DougM43

before building a permanent pier i used to use wine bottle caps pressed into the lawn to mark my tripod positions, unfortunately whenever i mowed the lawn the lawnmower used to suck them up, and if i let the lawn grow they became impossible to find. These look like a perfect solution.

i looked into this not so long ago when there were a lot of excellent images of jupiter being posted here so i decided to give it a go, one of the cameras that seemed to be quite popular and in the hands of experts gave superb images was the Zwo 224 usb3. I ordered one from FLO, attached to my LX90 it gave me around 55fps

have you covered the viewfinder? my camera has a little rubber cover that fits over it to prevent any stray light getting through. Just a thought.

I don’t think the black collar comes off, not easily anyway (I just tried) if you were really desperate to use a Barlow then the simplest way I would think would be to unscrew the whole back focus part from the tube, cut an inch or so off the tube length and re fix the back part back on, it would need to be measured carefully though or you may find you end up without enough outward focus travel. I think the later 100rs has a shorter tube length as well as a longer focus tube to overcome the problems reported with the 100r.

There you go, I have never thought to put a Barlow straight into the focus tube, it’s not a super snug fit but not to slack either and may just work,

Hi, I have just had a look at the diagonal from my 100r and it isn’t chamfered, it is however quite small although I don’t have another 1.25” diagonal to compare or to see if it would fit ok. Im almost certain even with my Meade shorty 2x Barlow there isn’t enough inward travel to achieve focus. hope that helps, Doug.

That is an absolutely stunning image. 😀😀

That’s a cracking M57, bet you were well chuffed with that.

Mine never hit the first alignment star perfectly regardless of how well I initially levelled the mount, but once centred it always got the second one bang on and any subsequent targets thereafter throughout the night. I think considering the cost and what it’s capable of the HEQ5 pro is a real value for money bit of kit, it would be nice to have a mount that you just plonked out on the grass and then did everything automatically but I suspect it would cost a small fortune.

Wow,, that is nothing less than awesome.

Wow,, that’s an awesome image. 😍

Astro pixel processor is worth a look at for stacking and post processing, that said I use Deep sky stacker for stacking and move the images to APP just because DSS stacks much faster than app and I do seem to get a cleaner image but that maybe just because I’m still quite new to processing.

Once I have the smiley face I tend to stop there, to get it any better takes an absolute age of minuscule adjustments, guiding always seems consistent and stars always seem round so good enough for me, mine also plate solves again to centre the target on the chip, perfectly normal I think.

Same one as I use, runs everything ,heq5, camera and dew heaters no problems. Separate power for the laptop though.

Ok after turning out most of the draws in the dining room the kitchen and the living room I managed to find most of the spacers in a case reserved for things I’ve collected that don’t use or don’t know what is ( should have looked there first) the only one I’ve not found is the T2 to T2 adapter (2mm) but I have found a 4mm one, so almost there, also in my searching I found a baader Varilock T2 extension which looks like it’s got it about perfect so thanks guys, going to get it all set up now with an asi air so I expect I’ll be back with more questions, thanks again. Doug. Steve, you posted just as I was, I’ve just checked and I have 49.44mm from camera to reducer, so pretty close, thank you both.

Hi all, hopefully some of you more knowledgeable astrophotography folk can help me out. On the rare occasions I can get out imaging I’ve been using an OSC camera, I’ve had a zwo 1600 mono and 1.25 filter wheel stashed away for about 18 months and would like to try and master it this winter but I cannot seem to find what I need to connected the camera filter wheel to my ed80 reducer. I assume there must be stacks of people using this combination, what do I need to order to get the 55mm sensor to reducer distance ? Everything I’ve read says the correct spacers are in the box, but alas they’re not. Many thanks, Doug.

What a lovely image.

Is polar scope align available on Android ? It’s a great little app with views for various polar scopes,

That’s a great image, despite having the same scope and camera I’ve never managed to take even a mildly respectable Saturn image. well done. 🪐🪐

What a super picture, I think both this and M51 are particularly well suited to this kind of wide field image. 💫💫💫

That a great image, you can see the galaxy has some depth to it, 👍 lovely

Thanks, will do 👍

thanks, Yes have installed Ascom, (think I needed to install it to get APT to recognise the camera,) will figure it out and install EQMOD now, I presume it’s EQMOD that controls the mount?

Hi all, At the moment I am using my heq5 handset to control the mount, APT for camera control and PHD via st4 for guiding. to simplify things and reduce the amount of cables to the laptop I would like to run everything through APT, (it appears it can be done with just one cable) and from what I’ve read so far I believe it will also open up the possibility of plate solving, can somebody please advise me if this is so and what do I need to install to get it all to work together properly ? I have been trying to understand Ascom, wow is it really as complicated as it seems. if it’s any help the equipment I’m using is mount, HEQ5, Imaging camera, Starlight express sxvr m25c and Zwo MC120 guide camera. I also have a reasonably new hdd, drive laptop. thanks in advance, clear skies, keep safe. Doug.

Very nice indeed,, well worth the effort 🙂 well done.