Skyline

Very justifiable. 

54 minutes ago, FLO said:

 

 

Unfortunately stock availability has not improved. Most factories in China have reopened and are running at full capacity but there are not enough container slots available on cargo ships. The cost of those that are available have increased significantly. We hear container slots are being cancelled without good reason then resold at much higher prices! In these circumstances it is near impossible for importers to provide reliable ETAs unless a ship has been loaded and is already enroute. Even then its arrival is subject to delay because most shipping companies are avoiding Felixstowe, which is causing congestion at other ports. 

We try hard to keep our website's dispatch estimates up-to-date but it is not easy, especially for those products sourced through a distributor. Some of our dispatch ETAs are little more than a best guess. 

FLO has more stock than any other UK astronomy retailer (we are the only one with a warehouse) and we have doubled our staff (now fifteen). Nobody is doing more to make astronomy equipment available and provide information but these are extraordinary times. 

Thank-you for your patience and understanding. 

Steve & the FLO team. 

Some other online dealers are adding over £100 on astro items - which are apparently In-Stock.

Has anyone considered an 1100D ?

Hi FLO,

Any news when your 130PDS will be back in stock ?

Thanks.

Nice build Chris and nice garden. I uncloaked my pier the other day for a bit of visual observing. It saves so much time.

14 hours ago, John said:

The price is rising !

We started with a circa £1K scope 

I have a Skywatcher ED120 and it is a fine scope. Compares well with my much, much more expensive Takahashi 100 fluorite doublet and TMB/LZOS 130 triplet.

You can get the ED120's in nice pre-owned condition for £600-£700.

 

 

Or buy a SW100ED, much cheaper with good colour correction. Often come up s/h.

When skywatcher decides it's ready to release. From the marketing point of view, its stoking the fire as they say !

But I have noticed another retailer in the uk has released their own version of the ed72 with fpl53 and comes with a front collimatable lens cell also with stand offs not like the mounting issues what the WO73 suffers from.

Interesting times !

9 hours ago, Diddykong said:

Started thank you for that! Needed to disable WiFi, but no mention of that in the instructions. 

So i guess my final question is: would my Canon EOS 1300D yield very similar results to any CMOS I can buy for under £800?

You be amazed what results a modded DSLR can yield. 

Instead of spendings loads of money on a dedicated astro camera, why not just image with your dslr for a while until you feel that you cannot achieve what you want, then move to a dedicated CCD or CMOS astro camera.

When for many years imaging with a DSLR the only thing I regretted was my DSLR did not have cooling. Otherwise I would have not bothered moving to a cooled camera.

With your canon I would use a capture software like BackyardEos, much simpler to use then APT in my opinion. Especially if your a new comer to imaging.

Labour of Love - Rodd 👌

That's sometimes because of the focuser being tightened too much. It causes some tilt.

Or theres some drift.

Must be the mobile screen I'm using.

Hi Mick,

The background looks a bit clipped.

Nice capture though.

What scope did you use?

Nice image, may I ask what scope was used?

Hi

I took this image of the The Whale Galaxy (Caldwell 32).

In other images on the internet showed some Ha within the Galaxy, so I used my Optolong  L-Enhance filter to bring out the Ha formations.

Now it looks like the whale was harpooned.

60x 180secs. Taken with my SW 130PDS, ASI294MC Pro and a Baader MKII CC.

Its amazing what a cheap telescope can do.

Very good video, nearly bought a 383 camera from the chap, he's just a stone throw away where I live.

This a  very good image done with what some might consider a slow scope to image with.

I recently imaged M3 with my C100ED and thought the results were much better in contrast and depth compared to my 130PDS. 

My 130PDS pier mounted.

Home made guide scope, made from a 70mm binocular lens then used PC piping to get the length, with a door extruder plate bent as a support held by hose pipe clips. Secured on the knurled screws on top of the tube rings.

Hi

I recently obtained a WO ZS73II, last night I had an opportunity to use it while imaging M3.

The brighter stars in the central part of the image show some reflections of either being pinched or the reflection of the spacers. Blue star @10.00 o' clock next to M3 and Orange star @8.00 o'clock low.

Even though I did not need to use a dew strip last night I done so at a minimum temperature.

Currently I am still working out the spacing of the reducer, so I know there is coma in the larger image on the outer areas. 

I just need some confirmation do I need to arrange a return to the dealer where I bought this from ? Pinched or Spacers ? I have bad memories of something else 🥴

Thanks for your help in advance.

28 minutes ago, ollypenrice said:

No, a smaller chip just reduces the field of view. It has nothing whatever to do with increasing the resolution (also known as 'getting closer' or 'capturing more detail.') What you need are smaller pixels so that more of them lie under the projected image of the object. When shown at full size (1 camera pixel given 1 screen pixel) this will give you a larger object image on your screen.

Olly

Yes you are correct Olly, it does mean you just reduce the field of view, I can see now what you mean by using smaller pixels.

Nadeem

I hazard a guess, 55 - 57mm

Was there an original field flattener for the GT81 Gran Turismo?

N.

Nice simple mod.

Sounds like blade runner

Since you have the filter wheel and filters, you be amazed at the images of what a mono 314 camera results give with your ed80 for galaxies.

314's are in the region of £500 s/h or cheaper.