fwm891

My EQ Platform thread: Has photos of the TS 10 inch Dob on the platform

@skybadger & @Alan White Re the mono mod. I bough this off a Guy in Finland? who stripped the chip's bayer matrix and filters completely. I think there's a threat on here about the stripping process... Alan - will get round to that. Raining at present so doubtful today. I think I've posted a thread on the EQ platform....?

Just recently bought myself a s/h OO VX12 dobsonian which I've been initially trying out visually. But me being me I had to put a camera on it (supprised I've taken so long!). I had built an EQ platform for a TS 10 inch dob probably 4-5 years ago mainly from bits on flea bay, so I tried VX12 on it last night. The attached used a Nikon D5100 mono modified camera @ 400 iso to capture 20x 10 second subs. I didn't adjust the track rate well enough as stars show some drift, but good enough to want to try again. RAW files: Processed (stacked in) PI and further tweaked in PS CS3. I hope you like

Do you take photographs through your telescope? If you only do visual only observing and your mount will track the sky a guide camera is a useless addition. If however you do or intend to take photographs through your telscope then a guide scope/camera combination will enable you to take long exposures of night sky objects. There is a difference between tracking and guided. Tracking is regulated by the mount to simply reverse the Earth's rotation and keep and object within the field of view. Guidance however locks onto a star within the field of view and sends pulses to the mount to adjust it's speed to precisely follow that star, essential when taking images of more than a few seconds duration.

Well I've spent well over 2 hrs on different nights looking for NGC891 (edge-on in Andromeda). I've viewed it before in a smaller scope (8") but last night with a 12" f4, it was not to be seen use 35mm, 19mm and 13mm EP's! (x34, x63 and x92 respectively) After a few nights ago when previously trying (and failing) I preped some finder charts to aid my rediscovery. I moved down from Almach, I moved up fromAlgol via M34 I even found the line of stars in my finder chart but i simply couldn't 'see' ngc891. Moan over. I hope it's still there for my next try....

Brushes fitted inside the L S would act similarly to foam (toothbrush’s come to mind)

I see the same pattern on my 662MC and use the RG in FC. The pattern does not show on images when opened for processing.

I hope this may help some people who are confused by the 1 1/8th, 1¼, 1½... chip sizes quoted or the format framing. These are for ZWO cameras on the FLO web pages (Nov2022). I've given the model name, a graphic to indicate it's relative physical size and it's individual pixel size. I hope this might be useful....

I got cheesed off with SGP V4 due to guiding and plate solve issues and I’ve now switched to AstroArt 8 which I’ve found more stable (not faultless) especially plate solving and guiding.

Thanks Alan. After spending time yesterday adjusting mirrors I caught a short break in cloud cover tonight so first light was of a great big moon to align the finder. Then over to Jupiter with it’s four main moons stretched out in a line… I used my 13 & 5mm TV Delite’s superb and very dramatic with clouds scudding past. Good belt detail seen. I then went for M31 & Co., which given the nearby moon was a very easy find. M32 & 110 were quite plain to see in a TV Panoptic 24mm. Packed away as moisture looked imminent. Lots of promise for darker nights…

@Stu Stu, take a look at David Lakehurst’s web site. He uses a single piece curved spider to reduce/remove spikes without increasing other defects.

Thanks All for your comments. I’ve taken the plunge and bought a s/h VX12 with 1/10th wave optics from guy on UKABS which I pick up later. I’ll let you know how things go (favourably I hope). I intend using it in dob mode first ‘as is’ and on an EQ platform built for a heavy 10 inch dob but which I have put 16 inch on so should cope with a 12 inch f4. Later I’ll try it on my cem60 as it comes with extra tube rings and losmandy style mounting plate for some imaging. Thanks again Francis

As @LaurenceT said 👍

Hi @imakebeer Welcome to the forum. I used to live in Woodley under the orange glow! Don't dissmiss the secondhand market either this forum or UKABS that way you should get a higher spec kit for your dosh...

Many thanks to the responders. Quite a variation in experiences. One thing that is making me seriously consider the VX12 is it's size and weight as being in my 70's, scopes like the lightbridge and similar are both bulky and just too heavy to easily move around the garden or transport to darker sites and club viewing evenings. Interested by the @NGC 1502 comment on the 3" foam on the car's abck seat when travelling. That does seem to indicate how thin the aluminium tube might be? Does anyone know how thin the tube walls are on the VX12? Again @ONIKKINEN comments about not using it for imaging! This again looks to be aimed at the thin tube. Imaging is one of my main objectives with the scope to try photography off an EQ platform. Thanks again.

Hi SGLer’s, I’m interested in user comments on OO’s VX12 dob please. Ive been looking at their website but details other than sizes are absent. I had hoped for user reviews but couldn’t find any. So I’m turning to the greatest band of reviewers anywhere ☺️😉🪐 I’m looking to use for both visual (I have a number of tv eyepieces) and imaging (building an eq platform) for brighter dso’s. Im under bottle 4 skies. Thanks.

OK what does USUAL refer too? Great imaging

I have home built 2 x 2 metre RoR. Looks like an 'odd' garden shed. This is my 3rd obsy (due to moving house a few times) and each has made observing/imaging sessions so much easier and quicker to get going and more shielded from wind while your out there. Wouldn't be without one.

Wow these are much higher spec than my cardboard tube job, which was definitely of a much shorter focal length. I remember that to support it whist trying to find (bright) objects it rested on a towel draped over a peg sticking out the side of our washing line! Anything higher than about 40° was a problem...

Hi All, I've just started to capture some planetary images with my kit: Optics: TS RC8 1624mm fl ES 3x telextender (giving circa 4800 mm fl) ASI 662 MC uncooled camera ( fov 11.88' x 6.73' - 0.73"/pixel native, 3.96' x 2.24' 0.12"/pixel with x3 extender). ) iOptron CEM 60 mount (pier mounted in Obsy). I have a TS 80mm finder/guider with ASI120mm camera - not used for planetary as a guider, primarily acting as a finder. Software: Firecapture (for capture ser files), AS!3 and AstroSurface for image processing. Photoshop CS3 for tweaking. I've had a couple of attempts on Jupiter and Saturn so far with Jupiter being the easiest target, bigger, brighter and higher. However results are somewhat dissapointing and I'm not sure why. What should I be looking to do with a set-up? Shortest exposures, maxium FPS, long/short sequences, gain settings: high/low somewhere between, use of ROI during capture/processsing ? I keep the kit well collimated, where possible I try to get the system cooled to ambient before starting. I focus (as best i can - normally on a nearby star or planet's moon) during runs. Two of my best effors so far below. Can someone give me starting point given the kit available. I look at others results and read what was done etc and try and apply that to my situation but I seem to end up with poorish results each time... Chers Francis

Hi New to planetary processing and I've hit a snag. Some of my frame captures show only a partial frame with blank area usually bottom of the frame (see screen grabs). So when I load the file(s) and analyse it puts all these frames at the 'Best' end (which is good) but I can't see how to delete them so I can select the frames I want? Anyone know how to please.

This is about my first jupiter. I've had one previous attempt but that was awfull. TS RC8 + 3x tele extender + ASI662 MC (uncooled). Date and times as above. Captured via FireCapture, 25% of 1700 frames stacked in AS 3 and processed in a mix of Astrosurface and PS. Comments welcome

Continued with more subs otherwise same set-up as above. Processing the image back from LRGB channels to a final composite took a bit of playing with. Rather than adding the channel selection as LRGB it turned out to get the nearest colour rendition required: LBLL in the LRGB channels respectively? Still playing...

Just recently purchased a ZWO/ASI662 MC planetary camera. No cooling. Bought from FLO for planetary imaging but whilst waiting for Saturn and later Jupiter to clear trees I thought I'd see what the 662 was like for a DSO namely M27 The Dumbbell neb. Kit: TS/GSO RC8 with a 0.67x reducer fitted giving a pixel scale of 0.55 "/pixel so a little over sampled. Mount: iOptron CEM 60 (non EC). Captured with Astroart 8.0, processed with PI, RGB channels split at debayering stage and recombined later. 6x 240s subs. Camera showing as +21.7°C Image is uncropped but reduced in size for forum. First go at Jupiter with the 662 or any camera - so more practice needed for planetary stuff....