Merak

I've more or less decided to say stuff it and get a baby Tak at some point. Either that, the 76dcu or the Vixen sd81s as a lifetime scope. Not sure my wallet agrees though.....

This is my current g+g scope that goes on a photo tripod. Looking at the possibility of an upgrade at some point and some of the scopes on this thread aren't helping!

Thanks for all the comments, I may go for the 432 as it seems to tick most boxes. Mono doesn't bother me as most objects seem to have little or no colour through an eyepiece. Stepping in to the eeva world for me is to expand the amount of objects I can see. The 183 was near the top end of my budget so I could use the difference in price vs the 432 to a filter or something. I did look at the fovs of the cheaper cameras but they're quite tight with an sct. I also looked at cooled cameras but more than I wanted to spend. I understand it's unnecessary for the short exposures of eeva and I don't intend to do 'proper' astrophotography... I'm quite content with the almost live view. Mark

Thanks for the reply. I want to move away from the dslr and leave that for terrestrial use. An dedicated astrocam should also be a bit less bulky too as a bonus. Will have a look at some of cams mentioned above and decide where to go from there. Mark

Thanks for the replies. I may have to do some further reading because some of the technical terms are as clear as mud. Mono isn't a show stopper for me and extra detail would be nice. Would a filter wheel and filters be an option at a later date? I do have a dslr and have used it for the planets and some basic deepsky ap but I think going down the dedicated astrocam result may produce better results? Mark

Decided to get in to this EEVA lark and deciding what camera to get to go with my LX90 8" sct. I know that a 0.63 focal reducer will be handy to have so will get one of those too. Anyone use the ASI585MC with an sct? Cheers

I take it the tube rings are made of gold?!?!

They were fun though it got interesting when the ponies decided to have a wander through the various setups! Would be nice for some other meets but I'm limited to where I go as no car at the moment. As for my record shot, it was similar to what I could see too and there were moments that the seeing improved and more detail was visible on Jupiter. Mark

Is it a keeper? Seems it could be a nice size for a EEVA scope.

Just a quick 'record shot' from one of the videos I took.

Seeing improved a bit - with the 24mm UFF and 3x tele extender it was looking nice at times. Now the hazy cloud is back. Hooked my dslr to the diagonal to get a few short videos, will see how they turn out... p.s I remember you for the Turf Hill meets.

It was nice watching Io disappear. Tried a combo of eyepieces with 3x focal extender as my lowest fl ep is 13mm. I think I need something in the 7 or 8mm range to fill the gap.....

Cloudy 20 mins ago, clearish now. I have a feeling it will be one of those nights but I'll get the 'frac out the garage so it's ready after I've spent some time with boss....

Had another go at Saturn and Jupiter, this time with my refractor. For an added challenge the mount was the AZ4 so I manually tracked the planets. The focus for Saturn is a bit off - the 1 speed agricultural focuser on the scope isn't the best. That said I'm fairly pleased how they turned out. Scope: Celestron C100ED, 3x tele extender, canon 70d in video mode, processed in Pipp, Autostakkert, Registax and GIMP. Mark 1635a.tif

Yep, it was good to get that too and thanks. Did try with a x3 tele extender but the result is a bit of a softer image.

Had a little go at imaging Jupiter on the 29th. After reading about BackyardEOS I decided to download it and have a play - the first time I've hooked up a camera to a laptop, previous efforts have been using the in camera video modes. Quite pleased with the result and the bonus of picking up two of the moons - Callisto and Europa. Meade LX90, 2 x tele extender, Canon 70d. Captured in BackyardEOS and processed in Autostakkert and Registax, best 25% frames of 2 min 42 second video . A couple of things I'll change next time is play with different ISO levels and 'plug' everything in via the scopes rear cell and not use a diagonal.

This may be a personal thing but I feel looking at The Moon through a eyepiece is far more immersive than taking pics of it.

Had an early start this morning at work so wasn't able to observe - sounds like I didn't miss much! Last year wasn't that good either imo. Best perseid session for me was 5 years ago when I was at dark skies a bit of a way out from Salisbury - counted 102 in 1 hour period. Hopefully it will clear tonight as I'm going to give it a bash and hopefully see one or two.

OK if you have deep pockets! Things like that may become more widespread in the future if the price comes down considerably. I wouldn't mind trying one but I wouldn't buy one as I still prefer something that you can plonk a eyepiece in. For me, I could use my SCT with a focal reducer and imaging cam to do a bit of EEVA. If I wanted a bit of pure visual, I can swap that out, a bit of a faff but the best of both worlds.

I've done a little bit of alt-az astrophotography but I'm mostly a visual observer. My last purchase was a 80mm scope purely for grab n go. However, I am thinking of taking a step into the world of EEVA. That will give me a deeper reach and more objects to see from the garden than I would through the eyepiece. I know how much time, effort, patience and swearing it can take to create a good image and that isn't for me right now.

Thanks for the replies. It's a shame that opticstar don't have a 2x 1.25" in stock.

Hi, After using an el cheapo Barlow, I'm looking at getting a Tele/focal extender and wondering if anyone uses the Altair Lightwave ones? It seems that the options are this, the ES focal extender(which is out of stock everywhere!). The other possible option I guess is to bite the bullet and get the 2.5x Powermate? Not cheap but I guess it's buy once, cry once. Any thoughts? Thanks, Mark

I was looking for a 24mm wideish angle 1.25" eyepiece and it seemed I had 3 choices - The ES 68 degree one(out of stock everywhere), the 24 panoptic(rather expensive) or this. As I'd seen positive reviews elsewhere and found somewhere it was in stock, I thought I'd go for it. First impression is that it gives a brighter and sharper image than the 26mm Meade series 4000 ep that it replaces.

I believe its the same eyepiece, just a different colour and name on it.

It's a APM Ultra Flat Field 24mm eyepiece. I was thinking about getting a 24mm panoptic but this is half the price and is meant to be quite good. It also means I have some more money towards my next purchase! I have a 17.5 Morpheus and they're not bad.