Can it be held open for a protracted time to take astro-pictures?
833197
You can keep the lens open for as long as you like... push once to open, and it won't close until you push the button again. I took 15-minute exposures of the sky at night on a mountain in Hawaii!!!!
833198
The unit acts just like a shutter button. Whether the shutter stays open is usually a function of the camera. If your camera supports bulb exposures I think you can probably do what you want to do.
1156501
It depends on what you are tracking. It's more than OK for visual observation of planetary and deep space objects (with PAE, a more delicate alignment of the object you're tracking). For astrophotography, I wouldn't run exposures of more than, say, 20 seconds with a properly balanced telescope or telephoto lens. You MUST take your time when aligning the mount, make sure the tripod is level; enter the time, date and coordinates with as much accuracy as possible; and make sure that during the alignment procedure you center the stars nicely in your field of view. It takes me about 5-10 minutes, but after that the mount will track very well. On the other hand, if you are using the mount from a fixed location; you can save that as a 'home' position and you are good to go.
317433
I guess you could do that but it wouldn't be very stable. It depends what you are trying to do. if you want to point it to the moon or bright objects then I guess it would work. Deep space and astrophotography would require you to put it on the tripod. The tripod that it comes with is very good quality and very stable.
2257607
Yes it can. The button also locks so you don't have to hold it for long exposures
1514603
No. Just a camera. There are holders designed for phones. Look at ORION and CELESTRON websites
2278939
Yes! That's what I use it for. I use it during our star parties, and visitors have taken some GREAT shots of the Moon. They end up going home with a nice souvenir!
829546
I believe it would be really hard to capture astronomy with this lens because it is really wide. you cannot choose a single consultation.
1246561
I'm not sure as I've never tried that but it does have a separate eyepiece, so there could well be some sort of digital imaging device that would fit in there instead of a glass lens. Good luck!
2216725
That will depend on the settings on your camera. If you can set your camera to stay open for several minutes/hours, then yes. It just lets you press a remote shutter instead of the one on the camera to avoid camera movement.
1209662
Aloha Phi, Yes it can if you set your camera to bulb, the remote switch has a locking mechanism that slides over the switch to continuously keep the shutter open. You'll have to manually time yourself though, as no timer is built in.
62123
Alejandro, Yes you can take pictures with some limitations. I have take marvelous pictures, but you need to sue a DSLR and you will have to purchase, from Celestron, a T-ring (part #93419) for $10.36 and the T-Adapter for $21.95. You thread these two items together and connect one end to your camer and the other end threads onto your telescope after you take the visual back off of the scope. You can easily photograph the Moon, I suggest that you take pictures of a partial moon. Run some tests and try different exposures. If you can afford a solar filter from Orion, you can take pictures of the Sun. Taking pictures of deep sky objects is difficult with an Alt-Azimuth mount, like the NexStar, but you should be able to get pcitures of Venus, Jupiter, the Pleiades and a few others, as long as you can shoot with a very high ISO. I hope this helps. One other thing that is very vlauable to purchase is the Celestron focal reducer, it will allow more light and widen your angle of view. Do some research on Prime focus photography with the NexStar 6.
1041950
Yes, simply hold down the button on the controller for about 1-2 seconds and let go, but with mine I've notice that it doesn't stay locked for long especially with long exposer time lapse photos, for example: 30 second exposer over a period of an hour, it only took about 3-4 photos every time, I eventually had to babysit the shutter release and my camera to make sure it was actually taking the photos... It could be just mine that's defective... Still works great though!
636084
No Problem The only thing you would need is a good tripod. I find that holding the 8250 Nikon by hand during the day looking at wild animals is one thing but at night looking at the moon or stars its a lot harder to keep steady. w
1282539
No. You can take long exposures with it, but you're better off spending the cash on a DSLR body like a Canon T3i and a program like BackyardEOS if you want to image deep sky objects.
871080
You set the camera body on Bulb and you can set the amount of time the timer keeps the shutter open. 2-7-12 minutes, etc. which is the same as open continuously.
608640
Yes, you can. If you are using the camera for video, it has a 15 minute limit. After that ,it shuts off, unless you reset it.
16342
You can hold the shutter open for up to 30 minutes. Check out the live time function. It make long exposure shooting much easier.