Jump to content

SkySurveyBanner.jpg.21855908fce40597655603b6c9af720d.jpg

lensman57

Members
  • Posts

    4,234
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by lensman57

  1. I have done this on my I3-M . Very difficult print for a FDM . A lot of delicate supports needed and the temp has to be spot on for the bridges and overhangs. Your result is very very smooth and nice. Well done.
  2. Just be careful with handling of the resin. These guys do print with incredible resolution and smoothness but I am not sure how permanent the prints are. Like the PLA that is beautiful to print but has no real use in the real world due to lack of strength.
  3. Sorry for the late reply. The binos were securely mounted on top of my Gitzo Studex ( a relic from my more serious photographic past ) and a Manfroto gearhead . LOL, the center pillar for the Gitzo alone costs 3x as much as the Opticrons.
  4. Well, last Saturday night the clouds broke around 8 pm and I managed to get the 20X80s out. Jupiter was the first target. Quite low now and just over the neighbors roof. The disc was lovely and six moons visible. The four Galilean ones in a straight line, two on each side with Jupiter like a diamond in the middle and two others, one at 12 O'clock and the other at 7. It was a beautiful sight. Later on as my pupils fully dilated I could just make out the impression of a dark band north of the equator. I was in heaven. I then turned to Mizar and the double with Alcor was nice but tonight a miracle happened. The Opticron managed to split the Mizar A and B with clear black space between them. I first thought that the moisture in the air was playing havoc with seeing as Mizar itself looked quite spiky but I just touched the focus, adjusted my eyes and there it was Mizar B. Dimmer than Mizar for sure but still bright. Andromeda Galaxy was the next target and it was easy to find it. A bight core, like a star, surrounded by ever decreasing in intensity of a nebula like cloud. As the last target I swung for M81. Very difficult to find even with a star map. I managed to see something with averted vision but I think for this one true dark sky and no LP is required. So far I have had two short sessions with the Opticron and I am very impressed with it. Considering the price I rate it as outstanding. It is by no means perfect but for what I paid for it from FLO it is punching well above its weight. I only wish that this new menace that is unnecessary security lighting around my house would go away. It has become a fashion to light up ones back garden as a football ground. One of the main reasons why I stopped deep sky imaging. Now I have a pair of Pentax 12x50 from FLO on the way, for wide viewing, and I ust pray that someone would turn those damned lights off.
  5. Up here, they only get it wrong when it is supposed to be clear.😪
  6. I used to do deep sky imaging a few years back. My last image of M31 was in 2015. Increasing light pollution, increasingly bad weather, change of circumstances etc caused me to stop. A few weeks ago I took my 8X32 binos out for a change and enjoyed the wide field view of the sky. I decided to buy a new large bino. Today the Opticron Oregon 20X80 from FLO arrived. Guess what , the forecast for the weekend and most of next week is rain, strong wind and clouds. Manchester weather, luvely isn't it? A.G
  7. Thanks for the review. I am after a new pair of bins for casual observing and I wonder what the good people thought of the B&R 12X56 EDs? Many thanks . A.G
  8. I believe the pixel dimension is about 3.2micron so at 714mm of FL you'd be imaging at approximately 0.9 arcsec/pixel, this itself is a slight oversampling and well over the UK seeing which restricts imaging to about 2 arcsec/pixel, however even if you do not get any benefit from drizzling on the resolution front it will do wonders for noise reduction and with a robust Sigma clipping algorithm during stacking a lot of the nasties will be removed. The ES 102 is a fine scope BTW. Regards, A.G
  9. As it was mentioned earlier effective drizzle is mandatory. Set the guide software to extreme dither ( you need this for a DSLR ) and give it a long settle time before exposure begins so the guiding settles to the normal rhythm. If the pixel sixes of your sensor are on the small size the drizzle may not be as effective as you are probably reaching the theoretical resolution limit of your scope and camera combination. The number of the subs need to be rather large, I 'd say upwards of 30 . In theory a minimum of 4 subs should be enough if the dithering could be absolutely repeatable from sub to sub but this is beyond the mechanics of most hobby or even pro equipment, I believe Hubble space telescope is capable of doing this but I would not go to court with this one. In practical terms set your dithering to extreme and go for many subs as you could get. Hope this helps. Regards, A.G
  10. DSS is still a 32 bit software and therefore its use of memory is rather limited. It was never really designed to handle huge DSLR file sizes so if the size of the file to drizzle is huge it will hang. The effective use of drizzle is also subject to certain conditions with regards to the scale and the number of subs. If these conditions are not met it only acts as a very laborious and inefficient resampling algorithm rather than fulfilling its function to recover detail in which case one is better off using PS or other resampling software. If you have to use drizzle in DSS for whatever reason on a very large DSLR files then try and draw a ROI rectangle around the target ( the red rectangle lines in the DSS ) and may just work. A.G
  11. Hi Louise, The Opticsttar 80 ED doublet is a reasonable price and seems to have the same spec as the Equinox 80 but you do get the tube rings and bits and pieces with it. One of the members has one I think he goes by the name Leemanley, perhaps you could drop him a line for info. The show room BTW will be closing shortly as they have taken over the distribution of the Meade telescopes so they have a bit of reorganising to do so it will be internet ordering for a while. I really do need to make better use of the ZS71 come to think of it. A.G
  12. Hi Louise, Yes I still have the Ascension. It is really a great scope and with a 314L does not really need a flattner. I use a Televue TRF 2008 with it for anything larger. I live just down the road from OpticStar show room so I kind of hand picked it. It also came with a proper test certificate. It is no TAK FSQ but I am very happy with it for the price. The Explore Scientific ones are mainly the same scope but barebone wether they bother testing these before shipping is another matter. Regards, A.G
  13. Hi Louise, If u think that you'd be doing mostly Ha due to the LP then you may also consider the WO zenitstar 71, with the dedicated FF/FR it works out about £470.00 which is lot cheaper than the Star 71 and equinox 80, it is very small and light but with the caveat that some samples are not so well corrected from some of the early reports. Mine seems to be fine and it had a very good review in the Sky at Night mag a while back. The ED 80 is fine but it is slow and it does need the 0.85 FF/FR which still makes a F6.4 scope @510mm of FL. A.G
  14. This is the result of a colossal amount of work and a monumental achievement. I can not even begin to appreciate the level of effort and expertise in this production. Congratulations. Regards, A.G
  15. Mine comes to focus with the diagonal with no problem, although I do not do much visual, so perhaps as you have suggested the OP should contact ES. A.G
  16. Hi, This one is an Astrograph and a very good one at that, the short focus travel is to ensure that the combined weight of the CCD, the FW and the FF/FR does not cause the focuser tube to sag or deflect under gravity. Short of using extension tubes the only other thing you can do is changing the focuser to a Feathertouch or something similar but would be expensive. Regards, A.G
  17. Thank you, as you mentioned the gradients started showing up once I got into the 1200s sub imaging. Hope this quattro fares better than the 150PDS, atleast the focuser seems to have been beefed up. Regards, A.G
  18. Thanks for your practical advice, the bottom cover is already prepared and yes while I was using a manual filter wheel I had the same problem and used to wrapp it up but nowadays I use an automated filter wheel so at least that side of the equation is covered. I am just a bit surprised that a range of scopes promoted and optimised for imaging should sufffer from light leaks where a simple plastic cover from the manufaturer would have helped to avoid all these problems. Now I have a Quattro 8s and the real fun begins. Regards, A.G
  19. It is not the viewfinder for sure, I was using an Atik428EX. I am now looking at the focuser too. I image from my back garden with street lights and the neighbours security lights causing havoc, so any llight leaks will show up on all the subs. I have wrapped the mirror end up with a black bin bag folded twice but it is an ungainly sight. A.G
  20. Hi, Just in case anyone is imaging using a 150PDS or anyother SW NEWT, I had noticed some strange gradients on my captures that I could not easily get rid of. I traced this to the light leaks from the rear mirror cell of the 150PDS and I am sure of this. One evening while leaving the camera to take darks indoors, the background value of the darks showed an increasing level as the early hours of mornning approached and the sky got lighter, now I have resorted to wrapping a black binbag around the rear of the scope untill a more satisfactory solution could be found. I may take the cell out and have a look at this at some stage. If this is a design fault then with regret these scopes are not fit for purpose but it is a little too late to do anything about this. Regards, A.G
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue. By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.