shirva

Booked up for the Friday and Saturday..looking forward to the experience 

Nice one,, 

I'm into the two camera set up as well,   still on testing. 

Portable  set up

Eq3 Pro,,  WiFi control,,

William optics zenithstar 61,, and 178mc camera,, sw 50 Ed and 120mm camera,,

Asiair 

Great topic guys,,  got me started now lol.

Video yeah I consider myself  a Video astronomer,, 

I still have all my analogue gear,,Samsung scb cameras, molded and unmodded,  Phil dyer pd1 as we called it back in the day,, couple  of water 902h cameras with 1/2" sensors,, usb Video grabbers. 

Best  set up I had was multiple  analogue cameras  set up,, on heq5,, twin saddle,, ed80,, St 102,, and camera with  a fast cctv lens,,  think I went 60 ohm coaxial  cable to stop a bit of noise,, up the coaxial controllers,,  fad them plugged into a 1tb 8 channel dvr, the feed to the monitor  was split with a T connector , one to the monitor and other to a USB Video grabber into my laptop,, that was a good experiment into multi camera array,,  was hoping  to go the full 8 cameras but,,it was expensive  back then for the poor man's astrophotography..

These days,, probably use same kit as most,,  but I do as near live as possible,,  wide field,, rarely capture images on video ,, probably  only to test my kit.

My kit is vast now having started back in 2011 and been chasing,, what is the holy grail set up since,,

I like swapping around  from video to AP,,   

I'm in the middle  of  setting up a ldv convoy campervan I was gifted from my uncle,, he called it the,, scopemobile   ,,  it's  nearly there led lights,, usb 3.1 amp fast chargers, android stereo  head unit with skywatcher synscan  app and zwp asiair app.

On 20/11/2022 at 22:04, RobertI said:

Welcome back sir. 👍

Cheers mate

Ash,, have a look out for,, night skies network,, ran by Joe sardinia,, it's a group of astronomers from around  the world  who broadcast what they see from there telescope,, most are USA based,, so it's funny o'clock times for some broadcasts

Been  a while since I was last on.

What is the perfect rig for video/eaa astronomy,, think there are many factors  to the question,, what type of eaa,,   

Tried many  set up's since 2011,,

Back in the days of analogue cameras lol,,,

I've, had the skywatcher explorer 200pds on the heq5,, even done twin saddle and sw evostar ed80 on it.. 

Ideal if you have an observatory, unfortunately I don't,, and living 4 floors up in a flat,, ain't ideal for transportation. 

I've  tried a good few set up's from very portable  to what I thought would be ideal,, the sw azgti on a video tripod in eq mode  with  William zenithstar 61, sw 50ed guide scope,  zwo 178mc camera and zwo 120mm  camera connected to asiair,, yeah great set up but time  consuming and could be unpredictable at times. 

I have decided to go back to my eq3 Pro,,  sw WiFi adapter,, synscan app..

William zenithstar 61 and 50ed scope,, and connected to asiair,,

I'm doing live view wide field  and pretty happy  that this set up is pretty adaptable  to other variations,,like canon 600d  and byeos,, 

Really all depends on how you like  your eaa 

Fantastic results for David and Robert. 

Software wise you could look at backyard nikon and astrotoaster 

The skywatcher evostar ed80 is a very good option 

18 hours ago, stash_old said:

Sorry differ from your view there - NV,IMO, is just packaged hardware - simpler as its in one hardware unit .

Agree with your previoud EEVA statement "anything goes" BUT without the Astrophotgrahy hang ups.

Next evolution of EEVA,IMO, will be crowd funded public space telecopes - to get past the one thing no Astro persion has control over - Clouds/Seeing (well in the UK).

Now where did I put my class "d" rocket  motors LOL.

That's the the thing with our side of  the hobby anything goes and no wrongs just opinions,, if it's what you like,, how can it be wrong

8 hours ago, Highburymark said:

I use a night vision eyepiece to enhance visual observations. We are all grouped under ‘EEVA’ on SGL, but there are so few of us using night vision (5 on SGL??) we don’t crop up on these forums very often. 

I would be no 6 if I got my act together lol,, night vision is fantastic and came a long way,, von,, has done a fair bit to promote it on astronomy forums,, I think it will grow like the way video astronomy evolved,, slowly. 

I have the cascade tube and had it working, but wanted it as a unit to go on a dslr,, 3d printed parts,, but found I needed a focus assembly to get focus on different objects,,,,  maybe get back into it,,, it's true video astronomy 

Getting hung up on equipment mate,,  and stuck in an astrophotography mind set,, 

Gear I have is varied,,and I use it all depending on what I want to see,, 

Mounts,, heq5 pro,, eq3 Pro, azgti,, star adventurer,, allview,,,   

Telescopes,, Skywatcher explorer 200pds, evostar ed80,  esprit ed80 

Cameras,,   canon 600d, canon 450d modded,, zwo asi178 mc,, qhy5lii colour, watec 902H. 

Software.. Backyard eos,, sharpcap Pro, asi studio,, astrotoaster 

It's about what you want to do with it,, unlike astrophotographers who may use a dslr and watch a blank screen for five minutes,, we watch live views or near live views when we stack our images,, it's all about techniques and every one of us have our own technique to capture what we like best,,, 

Some may be into planetary,, so a telescope with a high f number,, 

Deep sky,, now this can come down to using using existing equipment and using focal reducers to make the scope faster and give a bigger fov. 

The evostar ed80 is a great scope and with its 0.85 focal reducer / flatner is ideal,, lot of us like small fast wide field set ups 

But if you can go to a nice big celestron with hyperstar,, then  you have a large aperture and super fast scope.... 

Some of us just use the equipment for live viewing and don't even capture images,,, 

Yip,, anything goes

Lol,, think video astronomy,, this is where it stemmed from,, and some of still regard it as that,,, but we're not dinosaurs we move with the times and technology,, 

EEVA,, what is it,, it's a very easy going part of astronomy,, combining most elements,, visual EEVA, to view the dark skies using a camera and monitor in live or near live time,,  

It's also short exposure live imaging,, whether you stack it or not,, 

How long is too long and would it then be classified as astrophotography,,, thing is,, who cares,, it's a hobby,, can I use my astrophotography kit,, of course you can,, most of us probably have pretty much similar equipment,, 

Think of video astronomy as easy going, no rules,, no pressure in doing thing's by the book,,,,,,  it got ripped up and burnt years ago,,  😂

One thing,, that doesn't change,,,  no one scope does it all 

I've always went with the motto,, everything goes in video astronomy,, if it works for you,, go ahead and do it,😁

Bad boy set,, very nice

1 minute ago, shirva said:

Got you now 👍

What about a mini guide scope,, orion mini for example 

On 23/08/2020 at 02:17, geordie85 said:

That is my plan, but the 2nd scope will need to be aligned so it is pointing to the same place as my main scope. I already have a skywatcher guide scope mount for alignment, but skywatcher haven't said how much weight it can carry without any slippage. I could just use a standard dual saddle but that would result in a big crop after image integration.

Here is my main imaging scope, guide scope and the guide scope mount waiting to be filled.

Got you now 👍

I  don't get your meaning,,,  twin scopes,, would require double saddle or stacked scopes,,  a second dovetail fitted to the top of first scopes  mount rings.. Is usually the way to go, 

Skywatcher evostar ed80 and 0.85 reducer 

Hot water r bottle,, get some heat into it,, and try what tried previously 

It is heavier, but can be split down to move,,  it's not a grab and go mount but for stability it certainly is better, 

I fitted the skywatcher WiFi dongle in place of the handset and it works perfectly,, in my opinion 100 times better than using the handset,, going from house to garden should not be a problem. 

Certainly hold any of the scopes you mentioned with ease,, I used mihe years before I moved on to the heq5,, 

Recently used the az gti with wedge and azgti cable to laptop,, the tripod as you will know is the weak link,, just didn't give me any confidence,,

I swapped it for a neewer video tripod,, was a lot more sturdier,, I've tried my skywatcher evostar ed80 and skywatcher esprit ed80 on this configuration and I just don't have the confidence in it, to be honest,,, 

This was to be my grab n go style portable kit,,   

was stable enough for dslr and lens,, 

I've decided my skywatcher eq3 Pro is my better option,, stability wise haven't a problem putting any of my scopes on,, 

I found that in practice,, some things are no way as close to how it should have been in theory,, 

Like stash,, I'm old school with what I do,, but I embrace any tech that will advance video astronomy,, I did say I was old school.. 

I don't guide,, and I don't stack either these day's,, but did stack using byeos and astrotoaster,, fantastic way to it. 

Myself,, I've came a long way and found that live view is what I like,, looking at live/near live images on the laptop,, I have always been a fan of lunar images and continue to do so,, but I'm looking at narrow band video astronomy this year,, how will it pan out,, no idea,, but the great thing about video astronomy is we can find out very quickly if it doesn't work due to our short exposures, 

Video astronomy has progressed a long way since I got into it back in 2011, the folk who know me are aware of how passionate I am in promoting it,, but I move with the times and not stuck in the analogue years,

as stash says,, equipment wise,, astrophotography and video astronomy use much the same kit now and it's down to what technique is used,,

me I do it my way,, and it's a hobby we do it to relax ( ha ha) and be happy,, do what makes you feel happy doing it,, 

We've always been shepards and not sheep,, we're round pegs in square holes. 

Davy 

Looking forward to seeing this,, been great