Questar Piggyback For 3.5" Questar Scopes

This Questar #19420 piggyback mount lets you install a 35mm or DSLR camera on top of a Questar 3.5" scope for wide field deep space astrophotography.

This Questar #19420 piggyback mount is a machined and anodized aluminum platform that carries a camera or a CCD camera with lens on top of a 3.5" Questar telescope barrel so your camera can take wide-field deep space panoramas while the scope follows the motion of the stars across the night sky. The telescope becomes the tracking platform that guides the camera, allowing you to take exposures lasting a few seconds, minutes, or even hours.

Piggyback photography is one of the best and easiest techniques for taking surprisingly good images of immense areas of the sky. Galaxies like Andromeda, the larger nebulas such as the North America and Pelican, an entire constellation, or a large comet would be among the best candidates for this simple low magnification method of astrophotography.

The platform has a felt-lined aluminum collar that slips over the telescope barrel. The camera platform is slotted to balance the camera for and aft along the barrel for the best balance, depending on the weight and length of the lens you are using. Extreme telephoto lenses are not recommended. A 100-105mm focal length lens would be a practical limit with a DSLR. The best results will come with the camera stopped down a few f/stops, as there is often visible chromatic aberration when a camera lens is used for astrophotography when fully open.

A captive stainless-steel standard 1/4"-20 thread bolt secures the camera to the platform. The platform has an extension arm that connects rigidly to the eyepiece port at the rear of the scope to keep the platform from shifting during use. An eyepiece extension tube is provided to elevate an eyepiece, such as an illuminated reticle, above the camera to aid in guiding during photography. However, the drive of the Questar is so accurate, and the typical camera magnification so low, that guiding will generally not be needed.

Shipping is free on this Questar item if it is purchased with a Questar scope that is being drop-shipped to you from the Questar factory. If this item is being purchased by itself as a special order item, a $12.95 freight charge and a 14-day or longer delivery time will apply. The $12.95 freight and a $20 Questar drop-ship charge will apply if faster delivery is required and it must be drop-shipped to you from Questar.

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