geordie85

I hope so. I missed it this year

A flat IV thanks to John. Its a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Can't wait for clear skies to test it.

It's a surprise clear night tonight and with an almost full moon so I decided to cobble together a dual rig. Canon 6d on the flt98 and qhy183c on my WO Star71. Everything seems to be working OK for now.

4 new bearings for my moonlite focuser. Hopefully it'll start running smoothly again. Not that I need it at the moment with this weather

I'm out doing the same at a dark site at the moment, just slightly different. Orion at 50mm with my 600d and taurus at 135mm with my 6d

Shame I don't have a Facebook

I use a Samyang 135mm. Used to use it on my 600d, now I use it on my 6d

How good was your polar alignment?

Hi I'd just like to say a massive thank you to the good folks at FLO and to a gentleman known as Es Reid. I bought a re-collimated WO star 71 from FLO in May 2016 and had a slight problem with star shapes. I assumed it was down to needing to play with the tilt adjuster but never got round to it. Earlier this year, after a change in cameras, I figured I'd try and improve my star shapes and tried to remove the tilt but to no avail. After getting in contact with FLO to see if there was anything that could be done, they asked me to return my scope. After a few emails back and forth, I was told that Mr Reid had taken apart the scope, cleaned it, put it back together and re-collimated it yet again and that it looked good on his bench and would be returned shortly. I've just managed to do a quick star test in between the clouds and my stars are the best they've ever been, even with my Canon 6d. So once again, a huge thank you to everyone at First Light Optics as you have once again proven that you guys are the very best telescope vendor out there and that your after sales customer care is second to none. Also a massive thank you to Mr Es Reid for doing the work and fixing my scope. And last, but definitely not least, thank you to Grant for keeping me updated and responding to my (probably annoying) emails.

My 2 year old son had his first telescopic experience tonight. He was so excited since he's seen me setting up, but never looked through my scope (neither have I though as I only use it for astrophotography). He couldn't see anything but said he could see stars then it got too cold for him. I was over the moon at his excitement though.

Looks like you've got really nice skies to image under. Mine are orange.

I've put my answers in the quote.

My visit today to the IAS yielded me a new dovetail and a baader uv/ir cut filter. Now I'm just waiting for the good people at FLO to return my star 71 and I'll be good to go with my "dual rig". It took me forever to work out how to attach everything together and a lot of scrambling around trying to find the right bolts. But I got there in the end.

Thanks. Little man will be getting a new book shelf soon.

Double post. Sorry

That is awesome. Where'd you get it from?

I'd be very happy with that considering you imaged with a guide camera.

Search astroboot for one.

Yea it doesn't look quite right for trailing. I'd have expected the 60s trail to be double the length of the 30s trail. But it doesn't appear that way. Does your SA have any wobble to it of you try to shake it? Or backlash? What tripod is it attached to? How high do you have your tripod? Have you tried putting your camera settings to the lowest ISO it will go and taking a long exposure to see if the trailing starts and stops/ jumps around?

Hotech 2" field flattener and a Baader Vari-Lock 46 to get the correct spacing. Just need to have some clear nights for testing.

Very nice image and post. I was very close to getting one of these myself but then a William optics flt98 came up at a cheaper price and temptation got the best of me. Although I'm extremely happy with my flt98, still can't help but wonder which scope would come out on top in performance for astrophotography.

You've got decent stars for such a long focal length. How long were your subs?

If it is a spacing issue, wouldn't the banana bends all be going in the same direction? Can tilt be a possible cause? I must admit I'm very interested in this thread as my middle bahtinov spike isn't straight either and I use a flatfield astrograph (WO star71).

That is correct, my mistake. I got my wires crossed with the mention of a dslr in the original post.

Could it not be caused by vibration due to the shutter of your camera?