tooth_dr

I can really feel your frustrations Dave. It’s not like it was cheap, you paid a good wedge for this. 🙁😕

I have thought about buying a second refractor and just running two of these, BUT, I was looking at data from last night at F2.8 and F4.4, and the 4.4 looks noisy for the same integration time. So to answer the Q, yes I would buy again, but probably a new 160ED. Sharpstar reflectors have produced some really decent images, but Davey-T's experience would put me off.

Mosaic of HH - Ha only, total of 18 hours and 20 minutes in split over four panels. Just threw it together to see if it worked ok - reduced in size to 40%. I need to go at it with other filters now to get colour, but it's so low, I only get a 2-3 hours either side of the meridian to image this one.

I was just figured it was more in keeping with the ethos of the forum to share all our images here. Then they will always be available for others to see just in case your links go dead.

Gotcha now! I just use that to get sufficient travel to focus the camera, sometimes with a Barlow I need more travel.

I have the same scope, what do you mean putting the blocking filter in centre of travel? You would normally 1) find the sun 2) focus the camera on the limb 3) adjust the pressure tuner. I find that the pressure tuner has to be quite well screwed in, but this varies, and basically you just turn it whilst watching the screen until the features you want to see are nice and contrasted.

I wanted to share this video of the focusing knob. I haven’t adjusted anything so far, it was like this out of the box, and is struggling with a ccd/EFW set up. IMG_6130.MOV

Hi Lars. Very interesting as I’m about to do the same! Would you mind sharing the pictures here on the forum? Thanks Adam.

The scope is poorly corrected without it - the stars are horrible without the field flattener.

There is a reducer for this too taking it to 342mm but maybe not short enough!

The ED80 is an excellent imaging scope and you only have to search on here to see that Maybe a triplet would provide better colour correction, but you will be hard pushed to improve on the ED80 unless spending more. I've just bought a SharpStar 94 to replace my ED80, I've not really had a lot of chance to use it and compare, but it does seem a step up. It has a similar focal length, slightly faster, better correction of colour, but can illuminate a FF sensor. However the difference isnt striking.

Agreed it looks superb! As an alternative SharpStar 76EDPH f/5.5 Triplet ED APO Telescope | First Light Optics

Thanks Ken.

I’ve never really persisted with longer times, the brief time I tried it it seemed worse 🤷‍♂️ 0.6” is ok for me though.

I have recently been plaqued with glitches from just about every piece of kit I have - cameras not connecting, the mesu going into 'blinky' mode, dome not working - I have ordered a new PC. Anyway last night midway through last my session I realised that PHD multistar was off, so I flicked it on in the settings, and the guiding settled down almost immediately after a poor beginning to the session. In the first image I turned it on just to the right of the half way mark. Image two is from later on in the evening. (Also what it the blue target thing - it just appeared the other day)

Fantastic. Really is something seeming the star cluster and nebula together like this.

I went ahead and ordered a Sharpstar 94, and it arrived just before Xmas. I also ordered the 0.8x reducer, which arrived on the 23rd. The weather hasnt been great but I did manage an outing. I swapped the supplied vixen dovetail for a losmandy one. I've attached a single 300s sub of HH with the Atik 383L+ and Ha filter (no flats just BPM with reducer 413mm F4.4) and a stacked image of the moon with the 290MM (without the reducer 517mm F5.5), both below. Does anyone know which screw to adjust to tighten the focuser? It's slipping out under the load of my camera and EFW (1.8kg). Plus the fine control is very spongy. I've searched for a guide but cannot find one. Cheers! Adam

Cheers George. Good to have another resource.

Can ask what is the main concern over threads? I’m a newbie to 3D printing (few weeks with printer) but so far have printed some (what appear to be to me) decent treads - 0.75mm pitch in varying diameters M28 M42 M48 M54 M60 M72 both male and female. Is it structural failure? I’ve tried to break/strip the threads by over tightening but to no avail. Thanks in advance Adam

I really wanted to avoid tape in case it eventually degraded and marked the bodies, and I just prefer that security from a screw fit. I’m not an observer but I used them last night and they are fantastic. I normally go out at night for a quick look before I open up the dome, I will be using these from now on, really enjoyable seeing more vibrant star colours, and having a quick look at the surrounding farms and towns.

I recently received a brand new scope of different brand, and it was completely dust free. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect it to be dust free on the inside. That dust wouldn’t show up on an image nor impact it in any perceptible way. The dust needs to be much closer to the sensor to show up ie on the glass cover slip or the sensor itself. Dust on any additional filters will show up but will be large in comparison. Dust on the lens cell like above won’t be seen.

Disadvantages - flexure, cost, width - could be an issue with a dome, balancing.

I’m expecting the same price as the colour version, but typically mono is a little more.

It’s exciting news 👍🏻

That’s a great result. Stars are surprisingly round too.