I have been an amateur astronomer for the longest time but astrophotography has always eluded me. I never had the proper equipment and getting a dedicated CCD camera for the purpose of photographing the sun, moon and planets is prohibitively expensive. A while back, a company called Scopetronix made custom milled adapters that connected point and shoot digicams to a telescope eyepiece for eyepiece projection photography. Scopetronix went out of business last year but a new company has picked up where they left off. Just select the proper filter size and choose an adapter that includes a ring that attaches to the barrel of your smaller 1.25″ eyepiece (typically Plossls are used) and a step-up ring that connects it to your camera lens filter thread. They also carry a line of adapters for smartphones and T-adapters for different builds of dSLRs.
Here is their Samsung Galaxy S4 adapter in action!
Here are two photos I took with my Sony RX100 II of the moon and Jupiter with the eyepiece projection adapter. Click for the full-sized image!
You can get the eyepiece adapter of your choice at telescopeadapters.com! Prices vary depending on what you need.
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That is pretty cool. I bet with my Nokia Lumia 1020 and 41 MP camera – that pic of Jupiter would come in a bit clearer since I can hold the lens open for up to 4 seconds. I have some neat starry sky shots with that camera just on a tri-pod and holding the lens open.
Pretty cool… Thanks for the article.
Hello, I have a Sony RX100 II, the same camera. Can you tell me which DXKit should I choose at telescopeadapter.com? The listed models on the website does not include Sony RX100 II.
Thanks a lot!