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I have a Skywatcher Heritage 130P FlexTube Dobsonian Telescope. It works well, I can see lovely stars, planets, moons of Jupiter etc. It came with two eye pieces (1.25 inch): 10 mm and 25 mm.

I also have a Canon 60D camera.

I've been trying to attach the camera to the telescope using a Celestron 93640 1.25 Inch Universal Barlow and T-Adaptor which I originally bought for a Celestron Travelscope.

I have never been able to get any kind of decent image out of the camera when attached to either telescope. Am I doing something daft? (This is all new to me).

Steps I take:

  1. Set up and focus the Skywatcher scope on some nice stars using the 25mm eye piece.
  2. Remove the eyepiece.
  3. Insert the camera with Barlow and T ring where the eye piece was.
  4. Diddle around with the focus. Try and take some photos. Get nothing remotely in focus, not ever a blurry star.

I suspect I have the same issue as described in Astrophotography - Unable to achieve focus with current setup If so, please could someone advise the adapter I would need for the combination of camera and scope I have? I'd prefer to use the DSLR than buy a digital camera if possible. (Many thanks, and sorry if this is a daft question.)

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  • $\begingroup$ You might find additional suggestions over at photography.SE $\endgroup$
    – Carl Witthoft
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 14:56
  • $\begingroup$ @a_donda Please write an answer rather than replying in comments. Answering in comments is always discouraged on SE, however well intented it may be. Note you gain more reputation for upvotes on answers than upvotes on comments. $\endgroup$
    – StephenG - Help Ukraine
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 17:27
  • $\begingroup$ @StepehG Understood for the future. $\endgroup$
    – user34599
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 17:48

1 Answer 1

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As you suspected, the problem is probably that, as with most Newtonian telescopes, the image plane is too close to the outside of the tube, so you can't physically get your camera sensor close enough to the image plane.

There may or may not be adapters that will solve this problem for your specific telescope and camera. Barlow lenses help but aren't always enough. Luckily your telescope is collapsible, so you should be able to bring the image plane far enough out by collapsing the telescope a little. Attach your camera to the telescope as before and slowly collapse the telescope. You should see the image gradually come into focus.

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  • $\begingroup$ Ah interesting, will try! Many thanks! $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Aug 7, 2020 at 7:05
  • $\begingroup$ @tomh how did it go? If you have some good results and can add a short additional answer that future readers will find useful/helpful, feel free to add an additional answer. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Sep 14, 2020 at 23:55
  • $\begingroup$ Collapsing the telescope a little did make it possible to focus an image, so many thanks for that. Ultimately it feels quite unwieldy with a DSLR attached to the camera directly, so I decided to get a little webcam with an eyepiece adaptor... Still experimenting with this - main issue is the narrow field of vision... $\endgroup$
    – tomh
    Commented Sep 15, 2020 at 10:31

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