12-15mm is good enough for me even though I am wearing eye-glasses. But most of the time, it'll be coupled with my DSLR so it should not be an issue to me.

@Orly: You dun have to use lens threads, you can use T-rings to your camera and Hyperion EPs can use a T-ring adaptor. This way, the afocal is as close as you can get and it is closed so no stray light can come in. Since the markIII is already in stock, I'll think I might buy next month, together with the T-ring adaptor and a 2" moon and skyglow filter.

cloud_cover · Post by **cloud_cover** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 2:59 pm

Is that truly afocal (i.e. DSLR with lens attached) or positive projection (DSLR without lens but with eyepiece attached)

orly_andico · Post by **orly_andico** » Wed Sep 22, 2010 4:00 pm

T-ring would only work if your camera is a DSLR.