My left eye hurts. A lot. [Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος]

WTF? When attempting to use the telescope I borrowed from my brother as a telescope instead of as a long camera lens, the clearest, brightest view I get is when I remove the telescope eyepiece and hold up a 50mm camera lens to use as an eyepiece. This is ... counterintuitive, at my present level of understnding of telescopes.

Trying to keep both eyes open while one has such a vastly different magnification factor than the other (as when looking through a 700mm lens) is mildly headache-inducing. Trying to do so when one eye sees upside down and magnified while the other sees normally ... Ow. It feels like somebody jabbed a stilletto into my eye socket. (Was my brain trying to tell that eye to move in a way it couldn't do -- rotate in its socket -- or is the pain entirely neurological?)

I can't shoot helicopters today. There were two (both State Police, I think) parked downtown, but when the image in the viewfinder kept rippling from the air currents between here and downtown, I gave up any hope of getting sharp enough focus to read the tail numbers. (So now I'm trying to get cell-phone video of the heat ripples. Just to find out whether I can do so or not.)

Also: is it just me, or is it easier to shoot fireworks on a film camera than on digital?

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the clearest, brightest view I get is when I remove the telescope eyepiece and hold up a 50mm camera lens to use as an eyepiece. This is ... counterintuitive, at my present level of understnding of telescopes.

Using a longer focal length eyepiece results in lower magnification... and a brighter image. The telescope gathers a fixed amount of light. The more you try to magnify that fixed light, the dimmer the image gets. And fuzzier.

http://irwincur.tripod.com/magnification.htm
http://www.actonastro.com/eyepieces.htm

is it easier to shoot fireworks on a film camera than on digital?

I think you have a wider choice in film sensitivity with film versus digital, and thus you can opt for much longer exposure times.

*** Ponder

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Also, most camera lenses are of better quality than many telescope eyepieces (I think)

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Depends on your lenses, in either case. A cheap dept. store telescope is going to be on a par with a cheap dept. store camera. On the other hand, a Meade or Celestron will be like a good middle of the road film camera.

Film v. Digital:

When I started in amateur astronomy in the '80's, a lot of the top of the line amateur astronomical photographers were using film, often in the 800+ ASA range. Having returned to the hobby in the last few years, I'm seeing a lot of specially made digital equipment for amateur astronomical photography. Many pros were using CCD cameras, even when I was in high school, & I don't think film's being used as much now among them now, except when doing things like double star work, because you can go to the USNO, Yerkes, or some other observatory founded in the 19th century, & take a picture of a double star using the same telescope & gear that was used to take the first picture.

Trying to [keep both eyes open] when one eye sees upside down and magnified while the other sees normally ... Ow. It feels like somebody jabbed a stilletto into my eye socket.

Have you tried covering the other eye with your hand, or an eyepatch if your hands are full?

*** Ponder

If your eye keeps hurting, especially when you move it, see the opthamologist immediately, or a neurologist. Do not pass go.

I find that film works better than digital for many low light settings, less noise and the like. Of course I often shoot 120 or 4x5 film which have some major advantages.

Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

My left eye hurts. A lot.

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