Adam J

HEQ5 pro meshing is reasonably easy to adjust and some online guides exist. Its also reasonably easy to adjust the tension on the ED80 focuser. Again online guides exist. I have not owned a SA but I am sure someone will be able to assist you with that. Unless someone beats me to it then ill post some links tonight after work. Adam

Perhaps we should step back one step here and ask what its is in each case that makes you think you need servicing? There may well me a simple solution to your issues that people here can help you with. Adam

Do you happen to know what tripod they are shipping it with? Is it the same as the SA one? Adam

£500 or I am out. Not paying £600 for marginally better performance than a AZGTI.

I would not bank on that.

I don't see it that way. It's less aggressive pricing than it being just how it has to be placed withing the product lineup the 533 is undoubtedly a cheaper chip to make than the 294 but even accounting for that it's just not possible for the 533 to start to infringe on the price point of the larger sensor products if they did that it simply would not sell. They also need a product at the low cost end of the market that enables the use of cheaper 1.25 inch filters even at fast F-ratio and the 533 I'd that product. The 533 is not supposed to compete with the larger chips and it can't compete with them so it would just be daft to price it in at over 1.1k

Honestly I doubt that you even need 3min subs, 2min would be my pick and should burry read noise at unity gain on that camera at that sky class. Just would not require longer unless you are needing to reduce file storage. However as there is little disadvantage to going longer with that camera you need to choose between ease of guiding and storage essentially.

The key thing that you need to grasp is that space is expanding between objects as opposed to objects moving through space. So the more space there is between objects the faster that space is expanding and so the more space there is. Its effectively a run away process. Adam

My opinion in general on any scope is that you need to spend the big cash to get reliable performance below F5. So for a reflector that means going to something like a hyperbolic mirror Newtonian or a RASA etc. There are better F4 newts available but I dont know of any in the 6 inch class. Adam

Don't do it unless you really are not bothered by imperfect stars.

Honestly at gain 200 there is no need to go for 5min subs. 2 min should work fine. Adam

My interpretation of Risingcam is that they are pricing in accordance with the sensors actual cost as opposed to how they think it should fit within a product line up. Hence the IMC571 OSC is cheap because the actual sensor is not that expensive in relative terms. On that basis the 533 mono is not likely to be an expensive sensor for Sony to make and so its possible you are correct and it won't be much more than their version of the IMX183. However as a ASI1600mm pro owner I place value in having the ability to switch out the camera plug and play between my scopes without having to change spacing etc along with the camera. Adam

Honestly I have no idea why the delta between the mono version of the 294 and OSC is so large. If it's £1300 that would be a hard sell for me. The fact is that sensor size matters allot still and for me it's not sufficiently superior to the 1600 to make up for the size difference. It would also suffer the same problem that the 1600 has Vs the 294mono i.e. it makes no sense to not get the 294 mono for a little more as it's twice the area of the 533 and significantly more sensitive than the 1600. For me a price as high as £1300 places it in no man's land in terms of value for money. If it's not cheaper than the 1600 I'll not be buying one. Adam

I have always set my black point to 30 when processing for print, interesting that you would lower it from normal. I find that setting it lower leads to loss of detail in the shadows as the print clips to black for brightness's less than 30. But the danger here is that every printer / lab is different. Hence I don't think its possible to provide universal advice on this topic. You got a nice result though! Adam

That suggests to me you may have had the gain set incorrectly. @PadrePeace may be able to suggest something. Adam

Well they cant get away with making it more expensive than the ASI1600mm pro or even close to the ASI294mm pro as those are bigger sensors. So they are stuck really as its going to be bracketed between the ASI183mm pro and the ASI1600mm pro is its going to make any sense at all. Adam

Did you make new darks also? Remember everything has to be set to gain 200, flats, darks, lights and dark flats. Adam

I think you will be lucky if the ASI533mm pro is £1000, my guess is more like £1100 too much more though and you are pushing into the territory of the larger 4/3 sensors. Adam

It wont be the power supply the 12 volts only powers the cooler, the camera itself is powered from the USB 5Volts. If its disconnecting it really is almost certainly a USB cable quality issue resulting in insufficient voltage at the camera. The WIFI on the ASI Air is famous for being a bit rubbish. Could it be that power is being interrupted to the ASI AIR itself? Adam

I honestly dont think you are going to get anything in the £300 range that is going to do better than a modded 550D. So yes I think that you are going to need a budget of £600 for most dedicated cameras, even second hand though sometimes you do find a bargain in the £400 - £600 range. You are going to really struggle to do anything in terms of mono with that kind of budget as you would need filters too. Honestly all in all I would wait and use the DSLR until you have a budget of more like £1000. Adam

I think its actually the effects of light pollution that is killing off visual astronomy. I would not take numbers of posts to be a good measure either. Imaging is arguably more technical with more that can go wrong. Also you can post a image on a forum making it a better match to the subject matter. Adam

The horrible suspicion that i would have is as follows: Did you power the powered hub with 12volts or 5 volts? USB Hubs that take a 12volt input are rare. In most cases plugging in 12volts will carry that through to all devices plugged into the hub. Adam

A friend may have found a work around by using higher gain on the 294 it seems to allow for better caliration when using gain 200 in comparison to the often used gain 120. Adam

I have heard lots of complainst about the ZWO ASI2600MC Pro and oil leaks but and oddly hardly a bad word said about the much cheaper Rising Cam version of the IMX571 or the QHY for that matter. I have heard of issues with the 1600 equiverlent though the other way around with the ALTAIR / RISING CAM etc having issues with pattern noise, even so if i was looking for a OCS APS-C camera I would be really tempted by the rising cam. simply because there is a known issue with the ZWO. I have heard of some people having to return it multiple times. Its front side illuminated and so the QE is presumably quite a bit lower in the 269c. Adam

Not willing to pay 300 new so one would need to come up used.