Celestron 80mm Wide View Digiscope

This is the best results that I have had thus for. The Telescope in this case is a Celestron Wide View Spotting Scope (aka ST80). This refractor has a 80mm aperture, 400mm Focal length and 5.0 focal ratio. I is attached to the Nikon 995 camera via a Scopetronincs 18mm MaxView Wide Angle Eyepiece made specialy for the '28mm lens thread' Nikon cameras. This eyepiece allows one to use the full zoom range of the camera.
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So how does it work ??? The subject matter is not very interesting, but these pictures will give you an idea.

Shot with the Nikon 995 at full open (wide angle).
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Shot with the Nikon 995 at full zoom (4X).
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Shot with the Nikon 995 and the ST80 at full open (Wide Angle).
Notice that there is NO vigettting!
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Shot with the Nikon 995 and the ST80 at half zoom(2X).
Half way home.
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Shot with the Nikon 995 and the ST80 at full zoom(4X).
Now if my numbers are not too far off: (400mm/18mm)x4 = 89 power.
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I really like this combination. It is provides accepatable quality and is light enough to be portable. These were shot with out an erecting diagonal. I do want to try this with a Flip-Mirror so that one does need to look through the camera to set up the intial target and focus.

23 March 2004:
Here is an image taken with a 35mm SLR at prime focus through the same scope. It was developed and printed at 3 inches by 5 inches at the local drugstore. Then it was scanned on a HP 4300C scanner at 300 dots per inch and reduced to 2048 dots wide with Paint Shop Pro. The comparison crop was taken from the "ST80 Wide Angle" photo above.


25 April 2004:
Positive progress finally! I am adding a photo taken with a Pentax *ist D dslr camera at prime focus and a Focal 2X teleconverter. It does not have the detail of the CP-995 shots but It is a lot easier to focus, the color is good and depth of field is better. This is acceptable.