bomberbaz

Hello all.

I am looking to image smaller DSO, mainly planetary nebula.

I have read a few threads on here (none posted recent) regarding using barlow and generally the answer is no, don't bother but with a few exceptions.

My camera is a ZWO 183mc pro (pixel 2.4) and is mated with a F6 60ed frac. Is it viable to use a barlow on small bright nebula eg M57 ring or is it quicker and more efficient going without and cropping the image?

pro and cons pleaase

Thanks for the help

Steve

Anybody ? 🤔

Bought a Horizon 60mm ED scope and accompanying FF.  I did look and consider the WO range but the sticking point was weight I am afraid to say. Sometimes every gram counts. 

Anyway, looks great, feels well built & solid.

I got this because as mentioned the low weight, also the overall spec is very impressive and finally it balances perfectly on the AZGTi.

1 minute ago, herne said:

Looks great 👌.  Looking forward to your first light picture.

A big plus to me was I didn't need to faff around with the cable, they all simply went back into sockets and things look fine. 

Quick pic of new OTA.

The thing is a piece of beauty, the build is superb. 

Looking very forward to trying it out. 

16 minutes ago, Louis D said:

I can fully understand how some folks can spend hours or even days editing astro images.  I specifically tried to avoid getting sucked down that hole; thus the unpolished look.  I'm not trying to get my image on APOD after all.

I get what you mean, I have just faffed around for a half hour trying to stitch mine from 2015 together and got nothing but mad and a headache

I did similar back when we last had one Louis, although never managed to animate mine

Is anybody aware of or using any plug ins that work with GIMP.

After a steep learning curve I am now getting used to it and like using it now. Just wondered if there are any plug ins people are using, costs and effectiveness of any of these.

I found this page with a number of plug ins Gimp Plug-Ins - Programme - Georgs Homepage (hennigbuam.de) and also this PyAstro for GIMP (weebly.com) but before I start messing around, (I am still on that curve) I was looking for others experience.

Cheers

Steve

31 minutes ago, herne said:

Penny drops why you were asking how much my Z61 and everything else weighs 👍.

Are you including the counterweight in your 5kg+ weight?  If not, my Z61 weighs more than that scope you linked (2.2kg) yet with guide scope & camera, camera (OSC or DSLR), AAP, cables et al I’m still under 4kg total.  If you are including the counterweight, mine weighs c.1.7kg so total = 5.4kg.

Think our weights are very similar there then, I come in at 3.18kg for the entire imaging gear, the cw is 2kg, so 5.18. 

Howdie all. I have decided to update my rig, bit of a see and bite tbh.

It's not a great deal bigger than my existing OTA in aperture but I had an eye on weight re AZGTi capability, (+0.78kg on the evoguide) so this seemed like the best option if I am to be able  to carry on adding to this thread.

This scope here at 60mm.  RVO Horizon® 60 ED Doublet Refractor OTA - Rother Valley Optics Ltd and it's assorted FF weigh in at only 1.94KG.

A few things sucked me in, the bigger aperture, better glass and small FOV mainly, plus it's overall a more dedicated arrangement than the evoguide which I intend keeping for wider field stuff.

Add in the AIR+, guide scope etc and it all comes in at a little over 5kg, think the mount will be ok at that.

3 hours ago, Fegato said:

I'm not really an expert, and I'm not really a refractor person either (although I do use an evoguide 50ED for guiding), so whether this is any use, I don't know!

For imaging, the FOV is driven purely by the focal length and your sensor size (assuming no issue with size of imaging circle for the particular scope). So in simple terms, the WO at 390mm has a smaller FOV than the 50ED at 242mm for the same camera. 

From there, the F Ratio varies based on the aperture of the scope. So for the same focal length, larger aperture means smaller F ratio. The point here is that the F Ratio doesn't determine FOV, it's a measure of the "speed" - and it's the combination of focal length and aperture that determines this. The WO is "slower" because the focal length / aperture is slightly higher than the 50ED.

I can't really comment much on the upgrade I'm afraid. Both scopes get good reviews for what they are, although the WO is certainly designed for imaging rather than guiding, so might be preferable. Beyond your preferences for FOV and speed, I guess it's down to the optics. One would assume the WO would be better on that score, if only based on price. Hopefully someone with first hand experience can provide some better info on that!

 

No your explanation makes good sense thanks. I am actually looking at another option but FL and aperture is the same, but around 500g lighter which makes a big difference in this instance.

tHANKS.

Sorry for title but for life of me I cannot think of anything more suitable.

I have a 14" dob. Thinking of stopping it down from a 14 to create a 5 inch solar white light scope. 

Measured the area around secondary and space is ample for a 127mm. 

Best solar filter advice please, I was considering thousand oak!

Also currently F4.8. Again not sure if this maths is right but 14/5=2.8.

F4.8x2.8=F13.44

Have I got this wrong or missed anything?

Cheers for any reples.

Steve 

Hello folks, just looking for a little help and advice here.

I am "considering" upgrading from my current budget entry evoguide and moving up to a WO ZS 61.

Rationale being It is a dedicated piece of kit with superious glass (All FPL53) and has a bigger aperture, providing around 50% more light gathering than my current scope.

Also as it is F5.9 rather than F4.8 it gives a smaller FOV which I want to get tighter images of many DSO's, here is where my head gets a little dizzy.

At F4.8 but only 50mm aperture the area of sky covered by the evoguide is double that of the Zenithstar. So it is faster at gathering light but slower because it is a smaller aperture and also gathering light over a larger area. (see image below)

However the Zenithstar at F5.9 is slower but faster as it opposite to the above. 

I am wondering will the slower ZS 61 be worth the additional cost. 

Another option is barlowing at 1.6 the evoguide which would give you the same FOV as the ZS but slower at 7.7. << I think this statement here kind of tells me the answer but I still don't quite get why, I find this all rather confusing. 

Can anyone give me a "very" simple overview to help me manage my expectations and decide if it is worth the upgrade.

If I did upgrade, it would also put me right on the weight limit too. 

Yeah just checked that you can add the cambridge catalogue to ss6 plus.

Are you sure you can't use ss6 for the azgti?

32 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Doesn't the synscan pro app have a greater list of stars, throught I'd read that somewhere

Think it might have been skysafari as you can definitely add a more detailed list via download to the SS6 plus

I am from uk but is there such a thing as a USA dark sky map?

There are many but you need one that it as up to date as possible. 

Below is an example but it is probably out of date.

https://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html#5/47.347/-117.127

Decreased the yellow/green saturation ever so slightly

38 minutes ago, herne said:

I prefer that than your greenish one above 👍.

As you say, you’ll definitely benefit from more integration.  My only comment is it now looks (through my screen anyway) to have a yellowish/golden tint.  May I also ask -  why are you using a filter?  Have you tried comparing with and without one?

Re the filter, I did a picture of the iris nebula recently, short clip with and without the filter. One star in the clip was a red giant, with the filter, nice and tight little star, without a bloated orange blob. 

It's basically a ir/uv cut filter.

M13 reprocess. I think I got a more natural look this time. If you look below the cluster there are n orange and small blue star next to each other which make a useful and beautiful pair to help check colour correction.

I tried stretching a little bit more but it wouldn't take it, simply not enough data. I would like to get up to around 2 hours worth on this and really see it jump out of the screen at you.  Still, reasonable happy with what 26 minutes has given.

I removed 8 because of heavy satellite trails, there were more but were either very feint or in the corners where I crop or could have been more than a dozen. I mean 8 FGS, that's still more than 10% of only 30 second images ruined because of satellites!

Also happier that my processing skills are developing nicely. I was considering getting another programme to process but slowly learning my way around GIMP, improving results too so think I will stick with it instead.

Evoguide + FF - Astronomik L2 - ZWO 183MC Pro mounted on AZGTi,  52 x 30 seconds, gain 111 - Darks, Flats and Bias - Stacked DSS - Processed in GIMP.

2 hours ago, herne said:

@LaurenceT  As requested 🙂.  The Z61 has 2 small allen key bolts on either side of the focuser tube (the right hand ones highlighted yellow below).  I simply unscrewed the 2 on the left side (2.5mm allen key) and attached the little dovetail base by screwing the bolts back into place through the slots in the bottom of it.  Then it's just 2 thumb screws to hold the AAP in place.

Balance is fine, I didn't even need to move the dovetail bar further forward to compensate (although the whole rig is shifted slightly further forward in the mount).  If you need any other pics give me a shout 👍.

What is the total weight of this please.

Looks a lovely setup and the extra 10mm of aperture must be a great help and the FL53 glass will give super colour and clarity.

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

I'm pleased you've managed another session to test your set up and your guiding is going great. The L2 filter really proving its worth it's a lovely image, though not a criticism but it looks a tad green in parts. I can't remember what software you use to process but can easily sort that issue. 

Cheers

Lee 

 

yeah your right Lee, processed in gimp but it looked red last night so tried to edit that out and looks like I gave it a greenish hue in the process without noticing.

I will let myself off as it was late as mentioned, gone 12.30 when I did it 🙃

The main thing was testing the tracking and L2 filter, I think both passed. 

I will have another bash later and see if I can tidy up.

cheers

steve

Very quick process of M13 and not much data.  More checking the running of the system after my latest faffing around.

Pleased now that my tracking is under 1.

52 x30 seconds with the use of the L2 filter. 

Quite pleased with the stars and the core of the cluster not looking too bloated. I might have another go at processing later but it's late. 

23 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

I would of thought so. The optical train would have changed so the lights wouldn't match the flats. That's how I see it anyway 😊

Yeah it's what I was thinking but wasn't 100%. You know when you think you know but your not sure you are right that you know 🤪

Query, if i take barlowed lights, would my dark, flats etc need barlowing too?

Actually a half chance tonight of getting some data so may have a go at the ring, however this would need a barlow so bit of a faff to rejig it all.