Celestron C80ED refractor (1 Viewer)

bluedubius · Apr 16, 2010

Dusted off the Celestron C80ED and went out to a local wetland to try for some displaying male Red-winged Blackbirds. I also took along my GSO 2X barlow, but forgot and left one of my extension tubes at home and so I had to use the scope alone. Birds were pretty far out, but managed a couple of shots. Today using the Nikon D2X with this scope.

Rick

FernandoBatista · Apr 17, 2010

Nice job, I like the bokeh on the last shot a lot, well done.
That's why I built my own adapter, it has the necessary measure to focus all the way from infinity to about 5 or 6 meters, so no extensions necessary, unless it's a very very small bird. And I'll never have to remember about taking it with me.

BTW, have you tried addind a bit of flash light? on a black bird like that it could make a great difference

Marcobf · Apr 17, 2010

Fernando - could you post details of your adapter - it sounds like a lot less hassle.

Cheers

Marco

FernandoBatista · Apr 17, 2010

Not much to it, it's just a lens (cosina 100-300) stripped of it's optical and mechanical parts, with a 2" tube inside, the lenght is just enough so it's focused at infinity when the focuser is fully retracted.
Although right now I'm doing another one machined from a piece of teflon, inside I'll put the CPU from the same lens, so I can have metering on all bodies as I have now, but it will look much better

Here's a photo of my setup now, so you can see the adapter I have now:
http://fernandobatista.smugmug.com/photos/827388622_uk3K4-O.jpg

Paul Corfield · Apr 17, 2010

With barlows you generally need a different length tube to one you might use with teleconverters to reach infinity and near focus. I only use one extension tube but it has a long barrel that can be pushed in and out of the scope to compensate for what I'm using on the camera.

Paul.

bluedubius · Apr 17, 2010

FernandoBatista said:
Nice job, I like the bokeh on the last shot a lot, well done.
That's why I built my own adapter, it has the necessary measure to focus all the way from infinity to about 5 or 6 meters, so no extensions necessary, unless it's a very very small bird. And I'll never have to remember about taking it with me.

BTW, have you tried addind a bit of flash light? on a black bird like that it could make a great difference

Thank you, Fernando. Very smart of you to build the adapter with this is mind. Your setup is very functional, helps you get great shots, and looks good too!

Good advice regarding the flash and black birds. I have a Nikon SB-600 and could probably use that with some kind of extender like the Better Beamer.

Rick

FernandoBatista · Apr 18, 2010

I used a SB600 for a few years with the better beamer, works great. But recently I got a Nissin Di866 as I wanted more power, the Nissin together with a SD8A from Phottix, gives me lots of power and very fast recycling times, one of the best accessories I got for the scope.

bluedubius · May 7, 2010

Out again this morning. This time I wanted to test out stacking my GSO 2X barlow with my cheapo ebay Kiron 2X teleconverter. With the 600mm Celestron C80ED this would be 2400mm (without the 1.5x crop factor). Using the Nikon D40 at 800 ISO I was getting around 1/125 sec. I was not using a cable or electronic release, but just had the scope/camera loose on a sturdy Bogen tripod and 3-way head. There is a bit of IQ loss compared with just the GSO @
2X alone, but still pretty good considering. Male Eastern Bluebird at around 100 ft., air temp around 75 F with high humidity. I don't think I'm ever going to get the same sharpness that Paul, Fernando and some others do, but I'm pretty happy with what I get for the money.

Rick

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