My Microscopy Setup plus astral images of Jupiter etc

[Les]

Being a keen astro photographer (not with dedicated astro gear) I found some of my astronomical equipment can also be put to good use for microscopy too.

Here is my setup its a Celestron telescopic Ulta Duo M42 threaded eyepiece attached to my vintage Vickers microscope. A astro Barlow (with the lens removed) happens to fit neatly over the microscope eyepiece tube ,the Barlow is M42 threaded so I can fit my Canon and Nikon DSLR's onto it. If I add the lens of the Barlow it doubles the magnification but this is unnecessary. The other image is of a butterfly antennae using the setup. 

[Clicker]

Well that seems very novel Les.... Microscopic detail as  you said ....  thanks for  showing us that .....fascinating 

 Do you have some images of your astrophotography to share with us  too please....

[Ryewolf]

That's an interesting setup and photograph.

[Les]

On 20/09/2021 at 22:54, Clicker said:

Well that seems very novel Les.... Microscopic detail as  you said ....  thanks for  showing us that .....fascinating 

 Do you have some images of your astrophotography to share with us  too please....

Hi Clicker,

Thanks for that. 

Its amazing the results you can get imaging astronomical targets with a DSLR attached at prime focus to a telescope or to the eyepiece. Good results on the lunar landscape can also be gleaned using a compact held at a low power eyepiece using a digiscope  bracket.

I use a 406mm Newtonian telescope with a focal ratio of 4.8 or focal length of 1.8 metres. On planetary targets I use prime focus but with a 2X barlow increasing the focal length to a whopping 3.6 metres. For fainter objects I up the ISO up to 3200 and a exposure of 30 seconds, that can reveal objects fainter than magnitude 15 or close one thousand times fainter than the naked eye. Amazing for ordinary equipment.

Of course proper astronomical cameras give far better results than the humble DSLR, but for nebulae and galaxies  in particular the DSLR is not to be despised.

The following images are of Jupiter with its largest moon Ganymede(note its shadow on the planets surface) and the M101 spiral galaxy were obtained recently using the 406mm Newtonian(driven) and a Nikon D3200 at prime focus.

[Denis]

Very interesting and Different, thanks for sharing

[Clicker]

Wow Les ... that's really illuminating... both literally and metaphorically. The Jupiter image with Ganymede and it's shadow is amazing  .... I presume the other moons are either too small or  hidden  at the time.. I hope you find more  images of this ilk to share with us  and explaining how you obtained them ...I,  for one , am impressed with your results  given you are not using dedicated,  specific astral photographic equipment.

 

I have taken the liberty of adding including Jupiter Astral photography  to your  subject title as I suspect  some members who are interested in  those astral  images will not have seen them  and the  original title does not allude to that subject ...

[Kobione]

As already said very interesting and different.]

 

[Les]

Thanks for all the comments.

During its 30 year journey across the sky the wonderful Saturn can languish very low in the sky from northern temperate regions such a the British Isles for several years. It is now emerging from on of these episodes but it will still be a couple of years before its well seen again, until then seeing will be difficult for Northern Europeans even for visual viewing let alone photography.

I looked through one of my old memory  sticks and came across this image of majestic Saturn taken with a Concord 4mp compact (my first digital camera) using a digiscope bracket on a 200mm f5 Newtonion and a 20mm eyepiece, when Saturn was riding much higher in the sky in April 2006.

[Clicker]

THAT is pretty amazing Les ....  Sir Isaac certainly would have been impressed too I suspect !   I'm afraid I know very little about Telescopes especially in relation to photography  but I  appreciate   what you have captured there with the equipment  you mention...