MichaelBibby

If your talking about the banding fault that Peter and myself had with the camera, I've already got my replacement. Customer service has been awesome. Apart from that, it seems like the main consideration on deciding between them (as others have mentioned here) is where the high gain cut off point is and how that relates to how you intend to use the camera. The only other small problem I have had a couple of times is a couple of frames being temporarily backed up in sharpcap during live stacking (10s exposures). But this has not been a problem at all and usually resolves itself pretty quickly. Not sure if this effects ZWO's camera, likely a firmware thing (actually, the problem might be with my computer or sharpcap itself, because I've also had the situation where the histogram wouldn't reset straight away but take a minute or so). Apart from that I'm happy with the build quality. (Can't say much else because I'm not experienced with astrophotography).

Just an update for anyone following this thread, or for future reference. Annoyingly, the screws holding the focuser to the tube on the skywatcher 150/750 are about 76mm apart, whereas my Dual speed focuser (and my other non Dual speed focuser on my other 8") the spacing is 70mm apart. Gah!

Yeah, it just seems that if skywatcher were going to use different backing plates on their focuser then they wouldn't have another piece of metal between the focuser and the tube (what I'm calling here the 'adapter plate').

I think I can answer my own question here: If you look at the skytwatcher's 200p (8") it does look like it uses the same focuser without the adaptor plate as the 6" has. So I should be able to use my 8" dual speed focuser on the 150p.

So far as I can see, you can't actually get a 6" focuser. I have only seen 8 inch and 10 and 12 inch focusers. So this is probably how they are all done: use an 8" focuser with an adaptor plate to make it conform to the 6" tube. I just want to make sure before I pull the trigger on a purchase. Yes, the mounting holes appear to be the same distance apart.

I have a (Bintel) dual speed focuser for my 8" and want to know if it can easily be transfered over to a Skywatcher 150p (6") Newtonian (which has the non dual speed focuser). Here is my existing focuser (designed for a 230mm, 8" tube): And here is a picture of the 150p non dual speed focuser: It seems like Skywatcher is using an an 8" focuser on their 6" Newt's with a kind of adaptor plate. Is that correct? If so it should be a simple matter of swapping them out. I don't have the 150p and would like to know if I can use my existing focuser before buying it. Any help appreciated.

I saw it rising on the Eastern horizon about midnight and had to take a quick look before packing up and going to bed. Can't wait to image all the nebula in the Orion Spur/Perseus arm of the Milky Way this summer, and then the Sagittarius arm next winter! The winter night sky in Australia is incredible, in the words of Carl Sagan [said in a thick Sagan accent] "Not a sun rise, but a galaxy rise; the rise of billion suns!"

Also from last night, the Great Barred Spiral. There's a bit of 'walking noise' on this shot, might have a play around with 'dithering without guiding' on Sharpcap. This is 689 frames of 11 seconds (not sure gain setting, i seem to have deleted the file and can't remember, I think about 375?). I haven't applied flats or darks on any of these images. I'm a complete novice to astro imagining, so my images are not a good reflection of the capabilities of the camera.

From my EAA session last night under the half moon. Scope is a 8" F5 on Heq5-pro, unguided, shot at native resolution (a bit oversampled), with UV/IR cut filter. 120 10 second exposures at a gain of 250 (no post processing).

Given the sensitivity of this camera in near IR, it will be interesting to compare galaxies with IR cut and IR pass filters...

Are you using a IR cut filter on your 585 @PeterC65? I suspect it will benefit from one for DSO considering how sensitive it is in IR (should improve resolution and colour reproduction). Forgive me if this is obvious, I am still learning the basics.

@PeterC65 They told me they will only ship me a replacement after I have returned the faulty one to them (I bought mine directly from them in China, I am in Australia). They wan't me to pay shipping and then pay me back. Have you arranged to get a replacement from them before returning the faulty unit? Are you dealing directly with them, or a distributor? I just checked, and the shop that was selling them in Australia is no longer listing them on their website, so they haven't even got a distributor/dealer here in Australia.

Yes, this kind of proactive customer support is very encouraging.

IMPORTANT UPDATE ON HORIZONTAL BANDING ISSUE: Just got a message from player one and they are RECALLING camera's with the horizontal banding problem. Apparently this fault only effects a certain batch manufactured before 26th of October. In the email they said that they will pay shipping costs for a replacement. @PeterC65

Here is a screen shot of a live-stacking session with the (out of focus!) Lagoon nebula. You can see the horizontal banding at the top of the image (not an artifact of stacking). The banding is worse in native resolution but barely noticeable at binning 3 x 3. This image was taken in bin 2 x 2, I think about 5minutes worth of data, 15 second exposures at a gain of about 400. No post processing.

Here is my first attempt at imaging a galaxy: the Sculptor galaxy. I don't have any experience in Astro and am still learning all the programs. As you can see, I'm still sorting out some collimation problems (and possibly astigmatism from pinched optics). This is only about 15 minutes of data, 15 second exposures at a gain of 400. Bin 2 (hardware), sum (yet to experiment with software and hardware binning, exposure times, gain, etc.,.). 8" F5 Newt on Heq5-Pro with Uranus-C. A little bit of post processing in Siril.

Yes, I agree that it wouldn't be a good idea to put a great big hulking box on top of the pier, that would be asking for trouble. That plan will have to wait, and I'll probably copy what Duncan did with his TARDIS cover and make it a roll-off. In the mean time I plan on using some 4mm plywood to create a cylinder shape that will simply fit over the bin with only about an inch or two gap between the plywood and the bin to allow airflow. The bin is actually pretty light, and the plywood container will also be light. But I understand your talking about tension not compression on the brickwork from lateral forces acting on the housing. The pier is already shielded somewhat from the worst of the wind, and as someone who has experienced a couple of cyclones, I'm not at all worried about wind being a problem, so long as I keep the profile of the housing low. @M40 I think a 5 or 10 watt 12v solar panel would be adequate to power an old 12v desktop computer case cooling fan. No voltage regulator or anything else needed, just plug and play. And the good thing about a solar powered fan is that the hotter it is the better it will work, and when its night time it just stops working. I'll post some pictures when I'm done.

If you look at the diagram I posted in the OP my plan is to only use the plastic tub (bin) as the inner container to house the mount, air and water tight, and surround that with a marine grade plywood cover (which I'll fashion in the shape of a TARDIS). The outer cover would be exposed to the sun and water, and would provide shade for the inner container and allow airflow (facilitated by a cpu fan powered by a solar panel). The main problem I anticipate is keeping the moisture levels low inside the inner plastic container (hopefully it shouldn't get too hot inside). My solution is to use moisture absorbers or a battery/solar powered de-humidifier. I've basically finished making the base plate, and so just need to fashion the outermost cover out of plywood and install the cpu fan and solar panel. I'll post some photos when I'm done.

I just had a look over my avi rgb test shots and have found that the horizontal banding at the top of the image is actually worse with no binning, slightly better with binning 2x2 and even better with 3x3 (to the point of being barely noticeable). And no, i can't see any artifacts at all when binning at 3x3, image looks fine. Maybe its a codec issue? Try .ser format? (Sorry, can't be of much help, I'm new to all this, but if you would like me to test anything else, just let me know). *****EDIT: I noticed that the banding was absent when I was filming during daylight, so maybe its correlated to gain? My night shots were filmed with a gain of about 400-450 from memory. Here is an example of a day time image (I put the AVI through AutoStakkert):

Yes, I was using it with the supplied cable on a usb 3 port. I'll do some more experimenting and see if I can isolate the fault conditions further (but as you said, its not something I'm particularly worried about, more interested in 3x3 binning working as expected).

Haven't had a chance to test it yet (clouds as far as the eye can see, extending infinitely far into the future, gah!). And I have no experience with astro, so I am not the person to ask. I know its not the perfect camera for my use case, but it seems like no such camera exists right now, but I do think that it should be a good compromise.

On a slightly different note, here is a test shot (avi, rgb) I took on a terrestrial target while familiarizing myself with Sharpcap (using region of interest @ 1920x1080, probably slightly out of focus). And a question: on the Player One 585 camera, which binning method is 'better': averaging or sum? From what I understand it is probably average (summing, as I understand it, may lead to clipping). Are there situations where you might choose one over another?

Hi Peter, you mentioned seeing horizontal banding at the top of the image extending about 5% of the way down when ROI or binning is enabled, I've been doing some test shots on terrestrial objects (clouds as far as the eye can see on the East coast of Australia, extending far into the future...) and noticed the same thing. Did you hear back from Starfield Optics about that (and whether 3x3 binning is supported)? Thanks, Michael.

Just on the price, I can get the 585 for $615 Australian (which I have purchased directly from Player One), but the uncooled versions of the 533 are nearly double that price.

I think this is my ultimate goal, to build a mount cover in the shape of a TARDIS like Duncan (Time and Relative Dimension in Space-- "Its bigger on the inside!"): http://duncankitchin.org/?p=67