bomberbaz

great read Steve, if I manage to get out with the bins this month I shall do the tour you have written up, some great objects on there to have a go at, thanks.

17 minutes ago, 200pman said:

Putt it on a water butt.it brings the focusser to eye level.

About 10 inches.

Neat looking setup, very impressive.

Care to explain what they all do for curiosity sake!

Hello and welcome.

The best selling scope in the UK is a dobsonian and it is 200mm apertured. The reason for this is it gives a decent aperture whilst still be relatively easy to move around.

Fits across the back seat or even the boot of some cars and at F5.9 (focal ratio) is reasonably forgiving of lower costing eyepieces. 

Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian | First Light Optics

Whilst we are on about eyepieces, seems only fair to warn you the ones you will receive will have an half decent 25mm eyepiece and a pretty poor 10mm one.

Most people upgrade quite quickly and the usual dispensed advice is to get BST eyepieces as these are good quality for a relatively low cost. 

BST StarGuider | First Light Optics

The cost of an EQ 150 is 439, the 200p dobsonian os £369, the price difference would allow you to buy one extra eyepiece, my choice would be a BST 8mm. That, along with the 25mm supplied eyepiece would keep you going for quite some time, be far easier to use than a EQ mounted scope and gives you an extra quality eyepiece. (for less money)

20 minutes ago, ScouseSpaceCadet said:

To be honest you really should start a thread in one of the imaging sections. A pic of your whole kit, a list if it, how much it cost, the results achieved , the usual ap technique blurb so this is not missed.

All the ap rigs in this thread are fantastic for newcomers with some brains, a willingness to learn and limited budgets. I keep banging on, but interesting, educational & enjoyable astronomy does not need to cost a mint or require a 30kg setup..

Spot on SSC, TerraC has managed what I am hoping to be able to do with a similar setup although mine will be guided so maybe I can build upon it.

Very impressed and hopefully he can build on that. 

26 minutes ago, TerraC said:

A couple of snaps.  Not brilliant I know and need more integration time but i'm happy with a few first attempts and for an unguided 50mm guidescope.   I'm still learning processing and have a bit of a light pollution issue.  

 

Nothing wrong with them fella, better than I managed although I held my total time to usually 15 minutes. Maybe yours tracks better than mine as that will obviously make a big difference.

I used to have a 12" goto dob that literally tracked for what seemed like forever without needing adjustment. When I have the 35mm solar scope on the AZGTI, I have to adjust every 5 minutes or so due to drift

Anyway, uncooled and unguided = lots of short subs in a quick time with higher gain than long exposure guided is the way.

If I get chance I will get another go of M33 using my 60mm svbony guidescope, see if I can better it. 🤔

23 minutes ago, raadoo said:

I’ve got good news and bad news and they’re the same: that’s not Andromeda, that’s the Triangulum galaxy. So if your go-to failed to get to M31, at least you can be proud of having gotten quite a usable image of M33 - which is more than I was ever able to with my own AZ-GTi (but, hey, mine’s a lemon of the yellowest kind).

Ooops yeah so it is, sorry got mixed up in my rush to put it up before anyone else posted, what a 🤡 😂

All below are unguided. I cannot find raw data to give details on exposure, gain  etc.

Ring nebula, first thing I did, pretty rough.

Iris nebula, one of my better efforts, again bit of amp glow on right.

On Andromeda here I got a great central galaxy but you can see a dust mote as I had no lights and the amp glow where I pushed the camera too far. It is uncooled and I will continue using uncooled. 

I am considering using a computer heatsink to make a homemade cooler but I am still in the planning stage, I will let you know if it comes to anything.

17 hours ago, adyj1 said:

I'd like to get an idea of the length of exposures I should reasonably be able to get from an unguided AZ-GTi - should it be at least a minute?

What are other owners experience, and what have you achieved (and at what focal length)?

Thanks

I managed exposures of up to 15 seconds but usually used 8.5 seconds. I used to do a maximum unguided total exposure time of 15 minutes.

Caveat: You AZ GTI may be more or less accurate unguided but the only way to find out is give it a blast. 

I would try for a start at 6 second exposures, I used to get my histogram on 10-15 and then try 100 subs (10 minutes).

See how you get on from there and this should give you a feel for the unguided accuracy of your mount. 

Below are some of my unguided efforts which when I find the raw data I will reprocess, this was very early days.

12 hours ago, happy-kat said:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/387654-dithering-with-sw-az-gti/

Thanks happy kat, it looks like the same bracket that @AstroNebulee linked too.

Had a look again when I am a little more with it, looks really good and at just 45 euro relatively inexpensive. Just going to wait for a reply to an email I sent out before I make my next move. However the evoguide and flattener look a good, lightweight and low cost option to get what I am looking for.  Also need to look through my box of bits to see if I have spare dovetails and other bits. 

I have already flashed my mount for EQQ mod, that was done last year when I used the AZ GTI for unguided images with a cheapish 60mm spotting scope, but looking to go one further with the ASI Plus, ED evoguide and a guide. 

Things are looking up. 

Thanks all.

@AstroNebulee Thanks and well found. Just been to the website dealing with the 3D printed bracket but not sure if they are selling it or just providing the print programme. I will look further tomorrow, getting tired now. 

cheers

steve

1 minute ago, AstroNebulee said:

Thank you, very kind. I'm sure I've read somewhere of the evoguide being used as the main imaging scope. I'll have a look. Could the guidescope be fitted via tube rings on the evoguide and fitting aI dovetail bar on the rings to attach the guidescope. It sounds a perfect real lightweight setup indeed 👍

That was one idea but not sure how viable it is. The main tube is 56mm so think I will have a look around at what is available, cheers. 

2 hours ago, AstroNebulee said:

Taken with my sw 72ed AzGti eq mode zwo asi 294mc pro asiair pro. Not bad considering this mount isn't designed for astrophotography. 4 hours worth of data. 

Cracking image that, very nice indeed, good scope the 72ED.

Are you aware of anybody using a SW Evoguide as the imaging scope.

It is a lovely little ED frac but the main issue is mounting the guide. I haven't been able to figure a way to mount an mini guide to the main evoguide.

I had thought about the ED72 but I prefer this as a super lightweight option. 2 smallish flight cases carry everything except the tripod.

I like these small imaging rigs, so versatile and simple compared to some or the impressive but equally massive ones.

I am now pondering with making one up of my own as I already have a GTI and planetary cam suitable for guiding. 

(Opens the money pit)

I keep revisiting this thread and wondering what to do, if indeed anything about this. 

Seeing as I am thinking of using with 82mm bins, equivalent to circa 100mm single aperture in comparison, some would say an HB filter is too aggressive to be an effective tool in these bins.

However I have also read threads in CN where these filters have been used effectively in far smaller apertures (30mm) so I am feeling somewhat bemused by this as it smashes the considered rule of thumb on filters out of the park.

I think there a two ways out of this current impasse. 1) forget it and make do with the Astronomik UHC filters I currently have or 2) get the filters from someone who will allow a try before buy basis. 

I am going for the latter and will report on what I find out later down the line.

I hope to be showing my contribution next week 😉

Quick visit to pound shop and 

Gave these a brief workout tonight, have to say they seemed pretty much perfect, can't fault them in anyway.

UFF by name and nature, contrast seemed good and I think I will be happy with them.

I wonder how many others will admit to getting to a site and realising the finder they intended using was flat!  Well it happened to me tonight. 🙄

Checked my bag of odds n ends and spares etc, in there was every single other battery going (AAA, Button and so on) all bar the one I wanted 😭

I still managed a few DSO but having to best guess your location in the sly with nothing more than a vixen shoe to use for aiming isn't going to be fruitful.

Worst of all I took out my mounted astro laser from the bag just before I left as I told myself I wouldn't be needing it, arghhhhhhhhhhhhh 🤬

18 hours ago, Andrew_B said:

RCs also have a very large central obstruction (often around 50%) which reduces overall light gathering and puts a lot of light into the diffraction rings rather than the central Airy disk which reduces contrast for lower frequency detail so they're not a great choice for things like planetary observing or imaging. Apparently you also get a lot of field curvature and astigmatism and as has already been mentioned, an RC is somewhat more sensitive to miscollimation than a Classical Cassegrain, and far more sensitive than a Dall-Kirkham.

Yeah I think I am settled on an SCT or CC, more likely the latter.

it literally will have to be kept in an air conditioned room.

bet the planetary views are incredible

I have used my Taurus 350Pro several times and as @johninderby as already linked to my out of box post, I am a very proud and happy owner of it. It is exquisite in use and as you have already found out, bespoke to yourself.

I recently went up to Galloway to the astronomy centre and Mike who runs the centre positively drooled over it. A resounding vote of confidence.

Below is the report I made on the back of my visit.

4 hours ago, scarp15 said:

Similar to yourself, I run 85mm refractor, 200mm and 350mm dob, the 200 / 8" definitely fits in there.

I am leaning towards the StellaLyra 8" CC with the possibility of adding an astro essentials reducer.

I have been checking the numbers and stats and the reducer doesn't seem to offer as much as I initially thought it might have done.

The 180 puts me off with cooling time, the F15 focal length and the smaller aperture. Shame really as it appears the views are superb but I can only go off my gut thoughts.

12 hours ago, Captain Scarlet said:

Ooo look an Antares reducer has just come up on the for sale section too … it’s fate! 🤣🤣

M

Hahahaha, stop it, your making my finger itch. 

TBF I am really stuck on this. Cooling time issue against a Stellalyra CC, weight seemingly ok though.

Decision making time. 😉

12 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I hear those Mewlon 210s give a passable view 🤔

Lightweight, Japanese optics, great aperture, reducer available. Seems to tick the boxes. 

Thanks @JeremyS, I shall add it to the short list.