bomberbaz

This is a quick process of data using new rig. Quattro 150p, HEM15 and Askar DB filter with 183MC pro, stacked in DSS, quick process in siril then a tinker in gimp ( 5 minutes messing total ).

Not bad I think for 80 minutes, loving the stars. Lights and darks only.

So update on how things have gone for anyone interested.

I made sure I got a good position to calibrate the mount tonight somewhere close to equatorial equator and it is currently tracking at a little over 0.5, very pleased with this.

As already mentioned I have added a heavy loom weight to the mount and this greatly increases stability.

As per advice from @vlaiv I have dropped my tracking speed down from 0.9 to 0.5 and this is obviously helping as per above. I may experiment with 0.25 later but for now I am very happy with what I am getting.

Since I collimated using a laser (I don't have an artificial star) the stars on the images look very tight indeed, once I have stacked these test subs of California nebula we will be able to see how good this is.

I moved the camera to the bottom following advice from you guys above and I concur, it is far more stable this way.

I am sticking with the mount I have, the whoile idea of this is keeping it light and portable. I can carry the entire rig out in 30 seconds and be up and running in a few minutes, this was a key aim. I realise this will impose certain limitations but having a better (read heavier) tripod would bring it's own limitations and I am not prepared to compromise on them.

Anyway, I would have no problem recommending the HEM15 as a lightweight mount, super bit of kit. 

steve

1 hour ago, Ags said:

Actually, what is this guide speed you speak of…? I don’t see such an option in the user interface?

 

 

 

look under the mount icon and you find it there

1 minute ago, vlaiv said:

I would argue that no mount needs that high guide rate.

What is wrong with guiding at x0.25 for example?

Just to put things into perspective - even if you guide at 0.5 second intervals (which is very very fast guide cycle and probably unnecessary) - you can still correct for 1.875" of error in single correction - that is almost two arc seconds of drift or whatever needs to be corrected.

As you see - there is plenty of "corrective power" in x0.25, but such slower guide speed is much easier on the mount and your setup. From physics we know that F=ma, or force is equal to mass times acceleration. On the other hand, acceleration is change in speed per unit time. If your pulse is x0.9 of sidereal - it is very high speed change and very short pulse - that means much more acceleration (or deceleration in case of RA axis and correction in different direction than motion of the mount) which causes jerk on your setup and introduces oscillations that need to dampen down (and in general cause issues with FWHM of your stars).

Thank you vlaiv for the explanation, to be honest I wasn't entirely sure how guiding speed works but now it is clearer. I will try at lower speeds and see how I get on.

I only picked up the 0.9 from someone on here who said they used it on the AZ Gti so I just adopted it & never really questioned it.

Thanks

Steve

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Newt experts, like Pieter Vandevelde who built this fast instrument himself, set the camera up under the OTA rather than above it. Here he is at my place:

You'll need less counterweight that way and be less likely to bump the camera when working around it.

I'd be prepared to devote initial sessions to careful collimation with the Quattro and, perhaps, consider using an artificial star to get it as close as possible on otherwise wasted cloudy spells.

Olly

Yes I think I will check collimation tmorrow, results from tonight seemed to indicate it is slightly out although not as bad as it could be.

Regarding my tracking it was a little over  1 but we have a full moon and cloudy patches running through so it never really got chance to settle properly.

I am pleased to say that polar alignment was simplicity itself, whatr a very good design Ioptron have incorporated into this liuttle mount, I am most impressed.

Finally the auto focuser is another great bit of kit  although referring back to collimation I did notice again a slight comet tail on the star it chose to focus on.

Overall a useful little session and it has wet my appetite to do some more astronomy related things now after what has been a fairly lengthy break.  

3 hours ago, Ags said:

I have had a couple of sessions with the new setup and had many rainy nights to cogitate, so I think I can sum up my feelings about the HEM15. I really like this mount (used only in combination with a diminutive ASIAIR Mini) - aligning the EQ mount is really easy thanks to the good mechanics of the HEM15, and the clever Air software. Thereafter gotos assisted with plate solving are not merely accurate, they are exact and verified. Guiding in my very limited experience "just works". There seems very little backlash, if any when I was panning about the Moon. The mount is silent and obviously up to the task of swinging my undemanding loads around.  The HEM15 and Air both draw very little current. This is a massive upgrade over the AZ-GTi, and I am very happy with my purchase.

Ags, what is your guiding speed setup on the air app. Mine is currently 0.9 as that is what it was for the AZ Gti but I am wondering if the lower 0.75 might be more preferential to the HEM15!

Some very useful information on this thread, I have the Celestron Lithium 13.2 Ah LiFePO4 Powertank Pro | First Light Optics which I believe meets flight regulations. 

I have setup the imaging rig (details below) but I haven't had a go with it yet. Forcast is for clear spells later so I am just going to have a bash M81, 82 and the garland.  Right now as @Ags I am interested in tracking and seeing how the RNS is. Also bought an auto focuser so want to see how that works and will be running it all from my local network rather than direct connection so want to see how that behaves. No further hijacking, I will report how I get on in my own thread below if anyone is interested. 

)

16 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Forgot I had this, an old loom weight. Circa 15 pounds in weight. Should be plenty.

 

Just tried attaching this and it works, very solid now so happy to go from here and as it attaches with a cable tie it doesn't affect portability.

Forgot I had this, an old loom weight. Circa 15 pounds in weight. Should be plenty.

1 hour ago, Elp said:

I tried the SW pier, I didn't find it stable enough so opted to use it without, or when using a long refractor a larger diameter pier extension.

Further to this comment I tried it and it is rather unstable. One of my aims was to keep this lightweight so I can shift it all assembled from house to garden and if I want to stick with this, stability needs addressing.

I shifted the orientation of the tripod but now it is unstable at the back to front 😬, so extra weight seems the answer.  I do have a 15kg weight in the garden and I will either fettle some kind of anchor to aid stability or try without the pier. 

Again, thanks for heads up. 

27 minutes ago, Elp said:

 

Have you set your fixed altitude range on the mount yet, definitely an indoor workbench/table task.

Yes and so glad I did this before, quite a task and still not sure it is right. I will watch a video tomorrow to check but thanks for heads up anyway 

Hello all. So I finally got round to unboxing my new gear, it had been sat in spare room for 3 months due to personal circumstances that some may be aware of. 

Anyway, so newly purchased were a SW 150 quattro, a two auto focuser and ioptron hem15.  There was a little bit of tinkering needed after assembly but nothing major, tested on some distant trees and all seems well. 

Pleased that this new setup seems no heavier than my previous one (no counterweights) so happy that I can easily carry it outside assembled.

Auto focuser seems straightforward enough once fitted although that was the most fiddling part. 

Wiring up again seemed pretty easy, zwo do know their stuff when it comes to ease of use.

Now I know there are umpteen threads on here but due to my lack of forum inertia, it would take me a long time to read all and catch up so just wondered if there are any snippets of advice anyone can through my way prior to it seeing first light. Pictures attached. 

Cheers, steve

what type of scope are you after, I bought my dob which is made to order but within their specifications. 

Up to 16" with extras such as DSC, Weights, shrouds, bags, counter weight, morror cooling, scondarary heating and others.

Just bought this myself a few months back but still sat in box, following for when my mojo returns. 

peace all.

No idea but here is a link to scopes that can attach. Maybe there is something in there that is similar to your focuser which may be of help.

ZWO EAF Compatible Focuser List & Connecting Methods (yuque.com)

Hello all.

Has anyone got a really good image of Orion's belt they could send me. I know I could get them easily from the internet but these are impersonal, it would feel far more special to me if someone had something that had time and effort put into it. I appreciate the said time and effort that it takes from our community in creating the results I see in this forum of images.

The reason being is my recently passed wife used to look up in clear skies and look at constellations/asterisms and other than the plough, it was the one thing she really liked to see. It held something to her and so it is for me too.

If you could PM me any image I would be very grateful.

Thanks all.

Steve

12 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

You should figure out how fast it is moving.  If it doesn't trail on a stacked image you will need to image it twice a suitable time apart. There will be a lot of stars in the image at around mag. 19 and you have to figure out which dot is 3922.

Yes never thought about identifying it amongst a see other other stars.  Well over 13 hours RA is stable where as dec it is moving at around 0.65 seconds an hour.  Not sure how this computes into imaging without trailing maximum time?

19 hours ago, ONIKKINEN said:

The target will be about a milliarcsecond in apparent diameter, so will appear like any other dim star. But from a magnitude point of view i dont see why not, just need to spend some time on it. Plenty of magnitude 19 stars can be seen in an image with some time spent on it, and i think my magnitude record is somewhere in the 22 ballpark, but that took over 30 hours from good skies so probably not what you're looking for.

If you tried this, you should take as long an exposure as you possibly can and stack without rejection (so that the rejection algorithms dont discard it if/when it moves between subs a little bit but not sure how quickly it would move at this distance).

Thanks for the information, this is helpful.

The insightobs have a 12.5" RC scope available from chile so I am hoping they will be able to get this without spending a fortune on obs time and just running a test on drift time before I book a slot. I am hoping from there it will gather enough in less than an hour thus avoiding costs but more importantly, drift.

Hello all, don't know if this is feasible so I thought I better ask before devoting a lot of effort.

There is an asteroid called "(3922) Heather" in Virgo at a magnitude of 19.3 and given size 20km dia at 3.1 au. Is this doable for imaging? RA 11h 57m 00.76s by dec +00 35' 26.1" as at time of post.

It dioesn't show in stellarium but is in sky safari.

I have no intention of trying myself, it is beyond my own capabilities but I could either use a remote telescope and pay or employ the services of someone on here.

It is for sentimental purposes, something I thought about a few years back but now is the time I see if my thoughts were reality!

Any help or tips gratefully received.

Steve

There are a couple of 8" dobs on UK abs right now for under 200 quid right now. I saw a Orion xt8 and an urse major 8in too

30 minutes ago, phantomgod_06 said:

Oh okay thanks a lot guys, the help is much appreciated!

My guess is your seeing something like this as others have stated but just to reiterate,  this is way out of focus.

Stars will appear as pinpoints of light, nothing more.

1 minute ago, Machinetools1 said:

Thanks for all the reply's. For the lens,  I was using the Svbony 34 MM Ultra Wide Angle 72-degree HD fully coated 2-Inch. I was relying on the Goto with Starsense and my phone. It seems very accurate.  I panned on Neptune, Saturn, Vega, the moon, cannot miss that, Sirius, Capela, Rigel and Betelgeuse.  The Goto seemed to work well.  I rely too much on the electronic system as of now.  My goal is to star hop once I get familiar with the night sky's.  My scope came with the stock red light laser. I had aligned it when I got my scope. I never used it to find what I was looking for as the Goto system always placed me there.  I will check the laser finder when I have the scope out again.  Its cloudy tonight and it appears there might be some rain in the forecast, so I will be checking that out the next time. Is there a better spotting scope a person could recommend?

Your F ratio is to large for serious deep sky viewing. You would get much better result by using a reducer to improve your light gather power and thus exit pupil. 

Generally you should try to get an eyepiece offering 5mm exit pupil for nebula, although FYI bodes nebula is a galaxy. 

I know celestron do an f6.3 reducer but not sure if compatible to your scope. If it was then combined using that with a circa 31mm eyepiece would be perfect. 

A uhc filter would also be a massive boost. 

5 minutes ago, David P said:

So here goes, looks like I've inherited a 4" Orion based on pictures it looks like an Orion StarSeeker IV 127mm (guessing). I do not have eyepieces, a tripod, or any kind of finder. I'm trying to get my kids interested. Please give me advice on what I should buy for the three needed items or any items that might enhance the experience to get them hooked. Purchasing items that are a little bit above the bare minimum but could be used for a future scope isn't out of the question. 

Do you have a photo of the scope to look at, Inc one of the mirror?

1 hour ago, FrankRyanJr said:

Actually you don't need to subtract anything for this timing as it's calculated for the toolbag itself. 

https://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=58229#

Great find, should be usefull for some time to come.

On 23/11/2023 at 10:26, John said:

I must try one someday !

I get on OK with binoculars so it might be what I'm looking for.

On 23/11/2023 at 07:19, The60mmKid said:

Have you ever used a binocular telescope? It's a different beast. I have a friend who detests binoviewers but is head over heels for his Kowa Highlander. A binocular telescope can be a brilliant stargazing tool, including for doubles. Possibly worth trying.

You should try the observatory at Todmorden. @Peter Drew has made them up to 300mm but of interest in particular here with regards double is I think a telescope binocular of 120mm using two sw evostar 120 fracs.

I am not sure if there is an ED glass version, perhaps Peter will drop in an advise!