Tip for someone who is new to astrophotography and telescope allignment?
Question by bastian915:
Hi, I'm getting a telescope for the first time (an Orion StarMax 102) and it is coming with a german equatorial mount [em-8] and a celestron motor autoguide. I'm very much interested in doing astrophotography with it but where I've never owned a telescope before I'm not sure how to get it lined up so the motor drive will track properly. I've looked at a website online and it seemed rather complex in the way they worded it. I'm also not quite sure about how to take pictures with my camera. I currently own an olympus om-10 and an olympus E-300 digital camera and can get a t ring for it so I can connect them to the scope but i'm not sure about focussing. again I found a website but it seemed rather complex. I'm thinking I should use my om-10 as the exposure times are quite long and so the noise on the digital camera would be out of this world. Any ideas for a newby to astrophotography.
Hi, I'm getting a telescope for the first time (an Orion StarMax 102) and it is coming with a german equatorial mount [em-8] and a celestron motor autoguide. I'm very much interested in doing astrophotography with it but where I've never owned a telescope before I'm not sure how to get it lined up so the motor drive will track properly. I've looked at a website online and it seemed rather complex in the way they worded it. I'm also not quite sure about how to take pictures with my camera. I currently own an olympus om-10 and an olympus E-300 digital camera and can get a t ring for it so I can connect them to the scope but i'm not sure about focussing. again I found a website but it seemed rather complex. I'm thinking I should use my om-10 as the exposure times are quite long and so the noise on the digital camera would be out of this world. Any ideas for a newby to astrophotography.
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 am
Well… you take the thingy and stick it in the other thingy then you turn it clockwise. Unless you are between 40 and 80 degrees to the west of the of the sun's shadow, in that case you turn counter clockwise. By doing this you should finally be able to take pictures of that naked neighbor that inspired your newly found hobby.
April 24th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Orion Telescopes have a great site. Check out for photo accessories to go with telescopes. You will find a couple of "universal adapters" of interest.
There is also a book about astrophotography that might be a good idea for you.
Also, from any page, click on the link for "Learning Center" near the top of the page. Enter "photography" in the search box and you'll find 22 articles that will help you.
Sky & Telescope Magazine also has a section on astrophotography available on-line at: