USB Eyepiece for Microscopes: Quality Viewing from Any Position

[DaveC426913]

I stumbled across this.
http://www.innovatoys.com/tech-gadgets/usb-eyepiece-for-microscopes/5937

I've got a 6" reflector on an equatorial mount. At some angles, an hour of viewing could put me in a chiropractor's office.

It would be cool to observe the sky from a sitting position that didn't put a crick in my neck.
Do you guys think this would produce a quality image that could be comparable to one's eye to the eyepiece?

 

[russ_watters]

Also marketed as the Orion Starshoot astrocam: http://www.telescope.com/Astrophoto...Imaging-Camera-IV/pc/-1/c/4/sc/58/p/52175.uts

It isn't equivalent to the naked eye, but can be better or worse, depending on your point of view. In realtime, it is worse than the naked eye, but with exposures of a few seconds will reveal faint objects you can't see with the naked eye. Or with many short exposures and post-processing, it will reveal details you can't see with the naked eye. That's the entry-point into astrophotography -- see my website for details.

 

[davenn]

Hi Dave

for that price, it would be worth having a play and see what can be achieved
For bright objects like the moon, it should be great, not so good on the planets, and definitely interesting to see how it
works on star clusters, comets and nebula etc.
Put a solar filter over the front of your scope and do some sunspot images as well

At Russ suggested, you can do what he and I do with even the more advanced cameras and take many
short exposure images that you then stack on each other in free software like DSS ( Deep Sky Stacker)
This produces a total combined exposure time of all the individual exposures :)

get one and have a play, you don't have much to loose ;)

cheers
Dave

 

[davenn]

Ohhh ... looking at that link Russ gave to the Orion site
there's a bunch of lunar, solar and planet pix there ... looking good

D

 

[DaveC426913]

My primary interest is in planets. Moon doesn't really interest me, and stars are still just points, even in a scope.

I'd prefer realtime, but I imagine having a computer handy would start me into astrophotog.

I'd like to be able to image Mars features, Jupiter's bands and GRS, and subtleties in Saturn's rings.

So, in your opinion(s), it's not just a cheap piece of plastic with cheap electronics?

 

[davenn]

So, in your opinion(s), it's not just a cheap piece of plastic with cheap electronics?

well if the selected images in that link on the Orion site are to be believed, then it has good ( not great) possibilities
( the thing is they didn't say what sort of scope the camera was used on for each of those images)
It is right at the bottom end as far as price goes ... so in the ol' words, "ya gets what you pays for"

its going to most likely give you a reasonable start into astrophotography and that will help you decide if you want
to make a bigger investment for a greater return at a later date

cheers
Dave

 

[enorbet]

I wish I could be more helpful with details but to add to the already high quality from russ watters, a new member here, a teacher/professor in Astronomy iirc, posts in the astronomy section and has shown some truly remarkable high quality images he has taken with fairly modest equipment. Also this site should be interesting http://www.astro-photo.nl/

I haven't yet bought such an eyepiece for telescopy but I do have a cheap one for microscopy and while it has tradeoffs, overall it was an excellent purchase that I'm very happy I made the decision.