Northernlight

Yes - thanks to everyone for contributing. I've certainly learnt a lot from this post, especially around the Special Tri & quad band filters. I'll be keeping a close eye on astrobin and the web in general to see more examples taken using the quad band filters and these newer generation OSC cameras

I'm just interested in the mount, but i've lost count how many times it's been "Shipping This week". I'm interested to see how it stacks up against the Mesu.

By heck these deliveries of mounts are taking some time - mark said they were shipping 4 week ago, so I guessing he must be personally delivering each one on foot lol

Paul - i'm going to duck out of this thread now - wish you the best of luck which ever way you choose to go.

Nigella looking at your images i can see what looks to be the same Flex issues as paul has been having

Nigella - just for clarity have you done any DSO / galaxy / Nebula imaging with the scope yet or have your been primarily been imaging Sun, moon, planets etc ?

Hi Paul, Try googling Astrobin VX10 - it's a very telling tale . It's a good idea to check with Nigella and will be interesting to see what she comes back with. One think it might be with doing is contacting OrionOptics and asking them to make you a focuser reinforcing plate Rich.

sorry for the Brutal honest approach- but i went through all the pain with a Skywatcher 200P so if i can save someone else the pain i will try my best As a good comparison i recently order a custom TS ONTC 10" F4 - The tube is 7mm thick carbon tube vs 2mm thick aluminium on the VX10 so there is no flex and virtually no expansion or contraction so the focus is remains stable all night and collimation doesn't shift under a heavy load. Also - i ordered a conical mirror so there are no mirror clips to cause diffraction spikes and the mirror is screwed into the primary cells so it cannot move under any circumstance, so no shifting as the scope moves across the sky. The trouble is that if you want a good imaging newt you have to pay for it - i got a good deal and got it discounted down to £2,100 You can get Skywatcher Quattro's fairly cheap which are designed for imaging - just dont expect them to work out of the box as they will need a focuser upgrade, and some tweaking like spring upgrades etc. Rich

looking at the extreme star shapes, i think it might be a combination of both the tube and flex in the focuser. if you have nice light guide camera - check the scope colimation and then try an image with the light weight guide camera and see if your star shapes improve. if you get better star shapes then it's flex in the tube or focuser or both. Unfortunately most people get lured by the aperture and fast optics of an Newtonian for imaging - but the reality of a imaging with a Newtonian is that is requires a purpose built scope otherwise it's just ends up being a lesson in futility. For imaging with a Newtonian you need to consider the following you need a very stiff tube to ensure that there is no flex in the tube itself You need a good focuser to ensure that there is no moment in the drawtube Ideally you want a carbon tube to minimise and tube expansion or contraction which can change your focus as the temperature changes The type of coma corrector you use maybe be determined by your tube length / focuser position For imaging you usually need a much larger secondary to ensure a big enough imaging circles to cover your sensor. An imaging newtonian needs to have a good primary mirror cell to ensure colimaiton does not shift as you move across the sky. You need to have a very stiff secondary spider to hold the weight of a larger secondary. Good quality, smooth / well figured mirrors. You also need to consider back focus constraints of a newtonian when selecting coma correctors. and whilst not essential it's preferable to have a conical mirror or to have the primary mirror masked off to reduce diffraction spikes from the clips Also keep in mind the tracking requirements on a mount to perform steady tracking / guiding on a big newt is a lot higher that a Refractor. Unfortunately for the VX10 - because it is not designed as an imaging scope - then the only item from the above list that it possesses is a good primary mirror cell and maybe a good mirror. This is not to say that it's not a good scope - it's just not designed for imaging. if you get a good one they are great for visual and planetary imaging (Sun, moon, planets etc) with light weight camera's. I have seen posts of people spending over £1,000 trying to turn even their Orion Optics CT carbon tube version into workable imaging scopes If you want to do imaging - do yourself a favour and save yourself a lot of pain & time by selling the VX10. If i was fairly new to imaging - I would recommend just sticking with a Refractor as they are hassle free and in most cases just work straight out of the box. Yes a typical 4-6 inch refractors is never going to match a newt on resolution - what people forget is that on most nights of average seeing a big newt will loose that resolution advantage, as well as having to content with much more difficult tracking on a large newt - where usually an off-Axis guider (OAG) and a good mount is required. Also trying to image with a big newt on a Heq5 Pro is just asking too much for that mount - You would need a much more capable mount to get good tracking / guiding results. Just my 2 cents from my own imaging experiences having imaged with Fracs, Newts, RC's, & SCT's and apologies that this might not be what you want to hear - but trying to image with your scope on a Heq5 pro is just never going to work and will just lead to constant frustration. So i recommend selling the VX10 and getting a second hand refractor. Cheers, Rich.

hi, i wouldn't recommend a Baader. I would recommend following this web page https://www.astrofotoblog.eu/?p=856 as it makes very interesting reading. I think the biggest issue you will have with the VX10 is the tube flexing. If you are using a light imaging train then you might be ok, but when you start adding in heavy coma correctors and given how thin the tube is - it will likely flex and pull you out of collimation. I looked at the VX10/12 and did my research and quickly found that it;s only really designed for visual -Also consider that the secondary is designed for visual so the imaging circle may be too small for your sensor. to turn this into an imaging scope - you may need to consider reinforcing the tube on the underside of the focuser and maybe buying a bigger secondary mirror. Sorry to be the bearer of bad new, but i think this is just the reality of your situaiton.

Neil i think that ship sailed a long time ago lo l - Can you imagine his response if i emailed him. He would think i was just messing with him

Tomato - until 4 weeks ago i was in the very same boat - but unfortunately the money did burn a hole in my pocket and i blew £2,000 on a 10" ONTC new with upgraded conical mirrors - Oopps need to save to replace that 2k dent in mount fund.

and I fail to understand why people are so apposed to me asking if people have received their mount yet ? As I have mentioned i am in a position of wanting to replace my EQ8 and maybe i'm just keen to see the result and to see if they are good enough to persuade me reconsider this mount.

Come on - if you had a new mount that you had been waiting anywhere between 1-3 years for then you would probably have it setup within a few days max, and i'm pretty sure you would also pretty sure you would stay up until 11pm to test it out. Call me cynical but i'm being to wonder if that mount picture released by JTW was a pic of the mount in his own shed. Wait for it...........no doubt the pro Mark/JTW brigade will be along presently to start flaming me lol

Hi Neil, Yes i am still looking to replace my EQ8 at some point - and that's why i had been watching this mount for so long. I also looked at the E-Fric with great interest but the imaging capacity is just too low for me which is a shame as the intro price was fantastic. In regards to the JTW trident - I'm just curious why no reviews, images or anything being posted by the person who received the mount "a while back" before the 28th may.