Hi all,

I recently purchased a used Televue TV-76 telescope for astronomy and for birding. I've been using the setup for about 3 weeks and thought I'd post up some of my shots to see if I could get a discussion going about tips and tricks for using telescopes as lenses for my Pentax K10D and K100D... I got this setup after researching digiscoping setups, and deciding that "afocal" or eyepiece projection telescope photography was not really what I wanted. This scope is big enough to give me the reach I want, but small enough so that it's feasible to hike a short distance while carrying it. Definately not a "hand held" setup, but good for tripod and sitting stationary waiting for birds to visit.

Here's the scope itself, with K10D attached. It's got a 76mm/3inch front objective, and provides a 480mm @ f/6.3 lens for my camera. I typically use it with a Televue 2x Powermate which is a barlow/teleconverter that I attach between the scope and the camera. This combo gives me a 960mm f/12.7. It's a little dark in the viewfinder, but still enough light to find focus, at least for me, for now...



So far, I've mostly been practicing with "backyard" birds, but visited the Great Swamp National Wildlife Reserve in Basking Ridge, NJ 2 weekends ago and got some raptors, too.

Here's some birds I've shot with this setup:

Some House Sparrows:


A female Cardinal:


A black-capped chickadee:


A tufted titmouse:


my poor "one-eye'd" House finch:


and a Bluejay:


Finally, this guy dropped in one afternoon and scared everyone away from the feeder. Any opinions on if this is Coopers Hawk, or a Broadwinged Hawk?: I got a "non-keeper" shot of his tail, if it helps the ID.


All the shots in these galleries have been shot with this rig:
hinckc's Photographs- powered by SmugMug

While I wish it were faster, aperture-wise, I'm very happy with the setup now. I finally have the reach I've been wanting! I'd love to hear if anyone else is using a telescope (refractor or reflector) with their camera, and any tips/tricks to using a setup like this.
I've been using 2sec timer and MLU, plus my cable release to trigger the camera. This keeps my vibrations down to a minimum. Any other ideas to get the most out of this setup would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks for looking!

-Chris

[spyglass]

Now I know where they get the saying "go big or go home". You bird guys pack some pretty big weapons. (I kept expecting to see US ARMY on the sideo fthe lens - ha ha)

[a200user]

All I can say is very Nice! To me these look better than some I've seen with a bigma + 1.4x.

[hinckc]

All I can say is very Nice! To me these look better than some I've seen with a bigma + 1.4x.

Thanks! The Bigma was probably my 2nd choice, but since I wanted to do some astronomical viewing also, I wound up with this instead, since I can use it for both. If they do really look better, it's probably because of less cropping. These are either no cropping - just resized, or (full) vertical crops from horizontal frames. This means I can get 300dpi 8x10's out of most of these.

You bird guys pack some pretty big weapons.

heh, when looking through the red-dot finder-scope on top, it feels a little like a weapon, too! It is big, even compared to a Bigma, though it's smaller than a lot of telescopes.

-Chris

[Eaglerapids]

That is incredible! I'm gonna have to look into that, wow.

[Lowell Goudge]

Thanks! The Bigma was probably my 2nd choice, but since I wanted to do some astronomical viewing also, I wound up with this instead, since I can use it for both.

If you want to do some star gazing, why not get an eyepiece for your long lenses.

I have a vivitar K mount Eyepiece adaptor.

My other "scope is a celestron C90 (1000mm F11)

[hinckc]

That is incredible! I'm gonna have to look into that, wow.

Thank you!

If you want to do some star gazing, why not get an eyepiece for your long lenses.

I have a vivitar K mount Eyepiece adaptor.

My other "scope is a celestron C90 (1000mm F11)

I wasn't aware of this option until after I had gotten my telescope! I saw a forum member post a FS ad for an eyepiece adapter shortly after getting my telescope, and may have considered this had I seen it before. Your Celestron is a reflector, right? Have you used it terrestrially for birds with your K10D? I'd love to see some pictures, either astronomical or terrestrial!

-Chris

[Lowell Goudge]

Chris

I have not shot much on digital with the C90 but did on film,

Yes the C90 is a reflector so you get donuts out of focus

[Syb]

Wow, you did a great focusing job in a dark viewfinder... congratulations! It prooves that this combo works for you. Let them talk. Have fun!

[hinckc]

Wow, you did a great focusing job in a dark viewfinder... congratulations! It prooves that this combo works for you. Let them talk. Have fun!

Thank you! In addition to the benefits of still having good eyesight, I replaced the stock focuser with a "fine" focuser which provides a regular knob, plus a 10:1 fine focus knob as well. That makes finding critical focus much easier than with the stock focus knob. I'm still "hit or miss" but practice makes perfect, and the fine focuser allows me to "focus bracket" a bit as well.

-Chris

[craftsmansky]

how does the camera fit the lens? is there a bayonet adapter? the moon picture was extraordinary.

[Tom Lusk]

I would not have guessed what setup these photos were taken with - that's for sure!

I had written off this type of photography a few years ago when my brother tried it out with poor results.

As for the hawk - I'm quite sure it's a Broad-winged.

Thanks for posting these.

[m8o]

I came here from the link on your great moon pic thread. I missed this otherwise.

There are not much of any, if any you can see if you pixel peep, negative edge artifacts with this setup; sharp sharp! Fantastic results. I think you'll be using this setup a great deal.

[hinckc]

how does the camera fit the lens? is there a bayonet adapter? the moon picture was extraordinary.

Thanks! The telescope has several T-ring adapters, depending on whether or not I'm using the 2x converter, and I attach my T-ring -> K-mount adapter to connect to the camera.

I would not have guessed what setup these photos were taken with - that's for sure!
I had written off this type of photography a few years ago when my brother tried it out with poor results.
As for the hawk - I'm quite sure it's a Broad-winged.
Thanks for posting these.

You're very welcome! I originally guessed broad-winged, but had since second guessed myself. Thanks for stopping by, Tom. Your posts have been a great inspiration for me to persue this type of photography.

I came here from the link on your great moon pic thread. I missed this otherwise.
There are not much of any, if any you can see if you pixel peep, negative edge artifacts with this setup; sharp sharp! Fantastic results. I think you'll be using this setup a great deal.

I think I'll be using it a ton, too. Having this kind of reach seems to give me lots of ideas for shots. I am certainly looking forward to the warm weather to use it more outdoors. Most of the birds were shot from my kitchen, with the scope pointed out the back window! I wonder how much, if any, the thermal currents of the heat leaving my house effect the pictures...

-Chris

[m8o]

I think I'll be using it a ton, too. Having this kind of reach seems to give me lots of ideas for shots. I am certainly looking forward to the warm weather to use it more outdoors. Most of the birds were shot from my kitchen, with the scope pointed out the back window! I wonder how much, if any, the thermal currents of the heat leaving my house effect the pictures...

Actually, the two surfaces of the pane of glass (or four is storm window) produces a good deal of distortion, the more the less perpendicular are to the glass, and the higher the larger the refractive index your glass has. I've yet to test this, but I think it's more the closer you are to the glass surface.

I recently purchased a 3x eyepiece from Pete Zack to make the 300mm f/2.8 into a telescope. I clicked in all 3 of my TCs, stacking the 1.4 and 1.7 too. I started my try-out inside, 2x TC (making 1800mm), pointing at the harbor masters house about 2+ miles away from my house across the inlet to all the local bays, eatons neck, ny - Google Maps through 1 pane of [somewhat thick] glass out the back of my house. I was [ahem] disappointed. At best focus, it was a mess; pure blur from distortion.

I went outside, moving down to my 1.4x. Whoa, what sharpness. The building, and 5mph painted onto the side of the building was incredibly sharp. I thought the 2x, or 2x in this combo, was crap. I then tried 1.7x, then 1.4x + 1.7x (2150-ish mm !) . All were so sharp, with the big 5mph sign on the little sandbar the building is built on serving as by guide for critical focus.

So I said to myself, well, let me try the 2x again. Bang, very sharp. So I realized, that one pane of glass I was up against and looking through, and not perpendicular against so I could point to my subject, was severely degrading the image. And the 'telescope' was of course magnifying the effect. (as it magnifies the CAs and purple fringing of my lens wide open )

I didn't test, but I'm thinking had I moved back a few (or few dozen) feet from the glass, the distortion effect from the two sides of the pane of glass would have been much less, as that ratio of my distance from the glass to the glass thickness would have been negligible.