[Buldric]

Are you attaching your camera afocally? this is where an eyepiece is used and the camera is placed just above the eyepiece, this only works for Bright Stars , the Planets, and the Moon.

I bought 2 things to attach the Camera to me scope, a T ring of course, and a nifty little tube that goes from the visual back(or diagonal) to the T ring. Inside this tube is a ledge, and a thumb screw to enable you to slide eyepieces into the tube. I'm uploading a panoramic of my viewing site later on,(to show you guys just how horrible it is) I'll upload some pictures of the tools I use for attaching the camera.

I can't say for certain, but I "believe", that when I took this M31 picture, I did not have an eyepiece in the hole, just Visual Back->Tube->T ring->Camera.

(so no, no it's not afocally)


You should never make physical contact with your camera, or scope, or mount, when initiating an exposure, it should be done by means of a remote system that eliminates the need for you to have contact with your equipment,
any contact will result in images that are blurred, no matter how fine a touch you have!

This is true, and I understand it, however I'm a little short on cash right now, so the remote is coming along in a while. Instead I've made a compromise, I use the Self timer mode, in which I hit the button, then step away, and it takes the picture after a 10 second countdown(normally used to run into the picture with your friends)

Get back to us with more specifics like the make and model of the camera and the method of attachment you are using.

Canon EOS Rebel XTi 400D (DSLR) -Unmodified
Using a T ring, and a...forget what the tube is called, but I'll upload pics of it like I said.

To accomplish focusing at the prime focus of your Scope efficiently, you need to make a Hartman Mask, and install it over the Scope's objective.
IF you dont know what a Hartman mask is get back to us!
I'm getting back to you =p I guess I could Google it if it takes a while to explain, thats no problem.


"come together as one point in your camera's view screen"

Unfortunately, my camera does not have a live updated screen for some unknown reason. I have looked through the menus, but have yet to find anything as such. All I have is the Viewfinder, and as I said before, its very....very dim.



"...and slide the slip ring down onto the holder..."

Hmm, a good idea, however, thats another item on my yet to buy list >.< Maybe some precisely placed tape can pull off the same trick... or I can canabalize my old $100 telescope and make a slip ring from it....



30 second exposure for a total of 30 subs, should be much brighter than the image you posted.

I thought so too, but as to why?....no clue, through a near 10" light bucket, it should be decently bright. I have uploaded another version of it, modified.

To tell the truth, for all I know, I screwed up big time, had high magnification, and was photographing M32 the whole time...sounds like something I'd do... All I know is I had it aligned, I told it to go to M31, it brought me straight to this one, and kept on it perfectly, so I went with it, heh......Might explain my inability to see the companions around it...


I have now updated my user Pictures with Pictures of the adapter + T ring.