Cosmic Geoff

The Exos 2 manual should specify the power supply (volts, amps, size of plug, size of centre pin, polarity of centre pin) A particular plug is common to most GoTos and a variety of suitable supplies are on the market, but DO NOT make any unwarranted assumptions in case yours is different. The common mounts can also be powered from an astro power pack containing a rechargeable battery (or from a car engine starter, which is essentially the same). DO NOT plug in a laptop PSU to see if it works.

When I was a youth, I made an alt-azimuth fork mount and tripod for a Newtonian reflector. That was a long time ago and I don't have any photos, but it indicates that it should be possible for a person with average DIY skills and access to a workshop and tools to do the same. If that's not possible the best option would be to buy another cheap outfit with tripod and make "best of 2".

I have the same reducer as Kimboman.

Very odd. First of all, '102' does not define the scope as there are long and short versions. I have the 102mm f5 'Startravel'. It came with a 45 degree diagonal, which proved not fit for astro use. However it came into focus just fine. I substituted a 90 deg 1.25" star diagonal - a stock skywatcher/Celestron type, and it focuses just fine with the eyepieces with around an inch of focus travel available either way. My 2"/1.25 adapter is not the same as the one in the photos and is rather short - about 1.5cm of it is visible when assembled. As the others say, it looks like you have got too much length between the focuser and eyepiece. And stop using the 45 deg diagonal and buy a 90 deg mirror diagonal right now - even a cheap one will work better for high powered astro views than the 45 deg erecting prism.

If it supports it. I actually use Sharpcap. IIRC I tried ASIcap once and was not inclined to use it again.

I have taken many live-stacked images with a ASI224MC camera attached to a 102mm f5 Startravel on a SLT mount, typical exposure 5secs. There is sometimes a shift or rotation at the edges, but nothing major.

Alternatively if you record in .ser format you will not need to debayer the video afterwards.

You should be aware that planetary imaging and deep sky imaging are very different and require totally different kit. Then there is EVAA which again may require diferent kit. For planetary imaging you require a large aperture, long focal length scope and a planetary camera, and a mount that tracks. For deep sky imaging you require ideally a heavy duty equatorial GoTo mount and a small aperture widefield ED refractor (or maybe a small f5 Newtonian adapted for photo use) and a large sensor camera, either a DSLR or a dedicated astro camera. For longer and better quality exposures you would also need autoguiding. I happen to have a Startravel ST 102 and a ASI224MC planetary camera and have found that this combination works well as an EVAA outfit on either an alt-az GoTo mount or an equatorial GoTo mount. The field is wide enough for small and medium sized targets and also wide enough to permit blind finding with the GoTo, and I have imaged a variety of objects with this, some of them invisible visually from this location. I do have a Canon 300D camera but have found it much more difficult to use at night than a dedicated astro camera. The essential guide for deep sky imaging is "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards, available form forum sponsor FLO.

I assume you refer to the Skywatcher 180mm Maksutov. This has a very long focal ratio, so a 10mm eyepiece will give a magnification of a massive x270 and if it's a starter kit eyepiece the results may not be great. If it is one of those, then replace it ASAP with something better. With a f15 focal ratio a Barlow will be non-essential for visual and unless you have great seeing at your site a Barlow or Powermate will be non-essential for imaging also. With my f10 SCT I have in general found a Barlow to be no help for planetary imaging. You don't say what you want to image. The scope is far more suited to planetary or double star viewing and planetary imaging than for any other role. Rather than using the Canon 550D, I suggest you try a dedicated planetary camera. Your ASI224MC would be ideal for this purpose.

If you check ebay you may see what your outfit is worth if sold used. FLO has a section on scopes for beginners. You should look there first for ideas and see what you like that you can afford (assuming it is in stock). £400 is barely enough for an outfit with GoTo unless you buy used. I doubt that you can re-use your tripod. It is unlikely that you can buy a GoTo mount head that fits straight onto it and anyway the tripod will not be worth much. It would probably make more financial sense to dispose of your existing kit as a complete setup.

To give this scope a GoTo mount, you would have to discard the mount and tripod, and attach a dovetail bar to the tube rings so you can attach the scope to the GoTo mount. You probably don't want to know what this would cost, unless you can find a used GoTo mount offered cheaply. You can check the pricing of Skywatcher GoTo mounts from forum sponsor FLO.

I can only speak for my own particular setup and sky. The ASI224MC is so sensitive that an exposure of a few seconds either gets a result or starts recording the bright sky background. I have not actually seen any field rotation. (This is with the Celestron SLT mount.)

The bigger scope would be better for planetary imaging. The 4SE has a potentially useful built-in flip mirror and a mount and tripod that should be more stable than those in a lot of the entry level outfits. For planetary imaging, a dedicated planetary video camera would work better than a DSLR. You want to attach the DSLR camera and lens to the mount in place of the telescope? I don't know how well that would work. You would have to construct some sort of adapter incorporating a dovetail bar. I don't know how long an exposure you could usefully use with this setup. I know that a 102mm f5 achromat + ASI224MC camera + alt-az GoTo mount is good for a 5 second exposure.

Trying to buy one scope and mount that does everything is a really bad idea. The requirements for various tasks differ widely, so if you want to cover all tasks effectively you need more than one scope and maybe more than one mount. The 6" SCT OTA is a fine scope for general observing, and for planetary imaging, but unless you are an expert with astrophotograpy experience you should get a small short focal length ED or APO refractor for deep space imaging, as it will give a wider field and be much easier to use. (and the SCT is not good if you want a wide field of view for visual). Likewise the mount - for visual use an alt-azimuth GoTo will be adequate and will be quicker and easier to set up than an equatorial. The SE mount would be adequate but there is IIRC the option of an Evolution mount which is of better quality. You can also get lighter (and cheaper) GoTo mounts bundled with this OTA, bur unless you are particularly tolerant of wobble-mounts you may come to regret this choice. You only need an equatorial mount for deep space imaging with long exposures, where it is needed to avoid field rotation. If your primary interest is in general visual observing, you might find that having to polar align the mount and have the scope get into odd positions when aimed at some objects is a bit annoying. I have found that my EQ5 GoTo can work fine on one side of the sky, but when it does a 'meridian flip' to the other side of the sky, the accuracy declines to the point where I can't find stuff. You may note that Russ above has two scopes and two mounts, and other enthusiasts have even more. In contrast to Russ I found that a dew shield works fine 99% of the time - different local micro-climate?

I should think that a GoTo that slews at 60x siderial would be fairly useless. And if you de-clutch it you will have lost the GoTo alignment. If you don't want to invest £300+ in the Skywatcher Synscan upgrade, a more sensible option on a low budget might be not to have GoTo at all, but to motorise the RA and Dec axes. You can do planetary imaging perfectly well with a RA motor drive, and you don't need GoTo for guided imaging, though admittedly the performance of guided GoTo mounts is said to be better. And you should be able to do EVAA without GoTo provided you can actually find the objects, for which I recommend a good RACI finder + a red-dot finder.

If you are thinking of buying, rather than just asking, the Evolution is a better quality mount but the tripods may be of similar gauge and stiffness. In photos the tripods look much the same.

the 'Clear Outside' App tells me it is a Bortel 6. I can see mag 3 stars with naked eyes but not beyond. Under these conditions, loooking for galaxies will be mostly a waste of time. You need to go to a dark skies area, or try some EEVA, An ASI224MC camera attached to a 102mm f5 refractor on a GoTo mount has a usable field of view and works surprisingly well in unpromising conditions. Spring is the best galaxy season in the northern hemisphere.

Nowadays, with various purpose-made astro cameras available, I think the idea of converting webcams is becoming obsolete. I have only tried repurposing a planetary video camera for EEVA, but I think you get what you pay for... An ASI224MC works well, but the sensor is small, and a camera with a bigger sensor would cost even more money. The problem with this scheme, which those who have not tried it may not appreciate, is the size of the sensor, typically 5mm across, or the equivalent of a high-powered eyepiece, which poses severe problems in finding the target, even with a GoTo mount. If the appearance of the target does not make it a no-brainer, there is also the problem of knowing whether you have acquired the target or not... which is where plate-solving comes in useful. Then there is the problem of focusing. with the camera and eyepiece focus points effectively separated by several mm, if one swaps the eyepiece for a camera, the target is likely to remain invisible. (I once wasted an early-morning hour trying to get Jupiter on screen - it was merely out of focus). A flip mirror diagonal assembly (another 100 GBP or so) will help with target-finding and focusing. If you want a large sensor, you might already have one in the form of a DSLR - but this may not be as easy to use as a dedicated large chip astro camera. Recent DSLRs have a 'live view' screen attached. In principle it is possible to remote control the kit, as a disability aid, but technically this is likely to prove very challenging and to require a permanent setup. A powered observing chair might be an easier option. 🙂

I think mine had a Friday afternoon objective. Other owners seem to have had better luck. I suppose the mount is typical of budget outfits but I did not like it.

I used to have a Bresser Skylux 70/700 - it is in my signature image. Performance was disappointing and I eventually realised that the objective lens was no good. As for the mount, it made me determined to avoid EQ-2 mounts in the future. I later acquired a 70mm vintage brass Ross scope which performed far better.

If you want to find an object with a C8 + ASI224 you really need to centre it in an eyepiece and then switch to the camera (which is what a flip mirror assembly is for), or have an accurately setup optical finder. I have also found out that with this combination a live stack often fails to work because of 'not enough stars'. I have no idea why your stars look like seagulls but it looks like something was seriously awry.

Why not get it down and check it out? For the cost of the Orion or Zhumell, you could buy a decent alt-azimuth grab'n go mount for your existing scope and maybe end up with a better outfit than if you had bought anew? If you don't want the usual metal tripod etc you can IIRC buy a table-top Dob mount on its own for not much money. And a 5x Powermate is just for astrophotography - and in good seeing at that.

TBH I think focal reducers are mainly intended for imaging. And a 0.5 reducer seems rather extreme. If a f5, 6" or 8" scope is what you really want, perhaps you should think of getting a f5 Newtonian instead. However in a light polluted area there is not much you can do with a f5 scope visually that you can't do with a f10, other than look at wide star clusters. At your home site you should concentrate on looking at smaller objects of high surface brightness: planets, double stars, planetary nebulae, globular clusters, rather than low surface brigtness objects like galaxies and nebulae that will not show up well.

Consider buying the matching IR pass filter, which will allow you to take infrared images with the camera. The processed images will be monochrome but often sharper than those taken in colour.

Without a measure of the light pollution in your area, it is hard to comment, but you may have to manage your expectations. It is hard to see more than a handful of galaxies from a moderately light-polluted area, even with an 8" SCT. And a near full moon will not be at all helpful. In darkest Devon, I found that I could see lots of galaxies with my 8" SCT, and I got tired and cold before I ran out of galaxies to look at. But generally they look like faint grey smudges. I deliberately visited at a time with minimal interference from the Moon. The Spring is the best time for galaxy viewing. I have found that electronically assisted astronomy is a much better way of seeing galaxies, as a 4" refractor with planetary camera and laptop attached, showed about as many galaxies at my home site as the bigger telescope did at a dark location. I went through a list of galaxies down to mag 10 to 11 and it picked up every one.