andymw

On 03/09/2022 at 16:04, Varavall said:

Hi

I did similar by going to my local scrapyard and got a piece of 10mm aluminium alloy plate (cost about £1) and drilled and tapped some holes then attached my TS 80mm finder/guider scope to the top of the main scope. Rock solid! You can see it if you look past the cables (now tidied up) in the photo. The Zwo guide camera has gone and been replaced with the lovely QHY5III462C which is almost a mono camera when used with the IR pass filter.

Adrian

Just saw this photo and thought I would mention that you can flip those focusser wheels so that your EAF doesn't stick out of the front.  You could also ditch the finder scope and add an OAG thus getting rid of the guide scope.  

Just seen this and wondered why your filters would have any real affect on the OAG?  My OAG sits just after the coma corrector on my 200PDS so gets clear light from the OTA.  My filters are also not parfocal, however for guiding the delta in the focus would not really be significant.  I'd say, don't give up on the OAG approach just yet.

FYI: My setup is:  8" 200mm F5 Newtonian (Skywatcher 200PDS).  Coma Corrector (which has 55mm backfocus) connected to focusser tube-> ZWO OAG V2 (ASI290MM mini guide camera connected to OAG via a helical focusser) -> 9mm spacer -> ZWO 8 way mini filter wheel (with 1.25 inch filters) -> ASI1600MM Pro (which has 6.5mm focus back space).

Someone already flipped the focussing wheels (probably to add a ZWO EAF or something similar which connects to the fast focusser).  As has been said:  it's easy to just remove and flip the wheels (leaving the main focusser attached to the tube).  FWIW:  I did see that the Lakeside focuser connects to the fast focusser also, so wondering why you want to flip it?

Just for clarity:

* I have had the tube rings removed whenever I have attempted the mirror cell assembly removal

* Yes, of course, I have removed the six retaining screws, but thanks for checking

* I am talking about removing the entire mirror cell assembly from the tube

* I have turned blue in the face trying to pull/twist the assembly free, but it hasn't budged even half a millimetre

I need to remove the primary mirror from my Skywatcher 200PDS as it appears that one of the mirror clamps is pinching the mirror.  Try as I might though, the mirror is totally stuck in the tube (I have used plenty of force, but it just won't budge at all).

Has anyone else had this issue and , if so, how did you overcome it?

My Skywatcher 200 PDS Newtonian suffers from bad diffraction spikes due to the focusser tube in-travel within the tube.  Has anyone found either:

1) a supplier that can provide a shorter tube OR

2) A replacement focusser that doesn't impede into the OTA

If neither is available, then I will just have to get a hacksaw out

I noticed a few days ago that the paint on my ZWO ASI1600MM Pro had faded from red to a dusky pink in the unusually hot sun.  That told me that it was time to keep it cooler during the day.  Also, the OTA was absolutely scorching to the touch which can't be a good thing.

Solution:  I bought a Telegizmos cover and all the bits stay relatively cool even with 34 degrees plus out there.

FWIW:  I took a slightly different approach.  I have power in my garage that is on the same mains as the house and is close to my scope.  I use a powerline wireless adapter in the garage to provide a wifi connection to the scope mini PC.  I'm therefore able to connect to it from any device within my home using RDP.  I also use a Mele Quieter 3 miniPC to control the scope

FWIW:  if you need an autoguider solution, I have an Orion Magnificent Mini Deluxe Autoguider package that served me well for a couple of years.  I no longer use it as I have moved to an off-axis guider solution.

I would be happy to send it to you for the cost of shipping plus some kind of donation to my favourite charity: https://www.donmcmath.org/  They are a school in the Gambia for children who can't afford education.  We have sponsored two children through the school for the past 20 years although we have never asked to know which two children we were sponsoring. 

Just a thought .. you get an autoguider on the cheap and help some children in Africa at the same time.

In terms of your original question "I am trying to create a setup where I can attach my scope to a pier and use it from the shed (about 8m away), so I can leave all my gear setup, ready to go (is this possible?!?!).":

Yes it absolutely is.  I eventually achieved this by buying a mini-PC (A Mele Quieter3) that is strapped to my mount and installed all the pre-requisite software on it (in my case PHD2, SharpCap, APT, ASCOM).  I also installed a powerline (over the mains) wifi extender in my garage to give me wireless access to it.  I use remote desktop protocol from a PC inside to control the whole setup and use a robocopy script to automatically copy the subs captured back to my main PC indoors.

49 minutes ago, Paul2019 said:

Thanks for getting back to me, 

From my extremely limited experience of pixinsight I really like it. I just need to do more tutorials and learning on it. Fairly confident it will likely be my next Astro purchase followed by a Samyang 14mm f2.8 for better widefield, then a heq5 or possibly an eq6 to future proof better. 
 

To be honest now I have my new camera (2000d) and a decentish prime lens my main focus will be getting more data. Hopefully by winter I’ll have enough for a big mosaic of the Cygnus, Lyra, Hercules region. 
 

I’ll have a read up on starnet and see if I can get close to replicating your image. Thanks 

 

Paul 

I currently have an HEQ5 Pro that my wife gave me as a present.  I have belt-modded it/upgraded all its bearings and it is working well with my 8" Skywatcher 200PDS scope with filter wheel, autofocusser, cooled mono camera, OAG and guiding camera (I get about 0.6 arc secs RMS guiding).  All that said:  I would actually recommend you going for the EQ6 R Pro if you can afford it as it will give you much more leeway in the future.  I had to work hard to get my HEQ5 Pro working as it was at the limits with my 8" Newtonian.

46 minutes ago, Paul2019 said:

Wow!!! What did you use to process that? 
 

I took it using the canon kit lens 18-55mm mkII. I had to stop it down to F5.6 to combat the coma

 

I got another go the other night but haven’t managed to process it yet but with the iso at 200 the noise is much better I got a pixinsight trial which bought it out pretty nice but only 15mins of lights so I didn’t expect much plus I’m pretty new at processing too. 
 

I have my nifty and new body now so just waiting for a clear night to give that a try. 
 

Thanks for the image though it’s really encouraged me to keep at it 

Keep going please as you are getting there using pretty minimal equipment (I did the same a couple of years ago).  I used Pixinsight, but the main thing in doing so was to use Starnet++ to remove the stars on the main image and to create a star mask (just the stars on their own). I then used various stretching tools to get the background and colours like I wanted.  Once that was done, you can use Pixelmath to add the stars back in.  Starnet++ is also available for Photoshop, so no need to splash out lots of money on PixInsight just yet (although it is worth every penny eventually).

FWIW:  300 secs, ISO800 at F5.6 is about right (the noise will drop as you stack more images).  You'd only need to drop the exposure time by about a half for bright objects like the centre of M31 (Andromeda).

I hope you don't mind, but I took your image above and with a bit of tweaking ended up with the image below.  I had to remove the stars, stretch the background and then add the stars back in.  I didn't spend too long on it, but it does show you have some detail there.  Also, working on a small jpeg never really works that well.  FWIW:  I also tended to use 300secs at ISO800 on my old Sony NEX5N, however I would take a lot more than 4 frames.  Just out of interest, what lense were you using and what was the f-stop that was selected?

My Skywatcher Explorer 200 PDS Newtonian of course as it is the only scope I have. 

That said, it is a pretty good allrounder with a focal length of 906mm at F4.5 once the coma corrector was installed.

I have an HEQ5 Pro with approx 11Kg of payload (a SW 200PDS, ASI1600MM Pro Camera, Coma corrector, EAF, ZWO OAG and ASI 290 Mini guide cam).

I have also belt-modded the HEQ5 Pro and replaced most of its bearings.

I find it just about copes with this payload (probably couldn't take much more).

It regularly achieves 0.7 arc secs RMS guiding and on clear nights gives me 0.55 arc secs.

The pros for this mount:  It's solid, it is easy to maintain and doesn't weigh too much.

The cons:  For my OTA I wish I had originally gone for the EQ6R Pro as the SW 200PDS is a big wind sail.

Just for anyone else who comes across this topic:  it should be 6 of the 60062 bearings, not 5 as per the original post.