Moodtastic

I have the EQ6 pro and a WO GT81. My biggest refractor is 100mm. Good seeing, decent polar alignment and balancing I get sub 0.80 RMS which is good enough for me. Poor nights it runs closer to 1.0rms but with the GT81 that's not an issue. The GT81 can be balanced with a single counterweight and no extension. The 100mm needs 2 counterweights with no extension.

It's very heavy though! Not an issue for me as I don't have far to carry it far and fortunate to have an ok back, but I understand why people struggle with it.

I also have a CEM40 which i use when travelling, or if I want a busy night with two setups. It doesn't seem to perform as well as the EQ6, but I am not sure I've ever got the balancing right.

Can't comment on the AM5. The HEQ5 will struggle with heavier scopes.

As others have said it probably makes sense to get it on a bench with an expert given what you have spent to date. At least then you will know the issues and if they can be fixed.

I have a CEM40 and an EQ6 R. I use the built in ipolar in the CEM40 and ASIAir on the EQ6.

I find I do get better alignment with the CEM40 and iPolar. However, there is not much in it in my experience with the biggest issue been the terrible bolts on the EQ6.

I should at some point use iPolar and then see how that compares on the asiair.

Hi,

The AAP needs to be controlled via the app on Android or iOS. I would recommend a tablet over a phone for this.

It is actually a decent bit of kit for the price. It will guide, control your mount, perform go to/plate solve, focus, and give you good control over your ZWO cameras. The 4 power ports are good enough for accessories and cameras (including a dew strip) but you would want your mount to have a separate  dedicated supply not through the AAP.

The downside is that its only compatible with ZWO and most DSLR (except Sony) cameras.

For me it has cut down on cables and simplified the imaging process compared to running everything from a laptop, but its not perfect. Troubleshooting issues can be difficult.

I look outside and use a radar app to see what the conditions are now and whats likely heading my way and then just compare the forecasts from CO, Metoffice, BBC and Accuweather to see if its worth setting up.

I have found the last couple of years forecasts have got less accurate over the autumn and winter months especially. Sometimes they show cloud and its clear and other times its showing as clear but there is a lot of cloud cover.

I have 2 refractors that provide nice wide field images, but I'm looking to fill a gap for the smaller DSOs and maybe some planetary with a long focal length scope.

I have previously been thinking of the Edge800 but the price increase earlier this year from Celestron makes the FLO RC8 look attractive.

Anyone had any experience with either of these, should I budget for any additional gear?

Initially I will be using a guidescope, but if I have issues I might look at an OAG.

130p heritage is a pretty good scope for ultra quick viewing of moon and planets. Cools down fast, its light weight, affordable, and has just enough apperture for satisfying visual astronomy of bright objects.

1 hour ago, xtreemchaos said:

im having problems with GPUs, there are some for sale but lets say a nividia rtx 3080 is msrp £699 there asking around £1200 and i carnt pay that much well will not pay that much, ive 3 built riggs waiting for gpus ive found a rtx2080 but i what it for my own rigg .

I settled for a 6600xt for my new build (replacing 6 year old pc) mainly as I could find one. I got the 6600xt for msrp, but it was still a £390 GPU which 3 years ago the equivelant level of GPU at the time would have been £200. So even mrsp is now massively inflated and will be going forward.

I have noticed that availability of astro equipment has improved a little since last autumn and winter. I mean, if you want an 80mm triplet they can be found which is an inprovement (you just might have to settle for a different brand say WO instead of Skywatcher), and the same is true of mounts.

I decided to also order a Solarquest mount. Not entirelt sure if this was a good idea or if i have wasted money but my CEM40 is a bit of a hassle to set up for quick sessions in the daytime and the reviews of the SolarQuest makes it sound really quick, easy and portable.

I hope for quick visual sessions the SolarQuest will be great. Though I will need to learn some new processing techniques to remove field rotation when I image.

The feathertouch I ordered is dual speed.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/specialist-focusers-borg-tele-vue-lunt-gso-rc/feathertouch-125-dual-speed-focuser-for-lunt-ls50-solar-telescopes.html

The moonlite looks great though with the red. It seems hard to find though.

On 08/05/2021 at 10:24, PhotoGav said:

I was in exactly your position just recently. I opted to purchase a Double Stack for my Lunt 50 as one came up on Astro Buy & Sell for a sensible price. I am absolutely delighted with the improvement that it has brought to my solar imaging. It seemed quite subtle to begin with, but now I’ve sussed out settings, the difference is what I had hoped for.

Having said that, of course I would prefer a Lunt 60, double stacked! We all know that increased aperture is key to resolving power and the 50 is limited. Cost is prohibitive for this. While we are at it, the 80 would be even better!

Having said that, I would also love a refractor plus Quark! I didn’t go down this route now as it would end up more expensive, given that I would need a suitable dedicated refractor too (my refractors are assigned to deep sky imaging duties). It would be less portable than the 50, which I also use for outreach observing and is just perfect on a small mount or my Star Adventurer. Ultimately, I will probably able end up purchasing a Quark system at some point, for close up views, leaving the 50 for whole disk views.

Good luck with your research and eventual choice. Suffice to say that I can wholeheartedly recommend the double stack upgrade for the Lunt 50 - it is probably your easiest and cheapest first step. It will also hold its value very well and be very sellable once you decide to sell and upgrade your whole system.

Thanks for this. Given I already have the ls50 that I bought from new I decided to go with the double stack and keep a dedicated solar scope rather than a Quark system. I may come back to the Quark though for similar reasons you have suggested.

Its a supply issue thats allowing prices to go up - astro gear is selling out everywhere and people will pay more for what is availiable. This seems to be a general issue across the economy from building materials, silicon chips, etc. and will drive inflation over the next 12 months.

I also think astronomy specifically has a problem with a lack of competition generally (its fairly niche with a few companies capable of making decent mass produced kit), which will prevent prices from adjusting down as supply eases over the next year or so as there is little competition in this market to drive prices back down.

1 hour ago, xtreemchaos said:

you could get a quark, double stax performance at half the price and have a choice of what scope to use.

This is not a bad shout to be honest and its something I am considering. I could keep my LS50THa. My hesitance is quality which I have heard is a bit variable (although that is less of an issue via FLO and their good service).

Last summer I had great fun with my LS50THa which I coupled with a ASI178MM, but also enjoyed visual side as well.

I am thinking about getting the feather touch focuser and LS50C double stack module for it to take my solar imaging forward

However, I could probably sell my LS50THa and for the extra money that I am thinking of spending jump to a 60mm Lunt. The downside is that the cost to double stack the 60mm will likely mean it will be a few years before I can afford to do this.

I am just looking for some advice really. Anyone have any thoughts or experience on if I should upgrade my LS50THa to double stack and better focuser, or get a bigger 60mm?

I have really enjoyed my 7/8 months with the SM 104. The past month has been especially enjoyable taking images of galaxys.

When it arrived I was worried the weight might be a bit much for the CEM40 and I'd need to upgrade. I was wrong, tracking has been great and on good nights I can get the RMS down to 0.5, and on bad nights around 0.9. This is similar to what I get with my WO GT81

The only downside of the scope is I use an ASIair and I would love to use my EAF, but I don't think it can be mounted to the focuser (I can't work out if it can).. not a huge issue as focusing with a mask isn't the end of the world, but its would be nice to automate focusing.

I have a CEM40 which has a USB port. I've only plugged the handset in once to do a firmware update, otherwise its just straight into my laptop or asiair.

For some reason AAP or the mount is really picky about the USB port I use, not entirely sure why. 

I'm also iinterested if there is a solution. I would like to get a larger scope and was thinking of a CEM60 to carry it.

On 25/03/2021 at 15:25, Space Hopper said:

Just seen the new prices on Celestron Edge HD scopes.

Open mouthed...........the 8" has gone up by a over third !!  

It was always priced very temptingly compared to its bigger 9.25 brother.

I can't see the economic sense by such a large price rise. Its certainly put me off considering one.

 

That is a big price increase. I was considering getting one at the end of summer but may not now.

I have the Stellamira 104. Its a nice scope and if the 85 is of the same quality it would be a good option.

I have a gt-81 on order for that wider field and for a more grab and go set up.

I would have considered the flt 91 over the 81 if I didn't have the SM 104.

On my daily browse of FLO I saw the Sky Fusion computer.

I was trying to figure this thing out. It is expensive and also expects an annual sub of £100 for updates. I guess it is for those with an observatory type set up?

I mean I know there are those of us with large bank accounts (certainly not me), but this does seem expensive for what it is. The PL Eagle seems a similar piece of kit and is cheaper; a laptop and pegasus astro box would be as good; or an ASIair does much the same for a fraction of the cost (if you like ZWO cameras and accessories).

I will be interested to see reviews of it in the field.

I have a Samsung Tab A7. It has 3GB RAM with no issues.

I think ZWO has over specified the tablet requirements for Android. I think this is likely due to lack of testing so they just went high rather than testing what the app actually requires.

The ASIAir app is not a demanding game like PUBG or Minecraft...

On 21/02/2021 at 18:31, CCD-Freak said:

I compared Shimrod's Dark to my ASI-533 at -5°C and there is little difference.  The auto visualization is such a narrow range tends to make it look really noisy.  If you check the value of most of the warm pixels they are no where near swamped.  the second image shows just a little stretching of the visualization makes almost all of the warm pixels go away.  Doing Dark frame subtraction will take care of the warm pixels and dithering is also a good practice.

This is a 60 second single image @ -5°C showing the Debayered image and the Raw

 

It would be interesting to compare the OP's dark image the same way.

Hi CCD - Freak.

Apologies this has taken so long. I have just captured a new dark frame at 20C, 300s. I would be interested to see your comparison with my example.

D_2021-02-22_19-36-36_300s__20C.fit

Starsense does work with AVX. If you are doing visual then a rough polar alignment (I had the polarscope on mine) is all that is needed. Once polar aligned just set it off to do its thing and you will have pretty accurate go to.

I'll upload an image later which was taken outside a couple of nights ago and the camera is cooled to -15. It looked similar to the attached.

It might just be the nature of the sensor in the camera, hard to know with nothing to reference against.

Hi,

I have an 533MC that is about 8 months old. I do not have another 533 to reference against but I have noticed lately that my darks have a lot of hot pixels, which lately seem slightly more difficult to process away.

The attached is a 300s dark frame at 1x1 bin and room temp (20'C) (and stretched slightly). Does this seem normal to others with a 533 before I think about sending back?

Hi,

With the pound now back to pre March levels and assuming (a bit of coin toss at the moment) that after Jan 1st there will be a brexit deal (and with it some stability) will prices be reducing in the new year?