Adam J

Basically its a fantastic mirror and you will never tell the difference between this and perfect.

Interesting, where did you get the holder for the guide scope from?

I have to say that given this scope is literally sold for AP and at a significant cost this whole thing is horrendous, vixen need to have a good look at themselves for not providing the correct adaptor with the scope.

Yes but to be clear even the premium brands generally use aluminium not steel.

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That's a mild case at least.

Yes I have heard the same. What scope did you use for those images and what settings/ exposures?

I see, did you have the original or the pro version?

Is one of those images the 071 and the other the 571?

Would anyone who has direct experience of both these sensors comment on their relative performance (size apart). Despite the title I don't really mind what make your camera is, so more IMX071 Vs IMX294 as opposed to just ZWO. Am interested in real world performance I can do the maths on sensitivity myself from specification. In the end it's for wide field so the bigger sensor is better for me so long as it's not so much slower that you can take two images with the 294 in the time it takes the 071 to take one in the real world. Please if you dont have experience of both or either then resist the urge to comment. I would be looking second hand and hence please don't suggest newer models either. Stick to these two. Cheers, Adam

How long are your flat frames? Adam

I wouldn't the QC on most of these scopes is poor. Also they tend to ship the scopes as individual components to avoid some import to taxes.

Honestly they all come off the same production line in China WO just tweek the retaining ring to increase the aperture by 1mm it will work perfectly with the TS. Optically it's the same flattener design

Fantastic news.

What scope will it be used with?

What's your reasoning?

Do you mean 428?

Still a great camera for a beginner. At the right price grab it a filter wheel and some good filters to go with it. You will have a blast. The hypercam 183 is not cooled and the QHY8L is not as sensitive. get the 314L out of these options. Don't worry about image scale too much when starting out. You won't get the detail unless you can get the SNR to support it anyhow.

I had a scope with the original steal track and it rotated on a ED80. If you replace one of the grub screws with a focuser make sure it's nylon tipped.

Have you considered the Stellamira 85mm with 0.8x reducer? Its what I would go with in that 80mm-90mm aperture range. Adam

As lightly as you can you touch something lol. Very lightly I would suggest. The advantage is that the cotton wool can catch something and drag it across the mirror without you noticing. This can be felt with fingers. It's not possible for your fingers to actually scratch the coating the skin is softer than the mirror coating, it is particles of grit you need to worry about. You wash your hands with pure soap first as per the method. The last disadvantage of cotton wool is that I find it always leaves little fibers on the mirror. For a refractor I use cotton wool as you can't run water over it.

I find that for mirrors the finger method is superior.

It's most likely because they are reflections between the two inch filter and the rear most optical element of the ACL200. As opposed to filter reflections from the sensor. You tend to get that effect then a curved surface is involved. The filter on the FMA180 is infront of the objective so you will never see this effect as reflected light from the filter is sent back up into space. However when using the FMA with a filter wheel and mono camera I have seen this effect. But it's only on very bright stars to I am not bothered by it.

It's 20% VAT and 10% charges. So in reality it's just 10% as when we where in the EU we would have paid EU vat instead. As that is now taken off at purchase the VAT cancels out.

Have you seen the FMA180 thread? I would say that the ACL200 is a little faster and better corrected. But the correction is solved by using a Astronomik L-3. The FMA180 is better value for money by a significant margin. Bit the ACL200 is better no doubt.