Google+: A Short Guide To Making A Telescope Hangout-Ready

[MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, I'm Mike.
Today I'm going to show you how to take your telescope--
and I'm going to use this is a small example.
It's a small refractor but you can use any of the different
telescopes that you see around me here to do the same thing.
We're going to plug a camera into it and use
it for Google+ Hangouts.
So the first thing you'll do is to remove the eyepiece from
that, set it aside.
The camera, then, has the lens removed.
And you'll get a small threaded eyepiece adapter for
it so that it will fit into your telescope.
For a digital SLR, you'll remove the lens, and replace
that with a T-Adaptor which twist locks in just like a
standard lens.
And then take an adapter that will fit like that.
Or remove the lens from inside of these types of webcams, and
I actually used glue, and then later on some tape to just
secure it to the telescope that way.
Now you have your camera connected to your telescope,
and it's a matter of taking the USB cable, plugging it
into the back.
They 're usually keyed.
Then you take the other end and plug
it into your computer.

Voila.

The best place to start is the software that ships with the
camera, usually the manufacturer will have some
form of software, and that's a great place to get started
using the different settings and exposure values that
you'll need.
Always best to practice in the daytime.
If you don't have software that came with the camera, you
can look for freeware alternatives
or open-source packages.
Those are usually fairly well written and will
serve you very well.