alan potts

I had dew on me last night, the guide scope had frozen over and oddly still managed to guide. I have to say though I felt cold, must be getting old. Alan

I have done this a good few times with various scopes I own, but from a better latitude than the UK. I played a game for a long time, seeing if I could split Sirius from what would be the max UK elevation. Only once managing this on a very good night when Sirius was at about maximum for southern UK, this was with an 18 Dobsonian, so that sort of shows me how difficult it can be, conditions being just about everything. Alan

This appears to be the item attached to the scope, I will have a read, I have these spacers too. It would appear I need to insert this thick rear spacer. Alan

There is a reducer on the rear of the scope but it just came with two fittings and a couple of thin spacers, one fitting is for Canon cameras and the the other for CCD's. If the backfocus is as large as 130mm then I am surprised I have something reasonable at what would be around 38.5mm. I may well try the Canon fitting and see what happens. Alan

Nothing new in that statement, all I ever seem to do is ask for help. I have tried out my Borg 77ED ll now I thought the backfocus for this was 55mm, but with the zwo 071 fitted with both 16.5 amd 21mm sleeves I cannot get focus, I can get close but nowhere near sharp. So I removed the 16.5mm sleeve and got focus, maybe not exact but I was working in the dark with rather cold hands. I attach a picture of M45. Now while it seems reasonable in the centre it has tell tale signs of wrong spacing in the corners with elongated stars. This is no flats or anything, just 4x 2mins at F4.3, does anyone know anything about this scope as I can't see much on the Net apart from pictures which when you have one are of little use. A little more information, the scope does have a reducer fitted to the rear of the scope bringing it down to a F/L of 330mm and F4.3, I have two fittings with the scope, one for Canon cameras and one that my Zwo's will fit to, both screw directly to the rear element. Alan

Well thank you for taking the time to type all this, it is something to bookmark and come back to, I need better software than I have at the moment, I am thinking of getting APP as I don't have anything effective for gradients, something I seem to get more of now with the 071 as opposed to the Canon. I also have another camera to mess with a 183mc, not so sure why I bought this now, maybe not my best ever move. I imagine if I use the Borg which with the 071 will have a massive FOV, of about 4 degrees and I guess this is decent quality in the optics department. I even tried earlier to put the Borg on the mount but despite 2 million bits and pieces could not find screws the correct size to fit the guide scope, why does nothing ever seem to fit together without spending another small fortune on more bits. Alan

I tried about 3 hours last night in damp and frosty weather but nicely clear. I imaged the Soul and part of the Heart (how big is this target). Not processed yet but the images were poor for other reasons, stretched stars going into the corners. The spacing for this is quoted at 55mm which according to Zwo you get exactly by putting the spacers together, this works very well with the Hutech flattener which is about perfect as I see it. Maybe this rather larger TS reducer at 360e is not all it's cracked up to be, pleased I didn't pay that for it, it may only be a minor spacing issue but one I don't really understand and best forgotten in my view. I would soon buy another scope and use the Hutech, which is a very nice piece of equipment that was recommended to me by Steve, one of the Mod team, a man that knows a few things about imaging. Alan

David, this would be fine if this business ever replied to an e-mail, I asked 2 questions of them a long time back and got nothing. However the ZWO spacer where this would fit is 16.5mm and that would still leave 1.5mm to fill, shim maybe? Alan

I have a few scopes Borg 77ED ll F4.3, a 70mm Ed F6 which has a problem of alignment, a 115mm APO F7 with reducer .79 and 190mm M/N F5.26. I guess I could also play with the 180mm Mak and the 12 inch Sc, I have mounting gear for them. Alan

I don't have this catalogue so can't see where it is, it looks fine to me though when all the members do this NB lark, i never know what colour things are meant to be, to me it don't matter, the stars are rouns and it looks like a difficult subject to start with. I thing you've done a grand job on it. Alan

Lovely image, this Heart takes a wide field. I am going to have a go at its neighbour later on, not sure what I will get as I've had to take out the IR/UV filter to get the .79 reducer into play. Hope I get a result half as good as this. Alan

Not perfect, go stand in the corner. Looks wonderful to me. You always seem to come up with things that don't get captured so often, or I just don't recognise it. Alan

Makes one want a 106mm Tak, doesn't it, great image and really jumps out the screen on my setup in the basement. Alan

Yes looks like the Pacman to me too, a very nice image i have to say, love the colours. Alan

What can I expect if I use my .79 reducer without a IR/UV filter in place, I cannot see a way of using one in the Zwo tube set-up and the reducer is way too big on the scope side (67mm) to get a filter on. Anyone any ideas how I can keep 55mm backfocus and get a filter in the line, I can get a 1.25 inch filter in but that is way too small for 071 sensor. Surely I cannot be to the only to have this issue. Alan

Thank you Olly, that is a very nice image a always. I would concur with your statement, Too many cables, i was looking at a complete case full earlier and have to admit I can't even remember what most are for, only remembered 5 (now) ST4 cables one that works on the AZ EQ 6 and all work on the CEM 60. The cable st4 Moderator Rob sent me has very slightly larger plastic connectors, all things are not created equal, it's only about .15mm but it matters. Maybe the 73mm WO is a decent enough scope for wide field and I should get one whilst i still can. alan

Really nice image, as good as I have seen, you haven't over saturated it which so many seem to do, me included. Alan

Two years, see you still know what your doing, feels like 2 years since I have had a decent night, now it's snowing. Never realised the crescent was so big, lovely image!! Alan

I've been wrestling with this one and can't decide which to the extent I thought I may get both. I have a bit of an LED sky glow from the SE where a small town sits. The other nigh the lights went out here and around and it appears a bit worse than I thought though it was reflecting off patchy low cloud. I rather fancied the Optolong based on your two pictures. Alan

My word I had no idea the KAF had pixels that large, twice the size of the 071 almost, like the TAK 106 one of the best scopes on the market. I guess doing what you suggest does cost nothing, snowing at the moment which is a bit of a downer. Alan

Yes the Esprit 100mm, sadly though I don't have that amount of spare cash in my UK, though I could transfer it running the risk of getting stabbed by the wife for spending again. The Esprit is a great scope though. Shorter I already have a Borg 77ll mk2 which I think it 330mm so the 183mc was really only for that. The 071 on the Borg really send the numbers high but maybe I should try it, silly thing is the Borg has been sitting here for over 2 months and so far has not seen a mount. The only thing that is making me want to move on this now is really only what will be the case after GB leaves the EU, if indeed it ever happens, I like FLO as an outlet and trust them 100%, using them after this could induce customs duties and VAT issues. I guess though Dave on a one off purchase for peace of mind taking a hit is no bad thing. The only other thing I have against the whole Esprit range is I will be paying for a finder and a diagonal, I have 3 TV 2inch diagonals and WO and 5 different finders, I don't need more. In the event of buying I would ask FLO to remove them and give them as prizes at some event. Alan

I am strongly considering a new WO 73mm which has a F/L of 430mm. Now this is no issue with my 183MC but on my 071 does give a Pix/sec figure of 2.29 which is a bit more than recommended, something around 500-520mm F/L would be ideal but I see nothing. If I go ahead with the purchase what are the down sides of this? Alan

I like Richard have the 071 and not long since bought. One never knows when new gear will come along. As much as I feel the new 2600 model will be better, I personally am always reluctant to buy anything right at the beginning of a production run, there always seems to be some issues, no matter what, even cars. I rather fancy the full frame model though not so keen on the price tag. I have seen some very nice shots taken with the ASI 294 though, and 1000 is a fairly large amount in any language. Alan

Thanks Alan. This was one aspect of the longer focal length of the Esprit 150ED that concerned me when I first got it but now I like to 'zoom' in on specific features of larger nebulae when imaging with this instrument. A case in point is my current project which is concentrates on just a small region of the Soul Nebula, the Ha of which I captured last night:- Edited 49 minutes ago by steppenwolf (see edit history) Only staff can see this message This was another one that the wheels came off, as it happened it would just fit the frame and for sure would if the reducer was in play, but I got the orientation 90 degrees out and had a lovely 2 hours of the middle bit, apart from the ends missing it was a half decent image, not in your league though. Alan

A great image Steve, I was so disappointed with this target as I can't get it all in frame. I may do better with the .79 reducer in line but I cannot get a IR/UV filter into the mix without spending what I think is a silly amount (166e + P&P) for a single filter draw and 0.3mm shim. Its sort of nice to see what can be done focusing on one aspect of the bigger picture, i may well try that, when this weather changes for the better. Alan