bendiddley

I have a PST which has a very small field of view. When I look through a 25mm EP there is little space around the sun and very difficult to centre as a result, is this normal? I've measured the hole at the bottom of the eyepiece holder and it measures 5mm. I've just read somewhere that you can get a 10mm version, so I am assuming the 5mm is the issue? If this is normal, what are the advantages of the 5mm over the 10mm? Is there a benefit to a smaller field of view? Not sure I can see any advantages at the moment as it seems to make it harder to view the sun.

Is there any way of fixing that?

Sorry, what's the logic control system of the controller?

It upgrades no problem, but I still get the error message 'both axis... no response'.

Do you mean what errors am I getting if I reflash it to v3? I haven’t tried that as I was checking here to see if it was possible to do which apparently it isn’t.

Ok thanks, that’s what I thought

The dead one came with some stuff I bought, so I'm trying to fix it.

Thanks. The mount works fine as I have another v4 hand controller that works perfectly.

Does anyone know if it's possible to downgrade synscan v4 to v3 on a v4 hand controller? Reason for asking is I have a faulty v4 hand controller with a 'both axis no response' error message and I've tried everything to fix it and have this last thing I haven't tried. Anyone know? Cheers.

Thankyou Adam for all that info, very useful. I decided in the end to go for the SXVF-M25C. After weighing up all the pros and cons this is what I felt most comfortable with and I think I will get a lot of enjoyment out of it. I expect at some point in the future I'll give mono a try. Maybe some of the current higher end monos will have come down in price by then and make it a bit more affordable for me too. Thanks again.

I was thinking OSC because seeing conditions where I live are fairly average which will mean I won't get the most out of a mono (at least that's what I've picked up from somewhere), I thought you needed dark skies to benefit from the extra sensitivity of a mono?? I might be wrong. In terms of budget, I've got about £550 to spend. As it happens I've seen an SXVF-M25C for sale for £550 which I'm wondering about, was thinking this might be another option, it has a much larger sensor. Do you think I'd be better with a mono? Think I'd need to get a CMOS if that's the case, as I've heard you don't need as long on exposures which would cut down the time needed each session and make taking RGB's more doable. But a good CMOS is over my budget which is why I've been looking at 2nd hand CCD.

Great tool, although I think I've just crashed the website. Not sure I'm keen on having such a small field of view, even if it is more sensitive than my dslr. bummer.

Thanks for that adam. When you say smaller field of view, do you mean I won't be able to fit as much in the frame, ie. an object taken with my dslr will show more of the object than with the CCD if that makes sense? If this is the case, are there any CCD's that would be more suitable, I have seen an SXVF-MC25 for sale, would that be better suited?

Just bought a second hand SXV-H9C as I've been looking to upgrade my Canon 1100D to a OSC CCD camera and this came up the other day, it was at a price that I was happy with spending at this stage so I decided to go for it. I am intending to use it with my 130PDS and at a later stage a skywatcher ED80 when I have some more funds. I haven't used it yet but having bought it I'm starting to wonder if it was the right choice. I can't find any reviews on this camera so was wondering what others thought about it? The reason for doubting my decision is firstly I'm a bit concerned that the resolution is going to be a bit low at 1392 x 1040 pixels. Secondly I'm unsure about whether the regulated cooling is a good option or whether I should have gone with one that has set-point. I don't know much about these two types of cooling so a bit in the dark here. Hope some people can help. Cheers.

Thanks John, very helpful! Yes it's in great nick.