bluedubius
Rick
Wow. That really is a beautiful shot of a Cooper's. Kindof like he's saying: "nothing to it"
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Fuji S2 Pro DSLR with Celestron 80ED refractor (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter bluedubius
- Start date
bluedubius
Rick
bluedubius
Rick
Another success with this scope. This is after correcting some problems with light reflections from the t-mount. Baffeled per Paul Corfields instructions and once again...he ain't wrong. Found this hawk this morning sitting in the sun after an early meal. Once again using the 600mm fl Celestron 80ED and a GSO 2x barlow (plus a couple of extension tubes to bring the scope to focus).
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Paul Corfield
Well-known member
bluedubius
Rick
Yes, that looks better. I'm editing these photos from a laptop and it's hard to tell when I have the levels correct.
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
A very simple way to fix the levels when using something like a laptop monitor and be fairly confident that they will look ok on the web is shown in the attached image. Using your photo as an example there is a large empty area of information to the right of the histogram and this is what's causing the image to look too dark. This is common with digiscoping as the lens isn't capturing the amount of information with regards to light/shadow that a camera lens might. The histogram contains a lot of useful information like this and adjusting them manually is usually all that's needed as long as white balance etc is ok when shot. Adjust the right hand side for highlights and general lightening of the image, adjust the middle pointer to the left to lighten shadows/midtones and alter the left hand pointer to affect the darkest areas.
Paul.
Paul.
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wilfredsdad
Well-known member
Hi - I'm very interested in this thread because I have a Celestron Ultima 100ED which I would like to use with my Olympus E510 DSLR; unfortunately Celestron do not make an adapter which would enable me to mount my camera on the scope in prime focus - is that what you guys are doing - if so - how? I have tried mounting it on the eyepiece which is supplied with the scope (it's a 20x - 60x zoom) using the T thread which is on the outer end of the eyepiece and a Tmount to Four thirds coupling ring which I got from SRB-Griton (very helpful company) - it worked but I had to use unrealistically long exposures because so little light was getting through. Any advice and info for mounting my camera on this scope would be really appreciated, regards to you all.
bluedubius
Rick
I think the main difference is that Celestron makes both a line of "spotting scopes" (like the ultima 80 and 100ed) which have a prism in the scope and an eyepiece (not completley sure about this) that you can't remove and use other eyepieces with the scope. I did't see any way on the Celestron web site to use these spotting scopes at prime focus with a DSLR (although I can't imagine why not). I'm using a Celestron 80ED refractor telescope (that they also sometimes label a "spotting scope"). These scopes do not have a prism included in the body of the scope and can be used at prime focus with extension tubes and a DSLR or with a prism and eyepiece and point-and-shoot digital cameras afocally with the proper adapter. For most "spotting scopes" like yours you usually remove the eyepiece and then screw an adapter right onto threads exposed when you remove the eyepiece. You could check with Celestron and see if this is possible.
Rick
Rick, looks like you're doing some nice things with your Fuji DSLR with 2x nd extension tubes. Now that's what I call experimenting. Jules, I think Rick's photo is just as sharp as the one Paul "improved". They both have enough punch, but I'll admit that Paul did a good job using Noise Ninja.
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
As far as I know Celestron don't make an slr adapter for their spotting scopes so your options are pretty limited to using the T thread on the eyepiece or using a low power camera lens through the eyepiece. A dslr adapter for spotting scopes has to have optics inside of it to compensate for the prism in the spotting scope. If you remove the eyepiece there's no way to reach focus without a specialized optical adapter.
The methods we are using is prime focus through an astro style telescope like the Celestron 80ED or the Skywatcher 80ED that I use. The benefits are that the scope is well suited to prime focus photography, you don't need the prism or eyepiece for this method which is the weak link in most spotting scopes. Optical quality compared to money spent is far superior than that of a similarly priced spotting scope.
Paul.
bluedubius
Rick
The only adapters I have for this method are a couple of 2" extension tubes and a 2" GSO t-mount adapter for the fuji (it's a nikon mount). I have a 2" GSO barlow that Paul and others have mentioned in this thread and it just screws into the 2" t-mount camera adapter. That's it. One 50mm extension tube is enough when not using the barlow...need another with the barlow (just use the mount that comes with the barlow for the extra extention needed).
bluedubius
Rick
Paul Corfield
Well-known member
Good work, nicely exposed too.
Paul.
Paul.
bluedubius
Rick
bluedubius
Rick
Was playing around a bit this afternoon with the scope and camera. I have been experimenting with eyepiece projection without too much luck (probably my own fault). While I had my Scopetronix Maxview 40mm eyepiece on the scope I decided to do another little test to see what I could do with an old 50mm f2 nikkor manual focus lens on the camera. Currently having no way to attach the lens to the eyepiece, I just handheld the camera up to the scope and took some shots. I was surprised that they looked pretty good. Having a good time playing around, I then decided to go all out and combine my 2x Kiron teleconverter with the 50mm eyepiece handheld to the scope with the 40mm eyepiece. No vignetting, even though the glass on the 50mm nikkor is deeply recessed. Once again to my surprise I had photos that were pretty much as good as what I had been getting with the other methods I've used in this thread. I've attached an American Robin test photo from this afternoon. Distance around 60 feet, adjusted for levels and slight sharpening is PS6.
I do not know right off the top of my head how to calculate the total focal length when digiscoping with a lens and 2x converter on the camera. The Maxview 40 with the 600mm celestron of 15x, just don't know how this changes with the other components. Any help would be appreciated.
Rick
I do not know right off the top of my head how to calculate the total focal length when digiscoping with a lens and 2x converter on the camera. The Maxview 40 with the 600mm celestron of 15x, just don't know how this changes with the other components. Any help would be appreciated.
Rick
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Paul Corfield
Well-known member
I find similarly that I can get pretty much the same resolution as prime focus when using my Pentax 50mm f1.7 which is a very sharp lens. With results being equal it boils down to what is most practical, prime focus is very compact while a lens and eyepiece is not. It's good fun to experiment though. I shot around 8 gigs today just experimenting.|:d|
With your 50mm lens through the maxview eyepiece it will be around 750mm and with the 2X teleconverter it will be 1500mm. Multiply that by the fuji's 1.5X crop factor to get the 35mm equivalent.
Paul.
With your 50mm lens through the maxview eyepiece it will be around 750mm and with the 2X teleconverter it will be 1500mm. Multiply that by the fuji's 1.5X crop factor to get the 35mm equivalent.
Paul.
bluedubius
Rick
Thanks Paul.
