All,

I have a lovely little Bausch & Lomb 800mm scope - seen here: https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/447899-bausch-and-lomb-80mm-spotting-scope-f10/

Through an eyepiece, looking at the moon last night, it was quite lovely. Using my K-1...not so much. I used the eyepiece projection attachment that came with the scope, and could not get a focused shot (I added in the 12s timer to minimize shake); cropped and edited. I cannot figure out whether it needs collimation or what. For comparison, the second and third photos are with a 200mm Vivitar and a 400mm Tele-Astranar (both cropped and edited), respectively.

Thoughts?

images definitely show more deficiencies than with the eye. try using prime focus, no eyepiece projection.

The K-1 is a big, heavy body. At that level of magnification, any tiny wiggle will be visible as a less than sharp picture. I'd bet the adapter is not up to holding the camera. Is it a clamp type adapter or a T-Mount? Clamp type ones are probably not going to work well with something as big and heavy as a K-1.

Steve,

The adapter was a T-mount, to which I had attached a K-mount adapter. It's the same one as seen in the photo for the Astranar. Pretty solid, really.

You said you used an eyepiece-projection adapter but did you put an eyepiece in it? It is not clear from your description. In my experience, I have never been able to get eyepiece projection to be as sharp as prime focus.

Lew - I did indeed.

I'll try prime focus whenever I have another clear night. I believe there's one scheduled for mid-July sometime.

You have potential for a second career as a comedian. (Maybe that is your career already, one never knows.)

Nay, if this be jest, it be too bitter for laughter (borrowing from Tolkien). Indiana, esp northern, has far too few clear nights for my liking.