posted by [identity profile] ponderoid.livejournal.com at 10:28pm on 2008-07-05
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
 
posted by [identity profile] whc.livejournal.com at 10:43pm on 2008-07-05
Also, most camera lenses are of better quality than many telescope eyepieces (I think)
 
posted by [identity profile] pedropadrao.livejournal.com at 02:34pm on 2008-07-06
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.
 
posted by [identity profile] pedropadrao.livejournal.com at 02:43pm on 2008-07-06
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.

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