5 - Digiscoping

By early 2012 I had researched enough information on Astrophotography to almost scare me away from this hobby. The equipment was so expensive. There are special CCD cameras, high-tech tripods, telescopes, & tracking software, etc. Luckily I came across a website that talked about a low budget technique used for Astrophotography called Digiscoping, also referred to as Afocal photography, which is the activity of using a digital camera to record distant images by coupling it with an optical telescope. I had just received a Nikon CoolPIX S6000 - 14 megapixle digital camera for Christmas a few month before. All I needed now was an adapter to mount the digital camera to the telescope. I found a few online, but after the bad purchase choice I had made with the Flip-Mirror, I didn't want to spend money on this mount until I was sure it would work. I decided I would make one myself. I easily made it out of scrap wood I already had, and it actually worked pretty well. It was very adjustable and able to hold the camera in place.

90% Full Moon

The first couple of pictures I took with this set-up came out very fuzzy because the whole thing would shake every time I pushed the shutter button on the camera. The good thing is that this camera came with a self-timer feature, which does away with the fuzzy picture problem. The pictures it was able to take were much better than the webcam's, but I still couldn't capture the dim stars I wanted. I learned to adjust the ISO and Exposure Compensation settings to get better photos.

M43 Great Orion Nebula

After several attempts I finally learned which setting worked best with this setup, and I was able to take some decent pictures. I took these images on a beautifully clear and dark night when I was visiting Fort Stockton, Texas. There is no light pollution there. The moon image still looks a bit out of focus but you can clearly identify craters and surface lines. The M43 Great Orion Nebula is visible along with some of its brighter companion stars. The less bright stars were not visible to this camera. Like I mentioned above, these images are better than the ones taken with the webcams, but still not the quality that I am looking for. I will need to buy a better camera to obtain the quality of images
that I am trying to capture. Need to do some research!

Venus Transit of the Sun 2012

So by mid 2012 I started to do on-line research for a better quality camera for Astrophotography. I quickly found out that this was going to be a very expensive hobby. High quality cameras can cost over a thousand dollars, not to mention the software and equipment used for tracking and processing images. I decided I would buy a mid range DSLR camera that could be used for both Astrophotography and normal everyday photography. After all, I was only a rookie at this, and I was not ready to invest thousands on this hobby. Not yet. I chose to purchase a Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera kit. I found it at Fry's Electronics for $649 dollars (tax included). This camera was perfect for what I needed. One of the key features was it's Live View 3" LCD swivel screen that makes it easy to see while attached to the telescope. I will explain more in detail in my next page DSLR Astrophotography all the settings & equipment I use with this camera setup.


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