I just want to share how you can easily and inexpensively (!!) attach a
$50 PC camera to a telescope or microscope.
I recently purchased a PC camera (Kensington VideoCAM SuperVGA). Their
website describes one person's experience capturing images from a
telescope using the PC cam.
(http://www.kensington.com/about/abo_1375.html).
I thought this was pretty slick, so, when I got home I tried to use the
camera to capture images using the microscope I bought my daughter last
Christmas. It worked great! I've temporarily posted two of the images
to my website (http://www.stchas.edu/faculty/gcarlson/pub/).
Illumination is provided by my desklamp. With proper lighting the
images would be much brighter, but you get the picture (pardon the pun).
The camera is manually focused; the lens is removed by unscrewing it
completely. I removed the microscope eyepiece and positioned the camera
in its place. To take these pictures, I simply held the camera in
place. Using the microscope controls, I focused the image by looking
at the image on my computer monitor. I need to figure a way to secure
the camera in the scope, but that should not be difficult.
The images are remarkably good if I do say so myself. I can't wait to
try this on our school's telescope.
I think your school's microbiology and astronomy instructors will be
intrigued by this simple technique.
BTW, if it's "astrophotography," why isn't it also "microphotography"?
:)
Glenn A. Carlson
St. Charles Community College
St. Peters, MO
gcarlson@stchas.edu