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Samop

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Interests
    - astronomy of course; playing trombone; archery; cycling; photography; art
  • Location
    Essex, England

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  1. My 'scope is a skywatcher Explorer 150p (with the 6"mirror) and the camera, I have the choice of a Nikon 200D or an Olympus EP8 Pen. Preference is the Olympus as it's lighter and the sensor has more pixels
  2. Well 900SL, I do have a DSLR but the telepohoto lense ins my telescope, which doesn't have adjustable apeture 😐 But those rules of thumb are still a good starting point so thanks for that. Also, thanks Vlaiv I just need to wait for a clear sky and a free evening.
  3. Thanks guys, At this point, as an aged (😄) astronomy newbe I'll be trying to photograph the moon and planets.. Deep sky will be some time in the future..
  4. I have a reflecting 'scope. As I understand it, it's a long toilet roll with a mirror at the end, and yhe mirror concentrates the light and reflects it into another mirror that points it sideways into the eyepiece and yhat provided the magnification. Right so far? So, if I then attach my camera body in place of the eyepiece, where does the magnification come from? I appreciate I'm missing something basic here...
  5. Hi, I'm just having my first go at astrophotography. I've done "ordinary" photography for many many years so I know about exposure (when I first started it was all manual) but I'd like some guidance on how to calculate shutter speed. I could of course set the camera to spot metering and trust that my object is dead in the centre. Is that what you do or is it more hit-and-miss?
  6. Sorry for the delay in responding. Thanks for all the suggestions. In general I wouldn't buy any batteries or chargers from an auction site - you never know what you're getting although you guys have done alright. The powerbank option seems the cheapest (I already have one) so I'll go with that.
  7. Oh, I was sure I'd seen an attachment somewhere but I 'd obviously got hold of the wrong end of the stick. Something (else) for the Christmas present list then
  8. Thanks for your words of encouragement. I bought the 'scope early this year and it clouded over as I opened the box so I really haven't had much of an opportunity to practice with it in the warm evenings... but I will play during the daytime to get familiar with how it works (particulaly the mount, which at this stage seems to me to be totally un-intuitive). I think I probbaly should get one of those prism/mirror things that goes on the end of the finder scope that enables you to look "sideways" rather than along the length of the scope... that'll definitely help the back problems. - can you buy these seperately as an attachment? There doesn't seem to be any way to disengage the RA motor other than undoing the grub screw, but that seems a recipe for loosing things in the dark. Cheers
  9. I'm very new at this astronomy game and still not totally comfortable with how to drive my telescope and mount. I've just got an RA motor but haven't used it yet. So I came home at around 11pm and saw Jupiter shining brightly and thought "wow, I'v got to have a look..." I took me ages to get the telescope set up in the dark, probably nowhere near polar aligned. I couldn't work out how to actuallly point the 'scope with the RA motor attached; everything got wet with the condensation and I got a back ache leaning over the scope trying to see anything. I didn't get to see anything before I gave up So what I learned was... unless I'm really confident with setting up and aligning don't try an improptu session... it'll just depress me. I'm going to bed now.
  10. Hi I've just got myself an RA motor for my Skywatcher EQ3-2 mount and intend - if we ever get clear skys - to initially have a go at photographing the Moon and planets. So I have two questions (actually I have loads, but we'll stick with the two for now). The cost of D-cell batteries will undoubtable mount so I'm looking at getting a 6V power supply, but does anyone have any idea what the current drain would be? I've seen two from reputable suppliers, one that's "300 → 600mA" and the other 1.5A, both similarly priced. Thoughts please? 2nd question... now that I've attached my motor I assume I've lost the ability to manually adjust the RA position.. yes? or is there a clutch somewhere Cheers
  11. Thanks Just to check my understanding, I'd thought that the ST-4 port is only for use with a guide camera, which I won't be getting. Is that correct or it be guided by other things (e.g. a laptop)? Cheers
  12. Thanks. I have to "consider" my budget (don't we all) and I can't ever see me being able to afford a guide camera, so I don't think I'll be needing the ST-4 port. I'm quite new to this hobby, but, assuming we ever get decent skys my plan is to do some astrophotography, mainly the moon and planets but don't envisage too much deep-sky stuff. So, I think I'll need both motors for this. Yes? Based on that will the un-enhanced version give me all I need?
  13. Hi Guys Can someone please explain to me what the difference is between the Skywatcher EQ3-2 enhanced dual motor drive and the non-enhanced version, in practical terms. I've been doing some digging on the internet but can't find anything that explains what you get extra with the enhanced version. Cheers
  14. Hmm Yep, they are still going. I think I'll sport the £27 and sign up for a year to see..
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