Alien 13

I was making a general statement about light from extended objects and perceived brightness vs magnification but you are correct that reality doesn't fit theory exactly, the amount of light transmitted by a scope is never 100% some designs are better that others and the dark adapted eye can be overwhelmed when its suddenly sees something bright too. Alan

It would be mad if people think some distilled water dissolves mirrors like acid, I cleaned mine once a month for years and never had an issue.... clean them............... Alan

I think Maks work better with higher f ratios so that could be why I see the advantage that the 102 has. Alan

Great images, am I imagining it or does the Skymax 102 produce better Luna images of a full disk moon than any other scope, from what I have seen it certainly beats the 127mm hands down. Alan

The way optics work and the resultant exit pupil size combined with the magnification available must mean that the observed brightness is similar whatever size scope you are using... I cant see the need for filters at all unless the naked eye view is too bright. Alan

I have the 50mm f/1.8 STM and find f/4 is the best all round option if doing longer tracked exposures however if I am shooting on a fixed tripod with foreground features then using f/2.8 is still fine. In both cases focus about a third of the distance away from the center along an imaginary diagonal for best coma performance. Alan

They sure are great bits of kit, had my RA viewfinder a few years now and they certainly save your back and knees. Alan

I realy like the starless image its captivating to view....I agree with Adrian in that a starless thread would be nice. Alan

Its on BBC iPlayer... Alan

I do like that program, on one episode they stripped and refurbished some WW2 binoculars, fascinating stuff. Alan

I have dabbled with eyepiece projection but always found it fiddly and the results highly dependent on the quality of the eyepiece in use. A better method in my view is to use a barlow lens instead, the magnification factor can also be played around with by extending or reducing the distance to the camera sensor with those tubes you have. Alan

The problem that is sometimes reported when using the 650/700/750D models is horizontal banding, now this usually only shows up when an image is heavily stretched (I never noticed it when I had a 650D). The cause of this banding is the hybrid AF system that these cameras use for live view focusing when shooting video for example, the hybrid system uses extra rows of sensors in between the normal sensor pixels, the other system often used by Canon for AF is the dual pixel configuration as used on the **D and mirrorless cameras that has eliminated the problem. Alan

Much prefer this type of action, I have a thing against using any shortcuts with PS. Alan

Not sure but my Canon with wifi can be wired directly to the PC but I never use it that way.. Alan

I dont know anything about that camera but the Canon wifi option is great for live view shooting remotely when using a phone/tablet or EOS utils on a PC. Alan

Looks like a well balanced machine, the 512Gb SSD is good to have but it would be interesting to know if it had spare slots so you could fit a HDD at some point if you started to run out of storage space. Alan

Wow 631 pages... Alan

Ideally all sensors should be round but square is the next best thing, you are rejecting an awful lot of data with a rectangular one... Alan

The star adventurer is a nice mount to use with camera lenses, the Rokinon/Samyang lens you mention is probably the best "astro" lens available at any price. Have a look at this topic.... Alan

Are there any good glass filters for camera lenses, I need a 77 mm one that fits the filter thread.... Alan

I feel the same too, its not just the optics either that get blasted with heat, the focusser and grease within it also gets hot and worse problems sill if there are any plastic bits in there... Alan

I think I would get on my knees and pray for a Tak Epsilon....best scope in the world...probably. Alan

You mention a tablet there, can it run the required capture software? Alan

If the bunnies are on the sensor then they will always be in focus no matter what the lens focus is like... Alan

I found this information regarding sensor requirements here, I do think there are subtle differences between astro and microscopy cameras due to the latters requirement to take dimensional measurements in some applications. The big plus with microscope optics is that they nearly all follow a strict DIN standard so camera compatibility is easier to get right. Alan