osbourne one-nil

Last night, despite being at death's door following my Covid booster the day before, I set up my 8" newt and imaged the Crescent Nebula. It was my first time using an OAG so I was primarily interested in getting to grips with that (it's not difficult is it?!). I've never been very clear on the backspacing requirements of my Vixen scope and coma corrector. I've emailed Vixen to ask, and they say my Coma Corrector 3 requires 63.5mm of backspacing. Now, I assume this is 63.5mm measured from the base of the thread which I attach my camera to, and as such I have a 9mm spacer ring, OAG (16.5mm), ZWO filter holder (21mm) and then the 17.5mm of spacing offered by my ASI533 camera. This equals 64mm...close enough, especially with the relatively small sensor of my camera. However, when I inspected it using Pixinsight aberration thingy, I wonder if I've interpreted Vixen's answer correctly? Perhaps it's just a collimation issue; it's f4 after all, but I'm normally ok with that. I wonder if the 63.5mm Vixen quote is from the face of the corrector. If so, once everything is set up the distance from the bottom of the thread actually measures 55mm, which seems to be standard. Any ideas? Here's the actual image btw...it'll do for 15 x 3min exposures.

My ASIAir Plus is much better than my old ASIair Pro in terms of wi-fi but I'm still having issues. My home setup is one where the Wi-Fi is distributed using TP-Link Deco; basically a mesh system. The AAP connects to the wi-fi fine, but I can only connect to the AAP if my phone is connected to the same Deco disc as the AAP. This rather defeats the benefit of a mesh network! I suspect this is a problem with the Decos rather than the APP, but does anyone have any ideas before I venture into the world of network help forums where people answer questions I won't have asked?

My bank manager thanks you for your comment....it would be the fun option!

Yeah, quite - I wouldn't bother. I'd "relegate" it to an alt-az mount for visual if I were to upgrade. You don't think there's a definite need to yet? I know it's entirely down to whether I'm happy with the results; I'm just trying to work out if I'd be happier with a new one!

Here's my other Vixen scope - I rather like it! Now, I'm happy with the imaging I do with it but, at (I think) 15 years old, would I notice a big difference between a brand new one and this one? Visually, the mirror is fine. I've done the "shining the torch through the back" test, and there's no hint of any light coming through, so could the mirror still be ok at this age?

Yep! I queried this with Telescope House as it's WAY above even our current inflation rate, and the response was (perhaps not unreasonably) that raw materials go to the highest bidder and telescope manufacturers are some way down the list so don't have much negotiating power. Have Skywatcher, etc, gone up by this much though? I did some maths on ordering direct from Japan, including the shipping and import costs, and it does offer quite a saving. I wouldn't fancy dealing with returns though!

Ah yes. The belt drive etc. I remember looking at it but deciding the cost and weight just wasn’t justifiable given I live in a rain forest.

I like my new name! Would the SXP2 be preferable to the SXD2 because of its extra weight capacity or are there other benefits? I ask because I suspect the 15kg limit of the SXD2 is accurate about it would genuinely cope fine with it.

The Starbook Ten is so intuitive to use and the display is lovely. It's a bit of a shame that when I'm imaging, ASIair makes it semi-redundant but for visual, I'd always choose it over any app. I can't think of a flaw really. Rock solid and weighs next to nothing. The only thing I'd caution is the twist grips on the legs do need to be turned tightly to avoid any slippage, but other that that, I love it and it's worth the money to me. It's also relatively warm to touch in the winter!

Yeah, it copes with it ok! It's just as good on my little AP-SM mount too. I aligned it roughly last night using the polar scope from the SXD2, had a look at the double cluster (absolute perfection), came back three hours later and it was still perfectly in the middle. Quality!

Here's my new SD81S, dressed in astrophotography gear, prior to first light last night.

Yes, but that was £300 more than the one I picked up, following the recent price rises, so I'll console myself with that! I've seen that in Japan Vixen are offering an upgrade of the spacer rings at a discounted rate.

Having had a clear evening last night, I agree. I plopped it down in a bit of the garden with a view of Jupiter, put in my 9mm Nagler, and just soaked it in. Wow....just wow! I thought the best view I've ever had of a planet was through a Mewlon, but although this was smaller, it was immaculate. I could have spent hours just staring, but work beckoned! I did put it on my SXD2 though and thought I'd see how it handled the Fireworks Galaxy. Now there are no calibration frames (obvious when you look) but for an f7.7 to produce this in just 36 mins (18 x 120"), with next to no processing, then I'm excited about getting the reducer/flattener for it. The three foil spacers around the edge of the lens assembly do show themselves in a weird diffraction pattern, but they're "honest" diffraction spikes, as my dad might have said.

Thank you both - I have a photo of it in my wallet!

Now I just need a clear night…

Quite right too - awful things! I've got my 8" newt for those anyway but as long as the little one can see the rings, he'll be happy! Yeah, I've got a Porta Mount a goto EQ and an EQ with just a RA drive on, all of which would be great with it. I do have a Barlow....not sure where though! I didn't order the flattener to go with it because my ASI camera is only a small chip so it might be ok without. I'm no pixel-peeper!

I put my big-boy pants on and made my own mind up!

The other night, my youngest (6yrs) and I went to the village green with my setup to look at the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and Andromeda. He viewed them all on my ipad via my AISair and was mesmerised....even though the Moon, Saturn and Jupiter barely rose about Terry's roof and looked rubbish. It warmed my cockles. Surprisingly, he asked if he could seem them himself...and he meant through the telescope and not on the ipad. I can only imagine he knows this is an option thanks to my Youtube viewing history! As much as I love my R200SS, it's a reflector, it's a bit of a nuisance at the best of times, and for visual astronomy on an EQ mount....I really can't be bothered. So I'm thinking about a refractor, both as a visual scope with jnr and as an astrograph, giving me a nice field of view option between my Redcat 51 and the 800mm of the Newt. I like Vixen stuff! So, would something like the SD81S combined with its flattener/reducer (which would give roughly 500mm, f6 and weight 3.9kg) be just as good as as Askar 500 (500mm, f5.6 and 5.2kg)? Despite Vixen's apparent 30% price hike recently, The SD81 would still work out about £300 cheaper, be lighter, and give me my Vixen hit. I know the Askar would be a touch faster, but really not much. Am I missing something obvious?

But you only need high weight capacity if you're loading it up. I won't be loading it up! I love my SXD2 - it's fantastic, but I sometimes feel it's underutilised doing astrophotography as the Star Book Ten is redundant* other than as a way to connect everything, and most of the time I'm not involved in the process at all. The AP gives me another option - either with DSLR photography, remote photography/observing or purely visual. I suspect I'll be very happy! *I don't think I'll be able to redeploy the Star Book Ten as it's the only way the ASIair can communicate with the mount; there's no EQMod option for this one!

That’s precisely what I’m pondering!!

Lovely stuff! I’m strangely excited to receive something so simple and, objectively, over-priced. But I think it’s cheaper in the long-run for me to go with Vixen stuff because it just works without compromise. I initially thought about a star tracker, but I’d be limited to photography and the tracking accuracy might frustrate. I thought about a CEM26 as it has goto, but I think it wouldn’t work without power and you’d have to rely on the handset to slew. The AP seems to offer great tracking or completely manual use if I so wanted. I wonder if I should get a nice 3” frac for visual fun?!

I know this is an old thread but lovely to see one of these in use. How are you enjoying it? I've just bought myself one, but it's only got a drive on the RA axis. I've bought it to primarily act as a portable camera tracker or to take unguided shots with my Redcat51 and Fuji X-T3. I know it's massively expensive, but based on my experience with a SXD2 mount, I know how great Vixen stuff is. If it's anything like its bigger brother it will perform flawlessly in an understated and simple way. The polar scope in my SXD2 is redundant these days as I only use it for imaging and therefore polar align using my ASIair. I can swap that into the AP-SM mount when it arrives and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to get some great tracking.

I think by small I mean 80mm or below. For me (and this is probably because of my own inadequacies) I much prefer that images I get from my Newt. The stars are smaller, the images crisper, the colours better, to the extent that I have, so far, gleaned little pleasure in imaging with the refractor. the only downside to the Newt, for me, is the wind factor. It’s lightweight, I’ve never found collimation and issue and I think it’s focal length suits my interests Maybe I’ll go back to some DSLR imaging on windy nights and see if that does anything for me!

That's exactly how I feel - so I'm not completely mad to think that way! My only reservation is on windy nights, the small refractor will be less burdensome on the mount, but I can probably create some sort of semi-permeable wind-break if I wanted anyway. I imagine summer is a frustrating time for you...you must be further north than me!

I ask because I've got a FRA400 and a Vixen R200SS. Very different scopes, very different focal lengths, very different targets. Yet I never really like what the refractor produces; I'm always drawn to the Newt to the point that I think I'd be happy just with that, capturing those smaller fuzzy objects that seem to get overlooked. I just wondered if anyone else only ever used longer focal-length setups?