Adam J

The focus cube has easily enough torque not to need placing on a two speed focuser. Some place on you tube they demonstrated the torque by getting one to turn a hog on a spit roast.

I own two and I have a friend who also has two. They are great bits of kit and very accurate. The universal bar will fit most scopes but for some you may need to source your own washers and screws as they can only provide so many different types. I have used it with an Esprit 100 a Askar 180 and a 130pds. My friend used them on his APM107 with feather touch focuser a WO GT71 and his Askar 180. Cameras is probably the wrong place for this thread though. Adam

Depends on which OSC some of the larger sensors like the 2600 are quite a bit heavier than a 1600. If I could turn back time I would have kept the HEQ5 pro and gotten a stellarmira 85mm instead but I cornered myself into having to upgrade the mount as I was not going to send the Esprit back.

About 11kg. The issues are that the weight quoted for the Esprit 100 dose not include rings and dove tail bar. The provided dove tail is not long enough so you end up getting a bigger one. I had a ASI1600mm pro filter wheel a 50mm finder guider and a auto focuser on mine.

I tried running my esprit 100 on my heq5 pro, it did not work out for me and I get a used AZ eq6 GT to replace it with. I found it was limiting my exposure length and that I could not consistently guide under 1 arcsecond like I could with the 130pds on it. That resulted in stars slightly out or round, so it depends on how fussy you are and the size of your pixels.

I would disagree with that statement, on a technical level the gap between mono and OSC is exactly the same as it always has been, my observation is that sensor technology as advanced to the point that you can get results with a OSC that could only have been acheived with mono in past years / sensor generations. However, the gap between an OSC ASI2600MC-Pro and the ASI2600MM-Pro is exactly the same as the gap in performance between a older KAF8600 mono and OSC, its just that the OSC KAF8600 was below the sensitivity threshold required for it to take top draw images in a reasonable intergration time. But thats not quite the same thing as the gap narrowing and given three hours of data with the mono 2600 vs three hours of data with a OSC 2600 the mono will still win perticually in narrow band imaging and despite the advent of filters like the L-Extream. I think this will become clearer as we see images start coming with the ASI2600MM pro in the next year. I agree with your choice not to go with the reducer, I think that its a big ask with a APS-C sized chip and that life will be easier all in all with the more tame F-ratio. Adam

It depends on the flattener and if it is operating at its optimum focal ratio / focal length. But 55mm is normally a good place to start.

With the pound getting stronger against the dollar and most of this stuff coming from outside the EU it can only be increased shipping costs as mentioned by FLO recently. But if demand if high that's going to always push up prices, so given supply is low this is to be expected really.

I think it's best I am honest and say that as a AZ GTI owner I don't believe that the skymax 127 is suitable for DSO imaging with this mount. It's more a visual solution on a AZ GTI. Even with heavy counter weights and perfect balance I think the focal length is too long to enable tracking at sufficient accuracy to produce a DSO image without elongated stars or similar issues. I found that my AZ GTI required tuning to handel even a short focal length refractor well. Did you purchase it for DSO imaging or do you also use it for visual? Adam

In that situation i would be looking for a used scope, astronomers tend to look after their kit very well. Adam

From my perspective thats not sufficient budget to get something that will draw you into the hobby and keep you interested (others may disagree with me) but its not all that far from the kind of budget that I would suggest. So my honest opinion is to save just a little bit longer until you can go with something in the 200 - 250 euro range and you will be much more happy with your purchase and have a better experiance. Adam

Great image!

Hi Jonny, If you literally mean last night then the cause is the full moon. Even low in the sky as it was early evening you can still expect this effect when imaging in broad band OSC, later in the evening it will have gotten even worse as the moon climbed higher. I think imaging in the full moon is valid when you are starting out as there is so much to learn that you need to take every opportunity you can get. With that in mind for the conditions you have produced a smashing result. As most people gain experience they move away from imaging under the full moon. But it really does cut down on imaging time. A little either side of full moon you could try a duel channel narrow band filter down the line as this will greatly increase contrast. Adam

As in it's nothing to me as it's something I can't experience. Doubtless it's meaningful to those who can. You are miss reading my tone. So having clarified that, I'll be going now.

I used the terms: "for me", "I would be comfortable with" and "so to me". Not sure how you read that as me talking about anything other than my own experiences. For me it would make little difference to own a 4 inch scope capable of 400x over one capable of 250x unless I want to see nothing but floaters. So to me the distinction in quality is meaningless. I never said anything about anyone else but it's something everyone should consider against their expectations of performance for a low aperture premium refractor. Just because it is capable of 400x doesn't mean your eyes are. I am knocking no one, infact if you have the eyes for it i am quite envious.

For me its more that the size of the exit pupil to get 300-400x mag on a 4inch scope is not something I would be comfortable with technically possible or not so to me it is a complete nothing statement when people make claims like that.

Yes I keep meaning to ask FLO if that accepts none ATIK equipment.

Go with stellarmate don't be tied to just ZWO too many other great manufacturers for that kind of rubbish.

you wont get anothing of any quality for £20

Its not really though is it as that diagram has no 435nm line on it for some reason it only gos as low as 480nm and has a 486nm line too...very odd. Adam

Because after you find the one that fits...you stop trying lol.

No your wrong the duty is small in these are they get around the rules by importing scope components as opposed to a complete scope. Hence they are counted as a UK / EU product assembled from imported components for tax. It's the whole reason they sell via people like ALTAIR and TS etc in the first place as opposed to under their own brand. Of you where talking about skywatcher you would be more correct but still wrong. You only pay the vat in the EU or the UK not both so the TS will still be cheaper than the ALTAIR assuming their web page can handle removing the VAT like FLOs page would remove VAT for exports to the EU.

was that the AZ-GTi or the tripod that caused the wobble?

Yeah by the time you have a F12 is there really any negative in going a little longer and getting the F15.

1) You should not have to pay vat at purchase though as the UK are not an EU country and hence you gain exactly what you lose. I am guessing VAT will be removed on checkout when a UK postage is selected. 2) There is no duty. Only a customs fee and that is not the same thing.