bomberbaz

Great review Lee. If I had a bottomless wallet it would be the L-ultimate, shame they don't do a 1.25"! However the Askar dual band is a compelling buy at that price and performance. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. Steve

Hello all. I currently use this ZWO dual band Filter when imaging nebula and the details can be found at the link. This has a fairly high bandwidth of 15nm in HA and stated transmission of "over" 80%. I don't like this because this could vary from 80.01 to 89.99, a considerable difference but that's another story. I was wondering if adding more data to an hydrogen rich image using a tighter bandwidth filter is worthwhile consideration with the OSC camera (It's the ZWO 183 MC Pro ) ZWO 1.25" Ha 7nm Narrowband Filter | First Light Optics Has anyone tried this and had any success ? cheers steve

I think given your gear and its limitations, that is a fantastic image

Not sure where to post this, so if it isn't the right place then please feel free to relocate admins. I did a brief session with the eVscope tonight, tried a spot looking S\W from my garage, (,least LP) just had to be careful not to trigger a myriad of security lights in the area! (Cats got me twice). I decided to try something a little harder than the messier's, opting for IC 342 galaxy. Quite a difficult face on object. Grabbed a total of 20 minutes of data in short bursts totalling 7 images. They are not timed as in traditional imaging and you can tinker with brightness and contrast on the fly. Anyway, I was transferring the data files to my one drive and decided to see if DSS was available to use on the android system ( which it Isn't) to see what's out there really, but I found an APP which is named Eagle images stacker. Only cost a fiver so thought wth, let's see what a basic tablet and a little imagination can do! Had an initial play, then used my tablet image editing software and managed something not bad for 20 minutes. Top one is the stack, second with a brief tinker at processing using Google pictures app. I know it's not Photoshop quality, far from it but it gives me some satisfaction.

Also nearly the cat 😺🤯

I have used a cable similar to this although it's 5 metres. Cable. It isn't a powered cable, but I have streamed video with it although as yet not recorded high speed video.

UPDATE. Correcting first off my previous statement that these are F2.6, I think that is not correct and do not know the correct F ratio despite much searching however they are probably around F6. I spent half a day on birding, looking in trees of course and chromaticity is apparent but not excessive. I guess it depends what is acceptable to you. WHat I did also do was follow an incoming passenger plane faultlessly and also managed to easily track a helicopter at great height where because of the stability, was able to identify it as a police one.

Reviews here. Amazon reviews need scrutiny though, they have been known to be somewhat suspect. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Binoculars-2-1x42mm-Waterproof-Stargazing-Atronomy/dp/B0822QRLKJ

Ok so really not sure if this is right but here was my calculation as there isn't a focal length on Bressers website for my bins. They are 16x42 which gives a 2.6 exit pupil. Devide objective by exit pupil gives F ratio 16\2.6=6.1. Is this correct or am I barking up a wrong un?

I have a 10x30 pair, used them a fair bit for astro. What they lack in aperture is made up for by the stability.

Had another look at the 72ED and won't bother with the rotator. I rarely rotate anyway but if I need to simply slacked the tube rings. Think that will suffice here too and the less parts on the focal train, the better imho. Going to have a good think about all my gear next, I simply have too much and need to scale down before I get the 72ED.

Thanks Lee. Glad you put that in. Never knew I also would need a rotator too.

Thanks Lee. Is there enough room in the focus to accommodate a filter drawer. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-2-filter-drawer-m42-m48-v2.html

Not exactly sure what you mean by this although I know increasing or decreasing this affects performance both ways. What I have with the evoguide has served its purpose in getting me into imaging, now I just want to step it up a little. As you know it is married up to the az GTi so in my efforts to improve performance, I must be wary of weight as I have no wish or intention for that matter of upgrading my mount. The 72ED seems to have the perfect compromise of weight and hopefully performance. I have now forgot what point I was trying to make here 🤣 Anyway, seems it will work so just need to look at finance 😭 haha

I have been looking at the 533mc, seems to marry up ok when running it through this and has no amp glow https://astronomy.tools/calculators/ccd_suitability Last time of gathering data on deerlick group, the total data grab was 7 hours so happy putting in the time.

Ok been thinking for a while about upgrading my imaging telescope to increase aperture, reduce image size and reduce integration time. Current gear Evoguide +FF and zwo183MC osc. Evoguide supposedly 240 fl (F4.8) but ASIAIR reports it as 267fl which would give F5.34. I do not know if this if this is accurate but assuming it is, it makes things less complicated. Anyway, I was thinking of getting the SW 72ED + a FF that leaves it at it's native focal length of 420 F5.8. I have calculated (assuming the evoguide fl is 267) and the 72ed is true to its stated fl, that the 72ed will gather data at around 1.25 the speed of the evoguide, all other things being equal. Both ota should be ok with regard to sampling from my back garden. Am I missing anything here? EDIT Further to the above, I have it at a 1/3 improvement for the 72ed over the evoguide but only about 8% if the fl of the evoguide is actually 240. !🙄

Right but it does explain to me the barlow 2x/4x issue which for a long time, had me confused. No longer. TBH I find much of it confusing, I guess I have not got a great head for maths.

I have been trying to get my head around this myself for some time, finally I have found an explanation that tells it in my language that I can relate to !

Actually not all are from the USA, I am UK based. I bought my laser from Optic Star a few years back, certainly after the last changes to laser guidance was made. Unless that is changes have been made that I am totally unaware of, however I have not been able to find anything. A laser is pretty much the same as any other dangerous tool such as a chainsaw or angle grinder, safe when used correctly & with care. Mine is not left on all the time and like others have alluded to it is flicked on, then move scope to area of interest, flick off and then centre with my RACI. The usual burn for want of a better description is I would guess around 5 seconds. The guidance for using lasers is quite lengthy and well worth a read "laser safety advice". I believe my laser falls within safety guidelines and I will continue to use it "with care".

Plus 1 more here for a laser. Much more fun to use and as others have pointed out, I too find it much easier to use than a telrad or similar. It is also used in conjunction with a RACI.

breathtakingly beautiful. Just take a little time looking and considering the size of it, bonkers and beautiful.

Ok did a play with images above of @alexbb & @tomato then blended them together, think it looks pretty neat. Hope you don't mind.

Have to say that is a pretty sweet image indeed. Well done. It's the star processing side that really interests me in Pixinsight, although the entire package is rather compelling. If I do get into imaging in a more meaningful manner, I may indulge myself.

I had a chance to have a quick play around with this, data as mentioned seems pretty decent. So I used Siril for the main work and then tweaked in Gimp. I didn't go mad with the stars, and tried two versions with the lower version adopting a less is more approach.

The L3 is purely a IR/UV cut filter, the L-enhance is for filtering your ionised gas lines in H and OIII so they are not doing the same thing. You should stack the filters. I have the L2 version and it is permanently fitted to my set up to avoid bloating. Regarding the star shapes, I had this once and it was actually the tracking in RA that was shown to be the fault (I use ASI AIR btw), once I tweaked this I got my stars nice and round again.