Using a ZWo ASI385MC with my American Optical 150

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rpsfam1
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue May 05, 2020 7:19 pm

Using a ZWo ASI385MC with my American Optical 150

#1 Post by rpsfam1 » Tue May 05, 2020 8:05 pm

Hello Everyone,

I've been trying to find out the proper method of imaging through my microscope and what adapters I would need. Do you need to keep the eyepiece in the microscope, or do you remove it?
My camera is a CMOS and has a 1.25 inch nosepiece which can be removed to expose std t-threads on the camera.

any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

thanks,

RP

apochronaut
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Joined: Fri May 15, 2015 12:15 am

Re: Using a ZWo ASI385MC with my American Optical 150

#2 Post by apochronaut » Tue May 05, 2020 10:48 pm

There aren't any off the shelf quick solutions that were made for that microscope. All photography was done through a trinocular photo tube. You will need to diy a clamping mechanism to the eyepiece tube and then arrange adapters to afix the camera. Since the camera is used for astro photo purposes, I would think the lens stays on as well as the eyepiece. That is a common set up on a microscope. I don't know the lens though. Does it have any corrections for say, curvature of field or specific to any particular eyepiece?
You can also go straight from the eyepiece to the sensor. That is preferred. Using the lens will keep the system compact whereas going straight to sensor will need approx. 150mm from the eyelens to sensor, depending on the sensor size, so the system could exert quite a bit of leverage on the microscope eyepiece tube.

The Japanese camera companies made photo adapters for microscopes up until the 80's and often they can be found on ebay. They are designed to clamp to the eyepiece or trinocular photo tube , accept an eyepiece internally and usually dead end in a t mount. One of those would work for an eyepiece to sensor system.

MichaelG.
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Joined: Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:24 am
Location: North Wales

Re: Using a ZWo ASI385MC with my American Optical 150

#3 Post by MichaelG. » Wed May 06, 2020 4:17 am

For convenience, here’s the specification [which looks very impressive]:
https://astronomy-imaging-camera.com/pr ... 85mc-color

It’s good to see these ‘astro’ cameras coming with T-mount threads
... that should make them very easily adaptable.

MichaelG.
Too many 'projects'

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