Martyn87

Just now, Vroobel said:

That's cool! What software did you use to make the container with thread?

It's just a 3D printed model from Thingiverse! 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3614818

Little early birthday present to myself after some advice from other forum members, and a case I printed to look after it when it's not in use (in celestron orange to match, of course!). 

1 hour ago, Tony Acorn said:

Welcome Martyn from a fellow newbie who lives in a significantly mpore polluted area. I suggest that you get a flexible clamp to secure on the focus knob and extemd th eleverage - that gives you much finer control of your focus. HTH
Tony

Thanks Tony, and to you! 

I actually printed a this fine focus know from Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3998859

It helps, I think the issue was more with my eyes to be honest! 

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? 

 

44 minutes ago, Elp said:

PA simplicity also has to do with the mount or alt az adjustment system. If you've ever tried PA an azgti on a Skywatcher EQ wedge, you'll know it's much different (frustrating) to using a WO wedge which is much different to using a medium class mount like a gem. Paired with the simple feedback system of the asiair PA routine and its even easier. PA was even easier when the app and associated firmware was running from version 1.9, I could get PA to below 10 arc seconds every time under 5 minutes or so, it's slightly more niggly now taking longer and I usually leave it at 50 arc seconds or so.

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! 

41 minutes ago, radiofm74 said:

Just a quick word on this. For me, there was. Never been able to get good results with the HEQ5 process, so much so that I just rough polar aligned with the scope, then drift aligned. The AsiAir got me to a level of accuracy that, with guiding, required no additional steps. Similar on paper, very different on the field 😂

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! 

10 minutes ago, GrumpiusMaximus said:

AstroBuySell is properly old school and is only a classifieds site.  I've never had a bad experience over there but there is no buyer protection as they are not brokering the deal.  It's a great resource but just make sure that you're careful.  Got a few bargains over there.

To go back to the ASIAir for just a moment, my Dad has one and can get Polar Alignment really quickly.  It's super-slick and easy.  He gets excellent results with it.

I have an Altair Hypercam183C which is a good camera which is why I've set up an Astroberry.  Ironically, my Dad (generously) gifted it to me as he went all-in on ASI after buying the ASIAir.

With a C6, you'll definitely want to use an automated Polar Alignment tool of some sort as it would be challenging for even an experienced astrophotographer to align adequately for any decent exposure rate given the focal length of a C6.

 

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. 

6 minutes ago, Giles_B said:

If you were looking for an alternative mount, that you could upgrade to a go-to, there is a non go-to EQ6 listed on Astro Buy and Sell, with a refractor included, for £400 (not being sold by me by the way!)

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=215511

Incidentally, whichever way you go, I'd recommend checking out Astro Buy and Sell - it tends to be cheaper than Ebay, the gear is more consistently good quality and the sellers tend to be friendly and helpful.

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! 

On 11/06/2024 at 12:34, Cosmic Geoff said:

If you want to use the 6" SCT for taking images of small deep-space objects, I would suggest that the minimum mount is an EQ-5 Synscan. A HEQ5 might be better, more future-proofing, etc.  It is possible to upgrade the manual EQ-5 to GoTo either by buying the official Synscan upgrade (now about £350) or by assembling one of the DIY kits available.   Note that if you go the latter route, you don't get a handset and are relying on computer control. Unless you really like to tinker, IMHO the best use of your time and money would to buy a used Synscan mount in good order.

You will probably also need a f6.3 focal reducer (around £150 new) and if you want to shoot nebulae, a dual narrow-band filter (around £100 or more).

If you don't have a good mount then beware, you could spend a good deal of time and money pursuing images that you could have just as well produced with a £550 Seestar S50 which has the mount, the GoTo, the optics, the filter, and the stacking all built in.

 

@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! 

6 hours ago, radiofm74 said:

Yes, the reducer introduces the back focus requirement (requirement is perhaps too strong a word… wrong back focus will degrade performance at the edges).

Using a Bahtinov mask is easy, don’t worry about that

As for PCs and suchlike: an AsiAir might be a good idea. Some love ‘em some hate ‘em. One thing that is sure is that they make acquisition much easier. The polar alignment routine is easy and pretty accurate, plate solving instantaneous, guiding is also much simplified…. You can do all this on a traditional PC and there’s value in learning it the “traditional” way, but AsiAir makes it all much easier. 
 

Anyhoo, let’s not get ahead of ourselves … snatch that mount and reducer first. They’ll be great accessories also just for observing at ease in your garden! 

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! 

Just now, Chandra said:

Interesting setup to start with!! Be very welcome to the community... Who hasn't ever had focusing problems in their first AP steps?? It comes standard on learning curves... Don't be discouraged and keep going!!

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! 

1 hour ago, Clarkey said:

Forget dark skies until September.... That's when my kit comes back out the cupboard.

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! 

22 minutes ago, osbourne one-nil said:

Do you ever wish you lived somewhere less cloudy? I do!

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

3 minutes ago, Elp said:

Don't forget the computer controller, all cables and any potential mounting solutions and power...

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. 

4 minutes ago, radiofm74 said:

Hi there! I have an HEQ5 Pro and have tried to take some shots with my C6, although that is not my main imaging scope. Some thoughts

1. An HEQ5 Pro is a good platform for imaging, it will hold your C6 without a problem, and it's also fun to use for visual. 

2. An HEQ5 Pro is not a top-notch EQ mount and for decent accuracy you will need guiding from the get go, especially at those focal lengths, or your exposure time will be severely limited and you'll have a lot of throwaways. So you need to consider the added expense of a small guide camera (a used ZWO 120 mini might be your best bet) and a small guidescope or off-axis guider (OAG). An OAG is considered the standard with SCTs, because a small guide scope might have insufficient focal length + may suffer from differential flexure. With all that, I'd still suggest that you get one of those mini-guidescopes because an OAG is more difficult to operate and it may prove especially challenging to find a guide star with a C6. (I am about to go into tests about this so… but first experiences were that a guide scope is easier).

3. The 6.3 reducer is a sine qua non. Do not even consider shooting at f/10 with 1500mm focal length. It's going to be challenging enough at 945mm focal length and f/6.3! No need to stress that a small ED refractor would make your entry in the imaging world a lot easier… think about it because getting a used small ED doublet is not going to cost you a lot, especially not if you consider the whole package you have to buy (mount, main camera, guide camera, guide scope, ……)

Just to give you an idea: these are a couple shots I took one summer with the C6 just for kicks. I'm not terribly proud of them, but they give you an idea of what can be achieved with a C6 on and HEQ5, with a ZWO mini guide scope and ZWO ASI120 mini, a stock Canon 60D and a UHC filter, using an old PC and free software + elaboration in Photoshop. I was not very experienced when I took these but I have no more recent results as I've focused more on using my ED refractors.

Good luck!

 

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! 

 

26 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Not sure if you can access classifieds section of SGL (there is some limit given the number of posts / relative new signup - but not sure if that is just for posting or browsing as well):

Here you have EQ5 for £150 with motors fitted. Apparently it is ready to be guided for astrophotography. Probably the cheapest option.

In any case, yes, HEQ5 is certainly better option - just depends on how much you are willing to spend (and £450 for HEQ5 is a good deal).

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!