Martyn87

Thanks for the responses all. Pretty happy with how it is considering I don't think it's ever been collimated since it left the factory, and it must be at least a couple of years old at this point. I guess it's holding pretty well! I think I'll just leave it alone until I'm ready to start imaging properly, don't want to make it worse! Meant to add, this was on vega last night, about the brightest star I can see from where I am at the moment.

So as of yet, I've not got round to buying any tools for collimating my SCT, and have only really had chance to properly check it last night with some clear skies. I get that a bahtinov mask of some description is recommended to help with this, but as I don't have one yet, I figured I'd just do a quick star test. It looks pretty even and the obstruction from the secondary seems centered, but I was expecting more concentric rings. Have I just gone too far out of focus?

Unfortunately, I've not tried PA on anything. Or maybe I should say fortunately... I'm not looking forward to it already. On the up side, at least I can see Polaris from my garden, so I won't have to guess where it is! Hopefully ZWO will put out another update to fix the PA routine, seems like a nice quick job!

Well, the cloud disappeared for a bit tonight so I finally managed to snap a decent shot of the moon!

Ah, maybe the demo I seen on YouTube was just lucky then haha. Asi air is tempting, especially as a mini would probably do the job. I'll keep an eye on ebay, more likely to pick one of those up than a stellarmate pro!

I guess on the up-side, it's a bit less generalised than the likes of ebay, gumtree etc, so maybe a more enthusiastic bunch who know what they have? Altair seem to have some really nice cameras and pretty competitive prices, you lucked in there! On the subject of cameras, is there a way to calcualte a suitably sized camera for a particular scope? I've heard that the smaller SCTs can suffer from some vignetting with larger sensors? There are just too many decisions to make haha. I have ordered the F6.3 reducer so at least that's one thing sorted, and it'll still be nice to use visually while I'm sorting the rest of my kit.

Thanks Giles, wasn't aware of that site! Just having a browse through the listings now but most of them are so far away, I'd spend the same again in fuel to collect haha!

@Cosmic Geoff Just looking at the dual narrowband filers you mentioned, I'm assuming this means H-alpha and OIII?

Thanks Elp. I've watched a couple of videos on the ASIAIR polar alignment and it does look very straightforward, although so does the alignment process in the HEQ5 Pro itself. Is there a benefit to using one over the other?

Thanks Radiofm74, unfortunately my DSLR isn't on the supported list, so that's no help unfortunately. I can definitely see why easy polar alignment would make the Air so popular, especially when I needs to be so accurate for AP. Is ASIs procedure really that much better than the other software based equivalents? Knowing that I'll be moving my scope in and out of the house regularly makes me not want to spend hours aligning every time we have clear skies! Also I think I agree with you on GoTo, especially with DSOs that are already pretty tough to see in the night skies from dark areas. I'm in around Bortle 4/5 according to the light pollution maps I've checked, so they're going to be almost impossible to find without it I imagine, especially with the high focal length.

Thanks Grumpius, I was reading up on astroberry a bit last night (as well as stellar mate and a couple of other pi/mini pc options) and I do think it's probably the way to go. I have a couple of Pis around the house already doing various jobs, so I'm pretty familiar with them and I'm not a complete Linux noob, although faaaar from an expert too. Interesting point on the RTC! I don't have a spare Pi at the moment, but interestingly, the Pi 5 has a built in RTC, so I might have to grab one, for testing purposes of course!

Bahtinov mask is now printing I'll do some googling and see how I get on but it looks simple enough! I had considered ASIAIR, but am I right in thinking that it only works with their cameras? Might not be a huge issue as I know they have a pretty good reputation, but I was thinking something a bit more open would give me more options. I work in IT so would like to think that the computer side if things won't trip me up too much, although the sheer amount of software options for everything, from controlling to processing, is just mind boggling!

Thanks Chandra. I've taken the advice of a couple of users here and decided to print myself a bahtinov mask, so that will hopefully help with the focusing. Now if only there was a way to improve the weather!

Yeah I'd seen on Clear Outside that we won't get any "Astronimical Night" ie proper dark, until into August. But even a bit of twilight would do for now!

Every day at the minute! Feel like I've had about half an hour of dark, clear skies in the last 2 weeks!

I'll mostly be imaging from the garden for now, so power and computer won't be an issue until I maybe venture off to some dark sites. I'll probably look at something like Astroberry eventually.

Thanks both for your input on the EAF, I'd figured this would come in handy and I was going to DIY it so wouldn't cost too much, but that money will be better spent on the reducer it seems. At least I have the brackets printed if I decide to add it later I think focus is pretty good as is with the Celestron SCT adapter and T ring, but I think adding the reducer would affect this, would it not? If my printer was big enough I'd have the Bahtinov mask already haha. I have checked a couple out out of focus stars and my doughnuts look pretty good to me, so I think collimation is good, need to read up on how to use the mask for focusing though.

If I ever get photos as good as these, I'll be over the moon!! Off axis guiding was the plan, as you mentioned, most of what I've read mentions it as the preferred option for SCTs, although I'm yet to try either for myself of course. On the up side, a guide scope isn't particularly expensive compared to an OAG so worth a go in the first instance maybe. I'm looking at ASI EAF for autofocusing too, in fact the bracket for it is almost done on the 3D printer as we speak. If you've been able to shoot those with a DSLR (albeit a much better one than my old Finepix S3 Pro...) maybe the next spend needs to be on the reducer rather than a camera. At least this would give me change to get my head around back focus too.

Hi all, Martyn here from Cumbria. I'm pretty much a total newbie, bought my first scope a couple of weeks ago, a pretty cheap (£260) second hand Celestron StarSense DX 6" which I believe is 'mostly' the same as the other 6" SCTs on the NexStar, C6 etc... I hope so at least! It'll be primarily used for visuals on planets at the moment with my eldest daughter, but will be building it up as a bit of a budget AP setup over the next few months with the hopes of getting some DSOs eventually. Been messing around with the DSLR on it already but I'm having focus issues, which the weather didn't want to give me time to resolve!

Thanks Vlaiv, unfortunately can't access the classifieds at all at the moment, but I'll check it out once I've been here a bit longer

Thanks vlaiv, for both responses! Seems like the cheapest way to get a manual EQ5 is to buy it with a scope attached, there are a few going for £250 - £300ish but then by the time I bought materials, motors, arduino etc, the HEQ5 Pro are going for £400-£450 on ebay, seems a bit of a no brainer if they're significantly better.

Thanks Geoff. I think for imaging I would likely be looking at computer control anyway, but the handset would definitely be a lot easier for visual. I think the primary difference between the EQ5 and HEQ5 would be payload capacity? Maybe the extra would be handy if I ever go down the Hyperstar route, as I'm assuming I'd have to use a secondary guide scope... (planning to use off-axis guiding at the moment). I'd been looking at the f6.3 reducers, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for one in the next couple of months. I think I need a camera upgrade before I start doing any serious imaging though. I have no idea what filters are used for what so that's something I really need to do more research on, thanks for that. I'm aware that getting something like the Seestar is probably easier and cheaper, but if it does all the work for you and just displays stuff on the screen, I might as well just search through Astrobin!

Afternoon all! First off, I know I know, SCTs are not recommended for newbie astrophotographers. However I bought the scope for looking at planets, double stars etc with my 7 year old daughter, and she hardly has the patience to wait for me to line it up with the moon, let alone sit in the cold for hours on end while imaging nebulae On the other hand, I am a glutton for punishment, and I'd love to be able to capture some nice DSOs with this thing at some point. However, I'm on a bit of a tight budget and trying to pick up as much gear as I can on the second hand market. With that in mind, I figured the best first upgrade would be to replace the manual ALT-AZ mount with a motorised (potentially goto?) EQ mount. Are there any good value options out there that might come in a bit under the ~£450 mark that the HEQ5 Pro seems to go for second hand? I have access to a 3D printer and am handy-ish with a soldering iron if there are good DIY options available? I'm guessing payload support is going to be the biggest issue here? Also up for any other suggestions that might be a better place to start with upgrades!