Northernlight

Olly, for me speed is they key, so the comination of the faster optics and larger aperture is a must. Dont get me wrong i love the plug and play nature of a frac, but my scopes are perfmanently pier mounted in the obs, so should only need little tweaks to collimation from time to time once it's been fettled.

At the moment i'm just waiting on Tommy from Teleskop Austria to reply in regards to his new Lacerta scope design - if it will releases soon, then i will buy one of those, as well made hand crafted newt with good quality components can only help to make things a little easier, but if it's not releasing this year, i'll go the hard route and buy a quattro and try to fettle it through upgrades.

3 hours ago, dannybgoode said:

Loads of people image very successfully in the UK with a good frac. In reality you’re going to be collecting the same amount of data time-wise whatever scope you use and, unless your focussing and guiding are spot on there’s a chance you’ll get poorer quality subs from the ‘fast and wide’ scope than you would a nice easy to handle frac.
 

 

Sorry buddy, but i have to completely disagree. I have a 102mm Frac already and i know how slow it can be.  There are some arguments that for a "like for like" aperture, then you wont see much of a difference between F4 & F7,  but when we are talking Faster F4 optics and double the aperture size then there is a huge difference no matter what any frac lover might tell you, it's basic Physics that you just can't argue with.

Yeah sure if i won the lottery - there would be no doubt, i would have a huge mount and a 10" APO any day of the week over a newt, Unfortunately being a mere mortal i dont have £60,000+ spare sitting in the bank for that kind of setup, so i'm stuck with the next best option which is a fast newt.

Fair point olly - and in the UK most of the time the seeing is average. I had originally considered this and thought about getting a refractor, but i need the combination of faster optics & larger aperture to allow for shorter subs as clear nights dont come around too often in the UK, so have to make the most of them.

I just worry about trying to fettle a cheap chinese scope. I did try and buy a high quality TS ONTC newt but got screwed over by TS on 2 occasions - so now considering the quattro with some upgrades to try and get into a good workable state.

I'm still waiting to hear from Teleskop Austria to see if their OctoPlus508N focuser will fit the 12" Quattro,  if it does i'll probably end up getting the 12" quattro and just modify it with the new focuser, flocking, and upgrade the  primary mirror to good quality springs, as 1200mm F/L @F4 will be might nice on Galaxies.

StarFlyer dont get me started on TS and ONTC scope.  this is now the second time that TS has screwed me over when i've tried to purchase one of their ONTC scopes. A long story short I paid for a 10" F4 ONTC with upgraded conical mirror and and waited 16 weeks with loads of different excuses to the point the got themselves tangled in their own lies and started contradicting themselves and then finally admitted after 16 weeks they hadn't even started the scope.

Last year i had exactly the same issue with TS, paid for the scope with a few custom upgrades then after waiting 14 weeks i gave up and cancelled the order and demanded a refund.

Not entirely sure what i want now - I wanted a high end scope but had 2 bad experiences with TS, so now looking at possily buying a Quattro and upgrading it with a good focuser, primary mirror mask, flocking etc etc.

I'm also thinking about a lacerta as Tommy is finishing up on a new design newt - so not sure if i want to hang fire for that or just buy a Quattro and not have to worry about another custom scope not materialising.

Really dont know at the moment.

Hi Chris,

Agreed that it solves the issues with the mirror clips, and not the secondary.  When i look at diffraction anonolies, there are usually 2  produced. The clips create  what looks like flares from the star istself which are greatly reduced, but the secondary spider will still create the 4 distinct spikes and the only thing that helps with that is using a double veined spider, which coincidentally helps with focusing. So for 90 euros by the time you add shipping, it's not cheap, but in the grand scheme of things it's still peanuts.  When i look at lacerta scopes that use this mask, the stars in ther images just looks visibly cleaner with substantially reduced flaring on the brighter stars, and the smaller stars to look more crisp and tighter, which i dont think is just down to processing. 

In regards to the focuser, i've ready many many reports of significant play / slop in the draw tube, so it makes collimation pointless if it's going to immediately be pulled out of collimaiton by your camera.  I've also inspected a lot of Quattro images where people we using the stock focuser and they all seemed to have slightly elongated stars in 1 corner,  which i'm not sure is focuser tilt, slop or to do with the coma corrector.

My plan is to buy the scope, see how i get on and then if find the focuser has play, i've just replace it with the nice Lacerta OctoPLus508N which appears to be built like a take a have literally no play in the draw tube.

On the other hand, in the back of my mind, i tempted to hold off a few months and see how lacerta gets on releasing their new scope design towards the back end of the year.

Rich.

thanks all,  I really  appreciate the feedback.

Chris / Nigel, many thanks for sharing your images.  Whilst I really like idea of the  slightly longer Focal Length and larger optics of the 12",  I think  i'll probably go for the 10" 

I like the idea of the tube baffles on the 10" and also Telescope Austria sell a very hig end focuser that is a direct replacement for the SW stock focuser, i.e. no drilling holes. The focuser is called the  OctoPlus508N but they only have tube base plates supporting up to 10" so that would rule out the 12"

Teleskop Austria also sell primary mirror baffle, which help to greatly reduce the diffraction spikes, but again these are limited to 10"

So everything is pointing towards the 10"

Hi All,

I'm contemplating a SW quattro and i've been looking on Astrobin for samples images from both scopes and i noticed that there are hardly any images taken with the 12" and 95% seems to be with the 10" and i just wondered if there was any reason for this.

I guess weight and general size would be the main factors, but wondered if there was anything else about the 12" that makes people favor the 10" instead. For me the slightly longer Focal length and larger aperture would be great and the pixel scale is pretty decent and based on OK seeing conditions then the larger scope is a better match for my qsi 683 ccd as at 1x & 2x both binning levels are a good match, whilst the 10" is great at 1x, but undersmaples at 2x

So why is it there aren't more 12" quttro's appearing on Astrobin, as it seems like a no brainer to me if your mount can handle it

Cheers.

Rich.

Hi Adam, 

I really don't know the answer to that question and i'm guessing QHY wouldn't tell us.  My gut feeling is that they  would be unlikely to be debayering OSC sensors, as this in an extra step in the manufacturing process which costs money and i imagine there must be some risk involved in the process. 

It could be that Sony may update their sensor list close to the release date of any mono chips. - who knows.

On 15/01/2020 at 11:20, Adam J said:

Should be an excellent choice of sensor at the very least. I just wish that they produced a mono version. 

Mono version coming before the end of the year. confirmed by QHY via email.

Hi all.

Just wondering what people generally regard as the best planetary camera on the market right now. 

Cheers,

Rich.

Well the only Sony Nex 5 didn't work at all, even at 10-30 seconds it was terrible them i remember the reason i stopped using it - it was a really really bad low light performer.

Hi All,

After reading some posts on on topics about filters I'm beginning to wonder if i've been using my old Astronomic CLS CCD filter wrong for years.  So my astronomic CLS CCD is always in my imaging train whether i'm imaging Narrowband or LRGB and i'm thinking - do i really need to use it when i'm doing narrowbnd ?

So just wondering if using the LPS filter in conjunction with my narrowband filters has actually been hampering me ?  yes i can understand for the LRGB, bit do i really need to use it when doing narrowband ?

Have i been doing it wrong or is it ok to use LP filters with narrowband filters ?

Rich.

Hi Carole,

I do have an old Sony Nex5 mirrorless compact camera from around 2010 with an inter-changeable 18-55mm lens. Might stick that on my tripod and see how it works. Better than nothing i suppose

That's what i feared. and i dont want to spend a lot of money on this as it's only a temporary solution until i get my QSI 683 back.

Looks like i'm knackered as i don't have a Large format camera at the min and my smallest scopes is 102mm Frac, so even with a reducer it's still 571mm F/L, so probably way to long.  Hmmm anyone want to loan me their Full frame 35mm Astro camera lol

Hi All,

I want to image Neowise but unfortunately my QSI 683 is away for repair, so was wondering if a planetary camera would be suitable to image the comet, as i could always use it for planetary work afterwards.

Cheers, Rich.

Well looks like a QHY268M in October.

Many Thanks Spongey I must have missed that in-between watching the video and stopping the kids fighting with each other.

On 13/07/2020 at 09:56, Allinthehead said:

https://youtu.be/8dNADreK9_0?t=2753

Mono Aps-c on the way. Same sensor as the Asi2600mc and Qhy268c😁 Start at 40:40

Where in the video does it mention an APC-C sized mono camera - maybe i missed it, but only saw  reference to the Full Frame 35mm 600 series Mono  ?  I know ZWO already has released their competing full frame 35mm 6200 series camera - but also no sign of a new APS-C mono camera from them.

Glad i found this thread as i need to buy a new camera and was looking at the ASI1600 but a little voice in my head just kept telling me that there must be a replacement coming soon and it looks like i wont have long to wait 😁

Thats absolutely class  - still laughing now 😆 🤣 😂  

Just be mindful that a lot of those images are taken on different scopes - some on a VX10, some on a CT10 and come on a 85mm Baby Tak and a lot don't have a descriptions of the kit used.

Of the ones that are VX10 - they do look very promising.

The only bit i am confused about is why he is images from a VX10 when he appears to have a CT10 ?? doesn't make much sense. Maybe worth emailing the guy to get his feedback on the VX10.

Glad to hear people are having success with this scope. I guess it must come down to the weight of your imaging train as i was going to buy a VX10 but was put off by read lots of posts in regards to the whole system flexing. Maybe they have improved the design in recent years, but i just didn't want to risk it.

In the end I ordered a ONTC which sadly has a 12 week build time and i've got another 4 weeks before it gets delivered, but i know it will be fine as it's built like a tank as the carbon tube walls are 7mm thick - so no chance of any tube flex or flex around the focuser.`

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