dannybgoode

1 minute ago, Tuda78 said:

The 2x extender should be delivered tomorrow so i will try it out and let you all know if it works. If it doesnt work nothings lost because I didnt buy it for use with the telescope, just thought it would be handy if it does.

Stephen

 

I have the 2x extender and I can’t see why, with the correct spacing, it wouldn’t work as a Barlow. The proper canon ones are really nicely made. 

Be interested in hearing how you get on as if it works I try it myself  

“Goto is nice but, you will find it very exciting to hunt down objects then point to them through the scope, the thrill of the hunt will be fruitful and really be rewarding.”

I see this advice a lot and to give a contrary view I find the hunt frustrating and the ‘thrill’ of finally finding an object is massively outweighed by the disappointment of realising I could have viewed two or three more objects in the time it took me to find the first. 

Give me a nice Goto mount any day. My observing time is limited and I would really rather rub sand in my eyes than spend half the night missing targets. 

Don’t get me wrong - I often have an unstructured meandering across the night sky with binoculars and enjoy stumbling across interesting sights but if I have a target in mind I’d rather just end up straight on it. 

On 07/01/2019 at 18:14, George Gearless said:

me thinking that a camera that was produced with one purpose in mind, ought to be cheaper than a camera that is designed to perform multiple tasks. Extrapolating on that premise, it was logical to assume that you would get a much better single-purpose camera with the same budget.

The issue is twofold. First, manufacturing what is essentially a scientific instrument and in particular the cooling (just look at the price jump when you start having proper active cooling) is an expensive endeavour. 

Secondly precisely because you are making an instrument with one very specific purpose means you are by default selling to a very limited audience and low volume, high precision kit always costs money. 

Canon probably sell more of even just say the 5D mkIV than Starlight Xpress sell of their entire camera range. 

As to the OP. In my mind the best value comes from buying a good secondhand Astro camera. Right tool for the job and not totally horribly expensive. 

Wicked - never turn down a freebie. Downloaded  

19 hours ago, al-alami said:

I reprocessed the image in the Hubble palette.  I still can't decide which I like more! Each has it's own personality.

Naturally, all the exposure times are the same as above.

I like this one. Really nice - lots of detail and a bit different to the images of M42 you usually see. 

1 hour ago, thekwango said:

guess i should probably download the app and actually look at it before making a decision on it's usefulness. i assume that it can be downloaded and 'looked' at even with a scope to connect to.

Yep you can download the app. It’s simple but very functional. Particularly if you have an Android device it’s dead straightforward to use a third party app instead but it is possible with iOS also. 

14 minutes ago, thekwango said:

Ah ok. So when to slew to an object you don’t have any ‘fine tuning’ to do with the handset/app?  

I’d assumed (wrongly!) that with GOTO the scope would slew to the general direction and you’d then have to fine tune the positioning while looking though the eyepiece. 

With that not being the case then the WiFi model I linked may actually be worth the extra. 

Assuming the initial alignment is good you should find the target pretty much bang central every time. 

If fine tuning is required it will be very slight and (IMO at least) no more difficult with the large ‘buttons’ on the app than on the handset. 

16 hours ago, thekwango said:

cheers again for all the replies. there really is a mass of brilliant and helpful folk on here. regarding the 2 scopes, the thing that jumped straight out at me was the bit about operating the wifi model with an app while looking down an eyepiece. i've had to use apps on a phone/tablet 'blind' before and it's horrible - at least for me. i need that haptic feedback so that pretty much rules that scope out as i don't think i'd want to buy it and then go looking to buy the synscan handset. 

The WiFi unit is available as a separate module for Skywatcher mounts that do not have WiFi built in including their top end mounts. 

Just about every review I’ve read and every piece of feedback from people on here who have upgraded their mounts accordingly suggests the app is far easier to use than the handset and that it the GOTO is more accurate.  Have a look at some of the posts on here and you’ll see most people think it’s pretty revolutionary and would not dream of going back to the handset.

I can’t think why you would need to try and look at the app at the same time as trying to use the scope except for initial alignment. But then that’s no different than using the handset. Once aligned you look at either device (phone or handset) to select an object, scope skews to it then tracks it. Further interaction with the device is not needed until you decide to look at another object. 

As for the app becoming obsolete this doesn’t really matter as the WiFi interface works with third party apps and can be connected to from a pc or Mac instead of a phone. 

I’ve ordered the standalone dongle for my AZ EQ6 GT as honestly the handset is somewhat cumbersome with a fairly horrible user interface and given the overwhelmingly positive reviews I can’t see me missing the handset. 

You’ve had great advice otherwise though and I’d definitely keep an eye on secondhand kit coming up either on here or astrobuysell. Astronomers generally look after their kit and buying secondhand can save you a good amount. Both my scopes were bought used and both are in excellent condition. 

6 hours ago, Arcturus D said:

As ones eyes are not fully dark adapted in the twilight, it is often easier to spot colours in the planets, due to the eye still using its cones rather than going exclusively to rods.

Interesting point and not one I had thought of. But yes, now I think about it Jupiter recently has looked lovely between 9 and 10pm when it has first made an appearance 

21 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Yes, you are right. The FL of a scope is of course one of the main things when talking about magnification. 

And to be honest, until I got the LX200 set up the other night I didn't realise how nice it is to have a long, large aperture scope just ticking along with a nice widefield, long focal length eyepiece (in my case an ES MaxVision 2" 24mm - just lovely).

2 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Even with my 8", Jupiter is roughly same size as seen with 4" scope. Difference is aperture. 8" collects a LOT more light which allows for better views, details etc. Saturn too. 

I think FL is very important here as well as aperture. My SW 150P has an FL of 750mm, my LX200 - 2500mm

To get 100x mag in the SW I need a 7.5mm eyepiece, the LX only 25mm. This coupled with the fact at 100x I am nowhere near the useful limit on the LX means that whilst Jupiter is the same size in each the LX is much sharper with a nice FOV to set him against. 

Sure the SW can take 100x as well but not with quite such ease and good short focal length eyepieces can soon get costly. 

Small and sharp is better than a larger but indistinct blob. 

It’s very common to want to stick the highest powered eyepiece in a scope to get maximum magnification but this often works against us. 

I even did it the other night when testing my new scope - sticking a 4.9mm et in a scope with a focal length of 2500mm - to look at Jupiter. However the best views I got were when I put my 24mm in (just over 100x magnification). Jupiter was much smaller but so sharp and well defined, I could just drink in the detail. 

The best analogy I can give is imagine you’re looking at a photo of a bird. The bird is rather small but you can see plenty of detail if you spend the time to look carefully. However you decide to zoom in at which point the photo starts to pixelate - you can still see it’s a bird but whilst it’s larger it’s less defined. 

This is what it’s like chasing max mag. Sometimes less power it actually better and as Stu says above you need to spend the time viewing the object. 

Also look at the ‘What can I expect to see’ thread at the top of the first beginners forum. Very helpful in learning what to expect. 

What scope are you using-could you be overloading the mount so it can't move wick enough. The clunk sounds like a gear jumping and could be partly the issue and could also indicate overload. 

Wow what a great idea and brilliantly implemented. Hats off to you guys...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

+1 for second hand.  EQ5's go for well under £150 on ebay quite often and astrobuysell.com/uk has bargains also.

I appreciate funds are tight but do not skimp on the mount - a mount that is not up to the job may well cause more frustration than it is worth and put you off the hobby.

I was going to take this route also until I saw some of the cheaper mounts and they really are quite flimsy.  Luckily a suitable one turned up on astrobuysell well within my price range.

This one on ebay for example will go for less than £150 - may not be suitable for you as collection only but gives you an idea as to what is out there

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161297294182?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I agree with the general sentiment - a really well written and thought out post.

I too would have been disappointed had I not read this but having this knowledge in someways allows me to appreciate more what I am actually seeing.  Instead of thinking '**** telescope's a piece of ***** - why can't I see a billion stars' etc I can concentrate on a) finding the objects and researching them and being blown away by the fact I can see them at all!  Seeing Jupiter + moons for example through bins or M44 for the first time - truly mind blowing.

Great work and just reinforces my view that this is one of the best forums I have ever had the pleasure to participate in.

I know little about AP work but that looks truly incredible and can appreciate the amount of work that has gone into it. As good as anything I have seen...

Sent from Lumia 925 via Tapatalk