Extreme macro!

[Jon P. Inghram]

Was messing around with a Nikon Coolpix 4300 and while trying to figure out a better way to attach it to my telescope I discovered that the threads on the front of the camera are 1.25", a perfect fit for the extension barrels my scope uses to get the proper focal length when not using a star diagonal. I just screwed on one of the barrels, then the lens holder, and finally put a 25mm lens on it.

In case it's not obvious, the first picture's a ball point pen, the second is a head on a VCR.

[Lizzard[MPE]]

[gt40]

are those through the telescope?
if so what type/size/focal length.
have you tried any astronomical shots?

[xortam]

Originally posted by gt40
are those through the telescope?
if so what type/size/focal length.
have you tried any astronomical shots?

He's using the extension tube for his scope to act as a macro extension tube on his camera. The extension tube(s) sit between the camera body and the lens.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Yeah, the telescope's 25 mm eyepiece is on the end of the extension (it's not an SLR, there's just threads in front of the built-in lens for some telephoto and wide-angle adaptors that Nikon sells,) it's basicly just a cheesy magnifiying glass set-up.

As for the scope, it's an old Celestron Cometron CO-62 (it was for the '86 Halley's comet encounter,) really a rebadged Vixen CO-62. It's got a 62 mm objective lens, 300 mm focal length. With the included 25mm kellner it's got a whopping 12x power, which is why I bought a used 8mm Nexstar plössl to get it up to 37x power. Not that I've had any other scope to compare to, but it seems to work pretty well other than the horrible little tripod (which is also missing the rubber balls on the end of the legs.)





As for astrophotography, I don't have a camera of my own, just borrowing my dads. That, plus the lack of any way to properly attach the camera to the scope and no equilateral mount makes it an exercise in futility. Here's some examples:

The Pleiades, incomplete in their smeared, out of focus, light-polluted wonder:



Next, the astonishing Orion Nebula (well, at least the color showed a bit) :



Finally, the moon (taken on a different evening) :



I tried Andromeda, but there's too much light pollution in town and it gets blured with the long exposure anyway. Saturn is too small with the 25mm lens for the camera to work right, and the 8mm makes it nearly impossible to get a steady enough shot with the camera.

[gt40]

Not bad pics,
you have inspired me to make an adapter to mount to the end of my 'scope.

[Jon P. Inghram]

What 'scope do you have?

[Nappe1]

when photographing static small objects, you basically use anything that magnifies. I have taken few closeups of matches, eastern egg toys, etc. with using big 2x magnifier between the optics and object.

You need to remember that when using these kind of tricks, you need quite lot of more light. Also the setting up the lens, magnifier, etc needs a more time, because you don't wan't reflections coming from magnifier to screw up the macro.


I'll post some examples when I get a chance.

[Nappe1]

Here's my macro with c990 3x zoom and 2 x magnifier. It's not even close to Jon P. Inghram's shots, but with c990, this is best able to do.

as you can see, focus range is really short.

http://rp-design.totalnfs.net/omat/c990_2x_magnifier.jpg

(match is placed to give some sort of idea about the scale.)

[Jon P. Inghram]

As far as lighting went, I folded a piece of paper into a U shape with one end closed. I held the open end over the flash so the paper would diffuse the light around the make-shift macro assembly. And yep, focusing was a pain, I ended up just taking multiple shots and using the best one.

[gt40]

Originally posted by Jon P. Inghram
What 'scope do you have?

Celestron 114GT.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Ah, just a tad better than mine then.