Chris

Crikey! 11" of aperture or go home hey

You could try making an aperture mask to reduce the amount of light coming in perhaps. I had the same problem though with a 6" f/5 Dobsonian last night so it might only marginally improve the situation. Maybe you could image Mars with a webcam and bring the exposure length down and just view it as a AVI movie perhaps? I got much more detail this way last night.

Not quite sure what's happening with your Registax? Have you tried it on another PC?

Hi, I've been imaging planets with entry level telescopes for some time now and this is the best workflow I've come up with for telescopes that don't track such as Dobsonian's and or telescopes that show colour fringing such as Achromatic refractors. Hope it's useful, the planets are pretty good right now compared to the last couple of years.

These seem more like it. I was often tempted by the Vixens but it seemed a lot to pay for what could be a novelty.

Mars is nearly at opposition so if you've never imaged the planets before and fancy giving it a go this video should help a little bit. It's fairly basic and not the best instructional video in the world but it should do the job. There are lots of items in SharpCap I haven't covered of course, and capturing with SharpCap or FireCapture isn't the whole story, there's also post processing to get your head around, but I'll cover that next. I'm fairly sure that will be the better video out the two as I had people walking by staring at me for this one lol

I was going to say get an EQ5 with the motor drive kit, but on a balcony I agree with Happy Kat that you would be better off with a Skymax 127 maksutov or a Celestron 6SE SCT.

Yes, on paper it has alot going for it. proper bearings on both axis, micro stepper motors, and belt drive. You can control it wirelessly using a windows laptop and Explore Stars which is Explore Scientific's open source goto and control software. I'm wary about wifi control after the Astro FI I reviewed but this one is supposed to work ok with Windows. I'm not sure I would have risked buying it if it was IOS and Android only.

Today I finished all the re enforcing inside and out, and the metal runners are on. Just the roof to go I until it's basically functional. I'm getting excited now as my obsy mount arrived today also 🤩

That's more like it, good to hear Robert! Following with interest

Ok the rails are getting there. I used 18" deep foundations for the upright posts and will be adding metal brackets as well as the wooden brackets. I need to take a about 9" off the width of the roof because I'm an idiot, but once that's done and on the rails I'll add some cross bracing to the front of the rails. Oh and the door needed a tad bit if filler.

Celestron C6 or a 5" Maksutov, like the Skywatcher Skymax127. As mentioned above you do often get a better deal if you buy Celestron SCT's as a bundle. Although, after reviewing the Astro Fi mount I can't say it's fit for purpose unless they've made some serious firmware and Wifi improvements over the last year or two.

Thank you, that's great. I've seen a few videos on Youtube including the one you linked which I thought was very good. Like you say though it almost seems too good to be true. I do need to read the S@N review still so thanks for that link. Despite 2-3 review videos there really doesn't seem to be many people with these mounts out their in our circles or in circulation, or at least any that are willing to talk about it. Luckily FLO started stocking these very mount just the other day, so after a quick discussion with Grant at FLO I bought one to review. I will mainly be testing it out in the the little obsy I'm currently building. I'm actually hopeful after seeing some further software videos for Explore Star and the PMC8 goto system. If everything goes positively it will be a great alternative to the very well rooted HEQ5, but I guess we'll see p.s. here they are at FLO! https://www.firstlightoptics.com/explore-scientific-mounts/explore-scientific-exos-2-pmc-eight-goto-mount.html

Hey Rob, you sound a tiny weeny bit underwhelmed but just to try and re assure you, the detail you described on Mars is what I've been getting by stacking lots of frames. Deep sky sounds good. Maybe things will improve with subsequent sessions, test it on some doubles!

Hey Mark, thanks. That's great to hear, yes give it a go! It's fun and you can wow your friends on Facebook 😃

Thanks Gerry. You must be a great grandad (as in good grandad, not the parent of a grandad). I bet you've instilled them with an appreciation for science, I remember you doing microscope experiments with them a while back.

Thanks Jeremy. You're very supportive by the way, cheers!

Ok, now we're venturing into planetary imaging with the Heritage 150p Flextube Dobsonian!

I've put together the first of a two part series looking at the techniques, cameras and accessories needed to image planets with a non tracking Dobsonian telescope. Subsequently I'll run through the image processing in PIPP, Astrosatakkert and Registax in the next video. Here I use the Sky-watcher Heritage 150p flextube Dobsonian with a Revelation Barlow and ZWO ASI385 camera to image Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon.

I use the Heritage 150p to image with. For starters you need to drop the truss rods down 10mm or so to reach focus for a camera. You could hover a camera over a lens for afocal, take a bunch of shots and keep the sharpest. I wouldn't use a mirrorless or DLSR as it would be too heavy. Your best results will be using a planetary camera like a ZWO120mc or a modded webcam, film the planets as an AVI as it drifts through the frame, pre process the images in PIPP which crops round the planet on each frame making the image appear tracked ready for stacking. Stack the best frames in Autostakkert then sharpen the image with wavelets in Registax. I plan on doing a tutorial on this for my channel soon. PIPP, Autostakkert and Registax are all free to down load. Also with PIPP you can join lots of little AVI films together so you can stack more footage. 1000-3000 frame are plenty. Here are some from the other night with the mini table top Dobsonian: 22_18_22_pipp_mars_lapl5_ap10_Registax1.tif JUP21_57_52_pippAUTOSTAKKERT_Registax.tif 22_03_37_pippAUTOSTAKKERT_Registax.tif

I regularly use the Heritage 150p and don't use any type of collimator. It comes with a collimations cap to check the secondary which only really needs doing once unless you knock it, and to check the primary you just point the scope at Polaris (because it doesn't move) with a high polar eyepiece, place it in the centre of the eyepiece and defocus the star a little until you get a doughnut shape with concentric rings. If the rings are pinched on one side then the collimation needs adjusting. If it's all symmetrical then it doesn't

They must have been gutted having an EQ6 stolen, fingers crossed it makes it way back to them!

I think this could make the Evoguide the most affordable ED astrograph for 1.25" CMOS cameras! Stick the Evoguide and flattener on a Star Adventurer and away you go.

Brilliant Robert! I know it's a relatively big chunk of change, but I'm fully expecting this scope to make you very happy ( Current general stock woes aside of course).

Thanks Jeremy, I think you can see what's going on a bit better on a video