Telescopes and astrophotography can be very complicated sometimes. Fortunately, sometimes there are simple little tricks and tips to get things to work your way. Sometimes you waste a lot of money to learn things the hard way, but other times you luck out. This article is a list of some of those things that I have come across that help you on your journey.

Click on any image to see an enlarged version.

My Backup Dew Removal System (a hairdryer). Sometimes, even with the dew zapper, moisture forms on the corrector plate- this happens more commonly in winter where it frosts up. A hairdryer is very effective in eliminating dew and frost. I have found that by using the dew zapper along with a dew shield, there is almost no dew, even after being out all night in 20-degree weather, so I haven't had to use this in awhile. Peak 8x Lupe converted into a magnified viewfinder. Focusing on a camera through a telescope is a VERY difficult thing to do. Fortunately, there are some ways of getting around this. Some day I plan to write up documentation on how to build one of these. It just takes a little patience, a dremmel tool, and the lupe. This is the rectangle model, which is very close in size and shape to the prism channel. With this configuration, the view of a deep space object is a little dimmer than if I were using a cheap MA25mm eyepiece. The Beattie Intenscreen Plus focus screen with etched gridlines. This isn't exactly a cheap shortcut, but it sure makes life easier when focusing an SLR film camera. I got this model over the clear model for two reasons- 1) the etched lines on the screen aid in making sure the lupe is focused properly, and 2) it aids in centering my target object in the viewfinder. Nikon F2 body as a focuser for DSLR camera. Since I got the D50 DSLR camera, I haven't used my F or F2 once. It's sad, really because I bought that camera when it was ~15-20 years old, and it cost me $260 for the body alone. Now that everything's going digital, you can get these for less than $50. So it's a shame to get rid of it, and it just sits in the camera bag. As I said before, focusing a camera through a telescope is a difficult thing to do. This setup was awesome. And you know what? This setup is parfocal to my D50. So, I can snap the F2 with the intenscreen and 8x Lupe onto the OTA, focus, then put the DSLR back on, and it's a really sharp focus. Works great! ST-4 Ronchi Focuser. This one was made by STI. This isn't exactly a cheap shortcut, but it sure makes life easier when focusing an ST-4 autoguider. I plan to write up an article on the ST-4 some day, and how freakin' impossible it was to get it to work. Focus is absolutely critical. And focusing an ST-4 is really hard. This thing is a parfocal focusing screen. That is, take an eyepiece that's also parfocal to the ST-4 (I have a 20mm that's parfocal). Center a guide star in the eyepiece, and focus. Then take the eyepiece out and put this ronchi focuser in it's place. Now you're doing a fine focus. As you get closer to focus, the bars start getting fatter and fatter. Once you get to where there are no bars left, you're in perfect focus. Take the ronchi out, replace it with the ST-4, and you have a perfect focus. It's a whole lot easier than eyeballing it and doing it by readings on the ST4. Digital Camera Preview Screen with Zoom. I'm going to be writing an article on focusing, since I've spent a lot of time and effort learning how to do it well (and I'm still learning, believe me). But until then, here's another great focusing technique with a Digital SLR camera. Get the subject to where you believe it's at a good focus through the scope. Take an exposure that's about 30 seconds long. Then pull the image up in preview mode, and do a digital zoom to the highest magnification. This works great, and when used with the modified hartmann mask below, you'll get a great focus every time. The downfalls to this technique are that you are touching the camera while you're doing all of this, and the screen is typically very bright, so it may affect your night vision. Modified Hartmann Mask. Take a piece of cardboard or manilla folder, and make a solid circle a little bigger than the end of your optical tube assembly. I just traced the cover. Then, make two circles opposite each other, that are about 1/3 the width of the optical end. Keep in mind, you have to avoid the center mirror obstruction. Then, in those circles, draw small slits across the diameter of the two circles, but make 90 degrees akew each other. With an x-acto knife, cut the slits out. The mask should look like the picture to the right. Tape this mask over the outside of your OTA, and point the scope at a bright star. If the scope is out of focus, you will see two slits, one horizontal and one vertical. As they come into focus, they will make a cross like the image to the right. When you see the cross, it's in dead focus. This type of mask is called a modified Hartmann mask because the original hartmann masks were just dots. A good example of this type of focus mask is the Kendrick Kwik Focus mask. You can see mine here. The three-dot version is pretty acurate, but the ones with only two dots are so-so. With the slit modification, you can get very precise focus because you know exactly when the lines intersect in the middle. You can use this method directly through the viewfinder of the camera, but by using the image preview with magnification as described above, you'll get a great focus. Infrared Remote for DSLR Camera. In the past with film cameras, I had a bulb cable attached to the camera body. When you want to snap a photo, push the end of the cable, and it locks with the mirror up. Click the end, and it releases and your photo is done. Problem number one with this arrangement is you're touching something directly attached to the camera. Even with a delicate hand, you're still moving the camera. The Nikon D50, and I'm assuming many other DSLR cameras, have an option for a wireless remote. This is fantastic. You can set the camera on a remote timer, so you hit the button, it will open the shutter, wait 5 seconds, then start the exposure. This is great, because even the movement from the shutter is dampened in 5 seconds. Hit the remote a second time, and it closes the shutter. This remote cost me about $10 on ebay. It's not the real Nikon remote, but works just as well. A web cam for astrophotography? You're probably thinking it's cheezy using this cheap little video camera for astrophotography, but I'll tell you, I don't think I've ever seen images from film or DSLR from an amateur home observatory that rivals some of the photos I've seen made by a webcam. The way it works is, the webcam takes a constant video stream of maybe 10-20 frames per second. You take that movie file, import it into some software, and the software digitally stacks and averages the images to make a super-crisp image. You can see some of the photos I've taken in the astrophotography section. I bought the Philips ToUcam Pro II 840k. It's one of the more expensive ones (a whopping $80), but is a higher quality than your typical webcam, and is one of the most popular in use right now. I've also heard that people are using webcams as autoguiders with software like Guide Dog. I have an ST-4, so I haven't tried this yet. Converting an old laptop for use with night vision. Although they can be controlled manually, laptop computers are great for controlling telescopes and autoguiders. The problem is, they're really bright. Even if the program has a "dark screen" mode, there are parts of the screen that have white in them, such as the icons, or when you close out one program and startup another. The other problem is when you view the screen from an angle, the pixels still give off light. Here is a Compaq Armada 1700 Pentium II 266 with a broken screen (some sort of video driver hardware problem causes some weird lines about 1" in from the right side). This was enough for the laptop to be unfit for normal use. With 6 layers of red cellophane wrapping paper (found at a nearby hobby & craft store), this normally bright screen has been converted into an awesome dark-adapted computer for my telescope and/or ST-4. Even that weird part of the screen isn't visible with the cellophane over it. The photo makes it look like the cellophane is lumpy and unreadable, but trust me, it looks great, and works perfectly. Here's the laptop with the cover off. All it takes is a few measured sheets of cellophane and some scotch tape.. Laptop Night Vision Screen. I have a bigger/better/faster/meaner laptop that I use for work, so I can't do what I did above to it. But the bright screen ruins your eyes for night vision, so I took a sheet of plexiglass, and wrapped it a few times in the same red cellophane I used on the other laptop. This works pretty good. The only thing I have to worry about now are the various lights on the laptop body, which can be covered quite easily with some black electrical tape. It peels off easily, and doesn't leave gummy residue. Energizer Headlamp. This is one of the coolest inventions ever. Picture a miner's helmet- they have that little light mounted on top. Well, this is kinda like that. It's a little flashlight that straps around your head. It has two modes- one that's super bright white, and one that's red. In the red mode, it's fantastic for work in the dark. You don't have to hold a red flashlight in your teeth (yes, I have done this many many times) while you're working on something, and you can adjust the angle, which is also very useful. I absolutely love this thing. It's made by Energizer (Eveready), and you can find if here (I got the smaller one. I think the 6-LED version may be too bright). Mirror Shift Stabilizer. This is a great little gadget. It's screwed into the hole where the original shipping mirror bolt was. It's used to put tension on the primary mirror to prevent "mirror flop" during long exposure photography, especially near the zenith. Now, I've seen this a few places, but I have to believe that Chris Vedeler invented this device. He doesn't sell it, he gives you the plans to build your own. How cool is that? Click Here to check out his page, with plans. Timer/Thermometer. This is a nifty little device. I was just looking for a digital thermometer on ebay, when I cam across this. This guy has a thermometer, but it's also a timer- both standard timer, or countdown with an alarm. So, if you plan to do a 10-minute exposure, set the timer for 10 minutes, hit start, snap your shutter, and kick back and relax with your binoculars. When the 10 minutes are up, it will start beeping, and you can stop your exposure. While you're recording your exposure info, you have the temperature handy, so you can log that to match it against the appropriate dark frames you'll need to subtract. I think this thing was cheaper than the shipping costs- less than $5 from ebay.