How to connect a DSLR or other camera to your telescope 

Allan, thanks for the excellent overview of this topic. It's particularly helpful that you actually demonstrated how all the attachments are accomplished. I have a much better idea of what gear I need and what method I'll choose to use.

Thank you for a most clear and concise description of camera to telescope mounting methods. Prior to watching this, I have trawled through some very muddled and long winded videos that were as clear as mud! I have just bought a 10 inch Newtonian and now I can see my way forward to doing some astrophotography.

Thank you, Sir! At last I found a comprehensive short video guide how to attach any digital camera to a telescope.

I've enjoyed visual astronomy for decades and now starting astrophotography. I did not know about eyepiece projection so thank you so much for the lesson. . . Joe

Excellent video with a lot of great information. Thank you Allan. I appreciate the equipment links as well. Scott

Great video thanks! I looked at a lot of videos trying to understand how this works. Everyone was like, buy this, buy that, good luck. You explained everything.

Great video Allen. Certainly clears a few things up for me. Many thanks

Very practical/useful info for us newbies. Well presented.

Very Helpful. Thanks for posting!

This was helpful, thank you very much Allan

thank you. I had wondered about doing that. Glad this came across my playlist. my new hero..

Big Thanks Allan. Great stuff!

THIS WAS SOOO HELPFUL! THANK YOU SOO MUCH!

Allan. Love your telescope books. I have spent hundreds of hours in them.

Alan this is really helpful for someone like myself who is thinking of doing a little astrophotography and was confused about prime focus vs. using an eyepiece. One minor thing I caught is at the 2:00 mark. You say the white dot is on the prime focus adapter, when I believe it is actually on the T-ring.

Great video, thank you! I've been wanting to try something like this, but had no idea what all the different pieces would be called.

it is really good for the beginer

Very useful video, Allan. Thank you

great videos Allan, subscribed

Great video thanks for sharing. Im just starting out and wondering what to use between the adapter and telescope. I have a d5100 dslr and a Saxon 1149EQ

Allan, love the videos! Thanks dog! Really loved the eye piece video.

Thank you, i sat puzzling over this last night. Only had a telescope a month so its a steep learning curve!

Thank you for this video Allan, it helped a lot!

That was a great and useful video! Thanks.

Thank you for your Very Informative video.

Thank you very much for the informational video!

Excellent, very helpful, thanks.

very NIce of you to share this knowledge.I still have a 35mm Nikon 100 film. with T adapter.Now I need to get a telescope .

That was the best most clearest explanation and demonstration I could find on RU-vid. Thank you good Sir.

Excellent video :)

excellent video, thank you

Informative. Thanks.

Excellent!!! What telescope do you recommend to use with a prime focus adapter on a Canon 5D mark iv?

Great Video. I am not a Camera Pro person, so I am going to start with the Universal Camera Adapter. As I get older and will have more free time I might take a full professional photography class!!!. Thanks again for the video!!!!

Well, I just bought my first telescope. I only bought a t-ring and 2" adapter for it, so /hopefully/ I get lucky and it will focus. If not I'm about to buy a fairly nice eyepiece for it, so will have part of what I need to rectify the situation. Very helpful video! Thanks!

My Sony a6000 with the 16mm pancake lens fits nicely on my telescope with that camera bracket at the end of the video. Great video overall!

Great video, just starting to look at telescopes. What type would you recommend for camera attachment? A reflector or refractor. Again I'm new to this but would like to make the correct purchase.

Hello Allan: The prime focus setup also works with catadioptric telescopes or must be a refractor? Some other videos recommend short focal length refractors for deepsky astrophotography, What is your opinion? Also, what is the deal with DSLR and mirrorless cameras? Which one should I buy to start with the astrophotography hobby?

Thank you. I bought adapter with all the parts but I didn't know how to connect it with the eye piece.

Hi Allan. New to astronomy. I purchased the Skywatcher ED80 / 600. I attach my DSLR directly onto the refractor, no diagonal, but need an extension tube to achieve focus. So then I insert a 28mm eyepiece to magnify the image on my DSLR but I no longer have focus and when I back up the Crayford I run out of focus tube and can't focus. Do I then keep adding more extension tubes or am I doing something wrong? I have ordered more extension tubes on ebay but while I wait for them to arrive, I thought I'd get someone with more experience to explain to me how I can successfully take more magnified pictures of Jupiter or Saturn and the moon. Should I use the diagonal?

Can i have a question? I just began testing the astrophotography and bought a Bresser Newtonian 130/650 f/5. I want to buy a studier mount ( cuz it came with a dobsonian mount ) and i'm thinking about Skywatcher EQ 3-2 or the Bresser EXOS-1 EQ4. I would want to buy a motor to, but without a GoTo for now. Which one do you prefer? And is the RA motor enough to track a DSO or is the DEC motor nessecsery? Thanks for the reply !!!

what would you recommend for shooting with a 114mm dobson? i want to make moon pictures but i honestly wanted to make higher quality stuff and not messing around with digital- and mobile phone cams. You think it probably wont work just with a DSLR? i also only have a 1.25 Focuser. So i would have to shoot through an eyepiece?

Here is a few question in my mind: does the T ring fit in any canon or nikon dslr camera model or do you have to buy a specific one for a certain model? Does the adaptor matter if you have for example a celestron telescope and an orion combined camera adapter? Does lenses such as a celestron 25mm lense can fit in another adapter or is it only for the lense of the adapters brand? Which mount is best for astrophotography an equilateral mount, computerized, or a standard refractor mount

I recently got a direct focus adapter to use with DSLR on my Orion 8 in telescope. it focuses nicely but only gets me the equivalent of 1000mm telephoto (lots of light though). It makes for some good pictures of the moon but I am wondering if an Eyepiece projection adapter can give me the magnification I would expect when viewing by eye?

So just to clarify, the T Ring (I would buy the one for Nikon, I have a D3500) you have linked will work with the Orion 5340 1.25 " Universal Adapter? The reason I ask is Amazon has a T Ring suggested for this adapter but it's $25.00 compared to the more affordable one you have listed.

Which specific eyepiece goes(works best with mirrorless cams) into the t adapter extension tube?

I wonder if getting all that setup gives similar results as a superzoom bridge camera and a tripod. 8 inch dobsonian plus big DSLR vs. a Canon sx70hs, Will the result on moon shots be close in comparison??? Please answer

excellent thank you

Really Nice demo... Can I attach Canon SX520HS point and shoot camera without attaching eyepiece (like DSLR). It has manual focus as well.

Is the diagonal really necessary for eyepiece projection? I seem to get a sharper image without it.

Hi, I have a Heritage 114 virtuoso telescope, 1 T ring and a canon 1300d camera. Please can you tell me what I need to take a photo through this telescope? Do I need to try the eye piece extension tube OR prime focus method ? Please help, thanks

Great! Now I just need a telescope and a camera

After watching the video, I bought the universal camera adapter # 05340 so I can attach my Sony a R7III to the 5000 2” enhanced diagonal mirror, and it doesn’t fit. Any recommendation is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Sir during eye piece projection. Will i get face the same difficulty as prime focusing? Because in my case its not focusing on prime As i need to go deeper on the focuser which is not possible at all

Hi, I have Celestron Nexstar 8se. I would like to know whether I should use eyepiece projection method or the prime focus? Thanks

Hello. Thanks so much for posting this video! I have a question: if I am adapting the camera body onto the telescope eyepiece- the second method you described- wouldn't I see a circle surrounded by black? Must I change some setting inside my camera so that the image is full frame?

That prime focus adapter rim is too wide to allow focus on my set-up, I fortunately have a much slimmer adapter but most would not know it must be the thin shoulder adapter for certain telescopes, I am using a Canon EOS 6D and a Skywatcher 10" mirror Newtonian on a Dobsonian mount.

seeing that camera being waved around without a cap on the body hurts me

My grandkids have a Celestron AstroMaster 114 for a beginners telescope. I would like to get them something much better, but still easy to set up and use for casual gazing. Is that AR127 a good choice for them? What would you suggest for the most bang for the buck (maybe under 1k $$)?

TY!

Thank you very much for posting this. I am well on the way to getting read for the Solar Eclipse and hope to take some pictures thru my Orion Skyscanner 100. Yes, I have the glass full aperture solar filter. It won't be 100% here in Atlanta, only 95%, but I'll take it. I got that adapter you mentioned and yes, it will work. What power eyepiece would you use?

A Dobsonian is a mount. The telescope is Newtonian. Some Newtonians have an EQ mount. Great video though

Thanks !

The video was great and I came here trying to find an answer to my problem, see I have a Sony sony DSC HX400 and a Meade ETX 90 EC Telescope and I can't find a T ring to pair them. I honestly don't think it's possible.

Very helpful video Allan. I'm new to DSLR astro photography and have a question. I have a Vixen VMC 110L modified cassegrain scope. It has a lens ring on top of the tube as well as a camera adaptor at the end of the tube (no separate diagonal). It has a flip switch to change between the two. I have purchased the T ring and it hooks up nicely with my camera and the end of the scope tube just like you show in the video. Prime focus correct? When I look at my cameras LCD it works nicely. Now, how do I get increased magnification using my telescope lenses? Do I buy a combined camera adaptor as you show in the video and hook it up at the end of the tube? Since I don’t have a diagonal I wasn’t sure on this. Apologies if you've covered this question before.

Hi, I have a RU-vid channel where I cover the Nevada Test Site, and Area 51. There is a mountain called Tikaboo Peak that is the last spot to legally film the base. It's 25 miles from the base though. I have the Sony CX900 that I do most of my filming with. I just purchased the Nikon P1000, but I'm still not sure if that is enough. Is there a telescope that I could mount the Sony Handicam to? Also what telescope would you suggest for shooting around 30 plus miles. Sorry for the questions, but I've watched a few of your videos, and see you know what your talking about. Thank you Christian

I have a canon sx30si with a 14.1 zoom, which adaptor would you recommend?

Dear Allan, Thanks for your precise descriptions. However, I am afraid my pieces of equipment are different from the ones described. As I am having big problems in getting the right connectors, could you, please, help me identifying the right ones? I have a Celestron NexStar 8se and a Nikon D3200. In my last try I bought a T-Adapter (Celestron SCT 93633-A) and a Lens Adapter (LA-NF-T Nikon F Mount to T Mount). However, when I installed the camera on the scope I kept getting the message “there is no lens”. Do you have any suggestion for this problem? Do you think that your method describing the combining adaptor to drop one eyepiece (the one I use is the standard Celestron 25mm) inside the adaptor would solve the problem? If yes, which adaptor would fit? Thank you very much for your kind attention, Helenice Gil Coury - Brazil

i have a sony a3, t adapter and 2 inch prime focus adapter. how come i dont need to know cameras focal plane info to get focus

Question; I did exactly what you instructed in the first 2:50 seconds of this vid, using almost the same identical equipment. I have an Orion 8" reflector and a Nikon. I used the T Ring and the Prime focus adapter, inserted them as you did, tightened the thumbscrews and got nothing but a big white blob in my photos. There was no way to fine focus. What did I do wrong? I had the camera set to "bulb" and my speed was 100.

Hi Allan. Thanks for the video. I am trying to use a point and shoot camera through the lens but can't seem to get rid of the 4 spider legs and centre blob! what am I doing wrong please?

Is it safe to use the prime focus setup along with a solar filter for the telescope to take pictures of the sun?

Hi buddy I can shoot in prime how do I achieve focusing using my baader eyepiece and a dslr

Thank you. How do you increase and or decrease the magnification in your first example with the Nikon camera?

Subscribed

Is there a way to determine if my dobsonian is a candidate for prime focusing? Or if I would need to use back focusing method?

Thxxxx

Between a Maksutov-Cassegrain and an a apochromatic refractor, which one will you recommend for planetarium astrophotography?

Setting up last night and a moth flew into my Nikon.

Is it possible to attach a cheap camera to a telescope? ive always loved astronomy but im just getting into astrophotography so I have many questions

great video, but your sensor must have been filled with inches of dust if you always take this long to keep it open in the outdoors :D

Hello sir, I appreciate your video. Can you set me up with the name of a good dslr cam and pieces to set up to a telescope? I have a 1000 dollar budget and I need to get it by solar eliscse. Thank you

I bought the T ring and it works GREAT but how do I adjust the focus. I'm having to focus with the lens, switch to manual to un-mount lens, attach t ring, and cross my fingers hoping it's still in focus by the time I view through telescope. Thanks!!!

Can someone recommend what eyepiece (1.25'') I should buy for eyepiece projection? Most of my eyepieces are too big to be put into the extension tube.

I have a question, I have an older Orion reflector 144mm telescope. It uses 1.25 lens. I am trying to attach my Nikon d3300 camera to the scope. Will a 2 inch prime focus adapter and T ring work with the 1.25 adapter?

I keep trying this method with my six inch dob an cannot achieve focus unless using a 20 mm eye piece. 12 mm, 15, and 6 won't work this way. :(

he what mm eyepiece can you use, any?

I attach my DSLR to my Orion XT12i dobsonian without an eye piece or barlow, and it works great.

in the first method you don't have an eyepiece like in the second one, right? how does the magnification work in the first one?

my dslr is an F mount, will the t ring fit in? i've heard t mount is different to f mount?

What telescope do you have?

I need help finding the right attachment for a canon eos m 100 camera..not really sure how to

and now we spend half an hour cleaning the dslr sensor 😁

Anyone knows what type of adapter do I need to attach my Sony A7ii to a telescope?

Does anyone recommend this telescope? Meade 115 mm LX85 Series APO Refractor Telescope Would the camera attachment be similar to what's shown for telescopes in this vid? Thanks in advance.

If you find the right adapter for your camera and telescope, can you use those on absolutley any telescope? :)

allan please reply does that focuser work pentax k-x ? plz

Aloha Allan, great work! Dumb question from a rookie: Can you use "eyepiece projection" with 2" lenses? Anyone? Mahalo!

Does it matter what kind of telescope it is?

I had an eye piece projection adapter but didn't know I had to fit lense before fitting to camera no wonder the thing didn't work nodamn instruction.