Cosmic Geoff

I would suggest getting a planetary-type camera that will fit your focuser.  You can buy alleged planetary cameras on ebay for a few pounds, and if the bug bites, you can upgrade it to a proper one from ZWO, etc.  A RA drive for the mount would be very useful. A Barlow lens will be needed for planetary imaging with this scope, but you might have received one already with the kit.

A good quality planetary camera will also work for deep-space imaging, and EEVA (q.v.) imaging, subject to the limitations of the small chip and small field of view, and the limitations of your mount.

These suggestions could cost as much as the scope and mount did in the first place. You have been warned...

Dewing up occurs primarily because telescope parts radiate heat to the sky, which (when clear) is very cold.  Moisture from damp air then condenses on the cold telescope parts.  Hence one can suppose that pointing your telescope straight up and leaving it was a bad idea. 

In the limited time I owned a Newtonian I did not put a dew shield on it, and it never dewed up.  My understanding is that a dew shield is not necessary except in extreme cases.  There will be a support between the secondary mirror and the sky, which should prevent dewing except in extreme conditions.

13 hours ago, malc-c said:

A CAT such as the Celestron 8" might be a "good" compromise as with a long focal length and large aperture it is ideal for planetary and luna work, but with a focal reducer should also be capable of getting descent DSO images too.   Whilst the weight may be more than the 200PDS, it's mass and small tube should make the HEQ5 capable of dealing with it.  

Actually a Celestron C8 SCT weighs several Kg less than an 8" Newtonian. I have owned both.

What is your budget? 

You should not expect one scope to do everything well. If you want to do " swinging the scope around at being amazed at what I find", find objects with GoTo, and do deep-space astrophotography, you may need up to three scope/mount setups.

A 200PDS really needs a HEQ5 Pro Synscan, or an EQ-6 if you intend to image.  It would really be easier to start imaging with a small refractor, which is what many deep-sky imagers use. £1000 will not get you far here - you probably need to spend more.

I had a 203mm Newt on a manual EQ-5 at one time. I thought the combination was awful, and I had great difficulty in finding anything with it. I changed it for an 8" SCT with GoTo as soon as I could.  Opinions may differ, of course. 

1 hour ago, Bogmonster said:

I have a Celestron Evo 9.25 and I've been hearing different things about aligning the red dot finder. Some people say do it during the day and others say to do it at night using the moon for best results. So I did it last night under a full moon (or mostly full) and my question is how exactly spot on should you be? I had the moon fully in my eyepiece but the red dot was in the moon but slightly to the top right on it's surface. I seemed to run out of room to move the dot using the thumb wheels and couldn't get it dead centre to match the eyepiece. Is this normal or is there a way to do it? I'm guessing it should be pretty exact especially for looking at small nebulae or clusters?

Can't help much with the red- dot finder. There ought to be enough adjustment range. If there isn't, fiddle with the finder mount in daylight and see if you can shift it or pack under one end.  Good news - you only need it once or twice a night, to set up the GoTo.  Red-dot alignment needs to be exact enough to get your GoTo alignment stars in the field of the low-power eyepiece - after that it doesn't matter.

1 hour ago, Jasonb said:

So that's telling me there's a chance, for clear skies, but it depends how early they start to develop (I won't be up at 2am let me tell you!). Apart from that, it's like you say, sticking your head out a window and seeing how clear it is! I haven't really got a chance to "plan" many observing sessions, instead they tend to happen when I noticed it's clear out!

I use FLO's 'Clear Outside', and the Met Office forecast - sometimes they actually agree. 🙂

12 hours ago, femalealpha88 said:

Yeah, i understand but I'm not used to that kind of ports, on my controler. There are 4 ports in controller: 2 for RA and DC, one bigger like the RA and DC axis ports and finally the port that goes from battery pack to controller..  I suppose I only need to attach some rechargeable battery like u said.

I assume the single larger port is for guiding.

12 hours ago, femalealpha88 said:

If u please can bring me some link to a proper ones witch 6V and DC connector because If i search on Google I'm going crazy...

Nearly all the found options will require some soldering etc for making up leads. If you are not used to connecting up electronic stuff, it would be safer to confine your attention to power sources that will plug into the small round port as-is.   You need to confirm that the plug size and polarity match up to the original.

Is a small mains-powered PSU an option?

56 minutes ago, femalealpha88 said:

Yeah, still don't know how to but it has the port to connect it to a power supply. The seller told me to put 6V. Too noob to test this for myself, I'll look for advice on the shop I bought the mount, telescope, motor etc and also helped me to install the motor. He told me too the most important thing is the adequate polar aligment. 

I meant you can use any power source that gives you +6v into the same port that the battery pack connection goes into, so long as it delivers the right voltage with the right polarity.   I used to have a similar setup and I replaced the primary battery pack with a +6v rechargeable battery from Maplin, a home-made lead and a +6v battery charger I bought on ebay.   If in doubt, seek expert advice. 

You definitely need a polarscope as without it you will have difficulty getting an adequate polar alignment.  Note there is a limit to what you can expect to achieve with an unguided EQ mount, in terms of exposure length.  It depends on various factors, including the focal length of your imaging scope.

I suspect that a battery powered motorized mount will not be ideal for unguided imaging, but it probably has a guide port, and you could ditch the 6v battery pack and replace it with a mains supply, or a +12v power pack driving a step-down converter (probably sold for R/C model cars and suchlike).

From an engineering point of view, no need to worry unless you strip threads in soft alloy, by over-tightening. A M6 bolt is not going to snap under the weight of a 102mm refractor.

I picked up a copy of "Astrophotography II" by Patrick Martinez from a disposal at my local astro club.  Published 1987, it deals with film-based astrophotography, and should be very useful to anyone still into this. It's packed with technical discussion and diagrams.

Not much use to me, but... 

In Bortle 7/8, visual observation of DSO's other than brighter gaseous nebulae will be rather a waste of time.  I suggest developing an interest in small bright things (double stars, planetary nebulae) or trying EVAA, which can be remarkably effective in showing up galaxies, even from an urban site. For the latter, you'll ideally want a small fast refractor rather than a big Dob.

Why do you want to install Windows 11? Some reviewers say it isn't that great.  At least two of my machines will not upgrade to Windows 11 (reported incompatible), and I don't care.

11 hours ago, woldsman said:

I’m getting into lunar after DSO. A very basic question about slewing to target. Do you use software or slew manually using a visual guidescope that is aligned to the main scope? I’m thinking the simplest approach is to polar align, target manually, and then set the mount to lunar tracking. You can’t plate solve  on The Moon and using something like Orbitals in NINA seems over-kill. Sorry if this question is too basic  but I’ve not found it covered elsewhere yet.

I feel you are over-thinking this. Just aim the telescope using the GoTo (Planet button, then Moon with most GoTo mounts), fine adjust the aim and then take a video as per the usual planetary imaging procedure (or a single still, if you prefer).  The exposure time will be measured in milliseconds, so there is no need to bother your head about sidereal or lunar tracking rate - either will do.

I have a SCT fitted with the Starsense and can confirm that there is no 'Precise Goto' feature. In practice this is not a problem, as the scope is employed for visual use only and the Starsense Goto in conjunction with a 32mm eyepiece is good enough to get anything within field.

I never saw the point of transferring the Starsense to the CPC800 (which has  GPS) as the saving in overall setup time, which includes assembling the major parts and attaching fragile accessories, would be trivial. The GoTo is fairly accurate and I value the 'Precise GoTo feature.

What is your budget?

I rely on plate-solving to aim my EVAA setup (102mm f5 achro, ASI224MC, EQ-5 Synscan).  Both ASPS and ASTAP are loaded on a laptop with 250GB of SSD memory.  The plate-solving is used to correct the aim of the GoTo, and the process is relatively quick. 

Note that if your scope has a smaller aperture, or the actual FOV is smaller than I am using, the plate-solve may not work so well. 

The finder is only required to perform an initial GoTo alignment.      

You don't necessarily need a GoTo mount to do some astrophotography.  I suggest you do some more research into what can be done without spending a wad of money, for instance by mounting a DSLR + telephoto lens on a tracker.  Decide what you want to accomplish, set a budget and start saving.  A lashup using your existing telescope may not satisfy you for long, and may just demonstrate to you why you need to buy the proper kit.

11 hours ago, Wolfstar said:

Andromeda to Sombrero Galaxy. 

That will be difficult to achieve with one scope, as the Andromeda Galaxy is several degrees across and the Sombrero is quite small, as are many other targets.  I found that nearly all targets fit within the half degree field of my no-budget 102mm f5 & ASI224MC setup.   My object was to get better views of deep-sky objects that I could obtain visually.  From this point of view, the low-priced 102mm Startravel does the job. Trying to improve the images further could send me down a rabbit hole of expensive APO scopes, expensive cameras and expensive filters.  Typical Startravel EAA result is attached.

You do not need a large aperture unless your aim is to collect high-resolution images of small targets.  As with many areas of astronomy, one setup will not do all things well.

What do you have already? You could spend a lot of money and find the rig does not do quite what you wanted.

I use the following for EAA:  102mm f5 achro refractor, ASI224MC camera, EQ-5 Synscan mount, Sharpcap 4.0, cabling and software for platesolving.  I had  all this stuff already but it works well for EAA, and if I was to change anything I'd probably go for a ED refractor and/or a camera with a bigger chip.

I also used a C8 SCT, focal reducer and similar camera for EAA occasionally.

Why not read the EVAA threads on this forum and see what folks are using and what results they got?

1 hour ago, Lisa Miller said:

ps do you know where I can buy the Jack lead from and what is it actually for?

I think that is the least of your worries. You can sell the power tank without it and let the seller source a lead. For instance, I have at least one lead that would connect it to a Celestron or Sky-watcher scope mount (probably), but not to a Meade mount.  As pointed out above, there may be a lead among your bits that will connect it to one of the mounts you have inherited.

If you post photos of the astro gear here, many people will recognise the items, name them, suggest ballpark values, and places where you could advertise them.  In particular you should include pictures of any nameplates on the scope(s).  You may be surprised at the 2nd hand value of this stuff (depending on what it is).

Nice shots. I took a shot last night (22nd) with my Iphone 7, but it is slightly out of focus.  It doesn't seem to auto-focus well in the dark. Must read the manual.

1 hour ago, Astro_Nic said:

Pretty sure I'm going to get the 2600MC, unless someone says it's not appropriate.  I would go MM, but I can't see myself investing enough time initially and there are limits with the EQ platform - not like I can set up an EQ mount and leave it for 8 hours.  Pricing up the MM with good filters is also VERY expensive!

Before you commit yourself to a MM camera, or a filter wheel, check whether you will have enough focal range to accommodate the extra path length introduced by the filter wheel.  A SCT or refractor can usually accommodate such devices, but a Newtonian maybe will not.

On 20/02/2023 at 22:14, Vega509 said:

sorry to post in this old topic. but it seems most apt.

how did you manage to remove that cover from the fork? I have removed the 4 screws I found and can get the top off after removing the lock, but the bottom remains unmovable. I have removed the top cover from the base and do not see any more screws that would release the fork cover.

thanks in advance.

?? If you remove all the screws holding the fork-base-cover, it will come clear of the forks if deformed slightly.  

I'm sceptical about the scheme you propose.  You don't need a large Newtonian for imaging deep-sky objects in general, as imaging time will generally substitute for aperture.  For EAA imaging of deep-sky objects I generally use a 102mm f5 refractor rather than an 8" SCT.  With this scope, many galaxies fit onto the FOV of an ASI224MC planetary camera.

If you have the budget to consider buying a large sensor camera, why not rethink and instead look at getting a small refractor, GoTo mount, and a camera that matches your requirements? I'm sure that you will find a GoTo mount that can work with plate-solve is far less annoying than trying to aim the big Dobsonian.  Most deep-sky imagers start with a guided camera or a small refractor, rather than jumping in at the deep end with a big Newtonian (and even then they'd put it on a proper GoTo equatorial guided mount.)

As a first step, I suggest you try imaging some deep-space object, e.g. a 10th mag planetary nebula or a galaxy, with your existing gear and see how much of a pain it is.