I may be slow on the uptake, but it seems the digital revolution has made my old film cameras obsolete. With the receipt of a small digital camera I have come (ungraciously) into the digital age but find that camera adapters for these machines with non-removeable lenses are a scarce as twin-head comets. That lead me to put together this little adapter and bracket to do afocal photograpy through a telescope.
Step one was to make the aluminum barrel on the left in the photo below. One end threads into the accessory ring that surrounds the camera's extended lens. The other end threads into an old Pentax T-ring. The barrel's interior is of sufficient diameter and length to allow the camera's lens to operate unimpeded.
The purpose of the bracket on the right is to provide a point for a cable release to attach above the camera's trigger button. It is held captive on the camera by the threaded barrel which passes through the large hole. The bracket is designed to give clearance to operate all of the camera's controls as well as access to the camera's tripod mounting hole on the bottom.
The T-ring provides the female thread into which an off-the-shelf "eyepiece projection" adapter fits. In operation, an eyepiece is placed inside this adapter and held in place with the thumbscrew. The adapter is then threaded onto the camera mount and the assembly slipped into the telescope focuser. Depending on the eyepiece used, you may need to zoom the camera's lens in a bit to fully illuminate the field of view.
Does it work? Yes! And very well, thank you!
- Jim Sapp