3
2. Insert the telescope’s eyepiece
into the eyepiece holding clamp
(C) and tighten the adjusting knob
(A) until the grip on the eyepiece
housing is firm.
3. Mount your digital camera on the
camera platform (J) by threading
the camera mounting bolt (H) into
the ¼"-20 socket on the bottom
of the camera. Thread it in all the
way, then back it off a turn or so.
Now rotate the camera lock knob
(I) clockwise to tightly hold the
camera.
4. Turn the platform lock knob (E)
counterclockwise to release the
horizontal and vertical adjustment
knobs (D and F). Now align the
camera lens with the telescope
eyepiece by adjusting the
horizontal adjustment knob (D) and
vertical adjustment knob (F) either
clockwise or counterclockwise as
needed. The lock the platform in
place by tightening the platform
lock knob (E).
Before powering your camera on in the next step, loosen the camera lock
knob (I) and move the camera back on the platform along the platform slot
(K) as far as it will go. Because with many digital cameras the lens expands
outward when the power is turned on, setting the camera back from the
telescope eyepiece will reduce the possibility that the lens will contact the
eyepiece, causing damage to either or both of them.
5. Now turn on your camera and look at its LCD display. Move the camera
forward – toward the eyepiece until the LCD screen shows a full image. You
may also need to make small adjustments to the horizontal and vertical
positioning of the camera using the adjustment knobs E and F. Also, make
sure the eyepiece lens and the camera lens are parallel. Then tighten the
camera lock knob (I) to fix the camera in the correctly aligned position.
If vignetting occurs; that is, if you see a dark circle around the image on the
LCD screen, as in
Figure 2, the camera lens may be too far away from the
lens of the telescope eyepiece. In that case, loosen the camera lock knob
(I) and carefully move the camera closer to the eyepiece until the vignetting
is gone, if possible, then retighten the lock knob. Take care not to let the
Figure 2.
Camera position relative to the
telescope eyepiece should be adjusted
until the image covers as much of the LCD
screen as possible.
