I'm sure that many of you just getting interested in the hobby of astronomy, wonder if that small telescope you bought (or are thinking about buying) will see any details on the moon or planets. I put this web page together to show that even a very modest-sized telescope, if of reasonable quality, can see and even photograph more lunar and planetary detail than you'd likely imagine.

I took on the challenge of getting these images through a 60mm f/17 refractor telescope to prove a point. I've seen many advice articles on what telescopes beginner astronomers should buy, and while there's always some good points presented, it seems to me that the things that can be viewed through a 60mm refractor are often understated. So I took these images to show not only what you can expect to see with such a telescope, but what you can even photograph if you have the inclination, some time, and a bit of patience.

If you want to start an astronomy hobby on a budget, and maybe even do a bit more than just observe objects, let this web page give you some inspiration.

I put the telescope at left together on a very meager budget. The Pipe Fitting Tripod only cost about $50 and a bit of elbow grease. Click on the indicated link to see how you can make one.

The 60mm Refractor Project only set me back about $125. It is made from new old stock optics parts, obtained from the sites listed at the 60mm Refractor Project link. The telescope I made is a 60mm refractor of the old school design, with a focal ratio of f/17. That makes the instrument an excellent performer for lunar and planetary work, even though only 60mm in aperture.

If You Want To Take Pictures -- Add A Camera

If you want to use your telescope for more than observing, you can get started inexpensively in a number of ways. The pictures shown later on this web page were taken with a Celestron NexImage astro-camera, which cost me about $100. In the image at left you see my Celestron NexImage web cam and Barlow lens inserted into the telescope's focuser. You can see that I removed the star diagonal, inserted the Barlow, then inserted the camera. The Barlow doubled the magnification of the telescope to give me high resolution images. If I want wider field images, I insert the web cam directly into the focuser, leaving out the Barlow lens.

You can probably get into astrophotography at an even cheaper price. You can make your own Web Cam Astro-Camera as I did. It works exactly like the Celestron NexImage, and might cost you even less. You'll need a bit of construction skill and possibly a camera adaptor.

You can even take moon photographs with just a typical digital camera. I show how to do that on the Digital Camera Mount web page. You can also get some good shots by just focusing the telescope on the moon and holding a digital camera up to the eyepiece, as shown at the bottom of the 60mm Refractor Project Photographing planets with a digital camera requires a model that lets you turn off the auto focus and auto exposure features. Frankly, if shooting planets is your desire, you want to go beyond a hand-held camera.

The Celestron web cam came with the handy image stacking program RegiStax. If you make your own web cam astro-camera, you can get RegiStax and install it on your computer.

The following photographs were all taken with the illustrated 60mm telescope and the Celestron NexImage web cam. Note that the telescope was mounted on the heavy-duty pipe-fitting tripod. That tripod has neither a clock drive nor slow motion controls. However, it is extremely sturdy and holds the telescope at any given position with absolutely no vibration.

I lightly tapped the telescope in desired directions to make minute adjustments in the pointing angle, then used my laptop to collect film strips (.avi files) with the Celestron NexImage. While the target drifted through the field of view as the earth rotated, the shutter speed of the NexImage was sufficient to capture sharp images. The fact that each successive frame of a file was shifted in position was taken care of by processing the files with the RegiStax software program that came with the Celestron camera.

Moon, Plato Region. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. Click To Enlarge

Moon, Alpine Valley, 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera.

Moon, Eratosthenes Region. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. Click To Enlarge

Moon, Eratosthenes crater, 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. At times I've struggled to see those 3 mountain peaks in Eratosthenes even with my 6 inch reflector. But here, the 60mm captured them nicely. For scale, Eratosthenes is 36 mi in diameter.

Moon, Straight Wall Region. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. Click To Enlarge

Moon, Straight Wall, 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera.

Moon, Tycho region. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. Click To Enlarge

Moon, Tycho crater, 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. Notice the small peak next to the central mountain peak.

Moon, Clavius region. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. Click To Enlarge

Moon, Clavius crater, 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera.

Jupiter. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. In this inverted image, the NEB (brown belt) is easily seen. You can also just see a shaded region where the SEB usually is visible, but not in this 2010 image when the SEB all but disappeared. Also visible is the NTB and the darkened polar caps (see Observing Jupiter).

Jupiter. 60mm f/17 telescope with Celestron NexImage camera. This is my best black and white image, stacking about a dozen of the best frames. This is more like what is actually seen through a 60mm telescope.