Ratlet

I started observing last year with a 130mm reflector (a 130pds which is F5).  I bought a cheap laser collimator (ie the Amazon specials), collimated it with a jig made out of Lego and haven't looked back, except to buy an even bigger 250mm reflector on a dobsonian mount.

I can't comment on which would be better, but I didn't find collimation a hassle to learn and I've not found it a hassle to maintain, honestly I hardly ever touch it.

Looking at getting some lens heaters for my imaging rig.  The ones I'm looking at are 5V powered by USB with adjustable temperature control.  I was wondering if anyone has any experience of powering these through the USB hub on the back of an astro camera (I've got an Altair Hypercam, but I guess it will be mechanically similar to a ZWO).

TIA

36 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I have also jumped on the bandwagon and just ordered one for myself. I was getting frustrated trying to use my Pixel 6 pro with a cheap plastic phone holder as it was as rigid as cooked spaghetti.

I'm using mine with a pixel 6 which should be about he same dimensions.  Holds it well with minimal movement even when tapping on the screen (I still use the bluetooth clicker thing, but the screen sometimes too)

29 minutes ago, Stu said:

 

It was with the MoveShootMove Allview mount. I wouldn’t recommend anything else these days, it is easy to use, rigid and doesn’t move once you’ve set the position. So much better than the Celestron NeXYZ. Buy direct from them and it’s cheaper than Amazon, takes a while but worth the wait.

https://www.moveshootmove.com/collections/move-shoot-move-rotator/products/3-axis-smartphone-adapter-for-digiscoping-telescope-spotting-scope-adapters

 

I'll echo everything Stu has just said.  I've been playing about with mine quite a bit this week.  Its easy enough to swap over between eyepieces.  The only difficulty I've had with mine was forgetting that my 3-8mm zoom extends quite a bit when zooming and trying to zoom through my phone...

I've had fun video calling my family giving them tours of the moon.

1 minute ago, paulastro said:

Could you tell me where you ordered it from please?  The link at the start of the thread didn't work for me.

Many thanks.

https://www.moveshootmove.com/collections/move-shoot-move-rotator/products/3-axis-smartphone-adapter-for-digiscoping-telescope-spotting-scope-adapters

Moveshootmove smartphone adapter if you need to google search.  Cheaper if ordered from the manufacturer and comes with free international shipping.

@Stu was that with the MSM phone holder?  I've been out every night it's been clear using mine.  Incredible fun.  Didn't manage to see the stars last night but had some quality time on the moon as a whole.

Cracking images!  What a difference the extra data made.

I recently got a 7nm Duoband filter from SVBONY and I think they are pretty good.  I like the subtle change in colour it gives.  I also found it worked in a pinch for visual for OIII only so really I got two filters for the price of one.

I did have a slight panic when I saw NaN.  The software I use at work uses that as a code for no data and usually when that starts appearing you've got problems lol.  For a minute I thought it was going to be a sad post but delighted to see you got some great results!

I've also thrown in the towel.  Clouds have started to roll in and struggling to see much at all the sky is so bright.

52 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Out now with the 12". There's a lot of tremor in the seeing, so not so good on the moon at x217. Same magnification isn't too bad on Venus with a mix of the variable polariser and 80A filter bringing out some detail.

Much the same up here.  Not sure how much is the atmosphere and how much is the moon being above the house.

Had the 130pds and azgti out.  Might not get on with the goto, but the tracking is ace.

Going to leave it an hour and head back out when it's "dark".  Want to try and get the veil and the supernova.

Great picture.  Astrophotography of globular clusters is hard mode in imaging.

Cheers @markse68.  I'm guessing somehow the sun total of the claims in the patent add up to something novel.  Doubt it though.  The patent office is bombarded by thousands of claims a year and the quality of a lot of them is garbage.

But they have the patent and proving that it is a bad patent or doesn't apply can be expensive so it works as a deterrent 

Not actually read the patents but usually there must be a novel step for a patent so presumably there must be one, perhaps in the way it displays the results rather than the way it calculates it?

You got the patent numbers handy?

On 12/01/2023 at 22:05, Ratlet said:

I'm starting to feel like a time traveller when I check this thread.  Serious Deja Vu.

WHAT DAY IS THIS??!  WHAT YEAR!

Woops.  I got confused for a moment and thought Astro_dad had bought another dob

I am suddenly reminded of my post from earlier this year...

A fine scope @Astro_Dad your posts helped affirm my choice of a 10" dob.  Might save up over the summer for a Starsense 70mm to scavenge the unit from.

Used it a couple of times in anger (although only on the moon and sun).  Very impressed.  It's very quick to setup and can accommodate a pixel6 in its case.  Very steady and doesn't move about much (except in the direction you move it) when making adjustments to positioning.  Closest I've come to an issue is forgetting how much the SV215 zoom extends when going from 8-3mm and trying to zoom it through the phone.

Enables a really fun feature:  video calling friends and family to show them stuff!

Just the moon.  Took the MSM Accuview phone holder out for a spin and ended up video calling my sister and giving her a tour of the moon.  Got some great videos out of it.  Seeing was really good, with a slow ripple just washing over everything.  Managed to crank the SV315 zoom up to 3mm in the 130PDS for x215 power. 

17 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

Thats dark?  I wont complain about the darkness we have here anymore lol

Not quite as dark as it got, but not a million miles from it.  56°N here so not a huge amount of night for now.  Its a night mode from my pixel 6 which is pretty good at lightening the sky.

Might risk it for a biscuit tonight.  I remembered earlier that my 130pds and superview 30mm should be able to squeeze in the entirety of the veil and I might be able to see it from my garden if I setup in the weeds.

Doesn't get much better than this.  Would have liked a bit more dark and a bit darker dark, but beggars can't be choosers.

3 minutes ago, Blahblahman said:

Nice!

Its a great chair, but the 'belt' is ridiculously long, so long that in fact, I used it recently as an arm sling after I tore my bicep. Whilst that was repurposed, I used an old nylon belt on the chair that was smaller, the right size and less intrusive. I'd have kept it but I needed it for my outdoor trousers!

I've also been considering some sort of torsion spring arrangement to prevent the leg from flopping about. It wouldn't stop you falling backward off the thing if you shifted your weight back but would allow you to one hand move the chair to a new position.

Also in plan is a cover/pad of some sort on the seat to be more comfortable on those longer sessions.

That said, at less than £100, it's the cheapest bit of kit I've got and probably the most useful.

😀

I knew I made the right decision to marry the wife when the mother in law made me a cushion for the geoptik

I like this.  The floppy strap does my nut in sometimes.

1 hour ago, bosun21 said:

That’s why I sold mine and bought Astronomik UHC & OIII filters. It’s like chalk and cheese.

Think I'll save up for a better UHC filter.  Quite happy with the initial result of the dual band as a 'might as well use it' OIII filter in the mean time.  Well, I say mean time.  I suspect last night was the last observing I'll be doing till the end of July.  Not enough dark and what there is is too late in the day.

Finally got out for the first time in months under darkish skies.  Astronomical dark is long gone and we only have 1 hour or so of nautical dark and that'll be gone soon.

Tried my contact lenses, but found they made things much worse so took one of them out.  Observed M3 through dusk to nautical twilight.  I would probably describe the change like losing aperture.

I tried out my dual band sv220 filter on m57.  Holy moly was that a good idea.  It went from being a faint gray blur against lightish sky to being an intensely light gray blur against an almost jet black sky.  Knocks the seven shades out of my svbony UHC which did basically nothing.  Looking forward to trying it out on other targets when they eventually surface in dark skies.

EDIT:  forgot to mention that I wore my fisherman's vest.  This is great.  Loads of pockets so I can just pop whatever eyepieces/filters I'm using in there.  

Quick look about whilst I put the big lad out to cool.  Moon is looking really nice, despite the seeing not being great.

Got another look at Venus through the clothesline and a tree.  Looked all right considering I was using a Douglas fir as a filter, no detail but could easily see the disk.

Finally got to try out the Morpheus 17.5mm.

On the sun.  With my 130pds. Actually frames the big ball of light really well.  Lots of activity.

Strapped the moveshootmove phone holder to it as well.

Excellent images all of them

24 minutes ago, Louis D said:

Try contacting John Chen for Svbony questions.  I was contacted by him in regards to customer input for the 3-8mm zoom while it was still in development in January of 2022.

Here is his contact information:

sales manager of eshow co.ltd including 3 brands( retevis(ailunce)/Retekess/ svbony)
Skype: john51888@outlook.com
Facebook:John Chen
paypal em-ail: eshow.btoc@gmail.com
whatsapp:+8613526737346

And here was the ebay email address that he contacted me through:

svbony_lq5848lh@members.ebay.com.hk

He clearly wants Svbony to be a quality company that responds to customer interests and needs.

I've found their communication to be very good.  I enquired back when I first hear rumblings about the SV220 Dual band filter about when it would be released.  They gave me an approximate release date and followed up later to let me know that it had in fact released.

Whatever feedback they got on the 3-8mm zoom paid off.  It's an absolute delight of an eyepiece.  Easily one of my best experiences in observing was having used a BST Starguider 8mm for ages for planetary and then getting the zoom.  An absolute revelation.  And then I paired it with the baargain contrast booster you suggested.  Just pure joy.