Thanks for the pics. I note that Scopetronix now have an adapter for the '707/'717 which screws straight into the 58mm filter thread - no adapter. Only problem is it needs a 'scope which will accept a 2" eyepiece. Do you get much vignetting with the Maxview 40?
Could you post a full-size version of your moon shot? I'd like to see how sharp it is - that Celestron scope is waaaay cheaper than the Pentax I was thinking of and if the optics are up to it, I may be able to convince my wife that it's an essential purchase :-) It's a bit hard to judge sharpness and CA on a small pic.
that looks like a great setup!.. i wonder how the celestron would do as a telephoto? is there much chromatic abherration? does it focus well? i'd love to get photos like you have of the panets and all, but i'd love to be able to use it for just a bit more than that.. do you have any photos from your other galleries taken with the celestron?
that looks like a great setup!.. i wonder how the celestron would do as a telephoto? is there much chromatic abherration? does it focus well? i'd love to get photos like you have of the panets and all, but i'd love to be able to use it for just a bit more than that.. do you have any photos from your other galleries taken with the celestron?
This was my thinking - I'd really like a spotting 'scope for wildlife shots as well as astro work (especially the moon). James's post prompted me to do a bit of research. It depends on your budget restrictions and how picky you are over quality, but the Celestron C5looks like a pretty good choice for both (it is about 3 times the price of James's though, but still only about the same (or less) as a good standard field spotting scope). There is (was?) also a G5 model for astro use which comes with equatorial mount, star diagonal etc but this isn't on Celestron's site, so I guess they've replaced it. This looked like it would be easy to use as a spotting scope too (assuming you could mount it on a standard tripod).
I'd be interested in James's opinion of his little Celestron spotter compared to his Meade for astro use.
thanks for all the comments.... and to answer a few questions here....
the sample image I posted was full size, I just cropped it (no image resizing) and did a little sharpening, the original was not as sharp as the sample but it came out nice. No noticible CA in the image either. I will look at my day time test shots and post a full size unedited sample soon.
Yes Scopetronics does have the bigger Maxview40 for the Sony 7x7 series camera ( i have both the 1.25" and 2" maxview 40's) , that threads directly to the 7x7 cameras with no adapters, but it is a 2" eyepiece and your scope will need to be able to accept 2" EP's.
The 2" maxview 40 has VERY little vignetting, you really have to look at the outer edges of the image to see it. for day use you would notice it a little, but on night shots I dont think you would see it at all. I have a poor sample image, but will try to get some better images with it tonight of the eclipse.
I did some test shots the other day using the Celestron as a telephoto lens on the Canon D60. I will try to get the images up in a sample gallery soon.
I think the C5 spotter scope would be nice and do a good job, but will not do very well on the dim astro objects. It will be good for the moon and planets and some brighter objects. It could also do good on wide fiels objects and star clusters, but you will need some type of mount to track the object as you image.
I chose the 80mm one because it will be soon be mounted on top of my LX90 as finder scope/guide scope and I did not want to overload the LX90's drive motors and fork mount.
Hope i answered every thing..if not you know where to find me..
thanks for the info jab.. how much was the celestron again? now i'm really interested. as you can see under my name, i have the 717, so i'll prolly want the adaptor for that too.. any idea how much that would cost me? ever since i got this camera, i've been zoom greedy :) at this point i dont think a 1.5x telephoto adapter will be enough for me hehe.. this might just do the trick, but i'd definatly love to see more daytime wildlife/etc celestron shots with the 707 you have there.. i've seen some telephotos for my camera that have horrible chromatic abherration, i just dont want to do a mistake when i get accessories for my camera :)
wow, that IS impressive.. and at 166$.. damn, i'll be first in line to get one.. i just want to see a shot with the f707 now :) with it's internal zooming optics, it could potentially zoom even more right? since the D60 plugs right onto it with no lense, it's basically zoomed at the celestron's zoom.. but with the f707.. we have another 5x zoom to play with.. i wonder how much degregation we'd get..
