Nikodemuzz

I think you are right, Jeremy. Although aesthetics probably shouldn't be a deciding factor, it certainly is a factor when the all-important approval from significant others is concerned. 😃 Luckily with these Berlebach products I don't think you really have to sacrifice much for the pleasing looks. The tripod is absolutely rock solid, and the price was quite competitive in its class as well IMO. I requested the darker color from FLO, as Berlebach gives these options at their website. It was no problem. Perhaps slightly longer lead time, but I'm not sure if even that was affected. Highly recommended. We have a lot of furniture with similar colours, but I don't think I want to have the gear in the living room... I'll have to consider it. 🤔😏

The postman brought an eagerly awaited package today: CEM60 + Berlebach Planet from FLO. My spouse gasped "that thing is gorgeous!" when she saw it. It is indeed a beautiful piece of kit. Can't wait to get it under the stars!

By the way, are there any reducers that work with the Esprit 150? Or 120 for that matter. I know the flatteners designed for the scopes don't alter focal length, and I might not need to reduce focal length anyway. But is it possible, should the need arise?

I can definitely relate to your reasoning. The possibility to mitigate the symptoms of "upgraditis" already now would be worth some extra wait, me thinks. Although, I do believe many members here have a beautiful collection of "ultimate, last scopes", so I'm not sure if that will work long term. 😅

Thanks for the advice! The Esprit optics are that good, huh? I'm wondering if the winning strategy would be to hold off and save money for the Esprit 150... 😃

Thanks Adam, that was my impression, too. But how does this quality difference manifest itself? More bloated stars? Are there any photo comparisons of targets photographed with both a doublet and a triplet that could be used as reference?

Now that I went and sold my SCT, it is time to consider the details of the next step, acquiring a proper refractor. The primary function of the scope will be imaging, however it will also be my main visual scope. At least for the foreseeable future.... From an imaging standpoint, I'm thinking of focal lengths of around 1000mm. I think that would be a great combo with the WO SpaceCat, and would give me a good flexibility to frame different targets with different sized sensors. Now I have an APS-C DSLR, and will probably get a dedicated astro camera with a smaller sensor in the future. A refractor in the 1m focal length would probably mean an APO in the 120-140mm range. The obvious question is, which model? There is a number of potential options in the new market, and with any luck other options might become available from the used market. I would love to have a, say, TEC140 but I don't think I can afford even a used one. The scopes that I have recognized as contenders so far: - Skywatcher Esprit 120 - TS Photoline 130 f7 - APM SD Doublet 140 All of the scopes will require correctors/reducers, and the prices are not exactly the same. The APM represents the upper end of my budget spectrum. It is a doublet, while the other two are triplets. I'm not exactly sure how much that would affect image quality. For the same price one could also get the APM 152 doublet, which uses FPL-51 instead of FPL-53. Again, not sure if the trade-off in terms of aperture/image quality is worth it. My mount is the CEM60, which I think shouldn't struggle with these scopes. Any advice or suggestions? Stay safe everyone!

I'm happy to report that the problem was indeed solved by getting a new adapter! Thank you!

To provide a conclusion for this thread I can happily announce that I went with the CEM60, no encoders. Here´s hoping I still have a chance to give it a proper spin before the season is completely over. 😃 Thank you to everyone for their contributions and advice!

I haven't been able to do the comparison between the Canon 1200D and the Fuji X-T3 as I promised, and now that I went and sold my mount it might take a bit longer still. I did manage to shoot a few images with the SpaceCat and the Fuji X-T3, and I thought I'll share one of the Rosette nebula while I look for a new mount. The Rosette I think is relevant as it is quite rich in Ha. This image is 100x60s, ISO1600, unguided. I'm not particularly fond of my processing work, but hopefully the image provides at least some idea of the capability of the Fuji X-T3. I really cannot judge myself, as I haven't used other cameras and am not really aware of how much is usually visible with these kind of integration times. I'm just happy that there is something! I would also happy to share the unprocessed stack of images in case someone wants to have a go at it themselves.

This is interesting. When you have the encoders, the needed guiding corrections are probably smaller. I wonder how the guiding accuracy is without them. I'm sure I will find the answer in the thread that souls33k3r linked, I'll just have to find the time to read it.

I see what you mean, however I'm now used to setting up a CGEM for each session, which sits between CEM60 and CEM120 in terms of weight. As long as there is no need to haul things up and down flights of stairs, I think I would manage. For that to work, a proper case or other solution would be needed to keep the mount safe and tidy. CEM60 ships with one, the CEM120 doesn't. I would definitely be interested in a pier solution. However, I would need to solve two questions to make it viable. First, we are renting so a non-destructive installation would be needed. Second, I would need to find a way to adequately protect the mount from the elements, as an obsy will not be possible. I'll have to look into this to see if might actually be feasible.

Thanks all! It seems to make sense to save the money and potential headache and go without encoders. Now to decide on the model. Not sure if it is going to derail the topic completely to discuss it here, though. The main scope for the foreseeable future will be a 120-130mm APO, used primarily for imaging. But I don't want to be having to upgrade the mount even if I would get a bit heavier/larger scopes. I'm sure the CEM60 would be able to handle that, so I'm not sure how much there is to gain by going to heavier mounts, such as the CEM120 or the more premium ones. One thing to consider is the fact that I will have to set up for each session in the backyard, but at least the hauling by car will be mostly in the past.

Hello all! I am looking for a new mount, which I hope will be one that will last me a long time. I'm trying to follow the "buy once, cry once" advice, to the extent that I can and what is reasonable for my use. I would love to buy a Mesu and be set for life, however that goes beyond my financial limits. I am looking at iOptron and their CEM60 and CEM120 as possibilities. Both come with or without encoders. If I'm understanding correctly, encoders reduce (or eliminate?) periodical error. But how significant that is for a mount's performance if you are guiding anyway? I have read that the models (at least for the CEM60) with encoders have issues with guiding. I'm a bit confused, as I would be willing to consider an investment into added quality, but I'm not really sure if I'll get that with the added expenditure in encoders. What do you think?

Thank you! 😃 I'll certainly have a look. I'm trying not to steer the conversation too far off topic, but could you briefly share which tasks you do in APP and which in PI? It seems that Fuji files might not yet be supported. However, I might not be using Fuji exclusively so that might not be such a big issue in the end.

Great stuff! Very interesting to also see the intermediary stacks!

This might be my workflow too unless I find some optimization options in PI that would speed up the certain processes. Thanks for contributing your experience. What is APP exactly? I tried googling it, but unsurprisingly searching with the keyword "app" does return a lot of hits, most of which not very helpful... 😃

Interesing, Han! Kudos for developing the software!!

Inspired by this I set out to search for my old laptop in the storage, and found it. And what do you know, it works! The problem must be incompatibility with Windows 10 as you suggested. Thanks a lot, I'll have to acquire one of those adapters!

Hello all! I tried to connect my CGEM to my laptop for the first time in a few years. It used to work with my old Win7 laptop, but that machine has retired a long time ago... I can't seem to get the NexRemote software to connect to the mount. The serial-USB cable is recognized by the computer, and I can for instance change the COM port number from the Windows control panel. The available COM port number changes accordingly in the NexRemote software, so something seems to work. However, when I press OK, I get an error: "Unable to open serial". Any suggestions as to what the problem might be?

My OS+programs and the processed files live on different hard drives, both of which are SSD's. The CPU is Intel i3 8100 which is a bit slower than the Ryzen 5 2600 that Danny mentioned above, but not by miles. In that light it seems that the biggest difference between our systems would be RAM, I have only 16 GB. Yet our benchmark numbers are quite far apart. It seems plausible to me that most of that would be accounted for by the RAM increase, but what other optimizations can one make? I'm referring to Danny's comment about how he has optimized his machine for PI.

Nice images! There is quite a bit of interesting detail in M31, almost like studying the moon! For tracking down if the dust cloud has a specific name or other data about it, I suggest pouring a cup of coffee and opening the M31 Atlas here. 😃

Thank you for the compliments! 😃 How does one bring out the colour of the blue stars/globulars in the outer areas of the galaxy? Is it a matter of acquiring more integration time, or processing? I tried bringing up the saturation in the blues, but there doesn't seem to be much blue in my M31 to begin with.

Very nice! A newbie question: when you say 9x600 RGB, does that mean 9x600 for each channel, or 3x600?

Finally had the time to process one of the images from last week's clear nights! This is 60x60s exposures, unguided with the WO SpaceCat and Fujifilm X-T3. I accidentally had the ISO set at 5000, but that did not seem to have a large adverse impact compared to other images taken at ISO1600. I read somewhere that the X-T3 should have a largely ISO invariant sensor. I did the processing in PixInsight. I'm very happy with the image! I was fully expecting to spend considerably more time troubleshooting and learning before being able to obtain something like this. 😃