I've been using a Celestron NexStar4SE for about five years now and have tried photographing various types of sky objects. The best photos I have so far have been of planets.
My rig for these have been the following:
- Celestron NexStar 4SE
- Canon 550D unmodded
- Celestron 93635-A T-Adapter for NexStar 4GT
- Celestron T-ring for Canon EOS camera
- Samyang 2x teleconverter
Along with these and shooting on 640x480 movie crop mode on the camera, you can get pretty decently sized photos of the plantes such as the following.
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| Saturn through Nexstar 4SE, Canon 550D via Samyang 2x converter and 640x480 movie crop mode shooting. |
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However I always had doubts about the optics of the Samyang 2x converter. It was built to go with the Samyang 500mm mirror lens and wasn't exactly built for the purpose of astrophotography. My choice of replacement was the Celestron 2x Barlow. The Celestron 2x Barlow however comes with its own set of new requirements. While the Samyang 2x converter could be connected to a T adapter, the 2x Barlow works like a normal eyepiece. That requires the viewing to be done via the 90 degree reflector built in to the telescope.
As much as I would like to think that the 4SE has a good reflector diagonal mirror set up, my trust on it is actually not that much. While it would work well within the limits of human eye, I wasn't entirely sure if it works well with photography. My option therefore was to go for a purpose built star diagonal, Celestron 1.25 inch Star Diagonal (
Celestron 94115-A 1.25 Inch Star Diagonal). And this is where the second problem started. To connect this piece to the telescope called the Visual Back (Celestron 93653-A 1.25 Inch Visual Back Metal Adapter - Black). While some websites (including Amazon at the time) list this as compatible with the Mak-Cas telescopes, it is meant to work with the Schmidt-Cas telescopes which have a larger threading. Long story short, I had two utilities in my hand that I couldn't actually use.
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| The back of NexStar 4SE and the thread of the Visual Back below that. Too large to fit. |
It is about 1.5 years later that I figured that there is actually another utility item that was available exactly for situations like this. The Baader Planetarium 2958500 T adapter. This adapter is essentially two adapters wound in to one. The first of it converts the Mak-Cas threads used in the 4SE to a SCT thread that is larger. The second does the reverse. Taking another leap, I decided to go for it.
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| Baader Planetarium 2958500 T |
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| Baader Planetarium 2958500 T with the two pieces taken apart |
The result is a perfectly fit 2x barlow on to the 4SE.
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| The star diagonal fitted on to the 4SE. Ready to be fitted with the 2x Barlow and the Canon 550D. |
So essentially after 1.5 years in the process of buying the utilities needed for the replacement, I am finally ready to go with my new rig:
- Celestron NexStar 4SE
- Canon 550D unmodded
- Baader Planetarium 2958500 T adapter
- Celestron 93653-A 1.25 Inch Visual Back
- Celestron 93640 1.25 Inch Universal Barlow and T-Adaptor
Now, I only have to wait for a month or so for the skies to clear up :)
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