Ladies and Gentalmen! I would like to introduce you to Dumptser Scope!
This is the telescope i have been using for most of my astrophotos. The optics are a Celestron PowerSeeker 114mm Newtonian reflector. This telescope has been shortened by 1.5" to get the camera, a Sony A7, to be able to prime focus without having the focuser tube stick too far into the tube. Im working with an f8 telescope so i wanted to let in as much light as I could.
Oh, i almost forgot to mention why I call it Dumptser Scope, this optical tube was found in the dumpster of our local trash transfer station... Someone elses trash was what got me into deep sky astrophotography! At the time, i had been taking pictures on my new iPhone 13 of the constellations and was drooling over telescopes online for weeks. Finding this telescope in the dumpster was a gift from the heavens, at a much needed time.
The mount the Dumpster Scope is riding is from a Meade 4504 Digital Electronic Autolocator 114mm I purchased from a local gentlemen for $120. As i use this mount more and more, i am noticing that i am unable to get the long 1+ minutes of exposure time i need for deep sky astrophotography as its not designed to be that accurate. I have adjusted all the gears, bearings and motors to get as little backlash as possible but I'm asking a little too much from this beginners mount.
The original optical tube from the Meade mount now sleeps safely in the closet as I have already modified the Celestron for astophotography. When its time to upgrade the mount, I will be able to sell this mount with its original unmodified optical tube. Maybe I'll get that $120 back...?
The mount the Dumpster Scope is riding is from a Meade 4504 Digital Electronic Autolocator 114mm I purchased from a local gentlemen for $120. As i use this mount more and more, i am noticing that i am unable to get the long 1+ minutes of exposure time i need for deep sky astrophotography as its not designed to be that accurate. I have adjusted all the gears, bearings and motors to get as little backlash as possible but I'm asking a little too much from this beginners mount.
The original optical tube from the Meade mount now sleeps safely in the closet as I have already modified the Celestron for astophotography. When its time to upgrade the mount, I will be able to sell this mount with its original unmodified optical tube. Maybe I'll get that $120 back...?
This was the first attempt at taking a wide field image of the night sky. I unmounted my 114mm reflector telescope and zip-tied the camera directly to the tracking mount... It works very well as the smaller focal lengths of the camera lens hides the inaccuracy of the tracking mount.
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being new to astrophotography, I was determined to get the best images i could out of Dumpster Scope. I made a few different modifications to cut out extra light, remove odd diffraction spikes with a mirror hold-down ring and even went as far as changing the spider for the six pointed spikes on stars! I really love the look of these spikes...
