Imaging with the ShortTube 80

Abstract

The ShortTube 80 is such a simple telescope, with an 80-mm doublet objective and a focal length of 400 mm. In photographic parlance that equates to an unobstructed 400-mm f/5 telephoto lens. The fact that one of these telescopes can be bought for a relatively small financial outlay in the 21st century is a far cry from the situation facing the would-be photographer just a few decades ago, who was forced to shell out a hefty sum of money for an equivalent-sized camera telephoto lens. Granted it doesn’t have the extra elements of a bona fide large camera lens that corrects for field curvature and/or other off axis aberrations, but used skillfully, the ShortTube 80 can achieve remarkable things using modern CCD sensors and digital cameras.