imichelena

How can I have diffraction spikes with a refractor?

Sorry, I forgot to mention the details of the setup: Skywatcher ED80 + 0.8x focal reducer + Modified DSLR

Hi guys, The night of the eclipse while I was all set up and waiting for it, I got bored and tried shooting a few stars. One of them was Vega and I found this strange effect of parallel vertical shadow lines. Can anyone explain to me what they are? Thanks!

Thanks for the tip dave! but unfortunately I need a 3.25" thread on my OTA to screew a 2" focuser. Unless there is an affordable focuser that has 2" at both ends (which I cannot find).

Hi guys, I have a Celestrion SCT 8" with the celestron f/6.3 focal reducer which has given me excellent results so far. Now I am struggling with focus and I'd like to upgrade my standard knob. I've been looking at Crayford focusers but I am not sure about how will the setup be if I want to keep my focal reducer. I've found the moonlite crayford focusers which allows you to have your focal reducer screwed into your drawtube but they have 3.25" thread while my OTA has a 2". I've found this one for my OTA: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/moonlite-focusers/moonlite-cs-dual-rate-sct-crayford-focuser-with-standard-2-inch-thread.html But seams not to have the same option to place my focal reducer inside. Any ideas or advise on this issue? Thanks for the help! Cheers. Ignacio

Hi all, I live in Canley and I've been looking for a nearby place to have mi first dark site experience. Do you know of any meet up or star party around this area?? Thank you! Ignacio.

Hi, I had a skymax 127 that needed collimation a few months ago. I bought a laser collimation tool on ebay and followed the scope's instruction manual. After a few hours of patience I got it spot on. Is not very easy but if you carefully follow the instructions and have some patience you will get it right. Laser collimation tool: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/380394654636?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT Star test: Check this posts: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/33416-skymax-127-collimation/ http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/206424-collimating-a-skymax-127-mak/ Good luck!

Hi glowingturnip! Thanks for the info! I'll check it out

Hi folks! My name is Ignacio and I am quite new to this fascinating world of astronomy and astrophotography. I live in Coventry, UK and I got my fist scopes a few months ago (Celestron 130EQ and a sky-watcher Skymax 127 AZ GOTO). I've been reading the info you guys share in this forum and with some try and error I've managed to take a few nice pictures of planets and the ring nebula. After a few months of experimentation and learning I realized I really like astrophotography and I'd like to take it to the next level. Just last night I did my first test with a webcam SPC900 and PHD to see how auto guiding works. I've connected PHD to my mount via the serial connection on my SkyScan controller (my mount does not have an auto guiding port) and after doing the darks and calibration it seams to be working. PHD says that it is guiding and I can see the selected star moving around the centre of the green lines (not sure if is actually working or is just my regular guiding) I haven't had the chance to actually use this while taking exposures as I am still waiting for my guide scope to arrive (I've attached the webcam to my main tube just for testing) so I am not yet sure of much accuracy I can really get with this setup. I tried to find info about this configuration but I couldn't find any. Have any of you guys tried this before? Can I actually get decent results with an AZ mount using auto-guiding? Is PHD really correcting my guiding even tough my mount does not have an auto guiding port? I appreciate your help! Cheers!