Railfan_Bill Loc: "Lost Wages", Nevada

I have been taking photographs of stars, nebula, galaxies, and of course, the Milky Way. My lens assortment starts with a Rokinon 14 mm f2.8 u[p to a Meade 1000 mm f10 mirror lens. My question is simple: can I find an adapter to fit my Canon lenses to astronomical eyepieces. Has anyone tried this? I remember a long time ago, there were adapters to fit telescope eyepieces to long prime lenses. ANy suggestion for a sourcce?

Leitz Loc: Solms

[quote=Railfan_Bill]I have been taking photographs of stars, nebula, galaxies, and of course, the Milky Way. My lens assortment starts with a Rokinon 14 mm f2.8 u[p to a Meade 1000 mm f10 mirror lens. My question is simple: can I find an adapter to fit my Canon lenses to astronomical eyepieces. Has anyone tried this? I remember a long time ago, there were adapters to fit telescope eyepieces to long prime lenses. ANy suggestion for a sourcce?[/quote]

You might want to post astrophotography queries in the Astronomical Photography Forum: http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-109-1.html

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

[quote=Railfan_Bill]I have been taking photographs of stars, nebula, galaxies, and of course, the Milky Way. My lens assortment starts with a Rokinon 14 mm f2.8 u[p to a Meade 1000 mm f10 mirror lens. My question is simple: can I find an adapter to fit my Canon lenses to astronomical eyepieces. Has anyone tried this? I remember a long time ago, there were adapters to fit telescope eyepieces to long prime lenses. ANy suggestion for a sourcce?[/quote]

The only solution to this I have found is the Kenko Lens2Scope adapter. The problem with doing this is that there is insufficient back focus from the lens to mount an eyepiece and diagonal for upright viewing. Kenko solves this by adding an extra lens in the eyepiece that makes it work by creating a tele-converter so that the eyepiece can be farther from the lens.

https://www.adorama.com/knkls10nfab.html?gclid=CNLHop3bvNQCFQyPaQodHxwCVA

I have one and am not very happy with the image quality as it is blurry around the edges.

For comparison, using a m42 type lens, I can fit it with an adapter to hold an eyepiece and when I look through it, the image is very sharp, from edge to edge. Much better image than the Kenko adapter. Actually better than even my binoculars. Only one major problem -- the image is upside down. And I don't care for this at all.

I don't see a solution for this. The camera lens is designed to work with a camera with the sensor at an exact distance. I believe for Canon, its about 45mm. Adding a diagonal and an eyepiece ends up being a distance that is farther than this 45mm distance, and you can never obtain infinity focus. So, the solution for Kenko was to add that extra lens to extend the focus point. But the effect is sort of like the effect of adding a tele-converter in that it impacts IQ, a lot. I find the effect is even worse than the use of a tele-converter.

An option that would work much better is this small refractor. It is small, about 9 1/2 inches long when collapsed and can work with cameras and with eyepieces and has sufficient travel to allow a diagonal to be used. 60mm at f6 equals 360mm focal length. There is also a slightly larger at72ed being released also.

https://www.astronomics.com/astro-tech-at60ed-60mm-f6-fpl-53-ed-doublet_p20522.aspx

Jim Bob

[quote=Railfan_Bill]I have been taking photographs of stars, nebula, galaxies, and of course, the Milky Way. My lens assortment starts with a Rokinon 14 mm f2.8 u[p to a Meade 1000 mm f10 mirror lens. My question is simple: can I find an adapter to fit my Canon lenses to astronomical eyepieces. Has anyone tried this? I remember a long time ago, there were adapters to fit telescope eyepieces to long prime lenses. ANy suggestion for a sourcce?[/quote]

I have a friend who majored in astrophysics in college and he has all the equipment. He might be willing to offer guidance if you pm me with an email address I will relay it to him.

cthahn

NO. Camera lenses are for cameras only. Join an astronomy club and learn about optics, cameras, and telescopes..

Retina Loc: Near Charleston,SC

[quote=Railfan_Bill]I have been taking photographs of stars, nebula, galaxies, and of course, the Milky Way. My lens assortment starts with a Rokinon 14 mm f2.8 u[p to a Meade 1000 mm f10 mirror lens. My question is simple: can I find an adapter to fit my Canon lenses to astronomical eyepieces. Has anyone tried this? I remember a long time ago, there were adapters to fit telescope eyepieces to long prime lenses. ANy suggestion for a sourcce?[/quote]

Pardon me if this is not exactly what you need, but at least check out Hap Griffin's work. He may have what you need or would certainly know about it:

http://www.imaginginfinity.com/dslrmods.html

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

Are you using a DSLR, which you can remove the lens? If so, there are kinds of adapters. The most common is one that attaches to your camera, and the other end is simply a 1 1/4 adapter that replaces the eyepiece of the telescope. But as someone pointed out, you may have trouble reaching focus with some telescopes, especially Nutionians. If you have a SCT scope, then no problem. Of course, you will need a good equatorial tracking mount, and an autoguider for longer exposures..... Common advice...see if there is some sort of astronomy club in your area and see what others are using. There is also an astronomy group on this forum, where you will get plenty of advice.. One more thing, I often purchase stuff from Oceanside photo (optcorp.com). You could call them and get some specific advice. There are other suppliers out there also who can help. Purchase an astronomy magazine and check out the adds.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Not entirely true. It is certainly possible to fit a CCD camera onto a camera lens, and this I have done. The lens needs to be entirely manual as most modern lenses have no rings to adjust the aperture and the default is to close down all the way.

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p2836_Geoptik-Adaptor-for-Canon-EOS-Lenses-to-T2-for-CCD-cameras---with-1-4--Phototripod.html

This company also makes this adapter with a Nikon mount as well.

But as for adapting a camera lens to use eyepieces, the answer is NO, unless you are happy viewing things upside down because there is insufficient back focus to allow a diagonal to be used, and the lens will never be able to achieve infinity focus. The only other choice is to do like Kenko did and to use a special eyepiece that extends the focal distance, at the cost of producing an image that is blurry around the edges. And it is very noticeable.

ggttc Loc: TN

Speaking generally the telescope is the lens....

Take a look at this page.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_15?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=canon+telescope+adapter&sprefix=Canon+telescope%2Caps%2C139&crid=3STDFAJP1I1X5

ORpilot Loc: Prineville, Or

Someone has never used a view camera. The image is always upside down and reversed. Or printed negatives. Color negatives are even tougher to evaluate and print in total darkness. Ah the bad old days. On my Meade 70mm the world is reversed unless I use the erecting eye piece. Get use to it. After all it is the final image you are after not what it looks like in the moment. Happy shooting

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Post this in the Astronomical Photography Forum section and you'll get more responses.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/s-109-1.html

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I am a regular contributor to the Astronomical Photography Forum, and the answer is that there is no way to use eyepieces with camera lenses because there is no way to add a diagonal and eyepiece and to get it to focus to infinity. This is due to the fact that the lens is designed to bring everything to focus at the distance of the camera sensor. This distance is too short to get the diagonal (for upright viewing) and the eyepiece since the point of focus will be farther out than the lens provides. It is as simple as this.

There are two exceptions:

1) Kenko sells a unit that the lens can attach to that has a diagonal and eyepiece. This is not a standard eyepiece. It is constructed with a built-in tele-converter such is used to provide things like 1.4x or 2.0x when inserted between lens and camera. Except this time, it is built into the eyepiece they provide. It does work, BUT, the optics are not steller. It is somewhat sharp in the center and blurry towards the edges. I bought it, but I am not satisfied with it, and it doesn't get used.

2) It is possible to use an old m42 lens with an adapter that provides a place to attach a 1 1/4" eyepiece. This is done without the diagonal and the results are of excellent quality. BUT, the image is upside down. It works if you are happy with an upside down image, and the image is way superior to the Kenko image, but it is upside down! Since we are talking about using this for terrestrial viewing, upside down is not very preferable. Image having binoculars that had fantastic optics, but everything was upside down. Would you want to use those binoculars?

As a test, I used both methods and looked at stars at night. The Kenko solution was so blurry that I didn't want to pursue it anylonger. The m42 lens solution, while upside down, was absolutely perfect from edge to edge, with no distortion and no blurriness at all.

The final answer is that to use the Canon lenses with eyepieces, it is just not possible to make it work.

And by the way, I did locate on eBay an eyepiece that is called an erecting eyepiece, meaning that it is doing internally what Kenko is doing. The result was as blurry as the Kenko solution. There is no other solution, or adapter that can make this happen. The camera lens focuses too close behind the lens to allow anything else to work. PERIOD.

dlmorris Loc: Loma Linda, Ca

As I said in an earlier post, if he can remove the lens from his camera, and has a schmit type telescope, there are all kinds of adapters for that. If he cannot remove the lens from the camera, he will have to shoot through the eyepiece of the telescope. It CAN be done, but getting everything lined up perfectly is pretty hard, and I think the field of view may be very small. In other words, the final result will be pretty sad, hardly worth the effort. By the way, using a Schmit telescope is like using any of those 500mm mirror lenses. The image will be right side up.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

This isn't what he asked for. He specifically asked for a way to use eyepieces with his Canon lenses. If this were possible, it would be a very nice thing to do. But the lenses can't accommodate the distance from the back of the lens needed to get infinity focus.

terry44 Loc: Tuolumne County California, Maui Hawaii

I was there not long ago (oceanside photo), was not looking for astronomy stuff just a polarizer replacement, while waiting looked at all the goodies and listened in on conversations about astronomy equipment they sure seemed to know what they were talking about would not hesitate to go to them for such equipment.