Using Canon 400D Digital Rebel XTi for astrophotography

When shopping for a telescope one of the first questions that came to my mind was how to attach the camera to the telescope. Do I duct tape the camera to the eyepiece? Turns out the answer is no and that there is a fairly accepted standard way to do this. Most telescopes seem to have a standardized eyepiece socket. All I had to do was to get something called a T2 ring compatible with my camera and hook it up. See wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-mount

Apparently this does not always work. Since the CCD is so far back in the camera it will never come into focus. I was lucky enough to buy a telescope of the Skywatcher brand. They apparently have a clever eyepiece socket that allows me to shorten the distance between the camera and the secondary mirror getting the CCD into focus.

Hello, I am a street lamp

I took a first picture of a street lamp outside my apartment on my first attempt to hook things up. I'm not sure why it's so blurred. I've got three theories:

• There are several layers of glass windows between the telescope and the street lamp. I live in northern Sweden, remember? My windows have got three layers of glass and the shot is out through the balcony window. I have an extra layer of windows there. So four layers of glass.
• The rig was shaking. I used my hand to press the trigger on the camera. 
• Camera was simply not in focus. It's kind of hard to see through the small viewfinder in the camera.

I think the solution to the latter two problems is to hook my camera up to a computer and use it to take shots. More about that in a later post. I think the solution to the first problem is to go outside. More about that in later posts too.