Adam J

Thats a completely different focal length to a 80/100 ED so what do you want to do with your new scope?

at £350 or less ill take one of the 62EDs.

Looking at your images vs what I am seeing in the PHD chart the results done seem to align with the data. That kind of error should be very obvious in terms of star shape. Is there any chance that guiding is correct but that PHD is not correctly calibrated in the RA and so appearing to magnify the guide errors? Adam

Did you sort this? How is it guiding now?

Beware of voltage drop with long lengths of cable and low voltages.

I think a full review and unboxing is justified.

You could always try the New FLO branded scopes if it does not work out for you, but really I would think it will be ok in the end.

You can just remove the pinion and turn it around. Focuser alignment will be maintained. But I would be shocked if the tube rings did not get in the way. I just used mine with the autofocuser focuser out front, did not look great but it worked and that is what matters.

A dew strap holding the objective at ambient +4c was used for my test images on the original scope, ambient temperature was about -2c. Yes I cant fault the service from Steve and the rest of the team at FLO. So far the replacement scope is looking much better than the original one. I have not made a comment here yet as I have not had the opportunity to do more than a few test exposures as on the first couple of nights with the scope I had guiding issues that would have obscured any problems, however now those are resolved test exposures are showing round stars with complete halos. Once I have taken a proper image I will report the results here. In light of the problem with the old scope I also want to ensure that it performs ok on a lower temperature night before fully claiming victory. I will complete a full scope review in a separate thread once I have a couple of images completed with it. Adam

Well for a start the ASI1600mc pro is no longer available. Appart from that at your focal length the 294 is the best bet. I would not consider the 533 until the focal length was around 400mm due to the smaller FOV. Adam

Congratulations on the new brand. That 80mm F10 looks quite unique. I understand if you dont want to go into too much detail but I am very curious, do you select from a catalogue of available lens designs or are you actually able to have them make a lens to a unique specification? Adam

In my experience lots of the yellows are lost in any LP filter when imaging galaxies. That would go in hand with the filter absorption curve. I can only speak about DSLR from personal experiance, but there is nothing fundamentally different from a DSLR to a dedicated OSC in terms of RGB color balance. Adam

Another new CMOS camera, this one from ATIK. Same issues as with the SX camera, very little information provided, no QE, no dark current vs temperature chart and no read noise vs gain...... https://www.firstlightoptics.com/atik-cameras/atik-acis-71-cmos-imaging-camera.html Adam

Thought I would link this in here as this is the thread that got me started with the scope. Adam

Everything else aside then you would still need some sort of budget.

Awesome Image, is the 290 your only camera or just using it for small targets?

The larger sensor is actually coming in at $1500, so however that translates to pounds. Also they have explicitly stated that larger sensors are going to be released. It might actually be quite good with 1.8e read noise. Full well is very low though so you are limited in how much that can be reduced by increasing gain.

Looks like a new range of CMOS cameras has been released by Moravian Instruments. This one looks interesting: https://www.gxccd.com/art?id=579&cat=1&lang=409

https://www.gxccd.com/art?id=579&cat=1&lang=409 Ok so it looks like Moravian Instruments has just brought out a camera with the same sensor. and if you scroll right to the bottom of that link unlike SX they actually have example images! Also at $1500 that is a much more realistic price than the SX version. Adam

On paper it should blow it away.

I am willing to bet that was my old Esprit 100 that I exchanged with FLO, if so in some way its good to know that I was not just imagining it.

Have you done a test to rotate the camera and ensure that those gaps in the halo do not rotate with the camera? Just very odd that its been so similar in three scopes. Odd thing is that its winter in china right now so would have thought that the factory cant be that hot. You really should not have to use a dew heater to prevent pinched optics. I suppose the worse case is that its a component out of tolerance in the lens cell as opposed to the adjustment screws, that would be very difficult to rectify. I would say that this may be a batch issue SW may not realise that there is a potential problem and it needs to be fed back to them via the retailers. I have seen this on a couple of other first light images recently on astrobin.

I did not even know that this was a thing.

Cant access flicker from work but if that is true it is very hard to believe, it would imply that they have issues with production at the moment. Mind you it only takes one new worker not putting lens cells together correctly....I had to send a Esprit 100 back recently due to what looked like pinched optics. If you can post a jpg here then I will take a look. Might be interesting to see a comparison side by side between the three to see if there are any common features that might indicate an issue with the rest of your imaging train. Adam

I have not posted many images recently for a few different reasons, one being that I image mostly for myself and another being the really poor weather we have had in recent years means some projects have taken some time to finish and I don't like to post things half baked. But this one is special to me as this is the last image that I will ever take with my faithful Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian. My 130PDS has served me well over the last 4 years of imaging and is certainly the best astronomy purchase I have made giving incredible value and results for an outlay of only £159 at the time of purchase. It allowed me to place money earlier than would have otherwise have been possible into items such as quality filters, a mono camera and even a mini observatory. But the search for ever better images continues and it has now been replaced by an Esprit 100 and that is quite a long story in itself, but for another time. The 130PDS is not the right tool for capturing an object as large as the Heart Nebula, not least because it cant be done in less than 4 panels with my camera. So I would like to say that this project was planned start to finish but in reality this is a image of the Fish Head Nebula that got out of hand. The image was captured from November 2018 to December 2019 with two panels completed in each season. Camera = ASI1600mm pro Imaging Scope = SW 130PDS Mount = HEQ5pro (belt modded) Filters = Astrodon 1.25 inch 5nm Ha and OIIII Total integration = 40 hours (20 hours Ha and 20 Hours OIII in 600x4min subs) I wanted to have a balanced framing of the nebula so that the eye is not overly drawn to any single part and so the image is slightly cropped to achieve this. I wanted the spike of nebulocity to the left to push into the top corner so as to balance out the Fish Head over to the right, I also wanted Melotte 15 to be as central as possible to provide a focus to the center of the image. The image was stacked in APP and finished in Photoshop CS2. I experimented with Starnet a little removing the stars and replacing them with a shifted color balance. I may well revisit this at a later point but I am all processed out on this for now. Thanks for looking hope you enjoy it. Adam