Telephotography/Astrophotography/Microscopy
Telephotography
Design and Purpose
blah blah blah lopus ipsum
One of my early test photographs operated completely from my laptop (other than adjusting the focus). I estimate that this tree is about 500 meters away. It was shot in the late afternoon in poor lighting conditions and high wind hence the poor light quality & short exposure. It was also taken through a window which isn't particularly clean lol.
Designing the fitment
My first test worked immediately, however, I overlooked the locking mechanism. I will add support for the 60Ds locking mechanism in the future. In the meanwhile I've kept the camera from turning around the connector housing with some old electrical tape.
On my second attempt designing the part with the secondary locking mechanism I made a careless (ADHD?) oversight which I've written about further down.
TODO: Write about my design possess using 3d cg art software (Maya & sometimes even Zbrush LOL!) rather than traditional CAD (Solidworks, Fusion, etc.)
My main computer desk. The desk its incredibly shallow which makes this type of process much more cluttered than it should be
Multiple different external diameters make up the internal locking mechanism
Holding a green wire around the lip so that the photograph is high contrast
Celestron reflector telescope
This brass coloured hole with the two screws is how the lens is fassoned to the scope
Second Attempt at the Design
The 'underside'. This part connects to the body of the 60D camera. This is the updated drawing with a large cap around the edge which covers the outside of the camera lens mount, you can see a small notch in this cap which allows the mount to lock into the 60Ds native locking mechanism,
The 'Topside". This part faces away from the camera and slots into the hole in the telescope. The end is bevelled inward as to guide the mount into the hole smoothly and gently move the fastening screws out of the way without having to fully loosen them.
After printing the updated design with the lock it looked great, but I had made a grave oversight. In my original design I didn't aim to have the camera side section sit flush with the outside edge of the camera body. When I added the locking mechanism slapdash style to complete the design I placed it at the wrong distance away from the deepest part of the camera such that when I tried testing it I couldn't get the mechanism to rotate into place.
Otherwise once that's complete I think I'll finally have made something novel and worthwhile sharing on Thingiverse (or somewhere like that).
Further Comments and Considerations.
I didn't pay much attention to the distance between the camera itself and the telescope because during my tests I was able to freely hold it at any distance with my hand and I could compensate the focus using the adjustable knob on the telescope itself. I don't yet know exactly what the difference would be if the camera was at a difference distance from the hole in the telescope or how to calculate it. I did notice that the closest object I was able to get into focus using this current setup was, I'm guessing, roughly 9-13 meters away? though that's something I can and should really measure formally...
Astrophotography
Microscopy
I saw a microscope on Facebook marketplace for $20, seems curious enough. Here's some crap stuff I've been doing playing around with it.
The microscope in question, when I first bought it
A big juicy lens I got with it (unrelated)
Leaf, cant remember which plant its from sadly
Soft plastic packaging, stretched and torn