bomberbaz

Stunning

My best are the Wizard, Tarazed dark nebula and the entire veil. (best viewed on a larger screen and sat back as it's a wide field setup) Re the veil, I was still getting the hang of colours so a little oversaturated. However I was very pleased with the framing and overall structure. OOPS, nearly forgot the Aurora from my trip to Galloway. 😁

I image with the evoguide, it's a very accomplished bit of kit.

I would use the 25mm with the 3x barlow or even 5 times to get you higher power. More eye relief, much easier to place your eyeball and an overall more comfortable experience.

@Nigella Bryant, I refer you to the statement highlighted in white in my signature 😉

Nothing beats dark skies

The key point here is generally, most (but not all by a long way) nebula show something without a filter, however unless you intent on spending a very long time on the same object as suggested by @mikeDnight , a filter is something of a must have as far as I am concerned, some will agree, some (as can be seen by comments) do not. I do use a blackout hood, best thing I bought. No no sorry @Ratletbut that is not correct at all. You're making filters sound gimmicky, maybe not your intention but how it appears. Most planetary nebula will respond very well to no filter, I will agree with you there, but very many more emission nebula are virtually impossible to see without a filter, the crescent nebula being one unless your in B2 skies or better. Even then a filter greatly enhances the detail that can be seen. There are many others too (heart, soul, california, horsehead, cocoon etc). As already mentioned, even bright nebula offer up something extra when used with a filter and in my opinion you overlook the usage of one to your own detriment. There is a great cloudynights filter review to which I frequently refer, details of their findings on filter use and benefit can be found there Filter Performance Comparisons - Astronomical Filters - Articles - Articles - Cloudy Nights I think it gives a pretty decent overview of with and without.

OK let me try with my reply, I have asked so many questions in the past and like to think I have gained a little from nearly every thread i have opened or contributed too in some small way. First my background started as purely visual but I have tinkered around with photography pretty much from the beginning. I now have a very small portable AZ GTI astrophotography rig as well as an eVscope which allow me to carry out some type of astronomy even during moonlit nights or those when I am not in the mood for driving out. that said, my main interest remains visual. There is something very satisfying about having the photons of some far off galaxy hit your retina and realise that when they lefts it's host, dinosaurs were walking the earth or some similar analogy. What you view and enjoy viewing depends upon the individual. It could be broken down in simple terms as stars (doubles, variables etc), star open clusters, globulars, nebula and galaxy. There are hybrids of these, some variations along with a few oddities but I think this covers the bases. Personally I like them all but I do have a penchant for nebula or galaxy with good structure. I will chat more about nebula first and then a little on galaxy. I think I have seen a pretty good number of the available nebula from the Northern hemisphere and have written up about these on here before. My most satisfying nebula in terms of structure, definition, brightness and overall beauty (leaving out Orion) still remains as NGC 6888 Crescent nebula. Responds superbly to an OIII filter with a decent aperture but a UHC is a very good back up option and that filter should always be your first purchase for viewing nebula. Line filters (OIII & HB) can be bought later if you get into nebula in a bigger way. I left out Orion because it's just to easy to be in a competition and it is simply beyond compare when viewed in the right conditions, mesmerising. ( I was in 1,000 yard stare mode for a minute whilst writing that last sentence, really took me back) Galaxies, well I know I wrote with good structure but I do love them all. My best (distanced) visual fuzzy was 420M LY away seen March this year under a B2 sky in Galloway, barely visible but it was there. I spent a few minutes at the eyepiece on that as i remember but the satisfaction was from, "I got it", not from what I really saw. My favourite galaxy in terms of "what I saw" came from M33. This was about 6 years since, again in a B2 (new moon) sky when the view was literally as striking as some of the images I have seen on here. M51 runs it a close second and this was again from March this year. However other satisfying objects are numerous (M81, 82, Leo triplet, M101) to name a few. On galaxy viewing it helps to view a suitable object at low, med and high power. Doing so allows you to tease out different amount of detail as they respond to the differing eye pupil sizes giving you an overall better structure resolve. Finally, all my "best views" have come under very dark skies. A readily available (to most of us) B4 (sqm20.5) sky will give you very satisfying views of nearly all deep sky objects but the very best OMG type moments have come for me under B2 (SQM21.5+) skies, there really is no substitution for the very dark.

Just re-reading your post, not exactly sure what your looking to adapt too. However there are a huge range of adaptors at FLO and I think for that part of your question at least you may be better asking FLO directly. They are very helpful and more than happy to assist.

I would confirm with FLO before pressing any buttons

Think you need this to attach the reducer to the mak https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-1-25-inch-t-mount-camera-nosepiece-adapter.html

Decent that, wish the eVscope had a mosaic programme option.

That should give some cracking widefield views using a frac.

If you could get a use of an eyepiece around 36mm then this would give you an exit pupil of 4.7mm which would lighten things up and brighten the nebula too for the OIII, on the downside your only going to be around x20 so only decent sized nebula (eg M42, Crescent, NGC 7000) would work with this, hence my reference to larger apertures and lower focal lengths being more suitable for line filters. However, I reckon any of your scopes would work really well with a UHC especially if you get into skies which are sub B5. I use UHC on my large bins (80mm) and it responds really well, had some cracking views of the lagoon nebula earlier this year as an example. I too have a UHC-S filter and generally it is used on my fracs but it has had occasional use on the T350. Where it will come into it's own is when cranking up the power on planetary nebula although this is where you OIII should also stand out as previously mentioned.

Agree with you Louis and to be fair I should have been more precise in my previous comment. An average off the peg scope of much more than F6 is not going to provide a readily useable exit pupil for a line filters unless we are talking light buckets in my opinion. However when we get to light buckets, we get typically get to F ratios of F4 and below.

Kindly pointed out to me by @robin_astro is this type 1a in NGC 5631, magnitude around 14. Easy enough to capture but slightly fuzzy in my eVscope, I have recollimated it since this image was taken.

Good point well made, here are some examples of eVscope objects in I think reasonable time. I am still getting used to it but sitting inside when it's -10 outside and still being able to observe is great fun.

I got this last night, thanks for the heads up. Very easily found and seen. Used my own eVscope to get it, too cold to go after it visual.

Transferring data guide from ZWO site. I use method 3, it isn't the quickest but it avoids data corruption which I have had in the past from dickie memory sticks. [ASIAIR GUIDE] How to transfer images from ASIAIR (UPDATED) – ZWO ASI (astronomy-imaging-camera.com)

Not that I am aware, that said I have never tried it. FWIW, I transfer my data from the ASI AIR via wireless, takes a while but simple enough to do and no messing with cards or sticks.

I did look at it but there was some warning that as a perk, receipt of the goods isn't guaranteed! What's all that about?

I own the eVscope and compared to that it is vastly underpowered. If I was just buying one for night time viewing then I would probably not buy this. However I think there is a good market for it as it is both terrestrial and night time, extremely portable and overall very ubiquitous. It would be great for astronomy clubs for outreach, schools and college for similar, there is definately a market out there for it.

If this is right Giles it sounds like you'll be fine. I will test my overall tak diagonal plus remaining back focus distance tomorrow. However, all the praise the scopes receiving is making me regret the revised selling on decision now, haha 😉

Discovered December 6 and magnitude 16.5 at the time of discovery. Located in NGC 1300 which is 72 Mil LY away. For those in Northern hemisphere it is well located in Eridanus. From 53 Lat it is at 17 degrees on southern horizon at 22.00 GMT. Here is an image from an eVscope user.

these are a little pricier but the image stabalisation is a brilliant addon that is hard to beat. I already have the 10x30 versions, would like to have had the 10x42'. Stargazing & Astronomy Binoculars - Canon UK