6 7
Some telescopes mounts, such as Dobsonian mounts, may move very easily
if any pressure is put against the eyepiece. The act of placing the SteadyPix
Deluxe over the eyepiece and readying it for shooting may cause the telescope
to move off of its target. You may find it easier to attach the eyepiece and cam-
era to the SteadyPix Deluxe in advance, and then find the object you wish to
photograph with a separate eyepiece with similar characteristics. Then replace
that eyepiece with the SteadyPix Deluxe, camera, and eyepiece assembly you
have prepared in advance.
You may find it handy to use the camera’s timer to take your picture, as this will
result in minimal disturbances to the camera or telescope when snapping the
photo. The movement of pressing the shutter button may be enough motion to
affect image quality, or even lose the picture.
5. What to Photograph with the
SteadyPix Deluxe
Now that you have assembled the SteadyPix Deluxe, the only question remain-
ing is “What do I want to photograph?” We have a few suggestions for you:
Terrestrial Photography
With literally millions of objects to photograph on earth, there are only a few
hints we can give for using the SteadyPix Deluxe for terrestrial photography.
One is to consider using a telescope with an Alt/Az (short for altitude/azi-
muth) mount on a sturdy tripod. An Alt/Az mount will allow simple up/down,
left/right motions of the telescope so that you can easily adjust and aim the
camera. Equatorial mounts (mounts designed to track the movement of stars
in the sky) are not recommended, as they will be needlessly heavy due to the
counterweight, and their ability to track celestial objects is of no use when
photographing an object like a bird’s nest. In fact it will likely get in the way.
Dobsonian mounts will also have trouble with terrestrial photography since
aiming a Dobsonian mounted telescope at something close to the horizon
(where most terrestrial photography takes place) will mean it has to be very
low to the ground and hard to use.
Remember that objects viewed through certain types of telescopes can be
oriented backwards, upside-down, or both.
The Moon
The Moon is one of the easiest and most interesting targets to photograph.
With its rocky, cratered surface there is a wealth of detail to be photographed
with your camera and SteadyPix Deluxe. The Moon is a very large target, so
at higher magnifications you will only get a part of the surface in each picture.
Use eyepieces that provide low powers (50x and below should work with most
telescopes) if you wish to have the entire surface of the Moon in your field of
view.
Photographing the full moon can be difficult since sunlight is falling directly
on lunar surface and will mean there are very few shadows, so details will be
harder to see. Photographing the Moon when it is in one of its partial phases
is preferable, when the angle of the sun provides many detailed shadows on
its surface. You might also want to use an optional Moon filter that threads
onto the bottom of the eyepiece to bring out more subtle features on the lunar
surface, even during a full moon.
The Bright Planets
Next to the Sun and the Moon, the planets Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are
the brightest objects in the sky and make excellent targets for photography.
Keep in mind that the planets don’t stay still like the stars, so to find them
you should refer to Sky Calendar at our website (OrionTelescopes.com), or to
charts published monthly in Astronomy, Sky & Telescope, or other astronomy
magazines.
To get the right amount of detail on the planets, eyepieces that give high pow-
ers (at least 75x or more) should be used when using the SteadyPix Deluxe.
Low powers will make it easier to find the planets, but they will not bring out
any significant details on the planets to make them worth photographing. High
Figure 5. A camera attached to the SteadyPix Deluxe mounted on a reflector
telescope and ready to use.
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