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It occurs to me that Apple's new Vision Pro smart glasses (see PC Pro magazine, April 2024 issue 355) would do what you want. You'd just need to produce your own software, as before. They cost $3499 though. If you want to produce your own telescope-like device, you would need a LCD screen (120mm in diameter???) and an achromatic lens of about a quarter of the focal length of the ST120 objective (ie about 150mm) to project an image of the screen into the eyepiece plane. Or to simplify things, just have an eyepiece that focuses directly onto a smartphone screen. Note that a lot of eyepieces won't do this so you might have to make or modify one. Also there are commercially available digital setting circles which will give a readout of where in the sky the attached telescope is pointing - see Nexus DSC.
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Orion Optics UK VX12 - Opinions?
Cosmic Geoff replied to Flame Nebula's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
I think you should have a good look at what a 12" scope looks like when mounted on your preferred mount. I had a 8" f5 Newtonian on an EQ-5 and was not pleased to find that with the tripod legs fully extended the eyepiece was about 7 feet off the ground with the scope aimed near the zenith. -
Solar Observing: Aperture Question
Cosmic Geoff replied to GeezerGazer's topic in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice
Don't back the film with plexiglass, glass or clear acrylic. This is not necessary, and unless the material is of optical quality, it will degrade the image. It won't do any harm to paint the opaque part of the cap, but I doubt this is necessary. -
Pick 2 from 5 of these scopes:
Cosmic Geoff replied to Flame Nebula's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
Not necessarily an inherent feature of SCT scopes. The manufacturing quality seems to have been variable in the past. I have found them sensitive to slight mis-collimation. Some people claim the EDGE HD models perform better visually. Also ED vs SCT is not a level comparison, as (unless you can afford an 11" ED or APO) the ED scopes will have a smaller aperture and hence less vulnerable to atmospheric churn. In theory, (asides from the effect of any central obstruction) you might get the same effect by stopping down the larger scope. -
Pick 2 from 5 of these scopes:
Cosmic Geoff replied to Flame Nebula's topic in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups
I don't see why you would need two from this list. Just buy one of them. I would need some convincing that the 120ED would be much of an advance on the 127mm Mak. -
Advice on goto mount for visual
Cosmic Geoff replied to PatrickO's topic in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice
Your options for a Alt-Az GoTo fall into two groups, those barely adequate for your 4.1Kg scope (and don't forget the added weight of finder and eyepiece) and those like the Az-EQ5 with a much greater capacity and a much higher price tag. One of our astro club menbers had the ST120 on an Ioptron alt-az GoTo, IIRC. -
The plug connection between cable and mount is a common source of trouble. Touching it can cause the connection to momentarily break, causing the GoTo setting to fail. You can fettle the split center pin or use a cable tie etc to stabilise the cable. There is no 'best battery' - any power source that supplies a clean 12 to 14 volts and adequate current will suffice.
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Is this a good combo, do you recon?
Cosmic Geoff replied to GasGiant's topic in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice
A decent field of view for what? Potential deep-space imaging targets vary hugely in size, from the Orion ring (very large) to planetary nebulae (often very small). Any given rig will only cover a limited range of targets to advantage. A telescope like the one you cite will cover a range of targets but you may struggle with the very large, or the very small. With the Seestar S50, for instance, some nebulae fit nicely, but some are too big for it, and all but the nearest and brightest galaxies come out looking rather small. I would suggest that both your quoted mounts are totally inadequate for the intended purpose. I suggest you look at the EQ-5 Synscan as a minimum. A lot of imagers who presumably know what they are doing use an Eq-6. For long exposure runs you would want an equatorial mount to avoid field rotation. -
The Powerseeker 127 does not have a good reputation, because of its 'Bird-Jones' optical design, which compromises optical performance in favour of compactness. If you can't source a cheap used tripod & mount for it, it might be better to cut your losses and buy something else. Astronomy is not a cheap hobby. 🙁
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I can't say I have managed to capture the Encke division. It's extremely narrow (about 325 miles) compared with the overall size of the ring system. (The diameter of Saturn is about 74,000 miles, and the diameter of the ring system about 170,000 miles.) The Edge versions are allegedly finished to a higher standard.
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Depends on how these scopes of yours are mounted. If the C11 is not permanently mounted on the EQ6, I foresee a certain reluctance to heave these heavy items outdoors, erect and align them for a session interrupted by cloud etc. If it is permanently available, I do not see any pressing need for yet another scope. Have you seen and handled a C11? You might conclude that mounting it up without assistance would be no fun. I have retained my C8 SE + Starsense as a lighter weight and quick to deploy alternative to my CPC800 which is much heavier and has to be assembled before use. BTW I imaged E & F in the Trapezium with the CPC800 so the C11 should do it too.
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I have a slightly different take on this as I have a EQ-5 Synscan mount permanently set up on a pillar. The setting circles: Purely ornamental. Total waste of time. ignore them. Mechanical polar align: get Polaris near the middle of the field of view in the polarscope. Scope horizontal. (I can't get my head around the instructions for aiming more accurately). Check that the finder (a red dot) is pointing close to Polaris. Electronic alignment (or re-align): Start with the scope in the start (or park) position with scope above mount pointing to pole, and counterweight down, to North. Follow the handset instructions for 2-star align, it should slew to near the first alignment star, centre with red dot finder, then scope. Repeat for second star. When done, if you have recent software, you should get a prompt to fine tune the mechanical adjustment (probably not easy to follow). At end of session, command the mount to Park, and remove the power. At beginning of next session, command the mount to start from Park position. No more aligning! If perfectly set up, the GoTo performance of the mount should be quite good, but in practice I found the all-sky GoTo performance of mine to be awful, and I rely on Plate-Solve and resync in Sharpcap to find anything. You query what is a red-dot finder? It projects a red dot (or circle) against the night sky. If you don't have a finder (either red-dot or optical) you will find aligning the mount to be extremely difficult.
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I have a 8-24 mm BST Starguider zoom eyepiece, which was very inexpensive. It looks the same as the Celestron zoom, and in fact a number of the more budget 8-24 zoom eyepiece brands look (or looked) the same, as though they all came off the same production line. The Starguider zoom is OK optically, but the action is so stiff that I can't zoom it in situ, but have to take it out of the holder and grip it firmly in both hands to adjust the zoom. You get what you pay for, I guess.