kirkster501

Thinking of getting a Quark Chromosphere. Any suggestions for a refractor to use with it please folks? Intend to additionally maybe use it for guiding and maybe also AP for slightly wider angle than my TEC 140 so something decent and not as cheap-as-chips. Or should I buy an ERF and use my TEC140?

I’m not giving up on mono but lukasz ( aka Astrojolo) has convinced me to consider OSC again, especially in the UK. Bringing us back to Dave’s original idea for the 2600.

No I can’t Olly. And I concede there are no data sheet police........ but at a claimed QE of 80% (yes 80%!) and that many pixels, it could deliver a higher NB resolution than my icx694 460 can. Combine that with OSC with short exposures, well, that looks to be a compelling proposition in UK skies. In theory as you say......

I have been looking into this camera. Man it is a beast at 26 MP and 16 bit !!!!!!! It has occurred to me, you could use it as intended as a OSC obviously and that would be the main purpose. But with the resolution it has, you could bung a FW in front of it and do narrowband! How interesting and how CMOS has turned the AP world upside down!

..... great M27 by the way!

Could not have said it better myself and i agree. It is easy to get stressed about what is meant to be an hobby, interest and a pass time. Enough stress in life without worrying when you can get the red channel completed....

I did a article on my website about this but it got hacked so I am rebuilding it. The short is you can get distilled off of the bay for a quid or two. Or use RO water as suggested.

...by the time I finish my close-up M81 project, the expansion of the Universe will have taken M81 over the red-shift horizon.

^^^This.

Indeed Dave, the perennial problem of AP in the UK. Many of us could create images that would be so much better with more data, but to gather the data required to create some of the pics that some of the continental guys achieve would mean devoting a year to produce two or three pictures, so few are our clear nights in general on these shores.

What's your rationale for going colour Dave? I'm in the market for a new, largish sensor camera too. I am coming to the realisation that CMOS and "largish sensor" mono do not go hand in hand other than in the ASI1600/ASI1600GT

I'm not an expert in Solar by any means and this is a subject I want to get more involved in. I bought a used Baader Solar wedge off of ABS and use it with my TEC140 refractor and it is superb. https://www.baader-planetarium.com/en/baader-cool-ceramic-safety-herschel-prism.html

Hi Olly, Many objects that I image in a widefield I like to do close up detail version on to whilst grabbing the wide-field. For example, if I am doing M31 wide field say, it's nice to get a M31 core too for additional data for another, seperate picture. And vice versa; if I'm doing a M13 say with the TEC, I can get a free picture of M13 widefield at the same time with the FSQ. Thats my rationale for aligning them

Another one please........ does the metal mounting foot of the JTD (with the holes at the bottom) have a Losmandy profile so that it can be held directly in a Losmandy saddle without having to resort to using a very small Dovetail? Or must the JTD be screwed into the ADM Losmandy holes? I'm loathe to do the latter since I already have a very formidable side-by-side bar.

Thank you guys. I need to reconsider what to do.

Thanks but I don't want another CCD (unless a QSI 683 became available and they never do) and the ASI6200 is much too expensive and I'm not prepared to send that much.

Now that we only get 3 secs of dark per night, I have my rig completely disassembled and rejigging my set up. For you folks with this nifty device..... I am interested in one of these to stack my FSQ85 on top of my TEC so I can run a wide-field and a smaller scale image simultaneously. However, I can't see how this could be made to work in scope of top of scope arrangement though because otherwise the knobs underneath would foul on the scope beneath? It seems from what I can see that the JTD is to be bolted onto a Losmandy bar that would traverse the scope with the other scope on the other side. That's what I see in Sara's and other set ups. I never see this device scope on scope. I already have the TEC and a C925 occupying the side-by-side bar and this works well for me. I want the FSQ now on top of the TEC. Appreciate your thoughts please folks.

Holy thread revival..... I'm still looking into this guys and have some bonus this month. What would be a good choice cooled CMOS mono camera for the FSQ85 please??? Full frame would be too big for the FSQ85 imaging circle I think so APS-C? The choice is mind boggling! I'd need to get filters for it as well plus the FW. QHY have 36mm unmounted option and that is attractive since they are not too much more than the 1.25. I was thinking QHY163m since a lot of people have had good success with that. But i think it would not do the FSQ85 justice....

Ah OK mate, many thanks will give that a go.

Hi all, Got a few bits I want to move on and trying to get a feel for the going rate. How do you search the archives for a piece of specified kit? When you enter the archives and select "scopes" say and a rough range of costs, how do you then search on something more specific (i.e. build a specific query in database jargon) within the 100's of pages that are returned matching scopes and price? Thanks!

Rich, I am in a similar place. I am looking at the QHY163m to use with my FSQ85. Researching this now. I feel that the days are numbered for the CCD's and I don't want to pour any more money into this. Have a look at Lucas' pages at astrojolo.com Steve

I use darks and auto-detect as a CC process that WBPP links to. I set the darks to 5 sigmas and autodetect to 3 sigmas. I find it gives me a very good result.

Not ideal due to the large central obstruction compared to an "ordinary" SCT but they do work.

My laptop has an adapter that allows it to be powered from 12v Thanks John I will look into that

I have looked at building an inverter into my box too but I am looking for a 12v flats panel to remove the need to do so. My current flats panel is the only thing that needs a mains input.