bomberbaz

That's pretty impressive for 3 mins unguided, a real confidence boosting snap!

2 hours ago, John said:

Thanks for the interest. I learned a long time ago not to jump to any conclusions when comparing optical equipment. I need to have several decent sessions using the eyepieces on a variety of targets with scopes of different specifications. Due to the weather conditions I have managed just two short sessions under mediocre conditions which told me very little about the comparative merits of these zooms I'm afraid. 

I'm very glad that I don't review equipment like this for magazines where there are deadlines to be met. It must be very difficult to gather enough experience to compose something useful with the current UK conditions🙄

 

I think all in the UK feel your pain atm John, just to be able to do some garden double hunting would be nice but alas, the cloud gods do conspire against us!

27 minutes ago, Spile said:

Well two eyepieces (a zoom and a low power wide angle) plus a Barlow is enough for me. If I was feeling flush and the weather was more cooperative then I might get something around 28 to 30mm but I am perfectly happy otherwise.

A very lot to be said for this approach. Although if you are a diffuse nebula man (as I am), I do feel a good quality, fixed length EP that gives you the magic 5mm exit pupil that also offers up circa 1 degree FOV or more is a must have.

3 zooms and 2 fixed length eyepieces, jobs sorted

I have the same setup as you and added the stellamira FF  but sadly weather has kyboshed my efforts to get any decent levels of data. WHat I did manage showed promise but that's all I can say. 

But for 79 quid get it. FLO offer the returns policy. Reason I avoided the 0.8 version you alluded to is I want the narrower fov too.

4 hours ago, Kenneth Spackman said:

Hi all

I would like to ask some advice in regards to using an umbrella to stave off dew when star gazing. I read a article reporting up to 10 degree higher then the serounding area. This sounds to good to be true or is it. Does anyone use an umbrella to help stave off dew. I can see the benefits of umbrella as a shield for the wind. 

I can also see the disadvantages of a potential wind catching, equipment smasher, just saying.

On 26/06/2023 at 17:40, John said:

My astro society were recently gifted this amazing setup. We are currently installing it at our observatory in a special roll-off type housing. The chair is motorised and controlled with a joystick. The instrument (which we were also given) is the Fuji Meibo 25 x 150mm binoculars - which are huge !!! 😮

Hopefully it will all be up and running for the return of darker nights in the Autumn. I'm certainly looking forward to having a go 😁

 

Does the chair have any kind of reference system so you know where you are pointing John, or is it point and pan from your first known reference point. Either way, I want one 😉

42 minutes ago, John said:

I've never used or even seen one of these but I wonder if any made it into production ?

The 150mm TAL Apolar refractor (the original images of the prototype had the faces blanked out):

 

 

 

 

They all look like Russian spies 😉

On 15/07/2023 at 07:52, Alan White said:

Steve, that’s a very well set out posting and the end result looks great.

I know very little about spectroscopy other than what I have listened to from a fellow Astro club member and
most recently at the BAA Comet section meeting.

How are you going to produce your spectrum for analysis?

Just realised I completely misread that Alan. I produce my spectra using a SA100 (flo sells them) and suitable mono camera.

23 minutes ago, MonsterMagnet said:

I'm looking to grab a cheap tablet to use to control the AsiAir instead of my old mobile.  I would want the ability to use the Sky Altas if I required and after reading around the interwebs it seems there is no real concensus whether 4GB RAM is actually required.

Have people had success with Sky Atlas using either 2GB or 3GB?

It seems that all the functionality works fine with 2GB with the exception of Sky Atlas and Live Stacking.

Thanks.

MM.

Personally I haven't used that particular app but my opinion on memory is that these days the cost is so cheap, the benefit of having the extra bandwidth for not a lot more outweighs potential savings. 

I bought a 7" lenovo tablet for controlling ASI Air and also my evscope, it had 2mb memory. I then pretty soon after upgraded to a teclast 10" tablet with 8gb memory. Difference in cost, 50 quid.

As an example a quick search throws up tablets with 4GB memory, 80 quid, 8gm memory, £100. Both 10" screen and both 8 core processor. 

If your on a really tight budget, fair enough. If not so much, don't scrimp on it.

Steve

Hi all, I have been doing some work in the title above, link to forum post here.

Hello all.

I have been involved helping out  Tom Field of Rspec getting together a solution for evscope users for doing spectroscopy. 

All contributors understand there are limitations to using a colour camera system on a AltAZ platform but from our perspectives, better to get people involved but aware of limitations (something I have been very keen to make sure potential users are aware of) than to not have people interested at all. 

Here is the link Capturing Stellar Spectra with your Unistellar telescope – RSpec / Real-time Spectroscopy (rspec-astro.com)

As a thought, for say every 10 new users who has a bash with an evscope, you might end up with a potential scientific ground breaker of the future and I remember a certain uk politician saying at a political party conference, "half of you won't even be here in 20 years time!"

Astronomik filters, the L range (1-3), I use an L2 filter, I know @AstroNebulee uses an L3. 

FWIW I am very happy with my L2, there are no star halos and it provides a clean image.

However I don't have the L3 to run comparisons and if astronebulee comes along, he will hopefully share his thoughts on the L3!

I should have also given my view on the 150p. I think it is a step too far for the AZ Gti. Not so much the weight but the length will introduce too much flex into the system although I could be wrong but that's my opinion on the matter.

12 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

I agree too. I upgraded from the black star adventurer tripod to the sw 1.75inch tripod and my what a difference for my overweight set up and totally solid now. The tripod a little bit heftier but manageable. So @Richard N for your money maybe consider the heritage 130 or 150 mounted to your AzGti and the upgraded 1.75inch tripod. Plus as you won't have cameras hanging off the focuser you'd have no issues with it, the ptfe tape mod will tighten it up if needed. 

Lee 

 

If you read my Heritage 130p mod thread there is a better focuser mod than ptfe tape. It simply involved 2 small pieces of loop velcro tape and gives a far better & more permanent mod to stiffen up the focuser. 

4 hours ago, Alan White said:

Steve, that’s a very well set out posting and the end result looks great.

I know very little about spectroscopy other than what I have listened to from a fellow Astro club member and
most recently at the BAA Comet section meeting.

How are you going to produce your spectrum for analysis?

Thanks for the endorsement Alan, I am very pleased with the results. Time will tell if it holds together well.

For spectroscopy I am using the Rspec programme. It's a very basic utility and very easy to operate. I understand there are other programmes although I believe others may be more involved and perhaps not aimed at newbs like myself. 

Just done a search and seems there are very many programmes available. When I am ready to move onto the next level I shall investigate this further but for now I shall stick with Rspec.

Anyway, Rspec allowed me to cut my teeth in this side of things and depending on existing gear, needn't be that expensive. They also provided a very useful introduction to using the programme by video. RSpec Videos – RSpec / Real-time Spectroscopy (rspec-astro.com)

28 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Focal lengths aren't of much use. At those I'd need a wide field eyepiece. 48° is a step backwards.

I tend to agree, you have a great range of glass in that area, FL & design already, so these wouldn't offer anything new unless the glass is something amazing.

However, there are often reviews on here where there are claims of increased contract, more detail etc from a certain eyepiece from provider x. But I do wonder if sometimes (some of) these reviews are tainted with wishful results on the back of significant cash outlays to (in the back of peoples minds) justify money spent when the truth is there is little, if any improvement in results!

It doesn't really matter though in all honesty. If your purchase gives you pleasure, who are any of us to knock it. Enjoy it, buy new eyepiece and whatever else takes your fancy, you can't take it with you!

I would like to see a diagram of the lens arrangements, a lot of the specs seem comparable with ortho/plossl design but the price tag on these seems rather high in comparison. 

The proof in the pudding will be someone with a good eye getting behind them but there are a few already out there (tak starbase, masuyama, baader) who are producing glass seemingly similar to these.

That said, Takahashi are known for producing quality gear and this alone will probably ensure the market for these.

Before I go into what I did, a bit of my rationale explained.  I want to carry on in spectroscopy, learning more but without committing to too much new gear, so an OTA for now whilst I continue to cut my teeth as it were.

I am using a SW AZ GTi (converted to EQ) for imaging, I want to stick with this for the time being but it has restrictions on what it can manage weightwise, SW state 5KG. The 130 P-DS is out, simply too much weight. hI had tried using a 130Mak + 0.5 reducer and played around with a celestron 130 but for various reasons, neither cut the grade. 

I was ready to give up when I thought about the heritage. I knew it was lighter (turns out almost a kilo) than the 130 P-DS but I identified that light intrusion, sloppy focuser and lack of dovetail were my biggest problems.

So I knew @moriniboy had done similar mods in the past, now after consulting with him I set about to do similar.

I got myself some stiff, black card, double sided tape, matt black sticky back plastic, a washer for the secondary and already had some spare flocking material and a vixen shoe. Also needed various tools, knife glue etc to carry this out and up front I will say, it was far more involved than I had anticipated.

Ok so took the mirrors off and stored safely away, removed the existing light shield and put the double sided tape inside of the top rim of the tube to accept the lightshield and made the lightshield

The lightshield is the measured & trimmed black card (think is is 300gm) with the SB plastic on outside, flocking directly behind the focuser and enough room for the double side tape left at the top. TIP: Wrap the cut to size cardboard around something of a similar diameter to OTA and leave overnight. This partially curves the board to give you a less stressed join when it comes to gluing. I used a full kitchen roll and several elastic bands.

For joining the tube I use PVA glue and staples to assist with the latter removed after the former had set. I also used a good quality black insulation tape to hold the join on the outside and it stuck well to the SB plastic.

Insert the rolled tube up into the OTA assembly, make sure it all marries up well then carefully remove the double sided tape backing and stick the tube to double sided tape. Without doubt this was the trickiest part of the whole operation. (TIP, I used a small clamp to hold the top part in place whilst getting the bottom started off. Deck chair peg clamps or similar would work)

Blackout the white of the double sided take as best you can. I added the vixen shoe 30mm down the tube base and added 2 small strips of loop velcro into the focuser female section inbetween the gaps in the threads. This last mod is very stiff to start with but eases as it compresses more over time.

 Sorry about the picture here but you can just about see what I mean. 

Put it all back together, collimate and bob's your uncle. 

Nearly forgot. I bought some 15mm T5 u clips to put onto the truss parts to shorten OTA to allow camera to achieve focus, these reduce the OTA by 10mm. The intention is to leave this permanently extended from here on.

I will give a first light when opportunity arises.

7 minutes ago, AstroMuni said:

This might help https://siril.readthedocs.io/en/latest/preprocessing/registration.html

I have visited this before and not had time to fully digest. 

Siril is a complex but very versatile programme. I think if I can put aside time to master the process, my results would definately improve.

6 hours ago, alacant said:

Hi

Unless you have a camera which has sensor amplifier glow, we find that dark frames introduce more problems than they solve. That, added to the fact that with many cameras it is not possible to match the temperature of the dark and light frames leads us to the simplified approach. Perhaps best to try both and see which you prefer. No two cameras are alike so generalisations only go so far.

Right of course, well my camera generates quite a bit of amp glow and as such darks are needed. I understand there are other methods (or am I thinking of flats) but I will continue to use darks and camera being cooled, these are easier to duplicate.

Cheers anyway, I shall look into the 2 pass method and reading the user guide a little more thoroughly.

Steve

On 03/07/2023 at 11:57, alacant said:

The simplest possible.

Calibrate: light and flat frames offset removal only. No automated scripts. No darks. No extract Ha-Oiii stuff. No star processing or any other distraction. No nonsense!
Register: two pass 
Stack: sigma low 5 high 2

Hello and thanks for the image and your explanations on process.

Am I right in thinking that your exclusion of darks is largely down to the fact you are imaging in narrowband or is there some other reason for exclusion?

Also can you explain 2 pass, I am not sure I follow?

Thanks for the help as I really like the simplicity angle of your imaging.

Steve

I'm with the others, leave it until such a point it is undeniably dirty. That said, I used the 16" fork mounted newt at galloway AC and the secondary was truly dirty, the primary too but it still gave super sharp images of DSO's. Equal to my then spotless 14" dob. TBF, it would have benefited from a clean though.

Thanks for the replies. It seems 30mm M4 are the required size, always helps to have things confirmed. 

Steve

Hello all. Does anyone know the size of the screws for the secondary of the heritage 130 please.

Also is there anything I should be aware of when swapping out for Bob's nobs!

Tia

Steve

2 hours ago, Bivo said:

So... Does it wort according Don''s comments?

Oh yes, I have used regularly myself, found the nosepiece very useful for my now sold binoviewers. 

Don's comments around it's versatility are spot on.  A barlow can save you a lot of money by making use of it's versatile nature.