Nikon DSLR shooting with a reflector telescope

[Virinchi Chivukula]

Hey everyone, 

I am planning to get a T-ring to be able to attach my Nikon DSLR D3200 camera to my telescope which is a Celestron Astromaster 130AZ. As a test run, I tried to remove the lens and shoot a few pictures just the same way you would do it by attaching a T-ring. But to my dismay, the camera didn't take any pictures and instead printed an error message saying no lens attached. 

Any ideas as to where I am going wrong?

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Virinchi the Best

[Anurag Shevade]

I had similar experience with my friend's Nikon 5000 series camera video mode when we wished to attach it to a telescope during planets conjunction imaging. I'm canon guy so I only knew to press canon specific button of live view to disable this message. At 11th hour, did not know what to do for Nikon.

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[Suman Vajjala]

Hi Virinchi,

Am I correct in understanding that you had an issue when you wanted to take a picture with your DSLR without attaching a lens? 

Did you try shooting in M mode? Can you please try and see if that works?

Regards

Suman

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[Virinchi Chivukula]

Thanks! Putting it in manual mode did the trick!

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Virinchi the Best

[Virinchi Chivukula]

Now, I am considering attaching the DSLR to the telescope with a T-ring. How should I focus on objects through the camera? Will I be needing any special gear?

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Virinchi the Best

[Suman Vajjala]

Hello Virinchi,

Put yourself camera in M mode and live view. Focus the telescope first on a distant object and see if you can see the same in live view. I think you should.

Also, in Nikon, I believe there’s a menu option where you can set the camera’s AF mode to on or off. If you are unable to do what is mentioned above then please disable AF to off.

Regards

Suman

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[Virinchi Chivukula]

Sure, Suman, I will try this out and let you know. Thanks for the tips😀!

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Virinchi the Best

[Suman Vajjala]

Sure Virinchi! All the best and sorry for the typos in my earlier mail.

Regards

Suman

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[Anurag Shevade]

What happens in movie mode then? we can't take movie with a manual lens on Nikon?

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[Suman Vajjala]

Hello Anurag,

I am a Canon user myself. You can certainly take movie with a manual lens on Nikon. I don’t see any reason why it isn’t possible.

If you have a specific issue then can you detail it?

Regards

Suman

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[Anurag Shevade]

Hi Suman

The problem with movie mode over Nikon is unlike canon, when the live view button was pressed to ignore the 'Lens not attached' message, nothing happened and the camera did not proceed to take video. And for planets, you know, individual exposures taking is too much pain and video would have worked better.

Regards

Anu

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[Suman Vajjala]

Hi Anurag,

I think it is a use error more than the camera issue. 

We’re you in M mode? Even movie has a M mode too.

I’ll try to see what might be causing this.

Regards

Suman

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[Anurag Shevade]

Hi Suman

I don't exactly remember but its Nikon 5300 dslr so movie mode is on circular mode dial on which manual (photo) mode is far away and instead of a flexible approach as found in pro series where mode dial has less options but e.g in each option we can take a movie.

I'll revert after talking to the user himself if he finds any option to take the movie in manual photo mode.

Regards

Anu

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[Virinchi Chivukula]

Hi all, Can anyone explain what are the steps to attach a DSLR camera with a t-ring to a telescope? There are several tutorials on youtube, but for some reason, I am not able to understand any of them.

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Virinchi the Best

[Santhosh S]

Hello,

I have done this using canon DSLR, but I assume its similar with any other brand.

--- You need a T-ring which is the adaptor for the camera-lens joint. You just thread it onto your camera, just like a lens. 

--- Telescopes typically come with 3 kinds of eyepiece focussers: 0.965", 1.25", and 2" inner diameter. Rarely, you have larger or metric ones, but doesnt matter for now.

Most 'cheaper' telescopes come with eyepiece holder/focussors that does not have any useful thread on them, so you cannot screw your camera directly onto it using the T-ring.

 You need a T-adaptor / nose piece which goes on the T-ring. This is a tube that slides into the focusser just like any eyepiece, so you can tighten it there. Long long ago, I got one from tejraj for 1.25" focussers. 

You thread one side of the nose piece onto your T-ring, so you can slide the other side into your eyepieece holder/focussor.

--- With the above, you can "fix" the camera to your telescope. 

BUT, this is not where the problems ended for me... The focal point of the primary mirror was a bit too inside the focussor, so I couldnt get any celestial objects into focus on my camera. IF you have this trouble with your telescope, there are few things that you can do to solve this:

1. Move the primary mirror towards the secondary, so the focal point is pushed out of the focussor (I do NOT recommend this for first trial).

2. Use an achromatic "barlow lens" that will push your focus out, but will also increase the magnification  (this is what I did, and it worked like a charm for solar system imaging).

3. Get more adapters, so you can do eyepiece projection imaging (advanced option, and I would not recommend you to do it in the beginning).

Hope this helps...

Clear skies,

Santhosh

[Virinchi Chivukula]

Hi Santosh, I am not sure if my telescope has an unscrewable focuser/eyepiece holder. How do I find out if it does? 

Other than that, I understood your instructions pretty well👍 

My telescope is a Celestron Astromaster 130 AZ

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Virinchi the Best

[rahul garg]

I have astromaster 130EQ. It doesn't have threaded eyepiece holder, so I ordered a barlow with t-adapter. To attach my setup looks like:

Telescope (--) barlow-with-t-adapter (--) nikon  ring  (--) nikon dslr.

Also the 2x barlow helps in focussing, without it (with only threaded adapter) I wasn't able to focus. I ordered barlow and tring from amazon.com instead of .in, including the custom cost they were economical then what I was getting from any indian site.

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[Virinchi Chivukula]

Yes, but do think my telescope has a removable focuser though. The other day, I unscrewed it and it came off. However, I am not sure if that's the thing we are looking for. 

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Virinchi the Best

[Suman Vajjala]

Hi Anurag,

Have you sorted out your issue?

If not can you try this

1) Put your mode dial to M (manual)

2) Press recording button

Check if you are able to record a movie.

Regards

Suman

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[Anurag Shevade]

Not yet. Will revert back when my friend reports the result of the test you suggested.

Regards

Anu

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[Venkatesh Venkataramani]

Hello,

   I own a reflector telescope and now I have a working setup (Sony A6000 attached to my 5" Reflector). Before we get into the specifics, please let us know if you are using a reflector telescope. The reason why I am asking this question is, depending on the type of the focuser system you have we will face the issue with focussing.

Regards,

Venkatesh V