? Meade ETX-70 f/5.0 ? (1 Viewer)

[SDB777]

Was thinking about trying the digiscoping......maybe?

This is the short list of what I have to work with:

#1: Meade ETX-70
#2: Canon XS10IS or Sony a350 dSLR

Pretty short list I know. Are these items capable of being mated together? If so, what else is needed(remember, I have no knowledge in this area...so explaining them would be of great help)?


The Meade has a really huge tripod for looking at the sky, and I hope it's enough to hold everything. I don't think hand-held would make for great photo's of my birds...

Thanks in advance to anyone that answers!





Scott (hope I can find the $$ in my budget) B

 

[wings]

Check out some of the other threads and do a Google search. I just read a very detailed and excellent reivew of the Celestron 80ED ($399). The Astro Technology AT66ED also had a very favorable review and I saw some bird photos taken with this scope on Flickr's website.

However, you should decide if you are willing to tote around a 3.9 lb to 11 lb scope for birding compared with a 2 - 3 lb traditional spotting scope. The former two are mostly for astro-viewing. IMHO the Celestron is fine for birding when you are stationary and in your backyard: you will soon develop a sore back toting that around following other birders.

 

[Paul Corfield]

Wings, you can't really make that comment unless that is the method you use all the time. I carry my 7lb Skywatcher for miles and have suffered no back problems. If you carry it in the right way you never know it's there. British SAS train with 60-100lb backpacks, their backs must be completely knackered. We are only talking around 10lbs of equipment and people talk like it's a really heavy weight. Are birdwatchers really that weak? :eek!: I guess like most photographers I don't mind the extra stuff to carry as it's the optical quality I want for the job where as for birders it's secondary so they go for a lightweight scope where the photo isn't so important.

The ETX-70 is only around 7lbs and would go on a much lighter weight, more compact tripod.

Easiest way to get a camera mounted to this scope would be to use an eyepiece which is threaded and allows cameras to be screwed to it via their respective adapter tubes. Eyepieces by William Optics like the DCL-28 and DCL-52 or the Baader Hyperion series are both astro eyepieces that are threaded. GSO make a 32mm Photo-Visual eyepiece but I've never tried it. You could mount a point and shoot camera to any of these eyepieces via an adapter tube and if needed use step up or step down rings if the threads aren't an exact match. For the dslr just use the correct step up or step down rings to mate the camera lens to the eyepiece. Generally on a dslr a 28mm lens works best. The ETX-70 is a small aperture scope so a 28mm lens on a dslr would be about the most you could use anyway before dim light becomes an issue.

Either way, one eyepiece should be able to be used for either camera type.

Paul.

 

[SDB777]

Quick follow-up question....

What the best case magnification I could expect to get from this? After all, the Canon XS10IS will do 80x by itself. If it isn't going to get any better then that I may have to find something bigger(scope I mean)......



Thanks for the input!


Scott (bigger is only better if it works) B

 

[Paul Corfield]

I think the focal length of the ETX-70 is only 350mm so you aren't going to get much power at all and being a mirror scope the image quality isn't going to be as good as you would get from a good quality ED refractor.

I guess you could take the ETX-70 to around 700mm equivalent or maybe push it a bit more to 1000mm depending on eyepiece/camera combo. 1000mm would be 20X and I guess the Canon would probably beat it for image quality. Remember the Canon is only 20X optical and 80X digital so within the 20X optical is where the image will be best. After years of chasing really high magnification I came to the conclusion that it's a generally fruitless affair. Setting my refractor up with a dslr and a 1.4X teleconverter is the way I use it 90% of the time which is only 840mm or 1344mm with the cameras crop factor. Weather conditions more often than not wont let you go too high on magnification because all you do is magnify the irregularities in the air.

Paul.

 

[SDB777]

Thank you Paul.

I can already get to 1500mm with 2xTC and the Bigma mounted on the Sony, and if I choose to go beyond with the built-in 2x crop.


I'll be re-thinking the digiscope.... This will give me some much needed time to read and review, and hopefully learn what would be best for my needs.






Thanks to all that took the time to give me some great information!
Scott (thankfully) B

 

[rmel66]

The Meade ETX 70 is actually a 350mm, F5 achromat. This may cause some confusion as the other ETX scopes (90,105) are Maksutovs.