It means a very simple thing, putting the camera on the telescope ocular and taking shots. Any kind of camera can be used for afocal photography. Despite that, digital cameras are the best solution because you can immediately see the photo and learn from your mistakes on the spot.

This method is good for photographing the Moon or the planets. It’s best to start with the Moon. It’s easy to find, very lighted, which makes it nice for shooting. Expositions needed for its shooting are similar to the daily ones. Feel free to experiment!

Use oculars larger than focus lenghts (30 mm) and by using the optic zoom, get a better enlargement. Hold the camera in the area of the Eye relief ocular! Start by using smaller enlargements, it’s quite easy. As you enlarge the photo and use long exposition, you’ll notice that the hand vibrations distinctively reduce the quality of the photo. For this reason it’s recommended to use the camera stative, or even better, an adapter (steadypix).

By using the adapter you get new possibilities:

• Use a camera timer- these 10 seconds are enough for the telescope to start lying still and the photo is more precise.
• Use the camera remote control.

If you try the adapter you can also use mount following by which the Earths rotation will be compensated and longer expositions may be practised.

Finally, the recommendation when using any of the methods is to take as much shots as you can.

Examples of images taken with afocal method: