Hello,

I have spent the last several nights taking photo's of the moon via my telescope (Nexstar 8) and a cheapie spotting scope with a 60mm aperture. I get a kick out of astrophotography and realize I don't have the proper equipment for deep sky shots. BTW, I use my Konica SLR and a T adapter to hook to both scopes.

Anyone use or have any comments on the Leica 77mm Televid spotting scope or the APO version of the same? There are many makers of 80mm telescopes and spotting scopes. (Televue, Celestron, Meade, Takahashi, Astrophysics) I'd like to have better optics than the $130 Simmons scope I currently have.

And anyone use Leica Binocular's. I'd like the 10X42s or 10X50 for scanning the skies.

Comments on all or any spotting scopes you can photo through would be welcome.

-- David S Smith (dssmith3@rmci.net), September 03, 2001

Answers

The problem with the spotting scopes is that they are usually f13.5 or even smaller F stop. Also, the level of optical sharpness needed for viewing is a whole lot different than for taking photographic images. Except maybe for making images of the moon, you will need a very expensive and large aperture rig with clock drive and micro correction controlls to do any serious astro-photography.

I have some Bausch and Lomb binos in a 11 X 80 which are a good size for viewing dark skies-top quality optics. They have a tripod mount on them as well. I don't know that Leitz makes anything that size, and they would probably cost a fortune.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), September 03, 2001.

My mother and a bunch of her friends use Leica binocs for bird watching. Aparently, if you are any sort of a serious bird watcher (or just a rich wannabe) you use Leicas.

Sounds a lot like the photo world huh?

-- Josh Root (rootj@att.net), September 03, 2001.

David:

I have both a pair of Leica 10x42's and the APO Televid 77 (with the 20-60 eyepiece). They are phenomenal optical devices, and IMO, second to none. They are also great for casual observation of our universe. (I can see the rings on Saturn, and generally find 4 or 5 of Jupiter's moons through the city atmosphere with my Televid.)

However, if you want to do serious astro-photography, you will need a scope dedicated to astronomy. The best of these scopes can have oil- spaced elements, have 5" or 6" apertures and cost well over $10,000. Near the bottom, you get in to the consumer Schmidt (cat) designs in the 6, 8 or 10" ranges for less than $2500. But, then you'll need the special adapters, clock drives, indirect viewers, micro controllers (no clock drive is perfect, and hence can't keep "perfect" alignment for more than about ten minutes), and the list can go on and on. Exposures are generally an hour or so with 400 speed color film - or three shorter exposures on B&W film with red, blue and green filtration, then all stiched back together and re-compiled in Photoshop.

A big note: Interestingly, most items of photographic interest in the universe, like nebulae, are quite large and can be photographed with a good 300 to 500mm telephoto - BUT, you'll still need the high end clock drive and some kind of indirect viewing arrangement, as you cannot see through your SLR to fine tune alignment while exposing.

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), September 03, 2001.

Jack, I was curious if you have ever taken any images through the Televid with the camera adapter. Leitz binos are very nice--I use to have a pair of their 10 power compacts. You could look through them for an hour straight without any eye strain.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), September 03, 2001.

David:

I had a Televid and it was great for terrestrial viewing; i.e birds, neighbours etc. It was also good, as mentioned above for the moon and Jupiter, as well as sunspots WITH A PROPER FILTER, tho' not the dramatic prominences. That needs an expensive Hydrogen Alpha filter.

Again as noted above, REAL astrophotoraphy needs specailized gear- same as most other specialized pursuits:- car racing, mountain climbing vs hiking etc., not to mention the skills.

I now have a Teleview scope(made in Sufferin NY) and a suitable range eyepieces that allow viewing of large objects such as The Pliades (SP?) (Subaru in Japanese-hence the stars on their logo) or the moon and gross views of Saturn and Jupiter's clouds etc.

Astrophotgraphy worth hanging on your wall takes a big investment, as noted above-belive me-I've been down that road and come home.

With a relatively inexpensive clock drive and a camera mount you can get spectacular wide-sky shots with an SLR or RF camera, for that matter, using Kodak PPF 400 neg film. The most important factor is clear skies, which means 100 miles from any city, and patience beyond that of most people.

There are of course "Astronomy" and "Sky and Telescope" magazines with lots of info, samples & adds. There are also astrophotography websites, which I have avoided for fear of getting the bug again.

I have the most fun with the Teleview showing my son the parts of the sky accessible with it. For the $1000 invested in all that gear, that alone makes it worthwhile.

Now you can get adapters (<$75) for a standard digital camera-i.e. Nikon Coolpix - to mount on the Teleview or other similar scope to get great digital shots of the Moon & sunspots.

Good luck if you are still interested.

-- RICHARD ILOMAKI (richardjx@hotmail.com), September 03, 2001.

Thanks for the responses so far. Don't worry, I know I don't have the proper drive for deep sky photo's. I am interested in the spotting scope for occasional lunar shot's and general viewing from my back yard.

One thing we have here in Idaho is clear dark skies. I have to drive an hour away from town to get there but an hour in any direction from Boise, Idaho is the definition of boondock's by anyone's definition.

What kind of eyepieces does the Leica Televid take? I have a 10mm Televue Radian,and a set of plossls 10mm, 17mm, 26mm, and 40mm. All my eyepieces are 1.25". Can I make them work in the Leica spotting scope or will I have to buy one of those special Leica eyepieces.

I'd like to use my own eyepieces if possible.

The local astronomy club has an observatory 55 miles south of here. They have polar aligned piers and a number of scopes they will let members use to do the astrophoto stuff. They also let members use the 24inch scope at the observatory.

My idea of astrophotography is sticking a camera piggybacked to a proper polaraligned telescope and doing the wide field stuff. As mentioned, almost any camera with a B setting will work.

I do get a kick out of showing my son and daughter around the heavens with my 8" SCT scope. I just want a smaller spotter to quickly view andromeda, split some binaries, see some of the star clusters, and the planets. And the one I have now is garbage so I thought a Leica would be nice. I also hear excellent things about the 80mm Televue scope as well.

Did you know that Mizar (bend of handle in the big dipper/plough) is a double star? Did you know that Polaris is a double? (Optically, you can see two, but the pro's say there are actually four stars in all)

-- David S Smith (dssmith3@rmci.net), September 03, 2001.

David:

I do have an adapter to connect my Coolpix to the Televid, but have not used it yet. Nor have I ever used it specificaly to try and split Mizar or Polaris - I'm not sure my big tripod would be steady enough anyway, but I should try it... The scope is designed to use Leica's eyepieces, as they have a propietary bayonet mount, but I believe Leica makes a 1.25 adapter/focuser for it. If you are not in a big hurry, I'll be heading up into the Sierras in a few weeks (no moon) and I could try to split Mizar with the Televid on my Gitzo... Maybe I can photo it with the Coolpix and post the image!

Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher (jbflesher@msn.com), September 03, 2001.

If anyone is interested in one of thoses "astrophotography" web sites, try out www.icstars.com. Ok, so the guy is married to my niece, it is still a good site and it contains a lot of travel photography as well.

-- Bill Holtz (Taiwha@aol.com), September 03, 2001.