newbie alert

1 hour ago, derekf said:

Please forgive me if i'm missing something very obvious, but isn't the mount supposed to take the weight?  and to do an exact polar alignment its best to have all the gear on and balanced beforehand

Strange as it sounds there's plenty of people that polar align the mount then load the scope/camera etc and think it doesn't move...

46 minutes ago, martinl said:

The alt bolts on my CG5 were so poor that one got permanently bent. I replaced them with some stainless steel threaded rod and a couple of thumb nuts off eBay. Works perfectly, and was a lot less than £25. 

That said, sending poorly designed products back might be the only way to make manufacturers realise that there is a problem. 

I agree with you entirely as my cgem is exactly the same..if I bought it new it would be going back..but as i haven't any warranty as not the original owner I've had to mod it a bit..going to do abit more extreme modding at a later date..

Just remember that you will be sending it back to the distributor  and not the manufacturer..and it is distributed on a bigger scale from another bigger group..so manufacturer won't know anything about it..

But in total agreement with you as it should be fit for purpose..being able to polar align is pretty basic..

2 hours ago, StuartJPP said:

This was in Caleta du Fuste...I can PM you the actual place I used....

Certainly not an ideal imaging site....but not too bad when you get away from the promenade lights.

How strange..thats the same place that she's looking at..been there before..is that from the sea wall where the sea lions were?

On 27/07/2016 at 21:21, StuartJPP said:

My AstroTrac kit on holiday in Fuerteventura...

 

What part was this Stuart.. looking to go in April...

Think you can do it with flat files..i try to find the video I was watching..he was adjusting the focuser..

Is that a vixen size dovetail on the top?

With ed80 I just converted the 9x50 finder with a adapter ans it did the job fantastically well...

You can shift the scope forward in the clamshell to get it balanced..with guiding balance is crucial

I've got this brand new  unused as I have a set of and guidescope rings..fits the synta finder bracket..i have the screws with the delrin tips also unused

Fantastic image of something I've never heard of..beautiful galaxy..

On 29/10/2017 at 18:13, Luna-tic said:

I plan to start stacking images and playing with them in Registax and Lightroom, using filters, etc to improve coloration and visibility.

I think deep sky stacker is a better program for stacking of two rather than registax..and probably easier 

Orion is pretty bright..you can get a decent image from very short exposures..its said that is one of the easiest and difficult nebula to image because of its extremes of the dynamic range..easy to over expose the core (trapezium) but long exposures are better for the outer dust.... hense why the experienced use different subs lengths  and merge them together..

Whatever you do you will get a image..and when the first one pops up on the back of the camera I bet you have a grin from ear to ear..

Thanks Mark.. something to play with at a later date ...

As has been said above,once the mount has been accurately aligned the mount should only track In RA..youre getting dec drift because its not aligned and the longer it goes on the more drift you will get..

I'd of thought it's never going to be a 100% accurate test as there will be inaccuracies in the gears both RA and DEC ..thats what backlash is..to get a mount that will track more or less 100% is going to be of professional standards..a mount made in Asia isn't.. that's why we use guiding software ...

Dave wood from darkframe ltd was interested in doing my avx a while back..i hesitated in getting it done as there was a issue with someone else's eq6 and I wasn't that happy the way he dealt with it so holding onto my £469 for the time being..yes you get stiction with all mounts but thinking how slow the gears turn it don't need to swing around like a sail.. but if you have £469 for a hypertune or £560 for the stellerdrive  burning a hole in your back pocket..

First light optics have a top class service...ive always tried to use a local source..as try to use local business etc but..flo have more of the items I'm looking for at great prices..you can't complain on delivery either..place the order..get comfirmation straight away..then a email back to say when it be delivered..within hours.. can't fault anything with them

4 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

I use the QHY5ii and the Lodestar for spectroscope guiding - which is very similar to OAG. This is on my C11 at f10.

No issues so far, either in finding a star or guiding.

Practise........

Qhy5 and lodestar have a bigger pixel than a skyris

Hi i use a skyris 236m , im only just starting guiding with phd2 but have managed to sort of do it but not tried it with my oag yet..what it could be is because the prism picks off a small portion of light you might not be able to find a decent guidestar,ive been told by someone who used a qhy5-ii that he had to rotate it in the housing to find a guidestar..he then upgraded to a lodestar and now doesn't need to rotate... i am finding the exposure setting difficult to get a high enough snr on the guidestar but thats another test for the next available clear night,in your daylight test did you manage to get focus in both cameras?9 sorry,just reread what you wrote!) Quick question you could maybe answer for me is when you enter the focal length of the guidescope obviously there isnt one so what did you do? is there a separate part for oag's?   

On 2014-7-12 at 21:37, epaddict said:

I was wondering if anyone else has spotted the object my wife and others have seen recently. What appeared to be ISS (I get the alerts and rarely miss them when they fly over) but I knew it wasn't because there were no scheduled passes for a week in our area. Also...it was fast, I mean at least 4x faster than ISS. My wife and I saw it the first time on the night of the 7th of July and two nights later I saw it again just myself at almot the same time approx. 2200. I noticed it was reported by a man nearby where we Iive, he reported it exactly as we saw it. It has the same range of magnitude as ISS and it's definitely reflective light, it's altitude appeared lower than ISS however...this thing went from horizon to horizon in about a minute! Has anyone else seen this? Do we have some new satellites that can move like this? My wife and I were amazed at this object...it's the first time in about forty years of sky watching that I've seen an anomaly like this. I love tracking satellites but this one really blew my mind.

Sounds interesting..which direction was you looking..what horizon to horizon was it travelling?

I'd say a 80mm guide scope will do the job very well..and 50mm might be too small ..so somewhere between 60-80mm with be fine..i will be using a 80mm on my sct.. .but the same on my 80ed might be too much...consideration should be given to the mounts capabilities and the resolution of the guide camera..

Thankyou

3 hours ago, alanjgreen said:

Newbie,

when you start the unit up and after waiting for it to find the camera (you see a countdown on the screen), after it says starsense ready. you choose align, then auto align...

- it then shows the date and time on screen, you can press enter to accept or back to enter new values...

- see page 11 of this pdf

 

http://www.celestron.com/media/1317936/94005_starsense_autoalign_manual_february2016.pdf

 

Time & location on is also available as a menu item for you to view/change, see page 24

 

Finally, is it a new unit or pre-used?

- if pre-used, you may need to do a factory reset to get rid of the previous owners settings.

 

also note that you can test all this in the house, as least as far as getting the scope to move to take photos, obviously you can't get beyond that! But it's enough to test all the above  

 

what software version is on your handset?

you can check the version in the daytime , just fire up the handset.

- see page 26 for the menu tree, it's in the "hand control" menu

if you have an old version, it's worth updating the unit via the Celestron cfm utility.

- search on this site for starsense cfm to find the instructions.

 

Thanks..im working away so no chance of having a look..its a new unit,if i go onto auto align it goes off on its own accord and never reached full alignment..

First night i tried it i lost the whole eve as it recommened removing the finderscope..so when it didnt work i couldnt do my normal alignment as trying to find a star without a finder was impossible..second time it slewed around and thought about it for 10 mins before i swtched it off started again and did the same thing 3 times..another night lost..3rd time after doing the same thing again  switched it off packed it away and did my normal alignment..and there its sat since..will try again soon if this weather playsball..

thanks again for your help

Glad your one works..at what stage have you enterered the coordinates as ive never found it or its never asked me.

Ive tried 3 times but not wasting another night of good seeing with it..i wait until i havr a free evening and try again..

On 25/12/2016 at 16:42, CraigT82 said:

The next person to refer to the ASI1600 as a CCD will get a poke in the eye!

P.S.apologies to the OP, I can't help with the spacing question at all! 

I was thinking the same thing...

Didnt think it was that complicated.. i suppose asking a camera to do 2 separate things complicates the matter a little..

What are you going to image with it as its a planetry camera..i know your going to use it for oag but abit expensive just for that

Avoid Amazon..hearing lots of scams going on..support your local telescope shop or outlet..

I thought you need the small pixel size for higher resolution..i use a 8 inch sct..works good enough on that..