Got my DSLR hooked up and did a test run with it for the first time on the telescope. Shitty night, but was able to get the star Betelgeuse nice and clear. Enjoy.

Nice work.... keep them coming!

oh my god, that's awesome. more plz.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betelgeuse !

Are you sure that's Betelgeuse?

For it to be red, he'd have to use an infrared view. Stars really all look alike though when you look at them in a regular ground telescope.

Betelgeuse is located approximately 640 light-years from the Earth.

Someone do the math on how many miles that is.

3762239881094408.5 miles. :X

So shiny. :D

Thats tight as hell, Acid. Makes me want to invest in a telescope...

You're right, Coach, I would need an infrared DSLR camera, or a Red filter, which I do have, but didn't use. She looks like a beautiful red blob to the eye, but close up, it looks like a white shimmering dot. This was taken with my Canon EOS REBEL XS DSLR ($600), with heavily modified settings for the aperature to gather enough light. It was taken at a 15 second exposure, but no more than 15 seconds because I can't use tracking otherwise I'll get trails from the time exposure. I'm probably going to take the scope out tonight, and see if I can get some good pictures of the the Milky Way, Jupiter or maybe even the Orion Nebula.

That distance, in short, is over a Quadrillion miles away!

Here's another picture almost exactly like mine, but taken by someone who evidently isn't an amateur like me: http://www.drewjevans.com/astronomy/ima ... lgeuse.JPG

All-in-all, the issue I spoke with Coach, Gman, and Fomenta about regarding "how can you focus on something very far away and take a picture with it if you don't use a lense?" was kind-of solved. I hooked the camera up to the T-adapter, connected to the scope without a lense at all, and instead of focusing the object in an eyepiece, and then replacing the eyepiece with the camera, I focused the object with the camera already attached. I know it sounds simple, but it's way more advanced than I could ever imagine. For anyone who's looking to get some insight on it, I found an awesome-ass guide at http://www.astropix.com/BGDA/BGDA.HTM that goes through all the different aspects of capturing some of the most awesome images with a DSLR. I'm VERY lucky in the fact that the camera the author normally speaks of, is the same one I have.

You have no idea how much this shit costs! (Definitely not to brag, because I'm more broke than a project window because of my obsession), However, if you're looking into doing this, be prepared to pay some F*CKING money:

Telescope Package including lenses, powertank, eyepieces, and filters: $1600
GPS aligner for Nexstar 8SE: $200
Computer Software for editing and processing images: $100
CCD imager from Nexstar: $100
Canon EOS Rebel XS DSLR camera: $600
T-adapter with coupler: $45
Total? $2645

I'm about halfway there.
I have one other thing on my wish-list though. That's a John Petrucci Ernie-Ball Musicman 6-string guitar painted in Mystic Dream finish, backed with a Mesa Boogie Road-King head and cabinet. Once I have that, I'm pretty sure I'll be a happy man for the rest of my times.

Damn thats all expensive. I'll have to look into used items.

I would be a very happy man with that guitar and amp, too. They're only two of the most sought-after pieces of guitar equipment made today...

Petrucci's tone is absolute butter and goodness.