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20cm (8") f4 GUIDE SCOPE - Possum Observatory

One important aspect of Possum Observatory is astrophotography (the photography of stars). I generally attach a 35mm SLR Pentax camera body to the 41cm (16") telescope and use it as a giant 1830mm focal length telephoto lens. However, because the objects I am photographing are so faint I have to leave the camera shutter open for 10 - 30 minutes to allow enough faint starlight to form an image on the film. To further complicate this the Earth is rotating while the shutter is open. Even though I have a motor that counters this and follows the stars I still have to manually guide on a star located behind an illuminated crosshair through the 20cm (8") Vixen guide scope to make sure there is no streaks and movement on the finished photo - this has all helped to produce patience in me!.

For astrophotography I attach the 35mm SLR camera to the 16" and then guide through the 20cm (8") f4.	Due to the lesser focal length of the 8" I attach a 2x Barlow magnifier to make slight star movements more obvious.	The 8" is mounted within two wooden rings which are attached to two alluminium rings which circle the 16".

For some results of my astrophotography click the 'Sky Objects' above and follow the links...