Adam J

Ok it took me only 5mins on astrobin looking for images with bright stars in them to find a pinched TSA-120. https://www.astrobin.com/271304/C/?page=3&nc=user I did not even get a significant way through the TSA-120 images to find it. Perhapse it was taken at -30c but I really doubt that. Just goes to prove that if you go looking for problems on the internet you will always find them.

News flash AP produce better engineered scopes than budget brand Skywatcher. Do you expect Skywatcher to match TEC let alone AP or that it's fair to judge them by those standards? Of course not. Just because it's possible to make a scop operate at highly sub zero temps doesn't mean it's reasonable to expect it consistently from a sub 2k mass produced scope. I think it's ok to expect no pinching at 0c but -10c? It's arbitrary anyway because you could not buy an AP scope even if you could afford one.

I don't find this that shocking. It's a mass produced optic and in some parts of northern Sweden average temperatures can be -15c....that's average not lowest. The esprit range is sold world wide from Australia to Alaska and could encounter in the extreme temps from -20c to +30c it's just not reasonable to expect it to perform its very best over a 50c temperature range. They have to design for a core temperature range of maybe -5c to +20c. If you really want something that's going to operate over that range take up CFF On the custom cell or get a tak which is more likely to take such temp variation into account given the weather in Japan. But expecting a sub 2k triplet to work optimally at -10c or below is not reasonable. Please shout out if you think a WO or TS or Altair etc etc would on average fair better in negative double figure temperatures. I'll point you to many example that strongly suggest they don't. I returned my esprit as it showed an issue at around 0c or below. If it had only showed that at -10c I would never have sent it back as I would not think that reasonable. To put that into context I have seen many other brands that are pinched at room temperature. Type pinched William optics into Google and see what you get....then type pinched esprit 100 into Google and virtually only get my thread from 2019 and this one. You even get hits if you type pinched Takahashi into Google. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/601587-pinched-optics-with-nikon-d750-and-takahashi-85-fsq/ My overall point here is 1) that if you go looking for problems on the internet you will find them and 2) you can't expect a refractor to preform at its best below -10c.

Sounds like drivers to me. Remove all drivers and reinstall. Is the pc recognising it when you plug it in?

Get the ASI1600 you will not regret it, but for best results chop a little off the draw tube like I did. Here is an example image with your exact setup I took a couple of years back. Adam

Generally you would not get a back screen from that more like local dead pixels.

What's your focal length?

Take care the peak current during acceleration will be higher in a stepper motor while you are effectively measuring average current. Current draw will also depend on the load on the focuser. However, you are still most likely correct, not going to be much as you say.

Just to be clear I am not talking about small imperfections more like big issues effecting the function of the scope. Aka cross shaped stars that do not focus to a point.

Then bin 1 mode only works on the mono camera as the matrix on the OSC is made up of 2x2 super pixels as opposed to the standard RGGB pattern.

I think that the issue is not that the 120mc cant take an image of a galaxy its that the 224mc is so so much better at that for not very much more money. Adam

Its worth pointing out that SONY dont grantee any of there sensors (CMOS or CCD) against the amateur astronomy use case, its quite specific that they only grantee sensors for use within their intended application, in this case a consumer camera. Its the astro camera maker that takes the risk on a sensor failing even within the standard 2 year warranty period not SONY, they wash their hands of any sensor that gets put into a dedicated astronomy camera from day 1. I would be highly surprised if we see lots of failures in CMOS in comparison to CCD. That boat has already sailed and we have not been seeing any issues in the last 4 years. Adam

No but given the pattern of their sensor releases and the potential use cases for that sensor in mono I think it's possible we will see one down the line.

Now that you mention it just a tiny bit lol. Life is difficult for the perfectionists.

Great image too many galaxies for me to count. Also a good example of the use of the L3 filter as without pixel peeping those stars look great with no apparent bloat in blue.

Over the last two years I have taken an interest in optical testing and performance. My goal being that I am able to assess the performance of my own scopes and be able to correctly evaluate new purchases. However, as my understanding has improved to a level when I am confident in spotting most common and even some less common issues I have inevitably started to spot optical issues with other people's equipment, often serious issues that should result in the scope being returned and replaced. I take the view that I am not the scope police and it's not my job to run about telling people that their optics are rubbish, at least not unless they are asking for an opinion. Indicating that they are already aware something might be wrong. The flip side of this is that I have recently spotted a couple of clear cases of bad astigmatism (such that the scope will never focus correctly) in images proudly posted by new forum users. Their new scopes being in warrenty now but inevitably by the time they are experienced enough to spot the issues themselves it will be too late to return it. The issue is that I don't want to take someone who is happy with what they have posted and effectively make them unhappy and potentially discourage them. So what would you do? Adam

Yes I see that posted back in Feb on Atik's web page. Wonder when Atik consider summer to start? FLO's says 20-25 days right now. Perhaps @FLO can confirm its availability for Olly's consideration. Adam

You say forthcoming but it's currently available to order on FLO and has been out for a few months a think. Just 25 days lead time.

Yeah you would need one of these to go with it.... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-Rocket-Internal-Performance-SB-RKTQ-8TB/dp/B08957PT2K/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?adgrpid=107220330956&dchild=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw6qqDBhB-EiwACBs6x24fmsLVRVhubeUBHS_gsq0xABlZmwPPMYrgAvzKvmhY_ChX3RW_GxoCgf8QAvD_BwE&hvadid=458181730708&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=1006876&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=14370790741565728234&hvtargid=kwd-726731291978&hydadcr=19799_1751391&keywords=nvme+8tb&qid=1617620375&sr=8-3

Interesting sensor four times the size of a imx290 and with reduced read noise. Should be good for moon sun and ultra short exposure DSO imaging 2.9um pixels. Anyone got any thoughts? Wonder if ZWO will bring one out. Might be worthy of a cooled version too and very interesting if Sony do a mono run. Adam

Yeah my thought was that although clever he had made it more complicated than required. You don't need the full focus range to focus at infinity. Just a tiny little movement once you present the focus position, in which case the movement is insignificant and can be accommodated by the belt.

The belt can't be very tight or you will cause tilt. For that matter it doesn't need to be. I can slide mine on and off without removing the motor unit. You really only need to move it an 8th of a turn in total to autofocus it you don't need access to the full range of movement. I made the pullies wider than the belt to accommodate a little slide in the belt. My self and a @PadrePeace have been using it for a while with no issues.

So long as you use it for your personal use only, don't pass the files on, or make prints for others, or post them online etc then I am happy to share. If your happy with that I'll dig the files out and send them to you. It will only work with the focus cube but I have a file for the V1 and V2. You may need to tweak the position of the holes if it's the V1 as it was not quite correct when I printed mine. V2 would work fine. Adam

Well unless you intend to use it as a guide camera I think that PHD1 will not be an issue. But I don't see why you would not go to PHD2, it will likely improve your guiding.

Yes I saw that but I did not feel they had cherry picked the band so did not think to long on it. Even if it's 650nm It still seems to be in spec, so again I think it's all great. I don't see anything that would worry me if it was mine.