dannybgoode

What ever fiddly job you have just done on your astro gear I see that job and I raise you working through the various permutations of polarity for the three tiny magnets on the end of the bolts of an SX filter wheel until the dammed thing stops spinning for eternity! Don’t fancy doing that again in a hurry. My fault for dropping the carousel and luckily the magnets just attached themselves to various metal parts but trying to flip them over on the bolts was not fun

So long as the position of Polaris on the ring in your PA scope matches that of the app it really doesn’t matter. I think PA reticules would be better off just being a plain circle for the northern hemisphere - would save so much confusion.

If your main interest for a frac is AP I’d perhaps look at a 4” one. The shorter focal length will be easier to manage and overall it’ll be easier on the mount. A 6” on an EQ6 Pro is just starting to push the limits and in any event eats into the budget for other stuff. For pure AP even an 80mm can make a formidable weapon but to get some nice visual use out of it a 4” is good. I love my 105mm/F6.2. Stunning lunar views, very good on doubles and clusters and works on the brighter DSO’s. As for AP - it is far more capable than I!

I’m in the other camp regarding GOTO. I came into this hobby all keen to ‘learn the skies’ and become a Jedi ‘starhopper’ etc and then lost so many nights not being able to find a thing. I quickly concluded that manually finding targets was about as much fun as walking barefoot on Lego. I moved to a GOTO mount and the sky opened up to me. Yes getting it aligned was initially difficult but I’ve cracked that and I’ve now also discovered the joys of blind plate solving which removes the need for aligning altogether. All that said $250 is not a large enough budget for a solid motorised mount and worthwhile scope and I’d look for something like a Skywatcher 150P (the 750mm focal length one) and a good AZ4 mount- both secondhand. You should easily find such a combo well within budget. That’s what I started with and still use as well as my other gear. The scope in particular is really very good and will last you well into your journey into imaging if that’s the route you end up going. I’d then start saving for a decent GOTO mount...

@Marvin Jenkins the base astro imaging software is very stable now. If you just want to run an imaging sequence having manually set the kit up then it’s really pretty straightforward. Yes there’s a learning curve but it’s no steeper than that you have already overcome in becoming a visual astronomer. A few hours watching YouTube vids and reading the odd tutorial and you can get something like APT up and running and it’ll work night after night (I find APT more straightforward than SGP for this type of imaging session). When you enter the realms of full automation then things are a bit different as each setup is essentially bespoke and yes, an in-depth knowledge of how the software and hardware hangs together is required. Either that or you pay someone to do it for you but then you are less able to trouble shoot if something goes wrong. Of course once set up all those hours start paying back as you can image even when you’re fast asleep. Most ‘technical’ hobbies these days have a computerised route that takes it outside of the realms of the core hobby. Your example of photography is one as is amateur radio. How far down that route you wish to go is up to you. But certainly don’t be put off having a go at ‘manual’ imaging. I can now get my imaging rig set up and ready to take its first sequence in around half an hour and to switch to visual takes seconds if that’s what I decide to do (simply remove the camera and plop in the diagonal with eyeliner and refocus). It really isn’t too hard to do and is very rewarding when you start to get those first images.

You can see plenty in 10x binoculars and don’t discount 8x ones either. Smaller, easier to hold to hold steady and can see very nearly as much. I use the Pentax 10 x 50 WP’s and they’re excellent. Can’t remember FLO’s price on them but they are thereabouts. The 8x42 will be cheaper and optically as good. Look at the rather fantastic Binocular Sky website and sign up to Steve’s excellent newsletter too. A free month by month guide to good binocular targets straight to your inbox

Does the mount have an extension bar for the counterweights. Mine does - it screws into the end of the bar on the mount just about doubling the length of it. This allows you to put the weights further away from the mount thus making it easier to balance due to the extra leverage.

Nice comparison Mark. So would you recommend the Siberia or is it one to steer clear of?

I’d be very interested to hear how this performs. Would like a nice low powered 2”-er in the box. Would be very useful.

I could of course be reading the graph wrong - I am new to all this guiding malarkey! Still perfect stars on 5 minute subs so must be guiding pretty well. As for quick and dirty - if I am spending more than a couple of minutes trying to see through the damned PA scope then that's too long as far as I am concerned!

Agree. Have never got on with a finder scope and went straight to Telrad. The only scope that doesn’t have one is my TMB and that’s only because I’m not gluing, sticking, drilling etc anything on that .

Excellent, thanks Graeme - that makes perfect sense and given that it works like this means that PA at new locations should be relatively trivial so have one less excuse to load the car up and get to if not a dark site, certainly a better one compared to my back garden

Thanks guys and apologies-must have missed it first time round. I’ll give the SharpCap routine a whirl then and see where I get to

It’s a remarkable capture if it is the satellite. What are the chances of catching that?! And once again I’m in awe of those that have a grasp of the mathematics andScience behind it all ( @vlaiv I’m looking at you!). I can get by with basic arithmetic but you guys take it to another level.

Up till now I’ve been doing a quick dirty PA just using the scope and my guided subs have proven to be good to at least 5 minutes PHD2 shows guiding to be within about 1”. However since I have SharpCap I thought I may as well give it a try for its PA routine but that got me thinking. The PoleMaster makes sense to me - it sits in the exit hole of the PA alignment scope so I can see how that the aliens the mount. With a guidescope however does the alignment of the scope itself matter at all? Mine isn’t particularly aligned with my main scope as it doesn’t particularly need to be - I don’t use it for finding, only guiding. It’s pointing roughly in the same direction of course but it’s not nailed on and even if it were then the main scope might be out compared to the mount itself. So my question is - does it matter or will the alignment routine still align the mount itself rather than the guidescope?

Spot on. That’s exactly what it does. Plate solving just works out where your scope is pointing

To add to this - the plate solving comes into the equation simply so the software knows which bit of sky the scope is pointing at. From there the software knows which star is which then used to calculate the drift alignment. The more I dabble is this hobby the more I realise that there are some exceptionally clever people who quite freely give up their time to write software that makes our lives easier . How they work out all this stuff is beyond me!

Love the Telrads stuck to the side of these massive scopes That 20” binoscope is a true beast but o can’t help but think it must be a bit of a pain to live with!

Love the Telrads stuck to the side of these massive scopes That 20” binoscope is a true beast but o can’t help but think it must be a bit of a pain to live with!

Love the Telrads stuck to the side of these massive scopes That 20” binoscope is a true beast but o can’t help but think it must be a bit of a pain to live with!

Yep-something about Kruppax isn’t there?! Magic stuff, doesn’t seem to matter what the temperature is or whether you move the scope from somewhere cold to somewhere warm or vice versa, there’s not a drop of dew. Not entirely sure how the tube material has such an effect on the glass of the objective but it works. To OP - the corrector lens on my SCT dews up before any other glass on any of my scopes and I simply can’t shift it. Very frustrating when you’ve got everything set up nicely and then your evening is ruined. One suggestion-have you cleaned the primary? Dust etc will exacerbate dew issues as the water has something to saturate and cling to.

Thanks Dave. You’re right and I’ll take the positives. My little boy is happy and it’s for him I took the image - trying to get him a bit interested in it all. Just need some more clear nights and I can carry on and improve it more. Lots of targets up there as well and even with my light polluted skies at least I know I’ll get some of them

The 150P with the 750mm focal length is really quite portable and has significantly greater light gathering capabilities than the smaller scopes mentioned. I have one and have managed to see some wonderful sights from my very light polluted location and it’s the one I’d recommend. It won’t only be a starter scope but one that will stay in the collection even if you and your daughter decide to add to the arsenal.

That’s simply stunning. One anyone should be proud of. All the effort has paid off clearly

Been messing around for hours with the subs on this trying to improve it but have come to the conclusion that there simply isn't enough data so I'll just have to try and get more next clear night - whenever that might be! This is the best I think I can get it - processed using APP and PS CC using various Astronomy Tools plug-ins. Processing is a whole new learning area for me too! I'm torn between being frustrated as it has not turned out how I wanted at all but also taking the positives from what was a decent night of learning how to get all the kit to hang together. Ah well, such is the nature of our hobby