BigMisterP

Was there any further progress on this, the thread just seemed to die off

Seeing more n more people talking bout this company

how do they compar to more wel nown product?

For sum reeson i have it in my head that 8” if a good apature for a reflector.

I’ve seen Schmitt Cassegrain, Ritchie Chretiene, Rowe Atkinson, Maksutov and Newtonian which all seem to qualify because they have mirrors.

Main use would be Galaxys and emission nebula, whirlpool, bods nebula, vile and pelican

Any recomendashions?

Basically I took mine apart - nothing was attached to anything else.

Spent a couple of weeks reassembling, centering, collimating. 

Focuser would hold a DSLR, comma corrector, focus wheel perpendicular to the ground.

23 hours ago, Astro Waves said:

I hadn't thought about polar alignment helpers but now you mention it I might have a look into that. If it doesn't take much doing then I might see if I can find a tablet to run it on to save weight whilst having to cart everything around each time I need to shoot. 

 

Always sadly on a budget. Thanks for the links, I'll have a goosey at them now. 

I kinda thought guiding would be the better way to go at the moment, I know the filter would help pull out more colour etc but the camera is modded so that helps. Thanks for your input on this. 

Unfortunately you’ve not suggested a budget.

Guiding uses very little CPU, neither does scheduling the imaging shots. A simple 2GHz 4-core CPU will do nicely. Circa £140

SharpCap, £10pa, will do the capture and include a polar alignment tool.

Astrotortilla £0, will confirm your image centre

PHD2, £0, also free will do the guiding, follow preparation steps as they make it more accurate yet. This also have polar alignment too.

Photopills, £?, is usefully to get an idea for north using AR in day time so you can identify local landmarks to speed up polar alignment.

Sources:

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Computer-Windows-Professional-x5-Z8350-Bluetooth/dp/B07MB9TC33/ref=sr_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=stick+pc&qid=1619258271&sr=8-13

https://www.sharpcap.co.uk

https://sourceforge.net/p/astrotortilla/home/Home/

https://openphdguiding.org

Guidescope & camera

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-accessories/zwo-mini-finder-guider-asi120mm-bundle.html

I did some Astro imaging about 5-6 y ago.

Automation got sorted, as did guiding - eventually.

My preference is galaxies and emission nebulae.

In my head an 8” aperture seems to “feel” right.

Considerations are:

• RASA - F2 400mm fl potentially too wide an FoV for galaxies, but potentiall OK for some nebulae
• StellaLyra RC - F8 1600ml seems OK using FoV calculators
• 200-PDS reflector - F5 1000ml also seems OK, with 0.9 CC brings it to F4.6 900mm, 
• SCT - F10 2032mm fl  with 6.3 reducer comes in about F6 1200mm,

Ignore mount, I can get whatever has suitable payload - £4K budget on that is stretching, but, potentially doable.

Camera will be ASI cooled units e.g 1600, 294

I also have a filter wheel and focus motor kicking around

On 26/05/2020 at 08:11, steppenwolf said:

OK, it'll be the full rendition of Aquatarkus next time!

On the ‘pipes - that’d be sensational

yes I know its a bit late

My tu’pence worth

• USB powered micro/stick PC, you don’t need much CPU power to control a mount or capture images
• wifi connection to allow upload to cloud storage
• power/usb distribution e.g. Pegasus PPB, to

1. power dew heaters,
2. focus motors
3. image camera cooling
4. image and guide camera data transfer
5. Mount
6. the stick pc

• run 2 separate conduits to the observatory base, 2 mains power+ 2 ethernet
• run 2 separate conduits from near entry point of above to pier, 2 x power + 2 ethernet
• PHD2 for guiding

This can all run off a 17Ah battery

Mains power required for dome rotation tho’, as far as I can make out

FWIW this setup works for me - bar any dome control

Sure I missed something tho

1 minute ago, tooth_dr said:

I have a 10” 1200mm Newtonian in my 2.2m dome along side another scope. Fits ok 👍🏻 But wouldn’t hold the 12” 1500mm newt without tweaking pier height and adding weight to short balancing point back

 

 

 

That’s good news..... I was sure I could get the OTA in with dew shield, and it looks doable.

@steppenwolf has also noted use of a dehumidifier while not imaging, so, a combo should do.

Now - to consider when to try to convince Finance Mgr to support the PO for this project.

Thanks, the OTA is about 700mm, with dew shield c625, so, expect it will fit.

Following on this older thread:

I am looking at the 2.7m full Pulsar obs, but a CGX-L and something like a quattro 10” for the appeture and f4 benefits, just not sure a 1000mm tube with the dew shield will fit.

Thoughts?

I was looking around, and these people seem to offer a reasonable, bespoke, build.

Has anyone any experience of dealing with them?

Thanks in advance

as an aside, we just found we have morel mushrooms in the garden courtesy of imported bark

10 minutes ago, DaveS said:

Having got the measure of the ground freed up by removing the tree, and after the gardeners have been at it, I reckon I can accomodate 6-8 "Supercolumn" apple / pear trees and two or three semi-dwarf plum / gages in that area, plus a couple of hazels for nuts further down. There's a large area cleared for soft fruit. Plus another bed that I can use for veg, in amongst some ornamentals.

blueberries are a great soft crop, we have 8-9 bushes, and in summer get enough to cover day to day plus some to freeze over late autumn/winter

Do need occasional top ups from foreign climes, but its now reduced.

On 14/03/2020 at 12:29, bob-c said:

We could get a chance in the next few days ,might  get a bit of cloud free on Sunday night for me fingers crossed.

local forecast now says I may have some clear skies. but all the kit has been in storage for past few months, so, no time to sort anything.

probably in the period to start checking a week ahead now

On 29/02/2020 at 21:20, DaveS said:

This is my worry too. If climate change is leading to milder, wetter winters, that also means more cloud. They also talk about dryer summers, but that's no damn use, since astronomy is nearly impossible in summer.

maybe, in the near future, it may get cheaper to go to the antipodes when this virus starts reducing????

IF any airlines are left in business other than for cargo

On 29/02/2020 at 18:57, Astrokev said:

yep, normal weather systems and seasonality are totally screwed up. I seriously worry that amateur astronomy in this country is becoming a waste of time and money

NEVER

anything you can get is a bonus

maybe just share what we get? build libraries of unprocessed images???

On 04/02/2020 at 22:26, DaveS said:

My garden also slopes down from the observing position, but the logical place for the trees is closer to the top of the slope, but I think anything under 12' or so should be OK, perhaps more if I can put the trees lower. I have a reasonable (But not expert) knowledge of rootstocks, and which ones might work in my situation.

you could try a thing called an airpot

it has holes in the sides that root gran try to for you, but get export to air, which limits root growth to the pot

we found them very effective - not necessarily the prettiest of things, but, of you can see from windows.....

On 02/02/2020 at 21:46, JamesF said:

They appear quite partial to small cubes of Mars bar too, so it's even on-topic

James

ooooooooooooooooo man

that's just SO baaaaaaaaaaaad

The moderators should have removed the one

On 13/01/2020 at 17:28, Alan White said:

Budgets are but an indication of a projects starting point which are written by the optimistic,
this allows projects to start without scaring too many folks.

Just look at H2S!

Always allow 50% for people costs, and 35% for capex.

and expect the overall spend to be 30% over that.

Its worked for me for nearly 20yrs

On 27/12/2019 at 15:26, DaveS said:

Preliminary sketch. Sorry it's not CAD, as I'm finding Sketchup cantankerous and unintuitive, the other CAD packages are worse.

 

 

I actually found sketch to be fairly useful for simple 2d stuff that can easily extrude.

On the iPad I have started using Shapr3d - if is a learning curve, but, I think, it will be better in the long run.

Just about to entered the age of self determined activity, so, will find out soon enough. 

Curious as to what the benefits of the pier design are?

Additional welds, to me, is an addition point of failure 

On 07/03/2020 at 17:58, souls33k3r said:

Noted lol

seriously - the tent turns into a parachute - expected - but attached to the tripod.... the tent flew and the gear with it 

14 minutes ago, souls33k3r said:

Not a bad shout that. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, had never thought of it. 

Completely fine on fixed piers. Been there a few years now with no issues

one piece of advice - if you sometimes take tripod and kit with you, do NOT let "helpful" family members attach this to tripod legs with mount and OTA attached. 

On 24/01/2020 at 00:14, WanderingEye said:

Hmmm, leaked..... that’s a worry...surely there must have been an issue with it, did you return...?

I've had a 365 Telegizmo cover over my pier/mount for 3 yrs or so, no problems.

There is always change of a "bum" product unfortunately.