astrosathya

Just thought i'll bring this up as a point of discussion. Today, cooled CMOS Astro Cameras are available in plenty. QHY, ZWO and other variants of the same camera are selling for very reasonable prices. However, there was a point of time when astrophotographers used to cool down their DSLR's as a cheap OSC alternative to CCD cameras. Give a choice, I would've purchased a dedicated CMOS OSC which can cool to 40 C below ambient, but since I had a Canon 500D which I had self modded, I requested a friend Kaustav Chatterjee (an avid model railroader) to cold mod my 500D (he had cold modded his 1000D long back). This newly modded camera has a TEC12703 single peltier and cools to approximately 20 below ambient.What do you guys think?

Hi Everyone, While we all know that there are plenty of hubs out there in the market like Hitec Astro Hub and Pegasus Astro Hubs for providing 12VDC and USB comm link for good cable management, I am a DIY person with little to no experience in electronics. I do know how to solder reasonably well. I am looking to see if someone here could help me with a circuit diagram for a hub that gives has 5x12VDC output, 3x5VDC output and 4xUSB powered hub for communication. I would then go out, purchase all components and build one for myself. This is only so that I don't have too many cables dangling off of my mount and becoming a constant trip hazard. TIA guys.

I was planning on buying this one. You say its good?

Lovely image.

Really good work progress. Kudos..

Please dont use a Barlow. It only reduces the Field of View, but also light transmission reduces because of the number of lenses the light needs to go through. Plus, for small objects you need to increase resolution of the scope. By adding a Barlow you're only boosting the focal length. Resolution is increased with aperture. In this regard, I'd recommend you get a to 8 inch SCT from Celestron. But you'll also need a mount to support all that weight

Thank You Robin, While initially I did experience a lot of frustration in collimating my RC6, eventually I found it really easy and fun to do.. I can now collimate within 10 minutes to a high degree of accuracy, with only a long Cheshire and a Collimation cap with reflective inside.

well said.

Thank You so much Stacey. This is exactly what I hoped to see. Greatly appreciate your reply.

Hi Everyone, I am posting on behalf of a friend who has a C14 Edge HD, lives in a really remote place with no access to service facilities for his C14 Edge HD. The coma corrector lens (one near the focuser) which is inbult has a lot of fungal growth on it and he would like it to be removed and cleaned. If anyone could describe how to do that,i'd be really grateful.

Hi Stacey, please could you post an unprocessed(unstretched too) single frame? Just to look at what the data looks like right out of the camera.

Do a Drift Align by Robert Vice (DARV) using the DSLR. That'll sort out your Polar Alignment error.

Its good for a beginners image. Here's what you could do to imrpove it. 1) Wait until it rises to almost right above your head, or as high as it can get. 2) Use cropped video mode on your camera, this way you'll also get the highest frame rate. This will help you with Lucky Imaging, that is getting those tiny good moments between air turbulence. 3) Take a video for about 1 to 1.5 minutes. 4) Use a Barlow of good quality, preferably an ED Barlow.

off late i've come across some incredibly good images taken with a simply 600mm FL scope and an Un Cooled ZWOASI 290MC (2.9 micron pixels). I was so pleasently surprised that I actually ordered a used cooled version of the same camera (they're out of production now). I too have an Orion 80ED with 600mm Focal length, and instead of making it slower than what it already is, I decided to do what Olly has suggested here, aka, reduce the side of pixels, and in my case i've reduced it exactly by half. Below are two of the examples I was referring to. They were taken with a 6 inch f4 netwonian and the ZWO ASI 290MC

You've got to get a coma corrector, there's no way around it. Many more subs will reduce the amount of stretching you need to do, thus making the image more smooth.