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Hooking Up a Camera to a Telescope

The art of astrophotography can be a time-consuming, expensive hobby. However, it is possible to make it a little bit cheaper by building your own camera mount to hook up to the telescope to photograph the night sky. Building your own mount can save you $40 or so from purchasing one from a manufacturer. You will need some basic garage tools and about an hour of time to build this mount to start your astrophotography hobby.

Things You'll Need

3/4 inch plywood
Wood file
Permanent marker
1/4 inch hardboard
Wood saw
2 6-inch screws
Camera mounting screw

Instructions

- 1
  Cut a 3-inch square in the plywood board using the wood saw. File the edges down to remove any burrs or slivers of wood on the sides of the square.
- 2
  Place your telescope eyepiece on the middle of the plywood square, and trace the eyepiece with your permanent marker. Draw two V-shaped lines on both sides of the circle so V shapes just touch the circle you just traced.
- 3
  Cut the 3-inch square in half into 2 equal pieces. Use the wood saw to create a V-section type cut into each separate piece, so that when the two pieces are put together, it creates a rhombus shape.
- 4
  Cut a 6-inch piece of hardwood with the wood saw. Trim the width down so it's only 1 inch wide.
- 5
  Cut a 5-inch long slot down the middle of the hardwood piece, making it 2mm in width.
- 6
  Screw in the 6-inch long screws into both ends of the 3-inch square, screwing them in all the way until the screw head hits the plywood.
- 7
  Use the extra 3 inches of the screw sticking out of the right-hand side the plywood square to screw in the 6-inch long hardwood piece to connect it to the plywood square.
- 8
  Hook up the camera mount screw into the slot on the hardwood, and screw in your camera into the mounting screw.
- 9
  Place the plywood square onto the telescope's eyepiece, and screw in the two screws on the plywood square until the V-shapes hug the circular eyepiece.

Astronomy