MARS1960

And just as we uploaded here comes the lovely postman. Yipeeeeeee.

I'm impressed, well made, fits a treat and micro focusing is a doddle 👍.

Finally got my long awaited Samyang 135mm, just waiting on my gizmo from Philippe (http://www.astrokraken.fr/samyang-135mm-f-2-c30078976).

This is 201 x 30sec exposures with the new AZ GTi. 

I didn't want to waste the first clear night but next outing will be with the WO wedge and ASIAIR for longer exposures.

Processing, a DSLR and focusing is still letting me down but that will change.

Thanks for looking.

2 minutes ago, Astro Noodles said:

Could it be dew combined with moonlight. Are you using a dew heater?

I don't think so, moon was very low and on the opposing side to the curve and it was dew free for the one hour I was out.

I'm stumped 🤔.

Hopefully first light with new Samyang at F2 tomorrow, fingers crossed no further artefacts.

18 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Maybe a neighbour turned a light on and it reflected on lens

No immediate neighbours to the east but I will check tonight if any of the houses over that way have a security light thanks.

44 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

I would take the clip in filter out and try again.

Plus I would use a lens shield

Thanks, I'll use a lens shield, didnt have one for a 50mm and completely overlooked knocking one up, I just dont understand why first 2 subs were fine.

 I've been using the astronomik clip for years with no issues so think I can rule that out.

I hope some of you knowledgeable guys can tell me why this has happened.

This was taken with a 60D, clip in LP filter, 50mm lens at F2, AZ GTi at 20 secs, the first two subs were fine, the rest like these, It seems it came from the left and advanced right with each sub.

I have just bought a Samyang 135mm F2 so really don't want to make the same mistake again.

Autosave_ABE.tif

It has been a long time coming but I finally found a Samyang 135mm F2.0.

The very very nice postman delivered it to me personally this very morning.

It is the most gorgeous thing I have seen, I cannot wait till my gizmo (http://www.astrokraken.fr/samyang-135mm-f-2-c30078976) arrives from Philippe.

I am so looking forward to some widefield imaging in the coming months with this and my new AZ GTi, WO wedge and ASIAIR.

Looks good Lee. 

Added to my bookmarks bar .

You could also use Ipolar scope if your mount accepts one of the adapters.

Its a brilliantly simple piece of kit that had me perfectly (according to the Ipolar software) polar aligned in under 2mins.

It's one of the best things I ever bought.

12 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

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.)

Ok thanks Geoff. that makes sense with that camera.

I imagine alt/az mounts at my price point will perform similarly well when tracking. 

3 minutes ago, Adam J said:

I have the AZ GTI and it's great. But I do not use that tripod I use the I option 1.5 inch steel one and it's great. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ioptron-mount-accessories/ioptron-3-8-stainless-steel-1-5-inch-field-tripod.html

 

Ah I see, I had the lite roc 1.75 with my CEM26, even had its own anti vibration pads, great tripod as you say, I have some thinking to do.

I assume I could just buy the mount alone, I'll have a look.

Have you used the mount to image? Thanks.

9 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

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.

Hi Geoff,

I kept a lot of bits inc a WO dovetail that will attach to the camera, I may need to add some kind of extension.

I also kept the ZWO in my sig, which is fine for moon/planets.

My concern is really image time (only 5secs you say) I did manage 25secs with an EVO6 I had with a .63 reducer so I was really hoping these alt/az mounts would be good for 90secs with focal lengths under 400mm, (I know the EVO is somewhat improved over the standard mounts by the use of worm gears) I should have tried when I had the EVO6 but hey ho.

What alt/az mount could you only manage 5secs? Or did I dream of reading 90secs on alt/az was easily achievable under 400mm, I hope not as I see this as my only option to continue the hobby, thanks.

@Adam J, Thanks, Is the tripod on SW really as flimsy as it looks in the pics? It looks no bigger than my manfrotto 190 but thats probably not the case.

The 4se looks more substantial.

TBF that is the only concern if the motor drives on both mounts are equally as good for 90sec tracking purposes at short focal lengths.

Would you say it would be easier to mount the DSLR on the AZ GTi? It looks flatter if you see what I mean.

Thanks guys.

Hi all,

I had all but given up astronomy/astrophotography but decided I need it in my life.

Gone are the days of the EQ mount, accessories and snakes of wires, software woes, aching joints and frustration.

My plan is a simple alt/az mount that tracks well (£500 ish) to view and image the moon and planets and also swap in my dslr and 135mm lens to feed the still present DSO imaging sessions for a good 90 secs.

I will also be wanting to add a 2" back to continue using my 2" accessories and wonder if both scopes accept an adapter for these?

I see the SW for £499 new or £325 for just the mount/tripod or a used 4se for around £375.

Are either of the above suitable (especially tracking ability of 90secs) or are there better alternatives.

I guess around 70% imaging large DSO's with dslr/lens and 30% planetary/moon obs/imaging.

TIA.

Personally I just cut and paste one image onto the other but there are probably other and possibly better ways.

15 hours ago, Doberamus said:

A couple of questions about choosing targets:

Is there any handy rule of thumb, or guide, about how long you should image a given nebula for, to start getting a decent image? 

And, similarly,  is there anywhere you might find a list of "gettable" targets for a given night?

Thanks!

I use this site to find my targets, it's very customizable too.

https://telescopius.com

Very nice Rik, one of my most favourite objects.

4 hours ago, alacant said:

Assuming everything is square and tight in the focuser and camera, it looks like it to me.

If you shake -separately- the ff/camera/telescope, can you hear anything loose?

Thanks Alacant, I can hear nothing.

I emailed FLO and they are going to take this one back for a refund too, i have ordered the ZS73A instead, non reducing but at least it will hopefully give me a tilt free flat field.

12 hours ago, Clarkey said:

It might be - I got two of a faulty batch of FF / Reducers from SW in the summer so it does happen. However, as the stars seem to be pointing out to the edge of the frame it could be the distance from the FF to the sensor that is slightly out. Difficult to tell in the top right as there are no big stars to look at in detail. Maybe try altering the spacing slightly and see if it improves.

Ian

Thanks Ian, will give it a try.

FLO replaced my 73R F/R as it was deemed faulty by ES Reid causing apparent tilt.

Here is an image taken with the replacement. 

Does this look like tilt again?

TIA.

On 25/02/2021 at 10:41, SiD the Turtle said:

Hi folks,

After some advice on a light pollution filter. I'm in a Bortle 5 and I'm combining a William Optics ZS73 and a Canon 600D unmodified. This winter I've been focusing on the Andromeda galaxy, which I've gotten some decent subs on, but now we're getting to the point where it sets behind the trees too early to get more than a few images. So I'd like to attack 'beginner' nebula targets like Orion and other large-ish targets that suit my scope.

Initial results are not super great, and I fear I have more of a problem with light pollution with nebulae than I did with the nice, bright Andromeda galaxy. So I'm looking at what filter to buy to fit this telescope and camera pairing. Any ideas?

Some questions to clarify:

• Most narrow band filters are isolating the wavelengths that are common in nebulae, so am I right there'd be no point using them for galaxies?
• The Optolong L-enhance and L-extreme seem popular. The former is tri-band, the latter is dual-band. Why would you go for dual over tri? Is it simply more aggressive for high light pollution areas?
• How do these wavelengths map to a colour camera? Am I going to find, for example, that the images fall mostly to the red end of the spectrum?
• If I move to a dedicated astro-camera in future, would these be useful for the luminance layer? If so I'll put the money up for a 2 inch now, rather than a 1.25 or clip-in, for future proofing.

Cheers!

Hi, 

These were take under Bortle 4 skies and a full moon with my ZS73 and Canon 60D (unmodified) using a Skytech quad band clip in filter.

60s subs, heart is 172mins, cigar severe crop is 78mins

15 hours ago, smashing said:

Cracking effort well done...much better than my guided ones last year  

Thank you.

14 hours ago, grjsk said:

Only 60 sec in the cem26? That is a shame, I was looking at either that or the gem 28, but I was hoping for at least a couple of minutes..

I was very surprised not to get 2 mins, but this might not be indicative of all CEM 26 mounts.

I'm going to send it off to darkframe in the summer for some tuning and upgrades.

First light for the WO ZS73 and Canon 60D.

FLO replaced my faulty 73R F/R but sadly the replacement is also faulty so field was not very flat hence the severe crop.

I managed 78 good 60sec subs till clouds rolled in.

No guiding as I wanted to see how the new Ioptron CEM 26 performed, sadly not to well and 60sec was the best I could get, shame as I used to get double that on my old CG5. 

Just to conclude this thread.

I explained the above and sent screenshots to the guys at FLO, they were extremely helpful and said it was tilt in the image train.

They immediately arranged for the scope and  FF/FR to be collected and sent to ES Reid next day.

I heard back from them this morning and was told the FF/FR was faulty, they sent another to ES Reid which was checked and found to be perfect.

They have couriered my scope and FF/FR back to me today.

I'm extremely grateful to the guys at FLO for recognizing and dealing with the problem in such a timely and professional manner.

Thank you.