Alien 13

I do love Maks, they are pretty much bomb proof, lightweight and easy to mount and the views are jaw dropping at times on the right targets that suit its narrow field of view. I use a smaller version for lunar imaging and do like the secure way a heavy DSLR camera can be fixed to the visual back, I also find the Mak makes a decent long f/l telephoto lens for daytime use too. Alan

This is another of my crazy thoughts, if for example you have a light shining at a distance of 10 miles from an observer then switch it off is the time delay before its detected the same as it would be at the speed of light? A more in depth and a bit off topic thought I have had is what would happen if the Sun suddenly vanished, would space-time bounce and would the effect be instantaneous or again at the speed of light? Alan

Absolute darkness fascinates me, I doubt there is any place in the universe where you could not detect something even in a box made of "vanta black" Alan

Thank you so much for your informative answer but it does raise the question of the probabilities of the light slowing when its been travelling through space for 13 billion years or so and the accuracy of far object distance measurements. Alan

Do photons ever reach "light speed" i.e. the max theoretical limit? I ask because the speed of light is defined in a vacuum but as we know a true vacuum is not possible even in deep space, reasons being that there is no absolute zero out there and space is full of rays/particles etc. Alan

About time, its so easy to get to the Moon but they should have dragged the Mir space station into Lunar orbit rather than let it crash and burn as a first way point. Alan

A moderate sized SCT with the latest tech USB 3 high frame rate camera is actually a very good combination for Lunar or Planetary imaging, the camera probably being the most important component.. Alan

Are mono sensors just bare silicon or do they have a special cover glass or window that might be the reason for the additional cost? Alan

Lots of them here...... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hello-Darkness-Friend-T-Shirt-Black/dp/B01KZPBNMI Alan

The site seems faster once you are in but takes much longer than before to load up.... Alan

Not at all, the problem with slow running gears is that the "shear" forces can move the grease away from the bearing surfaces leaving metal to metal contact if its not sticky enough, this is overcome in faster moving applications by the grease being re-distributed as it moves. Alan

The black sticky Skywatcher grease is the best stuff on the planet.. Alan

I like this, would suggest Moon with clouds too.... Alan

Sorry Olly I misread your post, exciting times ahead.... Alan

I am sure that the same was said of photographic plates but look at how a relatively tiny scope can now easily out perform the great 200 inch monsters even with a DSLR..... Alan

I imagine any new camera tech will quickly appear in mobile phones first as this is the biggest market and the price will come down very fast.. Alan

I would say that around 200 mm focal length gets you reasonable details with the advantage of capturing interesting foreground/clouds too. This cropped image was shot with my Canon 70-200 f/4. Alan P.S. Another advantage for me is that Lunar shots like the one above can be done hand held..

You dont need any more L lenses, besides you dont have enough camera bodies for any more Alan

Confused now you mentioned the N word and L lenses in the same sentence although the L lenses work well on the Sony A7 Alan

Looking at modern DSLRs vs dedicated cooled CMOS like the ASI 1600 I think the read noise and QE are closer than you would think, the real gain is with the active cooling of the dedicated CMOS camera. The 80D for example has a QE of 54% and read noise of 2.7e- against a QE of 26% and read noise of 10.8e- for the old 300D This is a useful site for DSLR sensor information... http://www.photonstophotos.net/Charts/Sensor_Characteristics.htm Alan

Its amazing that "Fireball XL5" had the right idea all those years ago I dont know the exact figures but a very large proportion of a rockets fuel is used up just getting it to Mak 1..... Alan

Hi Chaz, any Canon EF lens will work on APS-C and full frame cameras, the EF-S lenses are for the crop sensor APS-C only. Alan

Camera technology has moved on quite a bit since the 300D and 350D, wi fi control is very nice to have and I use it regularly but avoid the new mid range models that use the hybrid AF system as this has been known to cause banding on astro photos. With your budget I would look at the Canon 80D as it does most if not all that a 7D 11 can do but with better noise performance and the benefit of wifi, Its probably worth a look at the 6D full frame range too if you have any compatible lenses. Alan

The Mak and SCTs for that matter use spherical mirrors so it makes little difference to where they are pointing, any collimation has to be done at the front end... Alan

Looks good not seen that model before so had a peek online and it was nice to see it uses standard AAA bats, I have something similar with the giga t pro but it eats the expensive CR2 batteries so does not get used much. I do agree with keeping leads down to a minimum on portable mounts. Alan