Alien 13

If you can buy kit that will run off 5V like the EQ3/5 with std drives then a mobile phone power bank beats anything else out there. Alan

I am a bit shocked, are TAKs that bad that you have to upgrade/modify them? Alan

Great scopes folks, I think of all the "show me threads" the MAK one is the best, some beauties out there.. Alan

The key to stability with the SA and lightweight tripod is to keep it low to the ground, this is easy if your camera has a flip out screen and you have a right angled camera viewfinder you can hold against the polarscope, tethering and using Polemaster would also let you keep it low. The addition of a camera ball head used with the L bracket is very useful for framing wide field shots. Alan

I am not sure about this, I can see nebulosity in liveview with a DSLR and it takes no more than 20 seconds to hit perfect focus just using liveview first at normal magnification then X5 then X10 and certainly without any tools or bat mask, I expect that the fast optics I am using helps though. Alan

Strange results according to the table my camera is ISO less like a Nikon... Alan

Just looked up my Camera (80D) and the graph looks totally different to all the others i.e. its a straight line, not sure what it means as I always shoot ISO 800-1600. Alan

Thats even cuter than my 90 mm, like the tripod too. Alan

I had always thought refactors had two optical elements in the design, the problems can be equally blamed on the objective and eyepiece and I very much doubt there is a perfect eyepiece out there. Alan

A 70 mm frac can do widefield something that a 120 mm cant. Alan

I have always thought that a 120 mm frac sits in a middle ground where doesn't excel at anything, 70 mm fracs are great at wide field vistas 6 inch reflectors start to open up DSO and small Maks do lunar like nothing else for there price, I wonder if its a case of wrong scope in the wrong place. Alan

Couple off pictures of my mini Mak a Celestron C90 and an image produced with it. This is a single shot RAW done with the Mak. Alan

Everyone should try/own a Russian scope, that Tal Alkor is a beauty. Alan

When I started out an 90 mm frac would have been bigger than anything available in the UK at least in the non professional market, still cant understand why anyone would want any more. Alan

Me too Alan

I use a Spyder 5 calibrator on my laptop screen it makes a huge difference. Alan

I think my 90mm is by far the best scope I have ever owned, its compact easy to mount even on lightweight EQs or camera tripods, a DSLR fits without any faffing about and it does produce great Lunar images. Alan

Sharp craft knife or similar to break the seal around the edge. Alan

You will need a dummy battery, the cheapest way and what I did was to buy a battery off the bay for a couple of quid and strip the innards out. Alan

I found that I had to wind the voltage up to about 7.8 V to prevent premature shut downs, the Camera electronics knows if it a battery or other connected so this might be the reason for this. Alan

It would be nice if Canon released some figures regarding supply tolerance and the cameras current consumption rather than having to second guess them, I had similar issues determining my mounts motor min voltage and current consumption in the end I resorted to measurements. Alan

Another way of adding some protection is to use two of those switching regulators in series, the first would drop the voltage to 9 V the second would then output the required 7.5 V, this will ensure that no single failure will stress the camera. Alan

If you have a Canon battery grip it comes with an adapter to use 6 AA cells which equates to 9 V so I have taken that to be the upper supply limit, more voltage does mean that the on board regulators in the camera get warmer though. Alan

Nice thread and here`s me thinking I was the only one to use the EQ3-2 for AP. Alan

I only wish we had lots of moons so that there was a full one every night Alan