Ratlet

2 hours ago, badhex said:

It may already be too late to save me from myself 😱😱😱

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When you extend the legs out, and they lock to further outward travel, do they also lock to inward travel?  I had a play with my tripod this morning and when the legs lock, they only lock to outward travel, which on the one hand makes sense, but on the other seems an odd design choice.

7 hours ago, Victor Boesen said:

I am really interested to hear more about how you get along with this. And so is @badhexmaybe?

It might be some time till I can provide any specific information on how it performs as an astrophotography mount (I'm going to wait till we get some information on the Star Adventurer GTI, if that looks good then I'll be getting it, so potentially waiting till June).  Potentially the information even then will be limited as I'm going to (attempt to) resist going for anything beyond my 200mm focal length Takumar 200 and DSLR for astrophotography as long as I can.  If you've got any specific questions I could answer or check without an mount on board I'll be happy to check in the mean time.  I do intend on some untracked stuff in the mean time.

I've added the proviso of 'for astrophotography' as I got lost and wandered into the visual section of the forum and have condemned myself to probably getting the/a mount with a 127 Mak if it releases with one.  That subforum has made me intensely nostalgic for the first time I looked through a scope at Saturn and I could feel the distance in my bones.

Looks like sky watcher have listened to people.

That little thumb screw above the polar scope?  Hold the battery cover on lol.

On 03/04/2022 at 13:10, vlaiv said:

As said above ASI224 or ASI385 depending on how large sensor you want.

Both have AR coated window so you'll need IR/UV cut filter and you will need F/15 system to be at critical sampling rate so look for x1.5 barlow - or better, barlow element that you can adjust barlow/sensor distance to get exact F/ratio needed.

Your advice is always really apppreciated for us noobs on the forum vlaiv!

Do you have a recommendation on a good beginners guide on understanding telescope optics?

Tripod arrived.  Ordered from Aliexpress, delivered by Amazon (Prime no less).  No idea how that worked, but hey ho.  Innorel NT364C.  I also didn't order the quick levelling bowl, but one turned up so bonus on that!

Now have got sufficient equipment to do some untracked astrophotography which is a big moment.  Just need to wait until I finish my remaining week of night shift and some clear skies!  It's got a nice 

Carbon fibre tripod, 25kg weight limit and at full height is 160cm high (no extension pole, all legs).  Basically the popular Artcise HS80C but slightly different specs and £150 for this versus £260 for the Artcise.

Plan ultimately to pair it with an azgti or the upcoming Star Adventurer GTI.  The bowls diameter is the same as the Skywatcher extension pier so it should be a good geometric fit and at a theoretical max weight of mount and scope of 7kg it should be delightfully within the weight limit.

Red dot finder.  Seemed a reasonable expenditure to get me going.  Adjustable brightness, different targets can be cast. Seems reasonably solidly built.

Managed to find one with clearish glass on the reticule so it shouldn't dim the stars too much.

34 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

Artesky have it listed as 572 euros (and available September) which seems a bit high to me - midway between an EQ3 and EQ5 (although both of those come with a handset). My assumption is that this is the AZ-GTI mechanism and firmware in an compact EQ mount my guess would have been around £450. An AZ-GTI and wedge is around £400

There is some difference in the machining as the worm gearing is different from the az-gti.  AZ-gti is 144 whilst this is 180 on the Ra, which is similar to the eq35pro.

I've tried to work out the price and based on what the EU shops are quoting for this and other items (which are available) compared to the cost in the UK, and my guess is £450-£525.  This is an absolute guess though.  

I'm far from an expert on mounts, but the star adventurer GTi can be run in low altitude Mode (0°) which looks like it will give it the same range of motion as alt-az.

No idea how that would impact on the goto though.

No official word on prices.  Some of the EU scope shops are advertising with prices, but how they will translate to the UK/us is up for debate.

I'm a bit excited about this mount 😃

Not delivered for me, but the wife fired up her cricut and did me a couple of 58mm bahtinov masks for my 200mm takumar f4.  I'm pretty impressed with the thinness of the cut it could achieve.

Just cut out of some fairly stiff card, but I can live with them being essentially disposable lol.

Sky-watcher have a new product announcement stream lined up on the 15th of April.  Fingers crossed that it'll be the mount.

With any luck I'll be able to give a "nuggets eye view" of this when it releases.

I'm starting out in the hobby and have held back on buying a mount because of this potential mount.  For me I like the look of it more than the az-gti aesthetically, and it is also designed for use in equatorial mode so there will be a level of actual support officially.  That's a big sell for me.

Honestly though there is going to be an element of rolling the dice.  It could be mechanically worse than the az-gti, or it could be better.  I'm hoping for better.

But yeah, I'm pretty excited for this mount lol.

It's now on the official Skywatcher site.

http://www.skywatcher.com/product/star-adventurer-gti/

Got a set of adjustable rings that I'm planning to use to stabilise my takumar 200mm (black lens) and mount on a dovetail with my DSLR.

The rings also came with a 60mm Guidescope and asi120mm-s.  I've told the wife I'm going to sell them on since I only wanted the rings.  Attached view of the neighbours solar panels from the guidecam and 60mm.

I think she believed me lads!

2 hours ago, adyj1 said:

Yes. It (normally) has a shutter release button.

I figured the big button on the front might do that.  Mine has just arrived.  Need to get the kids to bed before I play with it now.

Really stupid intervalometer question,

Can you use them as a remote shutter, like just remote fire the settings on the camera with it not in bulb mode and it just takes the one exposure at your settings?

11 hours ago, Pixies said:

I doubt that many astrophotographers would say that!

No.  It doesn't sound like they would lol:

I'm just getting started with imaging, largely because my eyesight is god awful and because I like image processing.  But it was visual that got me going when Aberdeen Astro Society did a night for people at Stonehaven after Stargazing Live in 2012 (life got in the way between now and then).

I can still remember the guy apologising and saying the seeing was rubbish but he'd lined up Saturn.  I was blown away.  You could see where the rings were!  It was weird.  You could feel the distance through the eye piece.  Incredible.

Imaging will draw in more people because it's easier to communicate, especially online.  But there is something magical about eyeballing it.

I might be biased since I'm learning so spend a lot of time looking at other posts looking for help, but quite a lot of the imaging posts seem to be people looking for advice or having issues getting component B to speak to the guide camera and the autofocus lol.

I'm slowly building my kit up and I'm playing around with image processing to get a feel for things  whilst I build up the courage to pull the trigger on a mount.

I'm planning on keeping things simple and sticking to standard DSLR lenses as I have some kicking around already and there are some that are spoken highly of.  I've gotten a Talumar 200mm lens for my primary optics as the 200mm F4 lens is highly regarded for astro and it seems a good newbie focal length for learning on (also, I have one to hand).

In the mean time I was thinking about testing the lens for chromatic aberration.  Basically using an artificial star to photograph and then check for aberration.  I can change the framing of the star to test the extremes of the FOV.  The thinking being that by identifying the capabilities of the lens I will be better placed to identify issues with my technique..

Is this something that is doable/sensible?

How important is distance?  I would imagine putting the star as far as possible is best, but would there be a significant impact carrying out the test when the 'star' isn't in focus at infinity?

I've had a google and everything seems focused more on colliation than chromatic aberration.  I did find one reference which say the method is not ideal for spherical aberration due to the distance required (66m in my case).

I've had a play with some tin foil, a pin and a head torch and I can certainly get purple fringing, and eliminate it with stepping down and see the diffraction spikes from the iris when stepping down.

Many thanks and clear skys!

I've not even got the mount yet lol.  I've seen the Star Adventurer GTI on the horizon and I'm doing my best to hold fast till it comes along and going to get that I think.  In the mean time there is lots I can do to play around with stuff.  Practice my image manipulation, play about with the takumar (the wife is going to make me a bhatinov mask so I can see how that works for focus, I'm going to do some assessment of the chromatic aberration using a diy setup).  I've got some old nikon lenses which I can launch on ebay to get some more funds and an electric piano to go too.  I might get a wide angle lens since milyway season is coming up and there is some great landscape areas about my part of Scotland.

This also gives me some time to marinade in the process and make sure it is for me.  I've a bad habit of picking up hobbies and dropping them in a couple of months (eg the previously mentioned electric piano).

10 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

I am selling a 130 PDS if your interested. It was a trade off with swmbo when I got my astro bins 😂

Selling cheap as I just want rid. 

I would love to but I think the wife would end up using it as a suppository on me.  I'm trying my best to behave and keep things small and simple for now.

200mm takumar len

Canon 600D

Az-gti mount.

Big stuff comes later.  I hope.  I also hope she doesnt find the guide scope and camera that I got on the cheap lol.

1 hour ago, knobby said:

I think once you add a camera / some method of guiding / maybe a coma corrector to the 4kg tube you'll be  pushing things a bit ? One gust of wind and you'll be struggling.

I thought that would be the case.

I've always wanted and 130pds.  They're pocket rockets!  It'll need to wait for a better mount.

45 minutes ago, Elp said:

As @badhex has said the length may be an issue. Using my 130pds causes the setup to vibrate a little more than desired especially if there's a light breeze though I haven't tried it with my uni tripod yet. My Z61 imaging setup is 3.2kg + 2kg counterweight/bar.

Can you image with the 130pds on the az-gti?

I'm just planning out potential upgrade routes and was thinking about getting a 130pds down the line.

57 minutes ago, Adam J said:

 

Is that rigged up as a single unit?  So you can just mount the whole lot on the az-gti or piggy back on another telescope as required?

Very nice setup!  Love the labels.  When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail and when you have a label maker everything needs a label!

Cheers for the recommendations Daves  I really appreciate it. 

For the time being I'm going to stick to gimp, but at least I don't have to go trawling for recommendations.  I can just come back here for info that is useful to my exact circumstance.

Now I just need to keep out of the classified section lol.