spikkyboy

Hi all. The Mrs has authorised purchase of a William optics binoviewer. Bit sad as I just missed one for sale yesterday on here. Anyway if anyone spots a bargain or a black friday discount code please let me know.

TIA David

I do Polar align and use pole master. I got a perfect circle around the star. I did a simple 2 start alignment. Then when I select Jupiter I was perfectly aligned but 2 inches too low. I recentered on the planet and my next target was off as well. Frustrating at best.

I have a star sense and that doesn't work either. As soon as I set it running it charges off for a look at the trees in my garden. Every time.

Hi, does anybody know of or at least think that its high time that we were blessed with a self aligning EQ mount?

I have a HEQ5PRO mount and really struggle with alignment. The slightest amount out of level before you start and the object you goto is 2 inches higher than the field of view. Not even getting started on being down on my knees looking for Polaris. I bought the Polestar alignment camera and this does help but HEY if there are any mount designers or perhaps a rep from Sky Watcher reading this come on its 2022.

Thoughts please ........GO!

Hi all. Just bought a used 250 SynScan dob with the three flex tube bars.

1 question. When setting up you loosen the 3 wing nuts and slide the top part of the scope up.

Pictures in manual show full extension all the way to the end.

My question is why are there 2 detent stops? This indicates that you could stop at the first detent and shorten the focal length thus changing the F ratio of the scope?

Is this correct. Does anybody have experience of that and what benefit would there be in doing this.

Thanks

welcome, and how are the Phlegraean Fields? Ive been watching some you tube videos this week since La Palma and see that Vesuvius was not the main event and there's actually a huge super volcano on the other side of the Bay of Naples. Scary stuff.

wow, what is that?

So, last night was a lovely clear evening. I fired up the Celestron CPC925.

WOW! I had the best views of Saturn ever. With a 30mm eyepiece and x2 Barlow.

Previous views were an orange blob with a disc around it. This time I can see grey blue in the rings and rings within the rings so probably as good a visual as I will ever get.

I attach my Neximage directly to the rear of the scope using a 2" adaptor.  Using the supplied icap software the camera is recognised and connected. No image just a full hazy screen. Twiddle focus backwards and forwards, nothing. Suddenly right at the end of travel I notice a full screen sun spot type image. No more focus travel.

Luckily the adaptor is a fairly long tube and by loosening the screw I can eek bit more out of it by moving the camera further up in the adaptor.

We have some kind of focus. I see Saturn, and either some of it moons or nearby stars. They are in pretty good shape but the main planet is just a big white over exposed blob. Tried  a number of different filters but it did not improve.

My question is which setting must I alter to stop this over exposure? It seems I am almost there and am finally getting everything to work.

Just one final hurdle. (he hopes)

Any input would be most welcome and as always thanks in advance.

Hi, all.

I bought a used SXV-H9C one shot colour camera at a good price. It came with the add on guider and all the cables and power supply but no software.

I Googled it and found drivers which installed fine and it is recognised in Sharpcap Pro. I note from the original adverts that it came with a driver and software suite on a CD.

Does anybody know where I can download that or perhaps own a copy that they could duplicate for me and post if I pay them ?

I found some stuff on Starlight website but what was downloaded crashed with fatal error on win7.

Should I just stick to Sharpcap? I printed out the 32 page manual but it is 90 percent describing use of the camera with the original software so no help at all.

Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I bought an old Starlight Xpress SXV-H9C from ENS optical Birmingham.

Came with Guide camera and all the cables.

I googled and found and installed drivers and it works fine on Sharpcap and on a dark frame no dead pixels.

I note that this camera was originally shipped with a software CD. Does anybody know where I can get or download a copy of this software? Maybe you have the same camera and would copy me a disc if I paid?

Cant wait to get my first images.

Thanks For reading.

David

Thanks Peter, I have noticed in some of the videos that the camera is connected directly to the telescope. I have the adaptor into the diagonal. I will try again without it. Maybe the region hitting the tiny sensor via the diagonal is losing my target? 

It is the NexImage burst camera. I googled use and set up and found a video (yes it was attached to my telescope).

User in video had same problem, only white or black screen. His laptop was old and unable to process the image.

I use a very old windows 7 laptop so this could possibly be my problem. I was considering a new one anyway so will try that.

Hi all, does anybody use one of these? I installed the icap software but when i plug the camera in just shows light or dark, no image.

Tried it last night on jupiter thinking it needed a further away target. Nothing. if i wave it at my desk lamp the screen goes white then black when i move it away so its doing something. Any ideas anybody? is there a better software program to run it on?

Thanks

Hi all, I have been looking at getting a cooled pro colour camera for some time. I have a sky watcher 80 Esprit so hoping to dodge and rgb and just get some one shot colour pictures with minimal after processing.

Im narrowed down to the choice between ZWO ASI183MC and ASI533MC very similar in specs but not sure I understand what the differences will mean when used with the Esprit. I would appreciate any thoughts of a more experienced imager before I dump £900 into the wrong camera.

Thanks in advance.

David

is focus good? I also have the 200p, it is supplied with an extension tube. This must be used to get correct back focus on eye piece, removed all you get is blur.

Yes to rotating the OTA. a little odd after alignment but ok if careful.

One further question, If front leg faces to N how essential are the other two legs? I have drawn lines out on my patio and an accurate East to West line.

My theory is if every thing is set right and i plonk my tripod onto the same 3 marks I must be almost polar aligned at the start? Then just small adjustment needed. I had it all working fine and now disaster so I can't figure out what's changed.

The Polemaster has had me adjust the altitude to get Polaris into the setting circle so could be that? On the scale its still in the region of 51 degrees, maybe half degree plus or minus? Not a very accurately marked scale.

My CPC had GPS software issue, im getting the same (also Jupiter) with my HEQ5PRO. I polar aligned, did a 2 star and goto jupiter was miles off. The RA was spot on but DEC about 10 degrees too low. Weird. and also very frustrating. Im also using the SW gps mouse.

3 hours ago, StevieDvd said:

I seem to recall you were getting good results before, so has anything notable changed?  Of course an obvious one is we are now on BST.

The first clue is you said the first alignments are way off  - is it possible you have knocked the mount after doing PA?

The first goto for an alignment expects your PA to be good, date/time/location/DST etc all set correctly and a correct home position, it then adjusts for any errors to make later gotos better. 

Have you set the home position, marked the mount perhaps to make it easier? There is a good thread showing how to use a spirit level to mark the starting points. I'll see if I can find the thread for you.

If you get this again next time, try aligning the first star by loosening the clutches and moving the scope manually to align, tighten the clutche and see if the next align is closer.

BTW when you asked about synching your 'manual' adjustment, is that using the handset? As far as I recall you can't synch your mount to that position (other than in software like eqmod) as being the correct alignment for the target. A clutch open manual move should do that though.

I did set home position using the spirit level as per tutorials. After doing PA and select 2 star alignment the first star suggested was Altair, chose that and after the slew there was nothing in the eyepiece. Manually found it using HC and an app on my phone. 2nd alignment star was Vega, same thing selected yes and after slew nothing in eyepiece.

I suspect my trouble is mount level as I have triple checked over everything else.

4 hours ago, Tomatobro said:

I agree with Shimrod.

I got so fed up with having to enter all the data every time and making mistakes I invested in a SW GPS puck. From then on setup and alignment was a breeze. Not cheap I know but I figured you have to put some value on the frustration and time you waste.

I have the SW GPS so date and time are set, daylight saving was causing me an hour error but I changed it in handset settings. The weird thing is that the slew to target is spot on just the altitude is too low.

The Polarscope has had me doing some major fiddling with the altitude bolts which was obviously set to 51 degrees but the software gets to the part where it says now align polaris to circle using alt az and altitude bolts only. Sometimes im cranking up perhaps 3 degrees from where it was previously.

I will keep practicing. I also notice that everybody spirit levels the tripod before the mount head goes on. I have the mount fitted and have used the supplied bubble, maybe this is a mistake so will break back down to tripod and start from scratch.

I have my patio marked N north for front leg and i drew lines out for East to West and with front foot on N and rear legs on the E/W line I am almost polar aligned at the start. Last 2 nights Polaris not very bright so may have even picked the wrong star?

Thanks for all the suggestions everybody.

3 hours ago, M40 said:

There does not "appear" to be any feedback to the controller from head position as you can spin the head numerous times, call it the home position and away it goes so the fixing knobs can be pointing in any direction. What the controller does rely on is that the mount is polar aligned, level and the handset settings are correct. As for the settings, I just look the location info up on the pc, write it down and keep it handy. I have noticed though that between mobile phone apps, the altitude seems to change dramatically between devices so I use the light pollution map for altitude as it seems to be very accurate.

One question though, when you align with say Jupiter, does the mount track ok or do you occasionally have to reposition? 

Yes tracking is spot on. Once I've found a target I can go and make a cup of tea and when i come back still dead centre of eyepiece.

Hi all, I've had my HEQ5PRO for a while now, concentrated on polar alignment and now have a QHY polariscope. All good.

When I do say a 2 star alignment the scope is way off the goto targets on one of the axis. I have watched many set up and how to videos and have noticed something.

The dovetail that actually holds the scope in the clamp sometimes has the nuts on the left and sometimes the right. This could mean that we are a whole 180 degrees out? Or once I have set up and told the scope that this is the home position does that not matter? Martin did it bolds right, astrofarsography bolts left.

Any thoughts? Last night I polar aligned everything great. Did a 2 star align and then goto jupiter. Slewed around to correct position but about 10 degrees too low and I had to manually adjust so I've done something wrong.

Further question, if this does happen and I manually realign to centre the target can I tell the scope to take that new setting?

As always thanks for any answers, you always come up trumps.

I have ordered bobs knobs for the 200p and the bay replacement bolts for the terrible rubbish supplied with the HEQ5.

David

Just read this and had the same trouble. For anybody else looking here nothing is wrong with the scope I just could not achieve focus. A 2" extension is supplied and this is need in order to get correct focal length. 

Welcome Peter. You will find nice helpful people here. Thats a nice little rig. Please post info of how it goes as I am interested in the ioptron myself.

I see on the news that Rotterdam has riots? hopefully not in your little lane........

Thanks all for the replies. I did find the illumination control in the handset menus and got a lower level of illumination about number 3 and yes Polaris was very dim but managed to align ok. I have purchased the sky watcher 90 degree polar scope eye piece and now don't have to lay underneath the telescope to look through the polar scope.

I used the alt az bolts to set correctly and the pre set altitude degrees was a fair bit wrong so got that set and locked down too.

I was pointed true North, this was some trouble as soon as you put a compass any where near the electronics it goes haywire.

So with scope nowhere near Drew a line on my patio in marker to North.

Drew a very accurate line thru E to W.

Plonk front leg on N and rear legs on E and W hey presto almost perfect instant alignment every time.

The difference being the little wobble that Polaris makes around the Zenith.

I am amazed by the mounts accuracy when correctly set up.

I had Saturn in view and went away and had a cup to tea. When I came back 20 minutes later it was still dead centre. Wow.

So a lot of reading has taken place and thanks to all of your efforts I feel that I now understand fully how this mount works and why.

Something so simple seemed so tricky.

As usual you lovely lot had answers so thanks to all that have contributed.

I have now bought the Sky Watcher guide scope and hoping to do some AP next. Without proper alignment any photography was going to be a waste of time so I am fairly excited to be moving forward with that.

I am currently investigating cameras..........

Hi everybody and hoping that you and yours remain well.

I decided that I had some poor quality eye pieces to go with my 925CPC.

So after some reading and of course reviews on here I purchased a set of Baader Hyperion eye pieces.

The attraction, apart from the quality for a good price was the threaded end.

Baader do a 43mm to T2 adaptor ring that I have purchased also and I can now attach my camera directly onto the eye piece.

Tried last night to image Andromeda Galaxy but could not replicate what my eye was seeing in the eye piece to a view on the screen of the camera.

Could be back focus and yes I did buy the spacer rings also so that is something that I can play with.

Does anybody have experience of trying to image in this way?

If so any tips, recommended settings etc?

I have an adaptor to directly attach my camera to the back of the CPC threaded part and this has worked fine as Celestron's adaptor is already at correct back focus.

The different Hyperion eye pieces are all slightly different lengths so this must be an issue?

Hoping that I can crack this as it seems a great way to try and image and maybe zoom in on details.

As usual thanks in advance for replies.

sorry everybody only just logged back in. Thanks to scousespacecat for providing the link.

They are certainly unusual and well worth a tenner.