happy-kat

Love the exterior look it blends into the overall setting

The star discovery mount moves in tiny left right up down movements to track, that's fine for planets and the Moon as exposures with a planetary camera are in ms. For DSO field rotation does become an issue and is the limiting factor for longer exposures but if stick within the limitations and crop the edge off where field rotation mostly shows then imaging with a tracking altaz mount is not impossible, it depends on the aims and desires of the user and what and how much the expectations might be.

Having removed the end you look through and holding a camera I was unable to reach infinity focus as I was running out of in focus travel.

This is what you see after taking the end off which you look through, that bit also appeared to have some sort of barlow element in it plus the cross hairs.

What's revealed.

The top piece is a ring that holds a prism in place. I used my finger nail in a groove to unscrew it.

These two pieces can then be carefully shaken out, you can see the thread the ring screwed in to.

Having fashioned a bog roll tube using rubber bands and tape I could experiment with the camera to work out where the camera needed to be for infinity focus. The bog roll tube cut out light ingress to the camera.

Using tape I could mark where the tube was to start and how far I needed to pull the finder from the tube to reach infinity focus, 17mm.

OTA 118mm

Extra needed 17mm

Theoretical depth of neximage 5 17.5

152.5mm - 22mm depth of front lens = 130.5/30 = f4.35

Next onwards to design and get printed a c-mount with extended adaptor to couple the camera to the tube.

Hi

Canon tends to be the most supported with astro software though wider camera brands support is better than it was. Some sony cameras don't do long exposures and like with some Nikon some models eat stars where the inbuilt algorithms think faint stars are noise and remove them.

A flip out screen is useful.

Had you also thought about an astro cam for your budget.

That'll be nice and portable too and lovely wide field views. The really bright objects, Moon planets, are likely to have some chromatic aberration but whether this bothers the observer is individual. What mount where you thinking of to go with it?

Interesting idea. I wonder whether a large lozenge shape would fit within the area and also yield those pin points.

That's a good process, the planet in not over done well done, I hope my first go will be as nice.

Nice one. One of the great stargazines was on the green flash an interesting talk 

Hi

You might like this owners thread on the EQ3-2 to see what other members have imaged and using which telescopes. The 200p is I think too big for the mount you've mentioned for imaging.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/279039-the-eq3-dso-challenge/page/1

.

Thank you.

The finder I have is 30mm and I already have a C-mount to T mount and the tube is the same size as the 30mm so wont fit over or in the finder though I could get a 2" sized one and pack it out with bluetac to fill the gap.

Thank you. Having had a think the easiest solution like like doing something like this.

A cap to slip over the end of the finder and a C mount thread on the top. Now to find a C mount thread already designed to give a head start.

I've plans for this orion 6*30 finder scope that came with an ST80 and have unscrewed the end which you look through and revealed this thread. The opening is a bit larger than a C mount thread and overall the same size as a 1.25 T mount so it wont accept a thread of that size. I'm looking to join to this and offer a male C mount thread to couple to the device I want to attach.

Any ideas on the thread size on the finder scope please?

The outside diameter is 32.61mm and the opening is 28.47mm

Hi

Are you running out of inward focus travel or outward? I'm surprised you are running out of inward focus travel.

When using the webcam you'll either need to keep the diagonal in or use an extension tube in order to reach infinity focus I think.

Have you removed the webcam's lens and are using the telescope like a giant lens?

Hi

Magnification is limited by each night's atmospheric observing conditions, it's unlikely you'll get the max potential very often and it's a crude multiplier of the telescope aperture hence the difference between the two telescopes being locked at. Glass is more expensive I gather then mirrors hence the price difference. Virtuoso mounts have freedom find capability great for if you run out of power, loosen the clutches and use the mount manually. Virtuoso both track and using the synscan app have goto functionality. Synscan also incorporates using a planetarium such as skysafari pro or plus app which gives another goto interface. Freedom find is great (once mount aligned) as it makes observing robust as the mount doesn't lose where it was looking if the telescope (not mount) was knocked or moved manually.

On the pc to learn your local sky there's stellarium a great planetarium

I'm sure you'll have more replies.

Astro engineering I thought were UK, I've a 1.6x barlow and I've found it good.

I have a neximage 5 and it works with Windows 10 I've used it with sharpcap to image the Moon. What number is your neximage?

Hi

You might like this read for using your camera for this type of image capture

https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html

For lunar / planets processing once you capture your video, you could process that using either registax 6 or autostacker and the output image could be tweaked in registax 6 wavelets and any final tweaks in photoshop.

Deep sky objects processing is  little different, there it is stills and stacked say using either deep sky stacker / SIRIL / sequator other options exist and then the output is processed such as using photoshop.

Have fun

Depending on what DSLR you have you might find this useful

https://www.astropix.com/html/equipment/canon_one_to_one_pixel_resolution.html

Looks like small and crisp image and likely CA won't be a problem. Do you have a altaz mount to use with it and a barlow to boost views?

It might be too thick but what about trying insulator tape instead of ptfe

Hi

Nice to see you got a Moon mosaic from your first go. Another approach is, as the atmosphere is not always steady for the Moon, videos can be used and then software picks the best images and will create an image from that, and you could repeat that for each panel to make up your mosaic. Do you have video ability with your camera, a quick search suggest it does, this would increase the chance for more resolved images. Focus is also key, to help know you have the best focus you could make a homemade Lord Y mask out of cardboard then focus on a bright star then swing to the Moon. If you are processing the output images then here is a list of software that might be used I've assumed windows:

Moon or planetary Registax,  autostackkert 

deep sky stacking DSS, SIRIL

general - GIMP

With a static mount this keeps exposure length short but you may find some star clusters/globular cluster might work, you would need to stack lots of very short exposures of possibly 1 or 2 second duration (down to personal tolerance of star trailing distortion), the final stacked image you'd crop the edge rotation stacking artefacts off then tweak what was left. Have fun experimenting not forgetting have a go at Jupiter.

In my using of the synscan app  unlike the other options 1 star alignment used as soon as I turn on does go to the object, so I'll carry on with the set up I do as it I'm assuming helps the mount know where it's starting from (virtuoso v1). The other alignment options don't go to the first star chosen and need me to press the arrows to move the mount.

if like virtuoso v1 - mount level, N icon on base pointing north, telescope horizontal with tube opening pointing towards north, turn on

Try port 11882