Dragon_Astro

Looking good so far, hoping the the progress continues Youve gone for the same type of top ring as I did for my 12” truss dob.

Easily done isn’t it Gina lol Ours is a cheap s/h table, mostly used as said workbench and my 5yo daughters craft table.

Alan, I’m actually tempted to make another....ive got the bug! 😄

Many thanks Alan Haha yes I did that a couple of times, accidentally went through the scrap wood I had underneath and into the table a tiny bit. The wife covered the marks with a tablecloth lol

Thanks Alan :) I’m quite happy with it, like I’ve said I wished I’d gone for more aluminium rather than going for the thick Ply. All in all though it works, and to say I have no shed/workshop so everything was cut and drilled on my dining table, I think it went quite well lol. Personally aswell I’ve never built anything before and my DIY skills are not THAT good lol It was worth the punt on buying the mirror set from AstroBoot though, and it worked out cheaper than buying a ready made Dob of its size.

Altair Astro also do their own 174M cmos cameras, cheaper than ZWO for some reason. My 183M responds well to using darks, gets rid of any amp glow and the huge star burst artefact that can plague subs at high gain. Using SharpCap I use the Dark Subtraction at the same time as capturing L subs.

Cheers Stu By no means tested it thoroughly yet, but it does look promising. I think I went a bit too thick on the choice of ply, it’s a lot heavier than I’d like. In hindsight, if I could start again, I’d make the boxes and bearings out of aluminium. That could still be on the cards if this dob starts giving me too much back ache lol.

Realise it’s been far too long since I updated this, a year in fact, but I got frustrated with it to the point where I wished I hadn’t started it lol Even now it’s still not completed, almost but not quite. It’s collimated and just about usable to look at Jupiter and Saturn a few weeks ago. The details on Jupiter were amazing and the 4 moons looked “round” rather than star like which I’m used to in my smaller scopes.

Was there an option to change the black level when you set the gain? There could also be an auto stretch option to enable on the histogram?

What length exposures were you thinking with a CMOS?

How about one of the Altair 183 mono/colour?

Very tempted to, the 290M has good feedback. I’d keep the RGB filters, so if I wanted colour I can have it. Just seems pointless having to avoid working at full res, just to avoid the 40mb subs. I like my galaxies and Hickson groups, I’m sure the 290M could deliver.

A year ago I bought an Altair Hypercam 183M, along with a Baader RGB filter set. To be honest it’s been a bit of a frustrating bumpy ride, to cut a long story short there’s not been a lot of productive imaging, mostly fighting with the large size subs, freezing capture software and because of work shifts my available nights to get the scope out are limited. Now considering selling the 183 and going for what I’m hoping will be a more productive, stable 290M? My ageing laptop is USB2. Hoping selling the 183 could fund the 290M with some cash left over. I have a SW150P and Equinox 66 Stick or twist?

Just looked on Amazon.....£155 for field edition £1 each?....ill have it on the days with a Y in it

Probably not.....I wouldn't mind that book myself

Hmm a Dobsonian perhaps?

It's how I've always guided, since I started imaging 6+ years ago, I'm getting almost flat graphs with good Sharpcap PA too. An St4 cable is no extra work at all lol

Well you do if you connect phd2 "on mount" with an st4 cable, because that's how I do my guiding. That's with eqmod running too. As Cornelius said, just connect your Asi294 to your mount using an st4 cable.

My OH bought herself the Amazon firestick today for the same reason, tv can be rubbish. She can get her Netflix on it, watch her box sets etc

A SW Equinox 66 arrived at mine yesterday. Should be a good lil match for the 183M :) Despite reading about how poor the focuser is, testing mine with the Hypercam it feels solid with no movement or slop at all.

Haha no worries, you got yourself a bargain there I hover over the buy button too much, should just go for it.

Aah is this the one that was on EBay? You beat me to it lol The second refractor someone off the forums sniped me on ?

Such a shame to get a "Friday afternoon" scope with bad QC, after what happened with the first one. Hopefully better luck with the next one ?

Totally on the same wavelength here I can see lol