shirva

This tutorial was done by Howie in Australia,, well worth watching his videos if you want to use a DSLR for Astronomy

With byeos,, you don't need to do single twenty minutes , you can do this in much smaller subs,, if a plane ,cloud, satellite passed in your fov then you don't lose much,, astrotoaster works alongside DSS.

Been using canon 600d for a time,, weather constraints have hampered me for a long time,,

Old stash and myself have been using astrotoaster for a while and being honest it's the best around for dslr ,, video astronomy,, 

You can use canon utilities to interact with astrotoaster ,, more basic set up or use backyard Eos,, which has a lot more features,, but of course it is intended for Astronomy.

I have used analogue CCTV cameras and digital cameras, qhy5lii colour and zwo Asi 178 colour camera but I have to be honest I personally prefer DSLR ,byeos and astrotoaster combination.

I have just bought the canon 4000d and hope to get out a bit more weather permitting..

Byeos,, is a lot cheaper than any decent Astronomy camera and if you have a live view canon DSLR I would give it serious consideration.

Howie in Australia has done a few astrotoaster tutorial videos on astrotoaster using canon utilities,, well worth watching,,, if you wish to go down DSLR route

Davy

On 29/03/2019 at 09:23, Grant said:

The argument in all of this that resonates with me is the timing issue - have we made this change  before there is enough NVers to warrant their own section?

My concern though is will the NVers EVER want to have their own section or is this an idealogical issue whereby you will always want to be part of the purely visual observing sections regardless of how many NVers there are posting?

Hi grant.

Feel the pain ,lol

Well done sgl making positive changes to the forum,, been about a few years now since since pre digital cameras,, seen a lot of changes since then and been involved a bit as well with my own video astronomy forum .

gotto move with the change in equipment and techniques and sgl, vaf, cloudy nights have all had problems defining,, video Astronomy,, since the days of analogue,, a lot of equipment , cameras, techniques almost bridge the gap into astrophotography and visual these days in some shape or form

NV ,,yip true live Astronomy, most others have some type of intregration. 

Cloudy nights is the most used for NV and have had there fair share of debates on the issue,, when it wasn't looking to good ( Von) set up a NV  discussion board and filled it with great info on VAF but folk persevered on cloudy nights and seems to doing better which is good news for all because they bring a uniqueness to Astronomy,, gives a different perspective for folk to look at,, back when I started video Astronomy was in the same type of position,, the poor man's astrophotography,, we've came a long way from that,, lot of folk now bridge these Gap's and do several types of astronomy with the type of kit they have,, and good on them.

Used to get a bit heated up myself year's ago,, but as you get older,, you try and get wiser,,and it's good to debate issues as ,, name of a group,, let's be honest it's been called many different names in many different forums and websites,, and a lot of us still post in them.

NV is in it's infancy in the UK with a few like Peter leading the way,, well done sir,, I had a look at doing it myself but,, just couldn't justify the budget.

But it is coming on nicely as a part of UK Astronomy , as usual UK is a bit behind the USA in matters of Astronomy,, but we get on fine regardless.

Really folks it's not worth fussing over, do your Astronomy your way and enjoy it and pass on your findings to others.

This forum and others have a hard time trying to find the right balance,, it's a hobby and should be fun,, well apart from the weather.lol. 

Davy 

On 24/11/2017 at 11:58, stash_old said:

Excellent video containing very good points summarised very well - IMHO dont think there is anything else to say about the product. 

Yip it's a good video and the chap is right,,buy it if you think it's for you,i t has merit's,, that some folk will like ,,but for me it's constrictive to what I want in a set up,,

2 hours ago, stash_old said:

I thought this thread was about the Unistella evscope and its "potential" ,not about being "Lord and mighty" and selfish comments on fellow Astronomers(or Non) who are learning their "trade". Its comments like this that put off "newbies" joining our hobby or threads.  

I for one didn't know about many objects outside the Moon/Plough etc when I first started and I admit that Planetarium software,Goto's ,Platesolving and learning have helped me expand my horizons into this vast subject.  Just as reading threads by Martin Meredith,Dom etc promote ideas and encourage people to look further than he Moon and in different ways (e.g. EAA / Video Astro)

So less of the swipes at less knowledgeable etc and promote the hobby by being a good ambassador.

I think you are correct TSRobot - hang fire and hope.

Hands up,, I'm one of the folk that relies on a go to scope and skymap from Google,, just never got into learning that side of the hobby,,,, I have to agree with nytecam , I have reservations about it,, great concept but limited in this day and age of cameras coming out regularly now..

3 hours ago, TSRobot said:

I personally wont go for the first evscope, but maybe the second version when the ironing has been done and the reviews are out. Failing that the revolution imager r2 and the sw azgti seem to be better economy for around £600 complete with good reviews for entry level EAA.

I have the az gti,, nice enough mount,, but not the best for an ed80 and DSLR,, DSLR is ideal on it, have it as my portable kit mount

42 minutes ago, Robrj said:

They have over $1.6 Million pledged.

Sorry folks,, I saw it had the 1.5 million I took that as the target they had to reach,,, should be able to make a telescope for 1.6 million ?

Will find out in 17 days,, all or bust,,, $150,00 pledged looks like they need a hell of a lot more money to kick-start it

Been there stash,,, I saw the Skywatcher az gti and liked the idea,, there was only two folk on sgl who posted they had one just before mine was delivered,, and we had it before American market,, nothing on Skywatcher website,, leap of faith,,but we're talking Skywatcher and have a large amount of astronomy kit on offer.

The scope is appealing and a new concept my worry is , that it may not live up to expectations and it is a one trick pony,, if it gets bad reviews and you have bought one,, where is the resale value

If you buy a mount scope camera ect separate and it doesn't perform bto your expectations you can sell it and buy something better ,, 

They talk about linking these scopes together to gather data ect,, great idea  and I'm all for that,, but a two grand scope can sit idle the same as a one grand set up if you don't have clear skies, we all know going by forums that the weather world wide has been poor,, the broadcasting on night skies network has dropped big time and only a fraction of what used to be done and it's used by pretty serious video astronomers,, because the new scope may be endorsed by seti won't mean a thing if it's not getting used.

I hope it works out but I fear it may be outdated before it's launched unless it has some smart design features such as interchangeable camera modules..

Given that most folk on here have serious kit for the hobby and use a computer as a standard piece of there Astronomy kit to run there camera .

1,, to display the image

2,, to stack short exposure images

3,, to change basic camera settings,, gamma, exposure ect,,

I really wonder how this new scope can jump from lunar to deep sky Astronomy as shown in it's demo presentation,, even zwo gives recommendations on what there cameras are best for,,

Hope you're right and all goes well,, sensor wise,how long will it hold it's own given that over the last couple of years cameras are coming out on very regular intervals,, only a few years back most were probably on Samsung scb2000 or ln300 cameras, and now zwo is pumping out several variations on camera sensors,

Yes the telescope is small and compact but so are some of the meade etx range and there is also the portable revolution imager set up that would probably be not too far off a good portable set up,, 

On a personal note, I don't think I'll ever struggle to put some kind of a camera on a scope ?.

One thing that worries me is they have some chaps saying how good they are yet we see only seconds of telescope view,, 

Have my doubts on this set up,, yip looks great on paper and people with passion can spin fantastic facts and figures,, but in my honest opinion a lot can go wrong with an all in one system.. if one part fails it all fails.

It's a small scope ,so it will be wide field , camera wise how sensitive will it be,, is it future proof answer has to be no,, what software will it use and will it be updatable.

Kickstart projects are a throw of the dice, I got involved with tinymos via my vaf and we supported them, all was rosy for a while then communication became less and less, deadlines came and went and we ended up ditching support of the product,, but I've seen the same with 3d printers,, 

As Peter says a very good kit could be built the same as or better for the money involved using eq mounts and latest cameras and software.

I personally would not take the gamble even though the folk behind it are pretty clued up, 

Just bought the mount from Flo today,, I'm a Skywatcher fan and was looking for a more portable mount ,, in my opinion from an eq3 pro and a Skywatcher allview.

I had three options,in my mind.

The Skywatcher adventurer

Skywatcher adventurer mini

The az gti

Nothing against the adventurer , just never fancied it.

The Skywatcher mini looked like a mount I could use with my kit,, but was put off by a post that said the bolt holding the dovetail was a bit suspect and the chap stripped the alloy threads in the mount,, kiss of death in my view.

The az gti seems to just give you a little bit more for not a lot more money,, freedom encoders,, so will work manually, goto function from WiFi and app,, phone or tablet,, a synscan handset port as well.

For me it will be a nice mount for video Astronomy,, will hold an ed80 and DSLR and running byeos/DSS/astrotoaster it should work quite nice,,

Davy

6 hours ago, stash_old said:

Also this site http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/ligcon.html#c1 

At least you tried. Where's an optician when you want one.

I notice on CN that there was also talk on why no competitive alternatives to Hyperstar are around - seems a guy at Starizona (who sell Hyperstar) owns the patent to the idea (Dont know if he bought it from Celestron Faster idea or his is different enough to be allowed a patent. 

I was once told by a good teacher  "don't be a sheep but always question what everyone assumes to be true even though 99/100 times they will be right and you will be ridiculed - the 1/100 will be worth it". 

Again Don thanks for the time you've spent on this subject.

 

Well said sir

Some pretty weird stars on the fun star,, more zoomed in compared to the hyperstar,, I wonder how the fun star image would has looked with less exposure time 

I try and identify where I need to upgrade and just look for a bargain,pretty much at a kit level I'm happy with, a filter wheel and some narrow band filters and I'm finished,, been upgrading for years,, next up an observatory.. but keep backing down due to cost v weather. But kit is heavy and time consuming to set up,, even went to portable kit but miss the big set up of my heq5 extension pier, twin scope saddle,8" explorer,ed80 and twin DSLRs,eqmod,byeos and astrotoaster.. maybe this year I will make the jump

2 hours ago, Stu said:

Quite interested in this myself. I have a C925 whitch is Fastar compatible so if there is an easy/cheap way of attaching a camera to it I would give it a go. I have a Samsung SCB2000 which might work?

Or even better ,a watec 902h

Will be interesting to get a comparison from don and he hasn't needed to buy the fun star as he has adapted a piece of kit to emulate it,, like the thought behind it ?.  About a year ago my uncle had the thought,, what if the secondary mirror was removed on a Newtonian telescope and a focus mechanism made how would this go,, I actually think a truss scope would be ideal candidate.. one for the future ?

Looking forward to don's findings ,, and I don't own one of these scopes,, just opens up new avenues for video astronomy 

Had read the posts the other night on cm and mike at oc telescopes comments, as said it's never going to be to hyperstar quality as it has no lens's to clean up the image,, but it may be a bit of fun to someone who has an interest at imaging at f2,, the other thing is it's video astronomy not astrophotography it's all about the live or near live view and the captured images are only for prosperity for most and a visual reminder of that nights viewing,,

On saying all this mike has put some pretty decent kit on the market and we all know that folk will like it or slate it,,but it's new and different and for the price I'm shure somebody will have fun with it and give the rest of us something to discuss.

Great post ?

Couldn't agree with you more stash-old..wake up lodestar..bet flo has sold a few lodestar cameras since paul made them more appealing to video astronomers. Imho

Great write up..fantastic images

FANTASTIC WORK

Its a can of snake oil for the muscles. ..ken should be able to get you some lol...Davy

How are you setting up your ed80 john.for ds..c to t or c to 1.25 with focal reducer /ir filter and how's your focus on stars wae camera. ..struggling to get focus can see stars in finder just can't pickup wae cams in the flat lp murder...just want all sorted before I try field set up/ testing. ...Davy

Dion from Astroshed has a tutorial video on utube for fitting a sw electric focusser to the sw ed80...Davy