Trippelforge

Thank you very much! I assume it's the same for a DSLR? I wonder if the cleaning feature has been disabled do to being modified? As I have both those types of spots showing up on images...

I think I have a few dust particles on the new camera I picked up. Unless the guy "forgot" to warn me about any defects. I haven't ever cleaned a sensor before and my old camera never got a smudge. I noticed a few various things I have purchased came with microfiber cloths. But I do not want to damage the camera at all, and wasn't sure if once modified things could be more fragile. Can you guys tell me the best / safest way to do it? I haven't recently cleaned my scope lens either, and was curious if that would be the same process.

Nice, thanks for taking the time to share your experience! I only have an EQ4 so I don't expect hitting the 10 minute mark but it still IMO was a good upgrade for the cost. Glad to hear yours isn't screaming loud, it seems so hit and miss with the units. Still waiting on mine (48 days) but it finally got to the US yesterday. I am hoping the setup goes fairly smoothly, but it is what it is. 😁 Welcome to the forum also, this place has really amazing and helpful members.

I picked up a D5300 and always wondered what the typical related AP centric specifications were for it. Luckily the chip it uses has been featured in a few dedicated AP cameras. As the Nikon D5300 uses the Sony IMX193, which was featured in an older AP model under QHY247C. With that in mind you can actually find the specifications on it, things like well capacity, read out noise etc. However I was curious if those specifications transferred over to other devices that use the same chip. For instance the chip is listed at having a 36ke full well capacity on the dedicated camera's specs. It also lists the peak QE at 74. Does that mean that the Nikon does as well? I know things like readout noise are greatly effected via cooling, so obviously the DSLR isn't going to retain the values. But I am still curious if cooling would be the only reason? Thanks for filling me in!

Welcome! I am new to this community also and everyone has been amazing!

It's not shocking that something randomly failed with that kit. Over the years I always shook my head when using it due to how cheap it was made. I don't think I have ever paid that much for something so shoddy looking. Anyways have you checked how tight your gears are meshed? I know that's something that can trip the system. The only thing I have ran into with the light is that it will alternate between orange / green when the batteries were getting low. Then it would turn solid orange when there wasn't enough power to turn the motors. Hence why I mentioned the tightness of the gears, it could be straining some and eventually noping out. BUT I am sure you checked all of that, just sharing my experiences. I still don't get how Celestron came up with the design for the battery pack and thought it was on par with the price.

It's obnoxious for sure and something I pay pretty close attention to. I got so frustrated I asked a similar question, I am glad I am not the only one!

Sadly I have not received it yet. It's been over 5 weeks since it went out and seemingly has been sitting in Turkey since December 23rd. I however reside in the US, so I am not shocked it is taking awhile. Kind of sucks that there hasn't been any movement lately though. Thanks for the tips, I planned on running it straight through the computer... but it sounds like that can be an issue? I don't own a tablet, just a Samsung phone. So basically your running safari on your tablet and using it to slew to the targets. Are you able to align it with the tablet? I really don't know how that works. Battery / adapter wise I haven't bought one yet, I will check that pack out. Thanks!

I haven't come across a well size for a DSLR before. Is it due to needing to look up the sensor itself?

I ordered my son a new custom motor drive system for XMAS, however it got built and shipped from Ukraine. As such it is taking forever to arrive, and won't be here until mid next week (supposedly). So in a panic I picked up one other thing he really wanted, an upgraded camera. Over on Cloudynights someone was selling a modified Nikon D5300, they also lived close enough that shipping would only take 2 days. It was in excellent condition as well, and was modified by Lifepixel. So I jumped on it, it was 400 bucks, but I have no idea if I over payed or not (kind of late now). But I do know it's a decent upgrade over the old Canon 500D that we use, and he will be able to open it XMAS morning (whew). OK sorry, just explaining why I didn't dig too deep into the camera prior to buying it. Anyways so I asked the seller what modification was done to it by Lifepixel, he said he got the Ha-Alpha conversion option. I am not completely ignorant to what that does luckily, but I am a bit confused on the modification vs clip in filters. As such is it possible to get the same result with a clip-in version, verses paying for it to be professionally modded?

I don't know if I explained my question right, but I have been scrolling through this website comparing various optimal ISO settings. The one thing I noticed is that most of the Nikon's listed have extremely low ISO suggestions (100-400). When I scan through the Canon list most are MUCH higher overall (800-1600). Can someone explain it to me? My thoughts on this subject are extremely basic. I always thought that ISO values increased the brightness of an image, and that there was a limit on how high of an ISO you could go until you were getting too much noise. So the goal was always to raise the ISO as high as you could before that point. According to the linked article my Nikon D5300 should only be set to ISO 200-400, and my Canon 500D at 1600. Hopefully what I am asking makes sense, as I would love a simple explanation as to what it actually means. I know currently if I drop my Canons ISO down to 800 I have to really crank up my exposure time. Thanks for the help!

What company did you end up using? You are the first person I have come across that mentioned Astrogear. I have spend an hour searching for reviews and have come up empty handed. They seem to have the best prices of the few places that offer services so I have been considering them. Did you just go for it, or did other people suggest the company?

The photo is from your 550D?

I looked through your Astrobin at the ASI183MM images and they look pretty amazing. I was a bit surprised due to a lot of people kind of writing off the more budget minded camera's. I get the FOV issue, I have spent some time with the online tool and was pretty amazed at how much I would lose moving from my DSLR. But it seems a focal reducer can mitigate enough of that to not be horrible. This has been a VERY hard decision for me. In fact I skipped out on buying one and picked up a custom drive system for my sons XMAS present. Ugh, I just am so stuck on this issue.

Ya purely DSO, and I was not looking at the 1,500 price range. The 533 looks to be a pretty good value. Do you use a reducer?

Ya it's been rough, my son and I recently got into AP and were rabidly watching the forecasts. We got a good solid few weeks in then everything changed. It didn't help either that he had the FLU during the perhaps last solid week of the season. Looking ahead it's cloudy, rainy and snowy into the next week.

Thanks I will dig into that!

I have been just browsing newer models. Any suggestion on what CCD chipset to look at? I haven't gotten on there, isn't that the site that costs money to browse? What camera is coming up for 380?

My son and I recently got pretty into AP and the first few weeks we were able to spend 1/2 of the nights outside. This past week we got one evening that was a bit breezy. Since then looking into the next week there won't be any opportunities for us. And between now and Jan things are sketchy normally. Then of course in January the temps drop below -6, sometimes even hitting -15. Come spring we get strong to severe storms constantly, and the humidity skyrockets, temps can end up hitting 37 (although if lucky they drop to a "cool" 30 after dark). Toss in the bonus of swarms of mosquitoes and I probably lose about 75% of nights. So I completely feel your pain! It also just made me question why I am doing this... LOL

Oh OK so the 5.5 x 2.1 is just the over all dimensions of the plug (LxW). So as long as I buy one with that size plus 3A I should be fine? Thanks for the help!

I will look that up, I noticed it requires a 12v / 3A unit. And it says 5.5mm / 2.1mm plug. That kind of confuses me as the unit only has one power connection. Does that mean that they usually come with an adapter?

Thank you very much for laying that all out for me!

Ya I meant what you could see from the location. Again not that it matters, I was just curious to see the new home for the observatory. 😁

Ya maybe junk wass a bit strong, I just had a similar one years ago and didn't exactly have a great experience with it. The entire setup though almost killed the hobby for me. lol

Probably an EQ2, not 100% though.