The last picture illustrates one of the problems: Depth of field. Notice the grass in the foreground and the background is out of focus while the feathers on the neck of the bird are in focus.
Digiscoping
lewtwo@bigfoot.com
25 April 2004. THESE PAGES ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS.
Added DSLR pictures to ST80 and Comet Catcher.
Several years ago I purchased a Casio QV-8000SX digital camera. It was a good camera for the time. On a lark one day I took it to the beach. I decided to take advantage of the 8X zoom lense and shoot some pictures of the sea birds. Well birds (even these that are around people all the time) tend to be a bit camera shy. I soon discovered that I did not have enough "reach" with the little Casio. Now I am not really into birdwatching, but I am a bit pigheaded (aka stuborn as an Arkansas mule).
On returning home I started looking at accesories for the Casio. I ordered a 2X telephoto adapter for the Casio. It worked but not all that well and only at full zoom. Then I heard of something called "Digiscoping". This is a relatively new form of photography where one takes a picture by placing a digital camera behind the eyepiece of a telescope. H'mmm .... that sounds like it might work.
That is how it all started. What we have here is my long and sometimes misdirected efforts at DIGISCOPING.
EXAMPLES:
These are a couple of examples of what can be done with digiscoping.
The last picture illustrates one of the problems: Depth of field. Notice the grass
in the foreground and the background is out of focus while the feathers on the neck of the bird are
in focus.
The first picture is "normal" shot taken with the Casio camera.
The second picture was taken with casio at 8X zoom thru a Williams Optics 40mm eyepiece and a Celestrom 500mm
Comet Catcher Telescope. The vigeting around the outside is an artifact from the mismatched optics.
Notice the dark shadow circle in the middle. That is not a shadow but another artifact of the mirrored
scope. Strangly enough this photo has the best center detail. The third photo is a simple crop of the second.
These photos were enhanced with Paint Shop Pro.
Little Mak mounted on Nikon 995
Nikon 995 on a 500mm Mirror Lens (SLR)
Nikon 995 on Meade ETX60
Nikon 995 on Celestron Wideview 80mm (SLR) (ist)
Nikon 995 on Celestron Comet Catcher (SLR) (ist)
COMPARISON NOTES:
1) The subject matter in the comparison photos is a bit boring. It is a transformer on a telephone pole in my
back yard. It does have one outstanding advantage ... it does not move and FPL is not likely to replace it if
they can possibly avoid it (they would have to take down some trees and a fence to get to it).
2) Unless otherwise noted the camera used for all the comparison photos is a Nikon CP-995. I use it with a
Nikon remote shutter release, a Scopetronics 18mm WideView Eyepiece and a Photosolve "extend-a-view".
3) Unless otherwise noted the telescope is mounted on a Bogen 3233 tripod with 3275 gear head.
4) Unless otherwise noted the photos have not been processed except for JPG compression in Paint Shop Pro (version 7).
I have not tried to sharpen, despeckle, color balance the comparison photos. What you see is what came out of the camera.
5) The links below with "(SLR)" at the end, also have comparison photos taken with a 35mm SLR camera at prime focus.
