Gerd Waloszek       

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Ricoh GXR A12 Attached to Telescope (2)

On this page, I demonstrate how I attach the Ricoh GXR A12-50 combo to a Baader Hyperion 5 mm telescope eyepiece with a 54 mm filter thread for taking astro photos using the projection technique. Projection technique means that the camera is mounted to the eyepiece, not directly to the telescope. The latter technique can only be used with SLR cameras where the body can be directly attached to the telescope - typically using a T mount adapter.

BTW: I mention the 1:50 method on this site several times. This is a simple variant of the projection technique - you hold the camera by hand to the eyepiece instead of attaching it firmly...

Note: Since I no longer own the Baader eyepiece, I cannot offer any further information on this configuration and photos taken with it. In addition, I do no longer own the Meade 10" Dobson telescope. Moreover, I sold the Ricoh GXR.

Prolog...

At the beginning a few warnings:

• Special care must be taken that the front lens of the camera and the front lens of the eyepiece do not touch and damage each other! Baader delivers special distance rings allowing to increase the distance between camera lens and eyepiece (see below); in my case they are not needed.
• If you need to use several adapters rings and attach these to the camera lens, you are in danger of tightening the rings too strongly so that you cannot separate them from each other when disassembling everything. Particularly, the DT ring may stick either to the camera lens or to the adapter to which it is attached - I experienced already both cases... As I do not like to grasp the adapters with tongs, I used a rubber blanket from our kitchen gear (used for opening glass containers or bottles) for separating adapters - with success. However, special tools for unscrewing the adapters would be much more helpful...
  
  

Eyepiece and Adapters

Here, you can see the Baader Hyperion 5 mm eyepiece and the three adapters needed to mount the Ricoh GXR A12-50 camera unit to the eyepiece. The first two adapters are needed to step down from the 54 mm filter thread in the eyepiece to 37 mm - the first one being just an extender, which prevents that the lenses do touch. A third adapter is required to step up from 37 mm to the 40.5 mm filter thread of the A12-50 camera unit.*

*) For larger filter threads (46 mm, 49 mm, 52 mm 55 mm, 58 mm, 62 mm), only one Baader Hyperion Extension Ring (e.g. Hyperion DT-Ring SP 54_i / M 52_a) is necessary to establish the connection between the eypiece and the camera lens.

Camera Attached to Eyepiece

Here, you can see the Ricoh GXR A12-50 camera unit attached to the Baader Hyperion eyepiece:

Camera Attached to Telescope Heritage P130

Here, you can see the Ricoh GXR A12-50 camera unit attached to the Dobsonian telescope Sky-Watcher Heritage P130:

The Hyperion 5 mm eyepiece achieves nearly the maximum magnification with the Heritage P130. Therefore, it is much better suited to photos of planets and details on the moon than the Revelation DigiScope eyepiece (32 mm focal length).

Note: Since I no longer own the Baader eyepiece, I cannot present any photos taken with this configuration.

Camera Attached to Meade 10" Dobson Telescope

Note: Since I no longer own the Baader eyepiece and the 10" Dobson telescope, I cannot present any further information and photos taken with this configuration.

Only in April 2015, I found the opportunity to attach the Ricoh GXR A12-50 camera unit to the Baader Hyperion 5 mm telescope eyepiece and my Meade 10" Dobson telescope and - in poor seeing conditions - try this combination out. Below, I show how the camera is mounted to the Baader eyepiece and the Meade 10" Dobson telescope:

Note: If you unscrew the rear lens element, the Baader Hyperion eyepiececan be used with a focal length of 22.5 mm instead of 5 mm and thus used as an overview eyepiece.

Result: The Moon (Section)

Here is a photo showing the moon (April 23, 2015), which is fairly disappointing:

Since the moon is magnified so much with this arrangement, only sections of the moon could be photographed (it would have been better, to unscrew the rear lens element and take pictures with a focal length of 22.5 mm).

Note: Since I no longer own the Baader eyepiece and the 10" Dobson telescope, I cannot present any further photos taken with this configuration.