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Leica 77 APO for Astronomy (1 Viewer)

MarkHows

Mostly Mammals
I have a Leica 77 APO, which I use for spotting, but I want to use occasionally for astronomy.

However looking at Mars the image is blurry, am I doing something wrong or do I need some additional equipment.

The alternative is to not bother and buy a dedicated astronomical scope

Any advice appreciated

Mark
 
You won't be able to get enough magnification to show Mars well. And at its best, it is a small orange sphere with indistinct surface features. The 77 gives a very nice image of the moon at 60x, easily shows the phase of Venus, and with Baader solar film gives a nice white light view of the sun.
 
You need about 80X (100X is even better) to get a decent view of the Polar Cap of Mars with a 70mm to 90mm refractor. I believe your LeicaScope comes with an integrated Prism to give a correct image view. In astronomy a single mirror star diagonal is recommended which gives a mirror image view. I've had success using a very high quality Amici prism diagonal which I primarily use for birding. It gives a correct image view but even with that the image is not as good as with a star diagonal. If you can replace your eyepiece with a quality 5 or 6 mm like a Televue Nagler or Radian or a Meade UltraWide you might have better success. These come in a 1.25" format. I don't know if they will fit or come to focus in your Leica. You could take your scope to an Astronomy Dealer and try one for fit and, if it does, see if they will rent it to you for a night's use. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
 
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ceasar said:
If you can replace your eyepiece with a quality 5 or 6 mm like a Televue Nagler or Radian or a Meade UltraWide you might have better success. These come in a 1.25" format. I don't know if they will fit or come to focus in your Leica.
I am afraid that the Leica Televid does not accept 1.25" eyepieces (without some major machining). Leica has an "astro adapter", but that is used for adapting the Leica eyepieces to astronomical telescopes - unlike Zeiss and Swarovski which can use astro eyepieces.

Here are some astro-pics taken with my Swaro digiscoping setup (80HD, 20-60x zoom, Nikon CP4500, Baader-adapter). Of course, they can't be compared to any real astro images, but I haven't used any stacking software, equatorial mounts, tracking motors etc. It was quite a job to even get the planet on the screen - combined with the use of self timer. I think I should have recognized the Polar Cap of Mars if it weren't so small right now (there was some bluish shine on the other side of the planet). If what you see is a lot fuzzier than these, either seeing has not been very good or your scope may not perform well at high powers. I have seen a couple of older Leica APO Televids, which were slightly soft at 60x.

Best regards,

Ilkka
 

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MarkHows said:
I have a Leica 77 APO, which I use for spotting, but I want to use occasionally for astronomy.

However looking at Mars the image is blurry, am I doing something wrong or do I need some additional equipment.

The alternative is to not bother and buy a dedicated astronomical scope

Any advice appreciated

Mark


Mark,

what do you mean with "blurry"? The whole planet or are you talking about details on its surface? It should be possible to see some details at Mars at 60x but AFAIK the distance between Earth and Mars is increasing now. Seeing and the observer´s experience are essential for a successful observation. A planet like Mars is also very bright now so you can try to watch with a kind of filter like e.g. sunglasses and give your eye enough time (at least 10 minutes) to adapt to the planet´s view. With some luck you will notice by and by some more details. Mars has also its own weather which includes global sandstorms making any detailed views impossible.

Spotting scopes of high quality like the one you have are well suited for astronomical use IMO. But the observation of planets is a special matter that needs some special telescopes (high focal lengths, high magnifications) for best results even in the world of astronomical telescopes. I would recommend to try the Televid at some deep sky objects first.

Clear skies

Steve
 
MarkHows said:
Here is a pic I took this evening, this is the sort of image i get

Mark

I'm not certain, but it looks like overexposure. What shutter speed did you use? What do you see in your LED? Is it a clear, sharp disc without any details? Or is it "blurred" like this image. Do you have an optical zoom on your camera? If your zoom lens is set at 60X and your camera is set at 100mm you should get the equivalent of about 120X. This would require a very steady tripod.

Bob
 
hinnark said:
It should be possible to see some details at Mars at 60x

60x wouldn't show much, even a month ago. The best views with my own scopes were at powers above 150x, preferably 200x and greater. Most of my viewing was with a 150 mm f/12 Maksutov-Cassegrain.
 
ceasar said:
I'm not certain, but it looks like overexposure. What shutter speed did you use? What do you see in your LED? Is it a clear, sharp disc without any details? Or is it "blurred" like this image. Do you have an optical zoom on your camera? If your zoom lens is set at 60X and your camera is set at 100mm you should get the equivalent of about 120X. This would require a very steady tripod.

Bob

This is pretty typical of what I am seeing, the image always appears very bright, and the detail is masked by this.

I take good bird photo's using this setup, the exposure was automatic but it was about 1s.

Thanks

Mark
 
I think a 1 second exposure is too slow and is causing overexposure. If your camera can be used in manual mode try this: Set aperture at F11 and take a series of shots at from 1/15th Second, 1/30th, 1/60th, and 1/125th at ISO 80 or 100 You could also try ISO 400, same aperture but try speeds 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 and 1/500. Use 50X on your scope and 100mm on your camera. Good Luck!
 
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