For about a decade now I’ve wanted a really good telephoto lens for my camera. Unfortunately those things cost money. But a few days ago I came across a ten dollar Celestron refractor telescope in a thrift/used junk store, and it’s getting close to being serviceable. It did not come with a tripod, but I manged to fit it to a camera tripod.The balance is off when the camera is attached, so I duct taped some weights to the front end of it to balance it out until I get the fitting relocated. Tacky? You bet, but for the moment it works. The biggest problem is that it doesn’t focus worth a fart, but I seem to be slowly zeroing in on a fix for that by adding small bits of tape as spacers between the two lenses up front.
I don’t have a motorized equatorial mount (those things *really* cost money, and there’s no obvious cheap fix for that one), so astro-photos have definite limitations. Especially since the jury rigged connection with camera tripod is not rock solid, so some motion streaking and other weirdness occurs in some images. The first image below was an attempt to photograph Mars, the results of which are distinctly disappointing. But captured in that photo is a satellite passing by… I *assume* the wobbly pattern is due to the telescope shaking.
Two stabs at the Orion nebula.
