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This is so important for UK observing I feel. Even my 12" dob can be outside ready to observe in around 2-3 minutes. Obviously some cooling for higher powered stuff but for deep sky it's ready to go almost straight out of the house. And being able to get it inside quickly has proved handy on a number of occasions too !
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Thx for the advise, just looked at a 45mins video of how to use Sharpcap Polar align, its defo one to try out as i have all the gear to do this setup without any added costs. Thx Paul
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Good Bubble! I'd love to give it a go but I think my camera just won't see much of th HII. Maybe I could just go for the M52 cluster and just hope that some of the bubble shows up :-) It might just be clear here tonight (all my forecast apps are at odds with each other today). I think I need to have a go at the Dumbbell and just possibly the Iris nebula (c4)...
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Great stuff! (Long live the EQ3 DSO Challenge Thread!) ;-)
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Chris - You get the usual brief jitter just after focusing, but I have never found this to be a problem! And cooling doesn't take too long - I notice if I use it too soon that stars are not in sharp focus. I use a dew shield made from some camping mat - works fine. Power tank, yes - I use a Halford's Phaze jump-start pack, which works a treat. You're right about the FOV. That is one advantage of the 6SE. The shorter focal length would improve my best TFOV from 1.34 degrees to 1.82 degrees - a Moon's worth of increase! Doug.
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Not as yet Gerry - but it's on the radar now ! The most impressive views so far through the Leica / 12" dob / VIP barlow combo have been of the globular clusters M13 and M92 in Hercules a few nights back. At around 300x M13 seemed to fill a big chunk of the field of view and the view was stunning. The cluster was resolved right into the core and the tightly packed stars seemed to scintilate as I observed. I viewed M13 a few years back with a 20" dob from at the SGL star party and these views through my 12" dob reminded me strongly of that. M92 was really lovely as well. Well impressed I'm really looking forward to M42/43 with this combination. Zooming into the Trapezium region is going to be a lot of fun !
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I am thinking about getting one purely for visual although for me the fl is a bit long and it would not be easy to get single figure magnifications. Alan
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Any experience with the skywatcher star adventurer mini? How long can go with the exposure withouth trailing and similar :).
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Magnificent image. A real achievement to get nominated, such is the standard of imaging these days!
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Has this mount already been sold?
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Yes, I've got my kit set up down to a fine art in order to be able to make the most of any opportunity! 2020 might be a year to book a Christmas holiday somewhere down south... Somewhere where there are no clouds!
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Agree with above comments regarding PlateSolve2 and All Sky Plate Solver (ASPS). I also use APT which has support for both, fairly quick to blind solve (~30 seconds) on a slowish netbook. I just didn't get along with AstroTortilla, way too fiddly and if you have various focal lengths you end up downloading the entire internet onto your poor astro netbook!
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Beautiful.
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More to the point, the difference between the two is exit pupil. The 31mm in your 14" gives an exit pupil of 6.7mm, the 17mm gives 3.7mm which will reduce the brightness. 6.7mm is normally the realm of deep sky observing, no wonder the moon was too bright without hefty filtering .
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I did see the CPC scopes but they are in another league. They look like real beasts. I think i will add a dew shield to my list also. Thanks Lockie
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darn it, the 22's would of been perfect I reckon :/ I didn't look at all the results. I should of searched for 22 or 23mm, oh well.
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Only affects objects very low in the south near the meridian.....
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Hi Pickwick I use the Hiitec software in conjunction with ACP to close and open the roof. The Hitec software monitors: 1. Sky conditions - eg how cloudy. 2. Rain - eg water content of the atmosphere. 3. Sensor inputs - optionally you can you install sensors that inform the Hitec software if the telescope is in a "safe" position for opening or closing the roof. This to prevent the roof opening or closing if the telescope is not in a "safe" position. So, if my observatory is imaging and it detects that either the Sky conditions have become too cloudy or rain is detected then ACP will attempt to firstly park the telescope to a pre-determined park position. When the telescope is parked, ACP will attempt to close the roof, however, this will only be allowed if the telescope sensor inputs (which monitor the RA and DEC positions) allow it. Conversely, if the weather becomes satisfactory again (eg sky clear and no rain), then the ACP will instruct the observatory to open the roof, the telescope will slew to the predetermined target and carry on the imaging session. To prevent hysteresis, the rate of opening and closing is limited by ACP to a pre-configured rate. The Hitec software is ASCOM compliment and ACP compatible which allows the observatory to open and close the roof according to the weather conditions. In my setup, ACP have overall command of all the elements of my observatory and instructs the the other software elements eg Hitech software, Maxim DL, FocusMax etc what to do and when. If it may be worthwhile you contacting Steve Richards aka @steppenwolf who has also automated his observatory. I understand that he has a Pulsar Dome and MaximDL but doesn't use ACP or the Hitec software. Alan
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Have you done any imagining with it? If so what did you use? Thanks
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The 6" will be a better match for the single arm SE mount, I've heard it mentioned that the 8" is pushing things a little on a single arm at 2000mm focal length, but maybe Doug can comment if there is any wobbles at the eyepiece with the 8SE? I'd be tempted to move towards a duel arm CPC at 8" but that's a big step up in price unless there's a Celestron sale on. I've owned both 6" and 8" SCT's on EQ mounts, and they are both very good to be honest, the 6" cools faster and has a slightly wider field of view, but the 8" shows objects a bit more brightly and with more image scale. Either way you'll need to factor in a dew shield into the cost, preferably a heated one, as the corrector plates are dew magnets! They are both respectable goto scopes Oooh! don't forget to factor in a power tank for both the scope and dew control
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I've had the 8SE for a few years and am very pleased with it. A light touch is needed when focusing as it is at the limit of the mount.
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With the forecast not looking very good for the rest of the week, here's my version of the lovely Dumbbell Nebula, taken last night, between clouds and before the rain started, just managed 30 x 30 sec, 5 darks and 10 bias, ISO 800, Skywatcher 150p on eq3-2 with enhanced dual motors. Had to throw out about 20 subs due to cloud, but just love this target, a nice smudge through my 15x70 bins and fairly straightforward to star hop to. Stacked in DSS, stretched in GIMP and cropped a bit, The Dumbbell is my summer Orion, just love it.
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I picked up some M6 x 22 stainless Allen socket head screws from eBay recently.
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The Leica Aspheric provides ortho performance with an excellent widefield view- a combination that is hard to beat IMHO. John have you tried NGC 7789 in the 12"/Leica? Higher power viewing of M42/M43 are stunning in this eyepiece under the dark conditions that enhance these views. This eyepiece has many uses that it excels at and it will barlow very high.
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you said that the wedge as a limitation for stars and object that close to the horizon, but if i will wait that the star will move from the horizon? of i will start to image it before the horizon (assuming that the time and the weather are good for me)?
