I been looking at scope for some time now, typically walking in meijers and seeing the boxes of the "By Meade" scopes and such that recently went on sale. A while back I got a Meade 60EQ-A 60mm refracting telescope with an equalatoral mount. Problem was that the 900mm scope really wasnt much to brag about, it was nice but apparently when attaching the digital rebel to it, the weight of the camera alone caused the teeth on the equalatoral mount to strip away like it was nothing. Guess you get what you pay for (99$), so took that guy back and figured i'd save up for a bigger scope.

During my search I kept wondering do I really want something strictly for astrophotography, I mean wouldnt it be nice to have something that somewhat did both , but more or less for terrestrial subjects. I seen this one in the local hobby shop, that was small, the lens on the front caught my eyes. Was one of them Cassegrain design (basically hyrbrid between refractor lens types of scopes and reflector models, using mainly mirrors with some glass optics). asked to use some eyepeices on it since none of the scopes had the eyepeices present. Was pleasantly surprised to be able to see the faces of people walking into a grocery store about half a mile down the street. Also liked the way it handled viewing even better. Has a opening on the back as well as an opening on the top. You can use an eyepeice on top for typical astro viewing, or attach a 45 degree prism to the back for terrestrial viewing.... OR you can mount a camera to the back and use the top for eye-based viewing, then switch the view to the camera when ready to shoot.

I went ahead and purchased it bout 250$ at the shop ( tho you can get it online for about 20$ cheaper, but for how much shipping... ). I was surprised to find out that it came with a soft case with foam cut out for each of the parts with the parts already nicely packed away. Was kind of curious bout the whole "Nitrogen-Filled" aspect of it, I assume its just to prevent baterial and fungi growth inside.

Anyways here are pics of the scope itself, and a sample show after.
(click to enlarge)














Because I don't yet have a T-Ring or T-Adapter for the scope or camera just yet but the conditions were right for the picture being freezing cold outside and moon higher up in the sky without much of an overcast at all.

So I ended up taking the digital rebel, without the lens attached ( just the mirror exposed ), and holding it over the eyepeice opening without a eyepeice droped in. So basically mirror to mirror shooting, re-adjusting the focus of the scope while looking thru the viewfinder of the rebel in my other hand.

Shot at ISO 200, 1/125 of a second, Raw mode, Chose Tugsten white balance. Increased the contrast some in photoshop.



... No I'm not gona stalk you from half a mile away.

LOVELY shot! Instersting psot to boot!
Thanks,
Mike

Have you looked at the Canon 20Da?

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT WITH THE NEW CANON EOS 20Da DIGITAL SLR 

Newest Canon Digital SLR Helps Address the Needs of Astrophotography Enthusiasts


http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/p … s20da.html

That's very cool!!