5 replies to this topic

[shaybc]

i have encountered this product on aliexpress:

 

"Visionking 1.25 Inch Variable Projection Telescope Eyepiece Adapter Connection For NikonDSLR Camera Photography Flip Mirror"

 

 

https://www.aliexpre...2818066631.html

 

is it ok to trust it to deliver good quality view to the eyepiece as well as to the camera?

 

any other products like this one that one might have experience with and recommend?

 

and most importantly: is there such product for 2" ?

Edited by shaybc, 28 November 2020 - 04:20 PM.

[SonnyE]

I have an Orion Flip Box I got about 5 years ago.

I've never seen one that was 2".

Basically, you want your camera on the back, so you can flip the mirror up against the eyepiece to clear the path for the camera.

Nice item, I appreciated it when I was trying to learn.

 

What I did was to adjust the focus with the telescope and camera, then adjust the eyepiece to focus at the telescopes setting for the camera. So both are then parfocal.

You can observe, flip the mirror to take a shot, and go back to observing. (in a perfect world)

 

I eventually put mine away, finding I preferred to just use my camera's view on my laptop at the mount. After all, that was the picture I wanted to take.

 

Orion Telescopes no longer carries these. 

Orion Flip Box.

Edited by SonnyE, 28 November 2020 - 04:47 PM.

[KLWalsh]

Orion Telescopes no longer carries these. 

Orion Flip Box.

Agena Astroproducts carries an identical unit, and others.

I have the Orion one also. I use it at work as part of a spectroscopy device I built. I can view the object being tested, then lower the mirror to direct the light into a optical fiber that sends the light to a spectrometer.

 

I've never seen one with a built-in eyepiece holder for eyepiece projection. That'd be a nice feature for photographing planets.

Like for the upcoming Jupiter-Saturn conjuction.
 

[shaybc]

...

I eventually put mine away, finding I preferred to just use my camera's view on my laptop at the mount. After all, that was the picture I wanted to take.

so you are using a dedicated camera (and not a modified DSLR) ?

can you recommend a camera suitable for beginner deep sky imaging (for photographing nebulas and galaxies) ?

[luxo II]

 

any other products like this one that one might have experience with and recommend?

 

and most importantly: is there such product for 2" ?

Yes, turrets do the same thing. I have a van-slyke rotary 6-way turret (below) in which I can install a ZWO ASI533 and it's within 1-2mm of parfocal with my eyepieces. The TEC 5-way turret does much the same. Both the TEC and van-slyke require the same backfocus as a standard 2" diagonal. That may not matter with SCT's but in my case it does because my scopes have fixed mirrors and the backfocus range is quite limited. 

 

Is there a 2" ? Yes there is, NPAE make a 2" turret that takes DSLRs - https://www.npae.net...ct/6061-turret/ - but its a monster only suitable for large scopes - it weighs north of 6kg and it requires a heap of backfocus - which most scopes don't have. A C11 would be minimum and more likely a 17"RC or  CDK, or larger.

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Edited by luxo II, 29 November 2020 - 03:58 AM.

[KLWalsh]

Here’s how I’m using the Orion Flip Mirror device now. (Photo below.)

 

I bought it when I had a planet-imaging camera with a tiny sensor. It was frustrating to get the planet centered in the eyepiece and then swap the eyepiece for the camera. Most of the time the action of swapping was enough to decenter the planet and it would not be imaged on the sensor. The flip mirror helped a lot.
Eventually I got a better (larger sensor) camera and a better guide scope, and no longer needed the flip mirror.

 

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Edited by KLWalsh, 29 November 2020 - 09:55 AM.