Grierson

Have a look at FLOs’ website listing for the ASI 120mm and I think it will confirm the above.

As has been said there are lots of questions. One of the most fundamental is ‘have you given any thought about what you are prepared to spend’? The reflector route is likely to be less costly than the refractor. I started with the ubiquitous SW 80ED and which I still enjoy using.

This Filter Wheel takes five 1.25" mounted or unmounted filters. The unit is in good condition having only been used for a short period. Please note no filters or cable are included in the sale only the item shown in the image plus the mini screwdriver for opening the case and screws for fitting any non mounted filters. Currently retailing at £174.00. £100.00 inc. carriage.

Quote 'Optolong L-Pro is multi-bandpass filter which offers better colour balance by maximizing the transmission band. The balanced transmission allows astrophotos to be taken with minimal colour cast to broadband emission objects such as galaxies, reflection nebulae and globular star clusters. L-Pro is the best choice for light pollution suppression'. The filter has been unpacked but otherwise is 'as new'. Currently retailing at £143.00. £95.00 including carriage. Note: Please note that the image on the box does not reflect it's contents.

I have recently purchased the latest version of HyperStar for my Edge HD 8”. The spec. on the website indicates the back focus should be 39.8mm but there is no clear indication of where this measurement is taken FROM. There is some text that suggests that the 39.8mm should be the distance between the camera mounting thread and the sensor but the thread is c. 6.0mm deep and there is no indication wether this means the start or end of the thread. In addition the HyperStar is supplied with a filter drawer so the question arises is ‘the camera mounting thread’ the one on the lens body or the filter drawer body. I wonder if any of you kind people with a similar set up have faced a similar question and managed to fit the correct spacer depth. (The camera will be a ZWO 294 with a front to sensor measurement of 6.5mm.)

I can’t add to the excellent advice that you have been given above but it would be interesting to know what sort of relationship you have with your supplier. You clearly specified what you required and yet you had to add, to what must have already been a significant outlay, extra money for weights and with seemingly little advice. Given the small size of the market good dealers appear keen to ‘go the extra mile’ IMVHO.

Steve, many thanks. Very helpful. John.

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Could I ask a naive question. Assuming the filters are inside a filter wheel, as in this case, and the width has wheel has already been included why is it necessary to include the thickness of the filters in the calculation? Thanks - John

Having recently been struggling with the amount of travel on a Feather Touch focuser and beginning to give up I decided to give the makers an e-mail to see if they had any thoughts. Wayne at Starlight Instruments responded suggesting the addition of a particular spacer may well be the answer and further suggested that he could send one to me. Out of the blue today arrived UPS with a cardboard box that could have contained a thousand spacers but inside was just one that cured my problem. No cost to me was involved. Excellent service in these difficult times.

The ASIAIR will only accept ZWO cameras plus a whole list of DSLRs principally Canon and Nikon so, yes, your Loadstar will be a problem. Yes you can run an additional hub. I find I don’t need it given the ports on the main camera. I see a number of users complaining about the WiFi range. My rig sits in the middle of my small garden about 4 metres From the house and I have never had an issue with poor WiFi so I can’t give a definitive answer. The list of pros is long. Best read from the ZWO site. Lack of wire surrounding the rig is a godsend. Cons for me are few. You will need a pad or phone running the iOS or Android platforms. It will not run on Windows or Linux. Well worth the investment IMVHO. John

I have the ZWO unit on my ED80, works fine!

All your troubles will be solved when the EQMOD cable arrives. No handset. Best few £s I invested for my HEQ5.

Yes, thank you for the response Simon. I did look at the QHYOAG-M and the more I read the more difficult it is to come to a conclusion. Received wisdom on CN seems to suggest that the larger the prism size the better. Exactly how correct that is must be open for debate however. The QHY OAG prism is I believe 8mm, the ZWO 8.8mm and the Celestron c. 12mm.

With apologies to Robin could I ask SimM what you decided on. I have the same ‘scope and reducer and the same dilemma!