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Northernlight

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  • Gender
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  • Interests
    Ccd Imaging, Skiing, Diving, DIY Electronics, A nice cold beer on a hot day.
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    North

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  1. Is there a way to work out the suitability for the best camera ? My main imaging rig will comes in at 0.78" resolution :- I am using an OAG and the 2 cameras i'm considering are the ASI174MM mini or the ASI200MM mini ASI174MM = 1.21" resolution with OAG ASI220MM = 0.83" resolution with OAG So the ASI220 will be the closest match to my main imaging rig, but the ASI174 will have a much wider FOV and more stars for the MultiStar guiding, which is likely better for the harmonic mount i've ordered.
  2. Hi all, I use an OAG with my 2 scopes which are 400mm & 1000mm Fl. I'm looking for a new guide cam recommendation and my old lodestar is getting a bit old now and struggles finding stars. Traditionally, i believe IMX174 based guiders were considered the best due to their larger sensor size. I just wondered if this was still the case as these are also quite old sensors now. Are there any newer modern guiders with a similar size sensor or are the older IMX174's still considered the best choice for acquiring more guide stars ? Cheers, Rich.
  3. Hi all. Thanks for the feedback. My imaging scale ranges from 0.6" to about 1.91" depending on the scope/camera combo i use so it sounds like under best case scenario i'll be borderline with a harmonic mount.
  4. Hi All, I just ordered a Ioptron HAE69C mount but i'm starting to second guess myself. I'm going to be using it pier mounted in an obs, but the thing that keeps bothering me is the 0.5-1.0s guiding. In the uk the seeing isn't the best, so I wondered if there are any harmonic mount owners in the UK that could give feedback. I'm just worried that the poor seeing will result in terrible guiding or if it will be fine using multistar guiding. So if there are Harmonic mount users from the UK, would really appreciate your feedback, especially on harmonics without encoders. Many Thanks, Rich.
  5. I do have a uv/ir cut filter which I can try, but I see a lot of people going for the likes of the Optolong L-Pro and wondered how much of a difference it would make over a standard uv/ir cut filter.
  6. Hi all, I have a osc camera and I’m looking for recommendations for the best broadband filter for osc cameras in 2023. Im only interested in broadband targets such as galaxies & comets and maybe some reflection nebula. only interested in broadband filter recommendations, not interested in narrowband filters recommendations as I already have the optolong ultimate. Many thanks in advance, Rich.
  7. If you have a pc you could try Nina’s polar alignment routine, I can generally my alignment within 10-30 arc seconds with ease on my little SW StarAdventurer GTI and it’s mechanical prowess leaves a lot to be desired
  8. Pulled the trigger on the Askar FRA400. Expensive little Bug*er though which my wallet is not thanking me for.
  9. Hi Lee, this is very spooky, I had literally to finished reading your review when I noticed the notification pop up on my iPad. At first I had my doubts about Askar, but apparently a lot of the negative reviews are from early samples which have now been fixed. I emailed FLO, and they said they were very good and shared the same opinion that it was the early samples that had a few issues and have now been resolved.
  10. Many thanks ELP I’ll take a look. The WO GT71 will be a good companion for my little SW star adventurer GTI mount for now then next month when I buy a new obs mount, it will compliment either my 8” RC or my 10” Quattro. heck if it guides ok on the little SA GTI mount, I might use that for wide field whilst working on galaxies / Dso’s on the main mount.
  11. Well based on a sample of 1 I’m sold on the Williams optics 😂 to be fair I’ve seen a few YouTube videos and they all said the same think that both sharpstar and Askar aren’t in the same league as WO for build quality
  12. Hi All, I think i'm now onto plan version 3 of my Astro Imaging comeback / revival and the latest plan includes the purchase of a small light refractor that can also be used on my portable rig. I've been looking at a few options, but wanted to get peoples opinions on the best 70-76mm refractor that can be bought under £1200. I cant really go any larger than 76mm and i need to keep the weight down to around 3kg for the scope and rings etc or 3.5kg including a FF/reducer. So far I've looked at the scopes listed below but welcome any other recommendations. So far I've ruled out the sharpstar as I've seen several reports of chromatic aberration resulting in horrible blue halo's around bright stars, so that has put me off quite a bit. So between the Askar and the WO, the WO GT71 seems like a better bang for buck as it's a bit cheaper and with the FF/Reducer it's quite a but faster and Winder than the Askar, so seems like a no brainer. Any feedback or recommendations would be greatly welcomed. Williams Optics GT 71 II Triplet Scope £895 + FF £209 - total = £1104 420mm @ F5.9 ( 336mm @ F4.4 with 0.8x FF) Askar FRA400 Quintuplet Scope = £1259 400mm @ F5.6 SharpStar 76EDPH f/5.5 Triplet Scope £865 + FF £265 + Adapter £19 - total = £1149 418mm @ F5.5 (342mm @ F4.5 with 0.8x FF) Many thanks in advance, Rich.
  13. SamAndew I think you are being a little unfair to iOptron just keep in mind, iOptron drives competition and innovation in the market and with more options competing in the market you usually see prices of the technology driven down. So if iOptron didn’t exist, I bet your bottom dollar the AM5 would have been a lot more expensive. a good example of this was the rainbow Astro mounts, when they first came out, they were ridiculously expensive and then as soon as the completion turned up in the market they had to reduce their prices massively. also flip the argument the other, some might say that zwo’s offerings are too limited with their 2 mounts available. so it doesn’t matter if you like 1 manufacturers gear or not or if you find their product line up confusing , competitions is good for the end consumer. Lots of other manufacturers have extended and somewhat confusing product lineup’s especially when it comes to scopes, but as other have have said, Google is your friend, do your homework and above all else understand what it is that you actually want. Rich.
  14. Unfortunately not. I suspect the issue is the type of lens im using, as when I look at YouTube to see what everyone else is using, they are all using prime lenses. In the test shots I took with my zoom lens, it also had significant coma. I just don’t want to spend £400 on the samyang 135mm prime lens, as i thing I’d rather put it towards a 80mm triplet.
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