What do i need to connect a canon EOS 400D DSLR camera to a Celestron Nexstar 4se

[siddharth m]

SCT? I am an amateur astronomer and would like to know what i need to connect a canon to my telescope and what results would i get.

[navee1]

All you need is a Canon DSLR T-Ring and a Celestron T-Adapter (Model 93635-A). You can find both on Amazon.com. The T-Ring screws into the 40D on one side and the T-Adapter on the other side. The problem I am having now is that the camera is too heavy and causes the whole telescope to swing upwards!! Does anyone know how to counterweight a 4SE? If you want to check out what the setup looks like and the results..see my photostream on Flickr (same username).

To tell the truth, I was excited to try out this setup for some time..but when I finally did get all the pieces together, I find I am only capable of taking nice moon shots. It seems that the Nexstar 4 SE is just too small to take pictures of anything but a few planets and the Moon with an SLR. Has anyone tried the tele-extender with the 4SE?

Another option, which I have not tried, is to buy the Neximage camera..which is simply a webcamera with some neat software. This camera can sit on top of the barlow lens and you can double your magnification. The software will take multiple shots of your target and stack them for a really nice picture.

Hope this helps somewhat.
-Nav

[navee1]

You need a Canon T-ring and a T-Adapter(Celestron model 93635-A) but I have to say it doesn't work as well as you might think. I just put this together and found that the 40D is quite heavy and causes the telescope to become unbalanced. I haven't found a way to counterweight this yet. I am thinking of strapping some small sand bags to the front of the telescope..seriously.