nephilim

Hi,

I've just bought the Optolong L-Extreme filter to add to my imaging train.
The filter thickness is 1.85mm. Am I correct in thinking I now need to add 3x1.85mm (5.55mm) to my spacing taking it to 49.55? Or do I divide by 3 meaning I add 0.6mm? 
TIA
Steve

1 minute ago, Waldemar said:

According to ZWO info the ASIair Pro does NOT support your ASI120MM camera... 

It supports the ASI 120mm-s 

I've the same camera & yes it is needed to help reduce star bloat. You'll find a T2-1:25" filter holder that came with the camera, this screws into the 11mm spacer, the filter then screws into filter holder.

4 minutes ago, Mctoot said:

Oh I know…. It alright I have zen level patience  

Best way mate, I've spent the last 9 months slowly building up my rig with many of those weeks spent waiting for stock. It's all worth the wait in the end though.

2 minutes ago, Mctoot said:

I am patiently waiting for my rig…. 30-40 working days but I trust FLO and they are transparent regarding their stock. Might make some kind of tick off the days of calendar or something… with things the way they are this waiting game is like a rite of passage  PS - hello everyone, first post. o/ 

Remember that Saturday & Sunday don't count as it's working days only. Sorry if you didn't realise this but it's best to know in advance 😂

This is a bit of a coincidence. Over the last 9 months I've been saving (and spending), slowly building up my AP rig & I now have all the shiny pieces I need. The photo below shows how nice, neat & tidy it all looks right now. Stay tuned over this evening as that's all about to be ruined as I try to add all the cables 😒

Luckily, I'm using the ASiair Pro to control everything so most of my cables, 12v, USB 3 & USB 2, will be going to & from that. The ASiair has 2x USB 3, 2x USB 2 & 4x 12v outputs/ inputs which (in theory) should power the mount, cooling component of my CMOS camera & dew heater. The reality is that all 3 will probably be too much of a power draw so I'll only be using it to power the camera fan & dew heater, the mount will have power from the same main source (The Celestron LiFePO4 power bank) but will be going into the power bank directly via a 12v cable rather than through the ASiair. 

Most of the cables which came with my gear are ridiculously long for no reason whatsoever although thankfully the ASiair & ZWO 533MC-Pro camera come with a selection of cables of differing lengths 

I'll post a couple of photos on this thread during the evening for everyone to have a laugh at & to probably show just how 'not' to do it. Here's the first couple of photos of how it looks atm, all nice and neat. 

25 minutes ago, Grant93 said:

Wow, I can't thank you enough for all that haha! That looks brilliant, will definitely be using that to plan my nights in future 😀 and referring back to this for instructions 😅

 

@Grant93 No worries mate, it's a bit long winded 🤔 but once I'd started I felt obliged to carry on rather than leave you with half the info 😂 There's still loads more too it than all that but you'll learn all that pretty quickly, it's a great program.

@Grant93  I  also highly recommend this.  https://telescopius.com/

It's a very handy free piece of software that's a telescope simulator & much much more, it's absolutely  packed with countless astronomy  information.

It's best if you create a free account so your details (such as your location, equipment you'll be using etc) are always available without having to constantly type them in everytime you go on.

After you've done that, simply click top right (Head & shoulders icon) to access your profile. Here you can add your location etc. Click on the  'Equipment' tab, in the drop down menu you can add all your gear, the list is good & extensive (if you scroll down near the bottom of your profile there's a quick tour of sections) Also, if you click on 'Astrophotograpy' to the left of the Equipment tab you can upload any images you've taken & also (if you have it) import your 'Astrobin' profile. Then go back to the main screen, far left under 'Observatory settings'  (Observatory.....I wish 🤔) you can also add your location aswell as in your profile. This is the section with weather info including a 7 day hourly forecast, seeing conditions, sunset & rise times & moon rise & set times.

At the top of the main screen there's a 'Toolbox' tab, in that drop down menu there's every astronomy calculator you can think of. This Toolbox drop down is where you access the scope simulator, a planetarium & any observing/ imaging targets you might have.

Far right at the top there's the 'Go to object' box . Type in what your interested in imaging/ seeing & it will show you where it is in the sky, how long it will be visible for you & any interesting targets nearby it.

Pick your target, go onto telescope simulator & expand the screen. As you've already added your camera/ scope details there will be a outline of your sensor overlaid on the screen so you can move it around & see which targets will fit your sensor & the best rotation to frame them. It also has a very handy night mode, although not so much of an issue when your imaging.  As well as your imaging camera details you can also add more cameras (if you have them) and any eyepieces you may have if you do any observing, you can then easily switch between them all.

This is my probably favourite astronomy app & has much more than any other I've ever used (Stellarium was myost used for many years & although it's very good Telescopius just has much more) It's very well worth while spending a couple of hours going through it so you can get the best out of everything it does.

Here's a few shots to give you a rough idea of it. Excuse the  picture quality, it was just easier to take a pic straight off the laptop screen 😂.

Clear Skies & all that

Steve

As above, more exposures. Great improvement though & much sharper on the second.

At first I noticed something wasn't quite right but couldn't put my finger on it but then realised that the second frame is rotated 180 degrees 😂

12 hours ago, happy-kat said:

There are the field flattener options for the evoguide as well.

@happy-kat I'd actually thought about getting the ED50 FF a while ago but I was saving for my main kit & its really easy to start getting distracted & spending those savings on other Astro related gear.

I've had another look at it now after you mentioned it & I think it would be a nice thing to have as it's a slightly longer focal length than my Samyang @135mm. It would be a bit better suited to objects that would be slightly too small for the Samyang. 

it's also pretty compatible with my ASI 533 resolution wise. I'm going to have a look at Telescopius shortly & see how some potential targets would look.

thanks for reminding me of this again 🙂

10 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

It all depends on where you are going to send the kit, and whether you are there to supervise.
Also whether you want it look nice stacked up in the house.

A cheap (flimsy) case is fine if you are handling it. But not if it goes into the cargo hold on your holiday flight.
Or for transport by road. You might not throw into the back of a van or use it as a wheel chock. But cheapo freight delivery Ltd?

If you must have shiny chrome etc, then you buy new. If you want secure storage, then used is fine.

As for the foam. You can buy it separately from various retailers.
Sculpting foam with a really sharp blade or a hot wire is not that difficult.

I have had various cases in different quality and condition. And still have some.
When I have tried to sell surplus on SGL, there has been less interest in the 'used by a band on world tour' appearance than a 'shiny' case.
Having a case that is strong enough to stand on for reaching the eyepiece on a long dob being less important than chrome corners.

Actually I have found my strong cases (that look tatty) and didn't sell on SGL have became very popular with friends who are moving house😁

HTH David

@Carbon BrushThanks for the info David 🙂 It's actually just to be used for storage mainly & making set up easier.

 Ideally I want to be able to take my entire set up  (as in my photo at the top of here) wires & all off the mount in one whole piece rather than stripping it all down & need a good quality protective case to store it in. This will save me a lot of time & faffing at the beginning and end of an imaging session, I can just set up the mount & tripod, then mount all my imaging gear in one go, stripping down at the end will be the same process but in reverse.

There will be the odd occasion when it will be put in the car for trips to very dark sites but I'm lucky enough to have Bottle 3 skies at home so trips away with it all will be limited really.

Regards 

Steve

12 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

The camera used for most of the shots was a modified Canon EOS 550D, with APM 80mm F/6 triplet and 0.8x reducer. The comet was shot with a Canon EOS 80D and Sigma 50-100 mm zoom at 100 mm and F/1.8. The key is gathering many short subs (60 s, as a rule) and adding loads of them together. Of course, fewer, longer subs means far less processing time, and less readout noise, but if you have simple kit, you have to pay for that in processing time.

 

@michael.h.f.wilkinson  It has certainly paid off for you . I think that modifying a DSLR for AP gives you a very good head start if your not going down the dedicated cooled camera route, it shows that you can get very food results with much shorter sub lengths.

I've literally counted the pennies, scrimped & saved over the last 9 months to buy my new kit & have started with the Samyang 135ED f/2  ( reading the very long thread on here & asking a few owners of this lens countless questions swayed my decision making greatly) I love widefield images & this lens will frame the likes of the entire Cygnus Loop, M20 & M8, M42 including the flame & Horsehead without the need for a mosaic. Plus with the shorter focal length it'll be much more forgiving when it comes to guiding. It's paired with the ZWO ASI 533MC-Pro. My guide set up is the SW EvoGuide ED50 & ASI 120MM-S. These are both sat side by side  on a dual mount which then sits on the Explore Scientific EXO2 PMC-8 GOTO. This mount was great value & has a max weight capacity of 12.7kg. The EXOS-2 is very much overkill for my current imaging setup but it gives me a great choice for scopes for when I want to get proficient enough for galaxies etc (I've got my eye on the WO GT81 IV Triplet for this coming winter) All this is controlled with the ZWO Asiair Pro.

Next on the never ending steep learning curve is post processing. I'll be using PS to start with but once I have a half decent image I'll be looking at the Pixinsight free trial, I've watched hours of Pixinsight tutorials & believe it to be much more comprehensive than PS. This  has all suddenly started to become very exciting 🙂

2 hours ago, michael.h.f.wilkinson said:

Take a look at what may be done with the humble EQ3 in this thread:

 

I have been having a lot of fun with my second-hand EQ3-2 mount. Sticking to short subs, you can get pretty decent results. Of course, the bigger, stronger mounts make life a lot easier, but with results like these

\

I won't complain. Not prize-winners, but not too shabby either.

@michael.h.f.wilkinson 'Pretty half decent results....' Who are you kidding, those are superb for an EQ3-2, if you were to tell me they were taken using an EQ6 R Pro I would happily believe you. I'd be over the moon with those. It just goes to show what can be achieved when you have good skills & patience  using fairly budget equipment.

Although seeing these good quality images taken with that sort of equipment is where I went wrong a few years ago.

I'd originally started out with visual kit but quickly wanted to jump into imaging (as I've seen many on here try & do the same), I couldn't afford to buy suitable gear all over again (even if I'd sold my visual set up), I had a SW 200p & a standard EQ5 mount. I'd seen another SGL member imaging with identical gear as me with a few added modifications, achieving similar results to you.

I bought the after market motors & all the other kit needed to modify both my mount & Canon 350d (right near the bottom of Canons entry level DSLR's) I can't remember exactly how much it all cost but it was a few hundred ££'s. What I didn't have though was the patience & skill required to use it all properly as I was still at the stage of wanting instant good images (I'd yet to realise there's no quick fix with this 😂)

Anyway I'm rambling, so long story shortish. I gave up completely for several years & put AP on hold until I could afford the right kit & do it properly. That time has finally arrived after a lot of saving & waiting so once we start getting astronomical darkness I can finally make a start.

Very well done with your images though, they're very inspiring 🙂

4 hours ago, Lotinsh said:

Thanks a lot for advice! This has been very helpful, at the moment once I finally get dark nights (I live in north side so at the moment I don't have any night) I'll try to take a photo of milky way, @rickwayne The photo's you showed look amazing! I hope I some day can take a photo like that. As for now, Jupiter and Saturn are visible, so I might try to take aa pic of that, as I won't need anything more than I have, I'm soon going to my dad's house, he lives in the country side, so there might be darker. As far as I remember he might have a go-to mount with a telescope he has, maybe it's  good enough and I can take a pic of something hopefully. It's not a solution though as the telescope isn't his and I'm not sure if the mount is capable of that. Anyways, thanks for advice, I love this site, why is everyone here so friendly?

@Lotinsh I've been interested in Astronomy since I was about 9yrs old ( So thats 40 years now 😱😱....writing that down makes me feel very old 😂) and a member on here for over 8 years. I've probably learned more in those 8yrs than the previous 40 although I did jump in & out of the hobby for many years.

Imo this is the best Astronomy forum online, its also the friendliest and I was made to feel very welcome from day one. The wealth of knowledge on here is immense & I've never been afraid to ask any question no matter how simple it sounded. 

One thing I'll also add though & thats not to get too hung up on not having a GOTO mount for the moment. Although having one for the photography side of the hobby obviously has the benefit of getting straight to the target you want to image so you dont 'waste' precious clear sky time trying to find it with just your finderscope. 

Getting to learn the constellations, where they are & whats located in & around them (Galaxies, nebula, clusters etc) on your own without technology to do it for you is a great way of familiarising yourself with the night sky. With GOTO been so popular these days less & less people are learning there way around by relying just on memory alone & learnt experience. Also once you start to get into astrophotography having a good knowledge of whats there opens up many more objects to image that you wouldnt have previously thought about.
If you just use GOTO when your locating an object your missing out on so much more thats out there. I started as a visual amateur astronomer & had no need for a GOTO system, I just used a planisphere ( https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/david-chandler-night-sky-planisphere.html ) and star hopped until I found the target I was looking for & during those star hops came across other objects that I would never have seen if I had a GOTO system. I benefitted greatly from searching the sky myself & it was much more rewarding. The reward comes from finding other objects while trying to locate the target you originally wanted to see. There are visual amateurs these days that just go straight to buying a GOTO . They simply have a list with the targets they want to see, press a few buttons & are straight there. I think people are missing out doing it this way.

8 hours ago, Lotinsh said:

Thanks for all the responses, apologies for being so late, I was asleep, but this vas very helpful. For now I guess I'm going to stick to my current way, taking short exposure shots and stacking lots of images, but knowing how expensive it is, there is zero way for me to get pretty much most of the thigs you've recommended me. Also as recommended I'm going to try milky way pics, with my camera and stock 50mm lens and a standard tripod, these thigs I do have.

As for my camera, I have a dslr Nikon 3300D, sorry for not mentioning that. 

I have taken pictures of the moon, they turned out good enough in my opinion, but anything beyond that so far I've been unsuccessful.

I hope maybe with time when I get out of school and can finally have a job maybe I will be able to afford the stand and stuff.

I'm willing to put a lot of effort into this hobby, I love everything that's got to do with space and photography, so the time needed to figure things out isn't a problem. I'm thinking of becoming (maybe) and astrophysicist, but I'll see.

Thanks for all your responses, wasn't expecting so much info! Hopefully I've answered everything too that was asked.

I also have a pc, not a laptop though, just noticed that someone asked.

@Lotinsh Thats a good positive reply, I'm glad you haven't been put off with our answers.
You say your still at school, you've plenty of time ahead of you to do loads of research plus compared to when I was at school astronomy gear is a lot more available (When I was at school even the most basic telescope was well out of our reach to buy as were binoculars, I had to make do with just looking up 😂 but it made me very familiar with the night sky) & all the information you need is at the push of a button.
As you already have a tripod, camera & 50mm lens thats a great start for Milky way shots as I mentioned in my earlier answer. You also say you have a PC, that means you'll be able to stack your short exposures and process them. Heres a good link on the subject of stacking & why you do it https://nightskypix.com/astrophotography-stacking-software/ 

For stacking your Milky way shots you can use this free software  http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html or use this one for stacking planetary (or Lunar) shots which is also free https://www.autostakkert.com/. For processing your final images this software (linked below) is very capable, its not as comprehensive as say Photoshop or Pixinsight but those are expensive, GIMP is free & will give you great results when your starting out  https://www.gimp.org/   There are a lot of tutorials on YouTube on how to use this.

Also have a look at these videos below. Its a full tutorial on how to take a photo of M31 (Andromeda) with just a tripod, camera & lens. It also shows how to stack & process the finished image using the free software I have given you links to above (DeepSkyStacker and in the second video using GIMP) This is Part 1  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXcRKoxTPVg&t=0s  This is Part 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5b9PVwSB6Q&list=WL&index=31&t=6s  Trying this out will definitely be very good practise plus you already have everything you need to do it 🙂

Keep on asking questions on here, you can never ask enough & you'll always get very good advice. I joined over 8yrs ago & many of the things i've learned, I've learned from here.

I wish you the best of luck
Steve

1 hour ago, Louis D said:

I watch our local Craigslist for such items (tripods, cases, fluid heads, etc.) that are cast offs from local film and music production companies/groups.  There are some good deals to be had if you don't insist on cosmetic beauty.

As long as it keeps my kit safe in not bothered about a few scuffs, thanks for the info 

8 hours ago, tomato said:

A few years back I needed a large flight case to take my mount. After a bit of research I visited Flightcase UK in Bradford, they make large bespoke cases but had a range of smaller and used cases. I picked this used one up with a bag of foam in fills for £40, first photo was in it’s as seen condition, second is after I smartened it up a bit.

That looks like a nice secure case & at a good price. I'll have have a look at their website. Also my parents are in Harrogate, not far from Bradford at all so it may be worth popping over next time I visit them.

1 hour ago, rl said:

This is word for word my own experience...

I think it is many peoples. I started with visual, then became a member on here & saw some of the photos people were posting & thought 'why not' (I wish at the time i'd known that there were many reasons 'why not' 😂). But I had to make do with what I had (a SW 200p, EQ5 & an old Canon camera) I'd seen another members photos using the same kit with the after market motors but they obviously had much more skill & patience than I did. I had small successes with planetary but not much else. I realised i'd need to invest much more time & money to be able to get to any standard i'd be happy with but at the time had neither.
Luckily this time around i'm a little better off & have slightly more time. Even with the right kit I know this will still be a very steep learning curve but i'm pretty determined to give it my best shot 🙂

1 hour ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Nephilim nailed it in their reply .

Briefly, in astro  photo terms, you can have cheap or you can have good.

I'm a photographer (now amateur, but was employed in the business for a decade) and I wondered about using the expensive cameras and lenses and tripods I already own to do a little astro photography back at the start of the covid lockdown last year, something to take pictures of from the back garden. I had an inherited celestron astromaster eq114 , and did my research to see what I would need to make it work to give me acceptably good  pictures.

The answer was ... give it away, and spend a lot of money on something that works. I couldn't afford a kit which would live up to what I wanted. So,  I redirected my attention to visual observing, bought a heritage 150, and have loved what the simple 'scope  has shown me, to the point where I've added other 'scopes to my kit.  Your heritage 130 has the same focus set-up, which is just not adequate for photography, I've played around having been tempted into taking a few Moon photos and the focus is too coarse, plus to achieve focus with a DSLR body you have to not quite fully extend the 'scope, which is a pain to get just right.

If you already own a reasonably decent laptop (for processing the photos) , a DSLR , a lens and a tripod, then a simple star tracker (plus an intervalometer if one's not built in to your camera) for around £250 will allow you to try your hand with some pictures, but if you don't already have the photo kit, or the laptop , the cost will obviously be much higher. Second hand kit will reduce costs, but good equipment holds its value well, so you would still be looking at something around £500 , probably more. And that is using a camera lens, not a telescope ...

If you already own a DSLR and lenses and a good tripod, there are sites with information about using them without a tracking mount , here's  an interesting one I found and bookmarked : https://project-nightflight.net/DSLR_astrophotography_untracked.pdf

and a really long (nearly 2 hour) explanation vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuMZG-SyDCU

same guy  again, star tracker vs none, he walks you through the method and the processing , just 90 minutes this time 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYucAuUrdTs  There is plenty of similar information around, aimed at photographers who want to take astro photos rather than people coming at it from an astronomy point of view, so f you have the gear have a search on photo sites and see what comes up.

If you don't have a DSLR, but a 'phone with a decent camera , or even a compact  camera , you may be able to  take simple , untracked pictures of the Moon through your eyepieces in your existing 'scope. I've not tied this, but there's plenty of information available , look for  'eyepiece projection photography'

So, don't give up  entirely on the idea, but be aware that doing more than dabbling in astro photo costs plenty, with some investments in time and skill acquisition, as well as money !

Heather

Good advice there Heather.
I ended up wasting a lot of time & money trying to get into AP with the wrong type of equipment (I didn't listen to all the 'buy cheap, buy twice' advice from people on here who definitely knew a lot more about it than I) & it put me off trying again for around 6/7yrs. I think there should be a pinned post on here along the lines of 'What it really takes & costs to begin a journey into AP' 😬 It would maybe save some people a lot of disappointment & money.

As I mentioned, its taken me approx 9 months of scrimping & saving to afford the kit I have now but every step off the way its been in the back of my mind to sell the new gear & buy a good visual set up with some good ep's for that instant astronomy fix. Even though I now have what I would call a fairly decent set up i'm fully aware of the frustrations that will be heading my way, the weather, technical issues, learning processing (Thats the other 50% of the hobby) further spending (theres always going to be 'something else' i'll need 😂), the inevitable days at work where i've had little or no sleep the night before, I'm way past been able to successfully pull off all nighters 😴

I have to stay positive though as each step will be a step forward (and probably three backwards) & as many mention, AP is very, very addictive & when you get even the smallest thing right its also very very rewarding 🙂.

Steve
 

4 hours ago, Louis D said:

Just make sure to avoid the really cheap "aluminum" flight cases which are actually made entirely of thin, textured, metal-colored plastic.  The sides puncture quite easily.  Not even the edges or corners are made of metal despite the look.

Thanks for the heads up mate. I'm looking more towards these type of cases 🙂 https://www.absolutecasing.co.uk/waterproof-cases/max-cases/standard-cases/max300.html

In a nutshell the answer is no.  Astrophotography is a  horrendously expensive  money pit that keeps on taking. But don't get too disheartened.

You can take very good widefield Milky way shots with just a standard tripod, a relatively cheap lens (a 50mm so called 'nifty fifty' can be had second hand for around £50) and a second hand DSLR can also be found for not much money. Using the rule of 500 you can work out how long you can expose for before star trailing occurs https://astrobackyard.com/the-500-rule/

If your set on buying a tracking mount the cheapest, most basic models are around £280 (The Star Adventurer for example), that's for the mount head only without the tripod (another £80) Normally i'd say go second hand but at the moment Astronomy gear is selling like hot cakes, even shops have waiting times of up to 90 days on a lot of items. Also, these cheaper mounts only have a very low weight capacity, the one above is only 3kg which would mean camera only.

If its deep space your interested in then you'll have to really up the budget. Its not just the mount & scope. You then have to factor in a field flattener for a refractor, comma corrector for a reflector, the camera your using, how your going to control the software for your imaging runs (laptop or dedicated control unit such as the Asiair etc) Then, how will you power it all, if from home you can just run an extension outside but if travelling you'll need a portable power source.
There are ways of modifying certain non tracking mounts so they can track, either using after market motors or modifying it yourself, however I personally wouldnt recommend it, AP has a very steep learning curve & adding to it with kit that isnt really suitable will be hard work (I've tried it with not much luck)
I tried it a few years ago with kit not really suited & gave up in the end. Now though I've finally decided that I want to give it a go again but this time to do it properly. I've been saving money & buying parts bit by bit since last Oct & now finally have a half decent set up but its cost me over 4K & theres still other things i'd like to get further down the road. 
Sorry if this comes across as negative but i'm been realistic. If you really want to give it a go I would start small with Milky Way shots & take it from there rather than buy sub standard gear & be put off before you get started. I also recommend reading this before you do anything as it'll explain things far better than I ever could. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html 

I'm assuming your scope is the flextube dobsonian, you won't be able to fit that onto an EQ mount so the Star Adventurer etc wouldn't be of use, there's something called a barn door tracker which are usually home made but I don't really know anything about that.

Good Luck

Steve

 

8 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Not used them myself, but here's a few specialist vendors who might have something suitable:

https://www.cases-and-enclosures.co.uk/aluminium-flight-cases

https://flightcaseuk.com/

https://www.absolutecasing.co.uk/

and if you need cubed foam (or pretty much any other sort of foam ) I've bought from here  https://www.efoam.co.uk/pick-n-pluck-foam.php

@Tiny Clanger Thats great, thanks for the links 🙂

I'm looking for a flight case type container to carry my main AP kit (not the mount etc). Its to make things simpler & quicker for set up so I can just take the entire set up off the mount & put in the case without having to strip it all down. 
Ideally it needs to be at least 60cm wide by 50 front to back  by 30cm deep (slightly bigger will be fine but not smaller). It also needs to have the pick & pull (I think its called that) foam insert so I can cut it to fit my gear. Non of the ones I've looked at have been any use & are either £25 questionable affairs from dodgy companies such as 'Wish' or specific to Drones etc.  Its to fit the setup pictured, I also need it to be a fair bit bigger than I require for future things of which theres usually something further down the line 🙄

Thanks

Steve

As far as AP goes it's like any hobby. Some people will 'get it' & some people won't. I personally don't see the point in visual Astronomy but again each to there own.

AP for me isn't just about a 'pretty' picture, it's the thought that certain photons have been travelling at the speed of light, sometimes for as long a time as to have set off when dinosaur's walked the earth (some much longer) only to land on the sensor of my camera to build an image of the past. 

I find that pretty mind-blowing & that's part of what does it for me when it comes to imaging. I also actually like all the faff involved as well 😁

I've only bought a few low cost accessories from them, spacers etc. I was pleased with both the price & the build quality. They were also delivered very quickly. I'd definitely use them again.