Adam J

Yes it will cost you about 300-400pounds.

FLO? Will they ne stocking ASKAR then? I have the ASKAR FMA180 and will be posting a review soon ish, its very nice at the price. This is significantly more expensive though. Adam

Mostly depends on your local seeing / altitude. But for me less than 1 arcsecond cant be acheived in the UK without DSO lucky imaging. Adam

Using a SSD on a usb3 is know to interfere with WiFi.

According to that tool 31 mm filters are fine unless you are below f4. Adam

To my knowledge there have been three different QHY full frame OSC CMOS cameras in the last couple of years. Which one is used here? Great image. Adam

The latest ones now being sold have a fixed the focuser travel issue. Adam

Now this is a test image, taken at 100% moon and poor transparency so almost daylight. Hence this is more a test looking at stars than what the scope can really do. 1h20mins total of LRGB expsoures in 10 second subs with the ASI1600mm pro. Some blue fringes but only minor and easy to fix, so not 100% APO but all in all very sharp. I am looking at the stars more here than anything else as the conditions really where unworkable. Personally I think that for £350 thats very respectable. Adam

3D printed a bracket and ring for my pegasus astro focus cube v2. As was the focuser was workable but it took longer to focus than I would like and so this will help. Adam

Yes but not sure I should post the results as it was taken in poor transparency and 100% moon. So not a good example image.

The mono version of the ASI2600mc pro assuming it is a real mono chip when it comes out is going to be about 40% more expensive without considering the cost of 36mm filters. So I would say that it's in a different market segment and not directly competing with the ASI1600mm pro. However a new mono 4/3 sensor is also a possibility and that likely will be competing or a replacement.

A shot of a roofline at about 70 meters with a canon 700D. Not seeing much purple on high contrast edges.

Bad luck. Well I had a go today and it seems good, i took some images of high contrast daylight targets with a DSLR and i dont see and fringes. Feels like a quality but of kit in the hand. Adam

The next day and it has arrived. Outer box is a nice touch.

Nice, well they have put up a message saying that the first batch sold out in only 2 days....

So does that mean that you did not get one in time?

If you mean 365Astronomy then yes. I have my email from them confirming my purchase and have heard nothing from them since that. I know that they only had 2 left in stock after I ordered and that a friend of mine bagged one of those two, that would have left only one after him and so I am assuming that they have just sold out and so removed it from the site in the absence of any other information. Adam

I would not really regard any of those three as a direct refractor replacement for a 150PDS anyway. At 750mm the 150PDS is a world away from a 400-500mm focal length refractor in terms of what you will be imaging. For a direct replacement you are really looking at a 100-120mm refractor. Adam

180mm is similar to 250mm in my book :) You have to admire some of the features of this too, the ability to place a 2 inch filter over the front of the lens cell, even a cheap filter will never cause reflections from that position or vignetting on full frame sensors for that matter. You could go ultra portable and change filters without the need for a wheel. The back focus after the reducer corrector is huge something like 75mm so you can fit a tilt adaptor and an off axis guider and a filter wheel with space to spare. Its is a simpler optical design than the Redcat so less to go wrong, I am not sure how it is now but I kept seeing coma on the early Redcats. Its a slightly faster F-ratio at F4.5 so good for a mobile rig when you might not get multiple nights on a target and lets face it you have to stop most camera lenses down to F4 anyway if you want to get the sharpest stars. Its a good size for viewing an eclipse or for imaging a total eclipse full disk with a planetary camera. You can put a diagonal or a solar wedge on it without any special extra expensive adaptors from WO costing £100 just for a 1.25 inch diagonal. Again I have traveling to see a total eclipse in 2024 in mind here. https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/125-inch-redcat-erecting-prism-for-redcat-51-only.html Finally it comes with all the extentions to allow you to attach it to many different cameras included in the package. I think I can see an easy way to add an autofocuser. All in all for half the cost of a redcat. If it turns out to be ok optically this thing is a steal at the £350 I just paid if you ask me. I guess for me I just could not have a £700 scope sitting about doing nothing for most of the year when I am not traveling. Adam

I gave in and ordered one too, I could have waited and find out if its any good, but its 10% off as an introductory offer and at £350 I can live with myself if it turns out to be a bit meh. If its good then its probably exactly what I wanted for an ultra portable setup. Adam

So as an update to this and since no one shouted, "NO ADAM DONT DO IT!", I caved in and have one on the way. Now if it was only possible to get hold of a star adventurer to mount it on. Adam

No reason why you could not use the OVL flattner in the ZS at all just dont expect it to work with a full frame camera like the WO one will. Also expect to have to fiddle with the back spacing to get it to work correctly. Adam

Well, wide feild, nebula and galaxy imaging are probably the three types of imaging lol. We will forget galaxy imaging as its not really going to happen with a camera lens. That leaves nebula and wide feild and with a lens really wide feild is going to be the main focus. If you are including the lens in that 300 pounds then you will be lucky to get much more than a 50mm kit lens and a old unmodified DSLR.

This is straight out of APP using the same preset stretch for both Ha and SII. No other processing at all except for a crop. Ha SII So much more similar as you say. the question now is what to do about it as I do need to stretch that SII more to get the desired effect. What do you think on the stars now? I guess Starnet++ stretch and replace the stars using blend mode lighten? Adam

What are you hoping to take pictures of what lens do you have in mind.