Photographing the Moon with a DSLR and a Telescope

See my lunar eclipse photos at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/forrest-tanaka/sets/72157625553525447/

Scopetronix is no longer in business, so maybe try www.telescopeadapters.com. I don't know them, but they seem to sell the same kinds of adapters for about the same price.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• photography
• moon
• telescope
• dslr
• canon

[goldenguy12345]

I want to try and take pictures of nebulas...I have:

A CANON EOS 550D

18-55mm

28-105mm

75-300mm

Remote shutter release

Can anyone tell me what kind of telescope I should buy and what else I need? I have a £230 budget.

[ForrestTanaka]

@goldenguy12345 I saw a good discussion on Flickr of telescopes around that price range. Google "flickr telescopes around $500" to find it. If you look for my Flickr feed, the last two photos I posted are astrophotography photos that I took with a 240mm lens — not a telescope.

[ForrestTanaka]

@25TriggerHappy Absolutely agree. This Celestron has an Alt-Az tracker, but it's not accurate enough for long-exposure AP. its tripod includes a wedge for EQ mounting, but it's awkward. A really good EQ mount is great for this kind of thing. BTW, I heard the Keck telescope uses an Alt-Az mount, and I assume they use a rotating sensor to compensate for the rotation.

[geomox4]

What is the focal range and f/stop of your telescope?

[ForrestTanaka]

@geomox4 1325mm Focal Length, f/13 Focal Ratio. This is the Celestron NexStar GT 4" Maksutov-Cassegrain. They don’t make this series anymore, but they make very similar ones today.

[speedypete07]

Excellent explainations I am an experienced photograper BUT only a beginner with telescopes from what Gathered from your demo is that reflector telescopes are better ! Is that correct ?

Peter

[ForrestTanaka]

@speedypete07 Reflectors are a lot less prone to chromatic aberration, and they're generally a lot more compact. A DSLR on the end of a telescope is pretty heavy, and a refractor telescope’s length generates a lot of lever arm, and it’d probably be tough to keep it from levering down if it’s a standard mount.

[PHATTSTER]

at 2.32 he said "flange" !!.. chortle chortle snigger

[BeePeeOilDisaster]

You are a wonderful teacher, I wish that you made more videos of your hobbies...

[mamanestas]

Very informative Video, I am just getting in this area of photography and your video was the clearest and most helpful thank you.

[CragScrambler]

Because they are completely different

[ZJamaican]

Fantastic video, very informative and insightful.

Why is a 1,300 mm telescope lens so drastically cheaper than say 1300 mm dslr lens? In terms of performance what is the difference between a telescope lens and a dslr lens apart from chromatic aberration? I heard that the minimum focus lens for a telescope lens is really far away is that true?

[bmsismylife]

what do you mean by the extender?

70-200mm and 5dmark ii. why is it 13.2mp? explain lol

[KingMushroom]

Thanks for the tips.

[guitarpikz]

this is great