inapottingshed

Can anyone help with the size of the fixing screw/grub screw that secures a moonlite dual speed focuser to a Celstron SCT back?

Perhaps the best thing to do is get the roof repaired then see how it goes.

46 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

The other option, is to not bother with one at all,  ventilation plus a bit of heat, means not condensation.... infact in your case, ventilation will be all you will need, as you will get heat up through the the Floors... 👍🏼

How can I go about ventilating? We never had condensation/damp years ago. It seems to be recent. Admittedly, there is a lot more heat in the house due to central heating and more electrical devices.

3 hours ago, steppenwolf said:

This is the one I currently use and it works perfectly down to a lower temperature than the one you mention. I can control it remotely with a relay board in my observatory as well.

I used one of those before, at another property. They're good.

I'm in need of a dehumidifier for temporary use in a loft space (unoccupied) until roof repairs are completed and for later use in my yet to be built ROR obsy. It needs to be quiet, able to operate (on/off) by a power relay/timer and a catch tank with as safe shut off. I was looking at the Pro Breeze 1500 Premium (1500ml) which is available for around £70. It uses a peltier, is suitable for approx 220 sq ft / 6 cu metres, and operates in 10-50C. It's on the small side for the loft and not sure of 10C is low enough for the loft or obsy. Any suggestions please (budget roughly £100)?   

19 hours ago, reddoss said:

Here are the gloves I use while imaging when it's cold. They are very warm and you can grip any thing with them easily. I got them from Go Out Doors.

 

Cheers,

           Justyn

What material are they made from?

3 minutes ago, M40 said:

This is going to be an interesting topic to see what people use. I have bought and tried a few different brands of touch screen type thermal gloves and each time I have to take one off to adjust stuff. So, this has led me to my so far winning combo of a pair of normal gloves with a pair of disposable gloves underneath. I pulled off part of the index finger on one disposable glove. When I need to adjust stuff, I just take off one normal glove leaving the disposable in place and have the ability to change stuff. Works for me....so far... 🤣

Tactile/touch screen is optional/nice to have (I'd be OK with removing a glove). Really looking for a pair that are OK to use with focuser, laptop, etc. Ski gloves are warm but too bulky (from what I have seen). Not overly keen on exposing fingers...  

4 minutes ago, Bobby1970 said:

The Mrs got me these for Xmas. 

I haven't used them in an astro capacity yet. But a walk to the shops and back and my hands were toasty warm. 

Two fingers and thumb still available for phone operation etc

 

 

Will be interested to hear how they perform. 

Happy New Year to all.

Any suggestions or recommendations for tactile gloves?

I have a pair of Ronhill cycling gloves which means I can use my phone touch screen but they are a bit thin in this cold weather.  

No.

I'm planning to set up my C 9.25 for planetary imaging at f10 and found a back focus of 5.472 inches indicated on the Celestron Website.  I take it this distance is measured from the rear of the OTA assy  to the camera sensor? How much tolerance is there from this distance in average seeing? 

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

Here are some pictures of mine. I’m using them with a widefield setup of QHY9 and Nikon 180mm lens. So far I’ve just used luminance (and a baader Ha filter also in the wheel).

 

Thanks for the pics. Can their transmission levels really be that high?

1 hour ago, tooth_dr said:

The Baader 1.25” LRGB at £215 would be a sure bet.  I have a SVBONY UV-IR filter which performs excellently, but not sure on the RGB filters. I have a set but haven’t used them yet. 

SVBONY seem to have very high transmission (https://www.svbony.com/lrgb-filter#F9170A) according to the chart.

I'm in the market for 1.25" filters, mainly for planetary. Does anyone have experience with budget-priced products from ZWO, SVBONY, TS-Optics etc.? The next tier seems to be Omegon, Baader, etc. I also noted Celestron filters at £275 on Amazon.  I'll be using a ZWO camera. Would it be better to buy the same brand?  

Would there be any merit with in cooled 178? I think deep space targets might be limited due to the OTA?

1 hour ago, Victor Boesen said:

Beautiful Jeremy! How does it hold the tak??

Do you know something we don't? (I've just looked at the sky).

2 hours ago, JeremyS said:

I suppose it could be useful if you get "caught short" on a cold night 🙂

I hope you ordered a heated loo seat too 🙂

I'm sorry to say that you would be inconvenienced. However, tarot readings are a possibility if you cross my palm with quality astro gear.

 

Hmm, SVBONY (looks like they are getting into cameras) LRGB set around £90, TS-Optics around £110. Anyone have experience with either?

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

filter wheel

£30

Unless you order from China/Hong Kong/Taiwan...

Does the EFW have a button to operate by hand or is it computer control only?

They don't come much cheaper than this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SVBONY-SV133-1-25-Multiple-5-Position-Filters-Wheel-Metal-for-Telescope-adapter-/164116624525

Trying to be a bit more optimistic than the librarians above 😉 (OK, I ordered the O'Meara Mars book) I picked up a HiGear Utility Tent from my local outdoor store which I've pitched up in my garden next to my setup. It's not exactly a warm room, perhaps more of a shielded (temporary) room. Actually quite convenient with a small table and chair installed to sit with the laptop and a warming drink.

6 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I use baader RGB filters for DSO imaging, but I think for planetary I would go with cheapest filter set as you don't need to worry about faint reflections / halos and such.

As for filter wheel - I don't have one, I use filter drawer, but I did get my eye on one of these since I'll be making permanent setup / obsy next year:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/filter-wheels/zwo-mini-electronic-filter-wheel-efw-5-x-125-or-5-x-31mm.html

It's not that expensive and has positive reviews. I did not do much research but you want your EFW to be repeatable - filters always in the same position (so you can reuse flats) and there is no light leak.

Thanks. I'm in a similar situation in that I'm planning a ROR next year and trying to preserve funds for what is likely to be a big hole. I worry that if I use a drawer I might end up dropping filters in the dark/mud!

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

If you want to focus on lunar - sensor size plays a part - the bigger the better as you'll need to take less panels for lunar mosaics.

178 wins here.

For lunar I would also consider mono over OSC as there isn't much color on the Moon. Mono will also let you do some fancy stuff better like UV photography of clouds on Venus and CH4 methane band and use of NB filters to tame the seeing.

Again,

178 has 2.4um pixel size, optimum sampling rate is F/9.4 for mono and double that for color (F/18.8)

290 has 2.9um pixel size, optimum sampling rate is F/11.4 for mono and double that for color (F/22.8)

120 has 3.75um pixel size, optimum sampling rate is F/14.7 for mono and double that for color (F/29.4)

I'd say you would need barlow for any color camera and ASI120 in mono. 178 and 290 in mono don't need barlow as they are close to native F/10 of the scope.

ZWO is not the only game in town, QHY, Altair Astro also make cameras with same sensors.

If you can, get USB3.0 laptop and camera as speed of USB 3.0 enables much higher frame rates to be achieved - means more subs captured, means better stack / better SNR.

The 178 is sounding good. What would be a good brand/product EFW and filter set to use with it?

Apologies to the OP for bending the thread slightly.

Jumping on the bandwagon here. I'm looking for an imaging setup for lunar/planetary based around a C9.25. With the planets low at the moment I know it's not going to be great in terms of seeing and I'll probably be more focused on lunar. Thinking to get something like a ASI 120MC/MM to get started and later re-purpose it and then upgrade to a 178 or 290 (or similar). Or should I just go for one of the latter? I have a leaning towards mono but how would the colour/mono versions of 178/290 work with this setup? Barlow? In terms of the math (pixel size, focal length, etc.) are the aforementioned OK with the C9.25 (I'm usually in Bortle 5/6)? I also have a 60mm F5.9 which I intend to use on a portable setup so anything that works with that (not essential as I have a DSLR) would be good.

Are ZWO the only game in town?

One other thing, my old clunker of an astro lapop is USB 2.0. Is that going to be a major bottleneck or just slow things down?