Yes they have but not from Earth, the objects are simply too small for Earth based telescopes to pick up... One of the lunar probes has taken photographs from orbit above the Moon and you can even see tracks left by the astronauts. There's a page on it here. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/apollosites.html
Hi Christer, you are quite right to assume that the camera was mounted directly to the scope. If you have a Skywatcher scope with a 2" (50.8mm) focuser, it is quite easy. First yo unscrew the mounting barrel for 1 1/4" (31.8mm) eyepieces, then you can slip out the 2" holder. This then screws directy to your camera T ring. You then fit this to your camera instead of a lens. The telescope then forms your lens, all you need to know is the focal length and ratio of your scope and you can just get on with it.
Could this be any good for an introductory telescope? OK, it's cheap (for a telescope) and looks a bit 'Mickey Mouse' but it is endorsed by National Geographic and with a 60-day 'if you don't like it, return it' guarantee, what's to lose. It would only be for pratting-about with in the back garden - the moon, Jupiter's moons, Saturn's rings - no more than that, really...
As a dealer I have to be a little careful that my reply can neither be taken as spamming or unfairly slating the competition, I have to also say that I have never used this particular scope... However it is unlikely to perform well at higher powers with the Barlow. A Barlow basically doubles or more the magnification with any given eyepiece, but most cheap Barlows are only fit for one thing! The telescope itself is unlikely to stand up well to higher magnifications anyway... So, you will effectively be limited to low powers which is of little use for the planets I'm afraid. Fine for casual observation of star fields and larger Luna features though. I occasionally do some assessments\reviews for a fellow dealer who was involved with the telescopes for schools project and he has some pretty reasonable beginners scopes on his site - he's very helpful too. http://www.skysthelimit.org.uk/telescopes.html
David, this scope is a 76mm (3") reflector, and is probably too small to be of much use. Many years ago, it used to be said that the smallest useful Newtonian reflector was 150mm (6"), now however, with advances in optical technology, it is reasonable to say it is now 114mm (4.5"). I really woul not recommend anything smaller.
OK, well if I said, as a Christmas present to myself, a Phenix D150F750 reflector for the general pratting-about in the back garden plus some slightly more serious stuff (including photography), do you think I'd be happy with what Santa Claus had brought me..?
Just a quick shot taken with just a camera on a tripod with a 30 sec exposure. You can judge from this pic how badly my garden suffers from light pollution.
It won't be as bad as mine what with the local authority street light my neighbour erected in his back garden. Tell me that's Casseopaeia top left...
Just watched 'The Sky at Night'. Oddly enough, it had better pix of one of the Lunar landing sites than on the website linked to above. Also, next month Patrick Moore (Jeez, how old is he?) is going to do a bit on setting up and using telescopes for those who get one for Christmas. Spooky...
Yes, you got time and direction pretty much spot on. Near the bottom right somewhere is M31, but it doesn't show up too well, though I can see it on my computer screen.
Yes it's very faint, you'll be lucky to pick it out if there is much in the way of light pollution around...not least because your eyes never really become fully dark adapted unless it's actually dark. The best way to see it is with a good pair of binoculars, from a very dark location. The best I've seen it was from the Sahara Desert, the darkest I've even seen other than down a cave and no dust in the air that day either...
I can find m31 easy with my observing binoculars, quite easily with the scope, but naked eye is a waste of space(pardon the poor pun). Most of the time round here, I can hardly see all the main stars of Cygnus, but when I go to Devon for my hols, I can hardly see them there either due to there being too many stars about. Its the only place I can see the milky way these days.
This is sort of related, so I post it here. It's time for the meteor shower from the Geminids with its peak the night between Thursday and Friday, as I'm sure you know. Apparently they have increased in intensity every year, so with a bit of luck we can get as much as two or more meteors a minute! They are showing up already. I was out watching just now, and there were significantly much more meteors coming out from the east than last night I was "stargazing". Lets just hope it will be a clear sky on Friday morning!
Hi David, sorry I missed your post earlier... Funnily enough I've had one of those scopes here for the last couple of months while I tested out a mirror upgrade them. They are a little tricky to collimate as the adjustment isn't as that precise, particularly on the secondary mirror, but they as good as anything for that price and the mount is better than most... The primary mirror is spherical as opposed to parabolic but provided they don't push the magnification too much most people wouldn't notice the difference. They've always proved to be something of a disappointment for me, never living up to expectations at my location - at least not when I've been looking. In other parts of the world they've had some pretty good displays, but being in the right place at the right time is all part of amateur astronomy.
Gneiss, I think the moon has been quite disturbing the last years when the Geminids has peaked, so they haven't been very spectacular. If even visible. This year is perfect in that aspect since there's no moon. As always, it all comes down to how much gravel we passes each time, but the experts claim that the amount increase every year for this particular shower, so I have good hopes. The peak is apparently very early friday morning, so I might get a decent glimpse before (and during) driving to work.
As predicted 10/10ths cloud here in manchester. Between that and the light pollution, I didn't stand much of a chance!
Luckily it was a really bright night here, and also very dark with only Jupiter as the most "disturbing" light. Unfortunately I had to sleep when it supposedly was the best, but I was out before bed time around 11.00PM, and also had a look around 5.00AM before I went to work, so I guess I wasn't too far away from the best. It wasn't spectacular, but better than many other times I've been watching the different annual meteor showers we get. On one occasion I counted five meteors within a minute. Otherwise I'd say that there only was one about every second minute in average. I will assume it was better around 1.00-3.00AM...
I've been doing a bit of Solar observing today seeing as it's nice and sunny here at the moment... I've even snapped a rough and ready picture using a mobile phone held up to the eyepiece. You can clearly see a dark filament on the surface (bottom right) and a couple of nice prominences either side of 2 O'Clock.
Yes I have... I've taken some proper images through it in the past, but it doesn't easily lend itself to that and on this occasion I was being lazy. I've been looking at some of the Lunt scopes recently or the option of filters for my Televue Pronto but neither option comes cheaply...
