Bobby1970

4 minutes ago, A McEwan said:

Skywatcher Evostar 90!   

Cool. Do please report back on how it performs. 🙂

14 minutes ago, A McEwan said:

Personally, I think a good refractor with a Herschel wedge (and a Baader Solar Continuum filter on the Wedge and variable polariser on the eyepiece) is the best way to view the Sun in white light. I have read that longer focal ratios provide a better image, but I haven't really tested that. I've used f7.5 ED scopes (80mm, 120mm, 100mm) and f9 (100mm) and had great results with them all.  I have looked through other people's filtered Maksutovs and found the view quite underwhelming, but that may be because I'm used to what I'm used to, you know?

For what it's worth, I'm waiting for a 90mm f10 achromat to arrive in the next couple of days so hopefully will be reporting on its performance with the Baader 2" Herschel Wedge I have.

Ant

Which 90mm achro did you go for? I was wondering about something cheap like a Skywatcher Evostar 90. 

I have a short tube (432mm) ED scope which I occasionally use with a Herschel wedge for white light viewing. 

I also have a 90mm Mak which I have used with a home made filter for the front as I understand that I can't use the HW with it. 

Now, would I be better off with a long ish focal length refractor of around 90mm aperture  with the Herschel Wedge than the short ED scope with it??

Also. Would a long refractor  with the wedge be better than the 90mm Mak with solar filter. ?

Asking as i am considering getting rid of the 90 mak as it doesn't get much use anyway and I bought it on a whim tbh. 

Thanks for any info. 

Welcome to SGL. I'm just outside of Swindon myself. 🙂

Sorry I missed this guy's. I was made redundant on Thursday and obviously my head is all over the place at the moment. 

Apologies again

Well. Even though I haven't actually used it yet. I decided to re locate the AsiAir to the tripod leg. 

I feel this will be better weight wise. Just need to manage the cables to the cameras suitably. 

Always liked the sound of this scope. Been waiting a while for it to arrive due to Covid19 disruption. Looking forwards to some darker nights now. :-). 

In the past. I have used the RDF to eyeball Polaris through. Prior to using Sharpcap for polar alignment. I assumed this would still be good practice?

What's your polar alignment routine like??

Tbh it's not going to save a lot of weight removing it. Lol. 

My "multi finder bracket" arrived today. 

Oddly it didn't fit the Altair finder base on my scope. So needed a little fettling. Anyway all good now. 

I have currently mounted everything like this:-

I had to use a second counter weight to balance everything. The total weight with the counterweights is approx 4.6kg. 

I wonder if a longer counterweight shaft could allow me to get away with one counterweight. 

I will see how it goes and re configure if needed. Perhaps mounting the AsiAir on one of the tripod legs. But that has the issue of having long enough cables as i said previously as more of them will need enough length to allow for movement of the scope. 

That looks and sounds very promising. I am waiting on a dual finder bracket. But I doubt I will get much opportunity to use the set up til the nights start getting a bit longer now. 

Still, gives me time to familiarise myself with the AsiAir and what my new set up is going to look like. 

14 minutes ago, Grierson said:

I use the Orion Dual finder Shoe from Amazon for exactly the use you describe. Slightly less than the one above!!

I looked at that one. But it's OOS. 

Ordered the one from FLO. 

Thanks for the info. 🙂

3 minutes ago, PeterCPC said:

There is this

Peter

That looks ideal actually. Must have missed that during my googling. Lol. 

Many thanks. 

Can anyone point me in the direction of one of these?

Want to mount my guidescope and AsiAir on one. 

Thanks. 

18 minutes ago, KEJ said:

Of course.

Mine already had a WO finder bracket on the top left of the scope, so I have used that for guiding(ZWO camera + scope).

Then earlier today, I also ordered off Amazon a similar bracket to go on the right hand side, I will then mount the ASIAIR Pro on that.

I know what you mean about the weight and cables, but I think that's the best option for the moment for me anyway,  maybe if I had a longer dovetail plate (245+) then it could have gone on there closer to the centre of gravity.

I will also possibly try to take some of the weight of the cables and distribute that on the tripod legs, so just enough slack for movement, if that makes sense.

 

 

 

 

Think I will get myself a dual finder bracket. So the guidescope and AsiAir will be on that. 

Thanks again. 

On 17/06/2020 at 13:26, KEJ said:

Hi

I recently bought one and (yesterday) received my ASIAIR Pro to go with it.

It's worth saying that I am also relatively new to the DSO world, but to me it seems brilliant.

AZ-GTI on the SkyWatcher wedge(EQ-Mode) coupled with a WO Z61 using a DSLR for imaging and ZWO guide scope and camera.

We are also just in the process of testing the updated(beta software) SkySafari Plus so that going forward you only need one device(old days you needed two devices, Apple IOS issue).

Personally I love it and below are a few images I have taken, no where near the best in the world compared to some of the boys on here, but I'm please and hopefully can only get better.

 

 

May I ask, where did you mount your AsiAir??

Have you put it in the finder bracket??

Was a bit concerned about adding more weight and was thinking of attaching it to top of one of the tripod legs. However this would mean multiple cables to cameras etc will need to be long enough to allow for movement of the mount. Whereas if the unit is mounted on the finder bracket there would only be a need for one long cable to power it and allow for movement, the rest of the cables to cameras etc could be shorter? 

Any suggestions?

Been waiting a month or so for this. 😀

Just had email confirmation that my AsiAir Pro will be delivered tomorrow. 

Looking forward to it very much. 

🙂

10 minutes ago, Robindonne said:

Is this with ASIAIR ??

Cant wait to get mine. 🙂

I'm definitely not colour blind. But have worn specs for almost 48 years. And my eyes have got worse over the last few years tbh. For me, CA was never a deal breaker. Yes a semi apo or full apo scope gives better views. More recently I have done very little visual observation. Perhaps some lunar. I'm more into imaging or EEVA nowadays. 

9 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

I'm not surprised the contrast booster won out, as I've read similar reports.

However, I'm really surprised at the semi-apo evaluation, having spent almost a year using a Startravel 120mm utilizing a 2" Semi-Apo filter screwed into a 2" Skywatcher dielectric diagonal. Eyepieces were a combination of BST/Celestron XCel LX and an Aero ED 30mm.

It's hard to put a qualitive value on the experience, but I would say CA was reduced by anywhere from 50-70%, effectiveness reducing as magnification increased and with no unnatural colour cast added.

An an example would be a very obvious coloured halo on the moon became the smallest thin line, with no fringing at all through 25mm and 30mm eyepieces.

 

This was certainly my experience when using the semi apo filter also. I used mine with ST102 and ST120. 

Maybe this shows how some are bothered more than others by CA???

56 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

Unless you have an observatory that is permanently set up, you should recalibrate each session.

Awesome. Thanks for the help

So, do I need to to the calibration every session? 

Or just if I removed the guidescope and camera?

Tried guiding again last night. After a few seconds the graph went crazy like +/- 16. 

I had removed the guidescope and camera. So I'm guessing this could be part of the issue??

Should I always leave the camera and guidescope attached, once calibration has been performed?

Also, if anyone is guiding with an AzGti, is it essential to enable the auxiliary encoder when setting it up prior to guiding it??

4 hours ago, Kitsunegari said:

for starters you need a "c-mount to 1.25' nosepiece"  attached to the dmk camera.

https://www.amazon.com/1-25-nosepiece-mount-adapter-FAP201/dp/B01HQR5NUG

 

Secondly, you need to pull out the lunt b600 diagonal outward about 1cm and lock it there with the thumbscrew.

 

Thirdly adjust the camera height while watching the screen, you should see the solar image become sharper as you pull the camera out.     You will noticeably see the solar image getting larger and dimmer if you go out too far away from focus.

 

The image will get brighter as you get closer to the focus.     Make sure your exposure level is at about 5ms and the gain is set to 0( or at least below 3).    if you are using too much exposure time/gain, the image refresh rate will be too long, and the over saturated image will always be blurry.  It will look like a solid white blob if your exposure is too long.

 

I hope this helps,  you may not need the barlow,;  i am fairly confident you just pull out the blocking filter a bit.     (i do not recall the ls35 having a focuser on it and it relied on the thumbscrew only)

 

 

I seem to recall a Helical focusser when I had the LS35. It's also a rotating one. So it will rotate your camera also. 

The advice regarding pulling the blocking filter/diagonal out is consistent with my experience with this scope. 

Just now, Fieldsy said:

U want me to see if it works first lol

Can do I guess, but I'm sure it will. Interested in the dimensions of the heatsink and fan tbh.