what set up (1 Viewer)

I have a budget of approx £500 and want to get started in digiscoping. My main aim is bird photography with the hope of getting some shots of the moon and the next eclipse etc. I am using a Canon 50D and have been reading some of the threads where telescopes can also be used for digiscoping. Any suggestions for a set up in my price range would be greatly appreciated.

John.

By telescope I take it that it's an astro style telescope. Most of us use the Skywatcher Evostar 80ED and the optical tube assembly can be had for around £330 (Harrison Telescopes). This is just the scope and tripod mount without any extra accessories. Most of us move the tripod mount so that the scope is better balanced with the weight. This involves finding the best balance point with the camera attached, mark where it is, then drill a couple of small holes in the telescope tube and reposition the mount with the small bolts. With the scope well balanced it will fit on any decent tripod head without causing too much strain that an unbalanced scope otherwise would.

As well as the scope you need a 2" MaxDSLR adapter which has the Canon bayonet mount or you can use a standard Canon T-ring and a 2" scope adapter which screws into the T-ring thread. Both methods end up around the same cost of around £25. You will also need a 50mm telescope extension tube in 2" dia and this gives the scope enough focus travel to reach focus from infinity down to to around 9m. You can add even more extension tubes and focus can be got down to just a couple of meters.

Plenty of other info can be found in the astro imaging forum.

Paul.

Thanks Paul for such a detailed reply it's a much cheaper set up than buying the celestron regal ED that I had been looking at. As a telescope with the addition of an eyepiece do you know if it is any good for casual use. I'm no astronomer but would be keen to be able to use occasionally for this purpose.
Thanks again
John.

The Celestron Regal F-ED spotting scope is a nice enough scope but it's more suited to digiscoping with a small point and shoot camera rather than using your Canon 50D as it all gets a bit back heavy. The Regal is smaller and lighter by about 3 or 4 lbs so these are things you would need to consider. Have a look at the link to my gallery at the bottom of my posts and you will see a photo of my rig. Weight of the scope is around 7lbs and the tripod about another 5lbs. Handles can be added to make it more portable too.

You can attach and erecting prism, either 45° or 90° to an astro style telescope and then use an eyepiece and the views are excellent. I purely do photography with a dslr which is why I use an astro scope. It's an easy way to get a 600mm lens that produces images comparable to lenses like a Canon 600mm costing a few thousand pounds. Magnification is boosted with teleconverters and these can take you up to around 2000mm before you add in the cameras crop factor and with the methods we use now there is virtually no loss in image quality. You can get much more magnification with point and shoot digiscoping but photos at 6000mm are usually of a quality only suitable for record shots. With either method, the best photos are at close range and low magnification.

Anyway, a lot to think about and decide whether photography/image quality is where you want to go or if viewing is more important. And also what camera you want to use, if it's still the Canon 50D then I'd choose an astro scope. There are some smaller astro scopes that some use on the forums so it doesn't have to be big one like most of us use.

Paul.

scope

Once again Paul thanks for the detailed reply. Much appreciated. Looks like I will be ordering a Skywatcher Evostar 80ED towards the end of the month.

John.

One other thing, mounting a dslr on either a spotting scope or astro scope requires you to be good at manual focusing through the dslr viewfinder. If you have any eyesight issues then it can take a bit of practice before you get regular sharp images. With practice though you can get a good success rate of sharp images, I'd say I get a good 80% for example.

Paul.

Thanks for all the help Paul I have just 1 more question if not too much bother. I had a look at your setup which look fantastic as does the sample photos you have put up. My current tripod is ulikely to take the weight of camera and scope can I ask what tripod you are using and would you stick with it or if starting out would you buy any differently.

John.

The tripod in my gallery photo is an old Jessops one which did me quite a few years. It certainly wasn't strong enough for the scope but I carried on with it regardless. Last Christmas I got a new tripod from ebay and you can see it here. It's basically a copy of a Manfrotto design but at about half the price. I'm still using the ball head that came with it but ideally a better head should be used that allows pan and tilt. Either way it's certainly strong enough for the scope/camera.

Paul.

Just to add John, i've used both a Ballhead and a Pan & Tilt head, and believe me, a P&T head is so much easier. A 2 way is all you need, because up and down and left to right is all you need. You'll find it easier in the hand when you feel the need to slacken things and move.

A Ball head can go in all directions of the compass, but if you can view what you need by simply right to left and up and down, which you can, there's no point in buying a Ball head unless you feel like doing a close up portrait when you're not scoping, and swinging the camera 90 degrees to the side.

Besides, if you did fancy portrait photos, you could simply buy a 3 way Pan & Tilt instead of a 2 way.

I have a very good 3 way, though i dont use the portrait axis. I keep that locked and just use up and down and right to left

This is the head here.. fantastic piece of kit, and will take loads more weight than the big 80ED and Canon can offer.

http://www.google.co.uk/products/ca...=X&ei=dW1-TcPAC46yhAfvtqn3Bg&ved=0CD0Q8wIwAA#

I agree. I'm only using the ball head because it came with the tripod but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone ever buy one. I'm too tight to change mine at the minute, mainly due to buying too many lenses on ebay to take apart.

I found that the ball head that came with my tripod works fairly good for pan and tilt, you can set the friction just right so that it will move around without tipping and not move when you let go of the scope. I can track birds in flight, follow aircraft etc. I'll be upgrading to a decent pan/tilt head at the earliest opportunity though. Birthday in 11 days time so maybe add it to the birthday list. :t:

Paul.

Paul Corfield said:

I'm too tight to change mine at the minute, mainly due to buying too many lenses on ebay to take apart.

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