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mAnKiNd

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Everything posted by mAnKiNd

  1. mAnKiNd
    I knew nothing about 3D printing either, but I spent a day on tinkercad and sure enough, it was easy to do. Feel free to modify the ring to your liking: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/2AcLKhFYX4r
  2. mAnKiNd
    Yep, that's the idea! Depending on the quality of their 3D printer, it will make it to either exacting or loose tolerances. The height and outer rim are not important in terms of tolerance, but the inner rim should be as smooth as possible. Hope this helps ☺️ Minos
  3. mAnKiNd
    Since we're on the subject of collimation, I'll share another neat little trick I use to ensure consistency when I attach my camera after performing a collimation routine. It involves female and male Canon EOS T-rings (Nikons would work too). First, I use the female ZWO short EOS ring on the drawtube: Second, I use a standard male EOS T-ring on the howie glatter parallizer, which allows me to snap it into the drawtube and use my collimation tools: Like so: Once I've performed my tripirtite collimation routine with the cheshire, laser and tublug, I unspap the parallizer from the drawtube, and snap in my camera, which also has a male T-ring (and the zwo t2 -> 1.25" filter adapter inside it): Like so: After this, I crack open a can of guinness and proceed with my imaging session wearing a big fat collimated smile on my face 😀 Hope this helps, Minos
  4. mAnKiNd
    That indeed occured to me when I was collimating, but I could still see the inner rim of the 3d print well enough to be able to center the secondary so that the inner rim uniformly appeared concentric. Hope this makes sense! I also collimate the secondary with a glatter laser after using my cheshire, and then use the howie tublug for the primary. I use the parallizer also to keep all tools...well...parallel!
  5. mAnKiNd
    Go for it, it makes a big return for a very small cost. Just send the .sti file of the 3d design I made to your local shop to get it printed, then attach it to the primary in a centered fashion to hide the edges and clips and then done, star shapes fixed! It also helps to sink your coma corrector further down the drawtube with spacers to avoid pacman stars. This way, when you maintain the correct distance of sensor to coma corrector, everything sinks further down and you have to focus outwards to reach the focal point. Clear skies, Minos
  6. mAnKiNd
    For anyone interested in fixing their star shapes (subject is Vega) from this to this: I designed a 3D print on tinkercad (.sti file attached)Skywatcher 130PDS Newtonian Primary Mirror Aperture Mask.stl, found a local 3D print shop to make it for me and applied to the mirror clips as such: Inner diameter is 125mm, which is sufficient to cover the mirror edge and mirror clips. The idea is that the mask blocks the stray light from the edges, which causes the flares you see on bright stars and the ghost flares from the mirror clips blocking the edge flare. Hope this helps Minos
  7. mAnKiNd
    Hey buddy, it's this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Astromania-Flexible-Dew-Shield-for-Telescope-Front-Outer-Diameter-from-148-167mm/324104286055?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 Cheers, Minos
  8. mAnKiNd
    Thanks for the suggestion, should work well ☺️
  9. mAnKiNd
    Fwiw, I've used different filter wheels over the years with different scopes for different strokes, and currently I'm decided that they're not worth the negatives (weight, downtime during changes, refocusing etc..). I screw a single filter right in front of the camera and thats my session for the night. Next session, I use another filter. I've found this is a much easier, efficient and ultimately more productive workflow for me. Ymmv
  10. mAnKiNd
    I've had the ZWO EAF on the 130PDS for about three months now and never needed to modify anything, I've been very happy with its consisten performance. I did own a Pegasus Focuscube before on a refractor, and I find that the EAF, even with half the stepper resolution of the Focuscube, still performs very well at a lower pricepoint.
  11. mAnKiNd
    By installing a stepper focuser, such as the ZWO EAF or Pegasus Focuscube, wouldn't the connecting pulley provide extra stability and prevent a certain amount of slippage because its connected to the focusers' stepper motor, which doesn't move unless commanded to? This also has the obvious added benefit of giving you accurate focus ability.
  12. mAnKiNd
    Thanks for sharing this tip! I got me thick black shower cap from ebay and I'd "like to believe" it's making a difference...my wife was giving me weird looks when I was opening up the parcel😂
  13. mAnKiNd
    Thanks, I'll give that a try!
  14. mAnKiNd
    Take a look at my setup (if you're not blinded by the lights!). Camera parallel to counterweight bar, evoguide locked down on top dovetail of mounting rings. Another good option would be keep to your mini guide scope on the findershoe for Sharpcap polar alignment routines and get and off-axis guider. Hth
  15. mAnKiNd
    I had that mini guide scope in the finder shoe with an asi290mm and it wasn't good enough for me. I was averaging >1.3"/pixel in phd2. Moved to an evoguide 50 bolted onto a dovetail on the mounting rings and now much happier with my guiding at <0.8"/pixel. My imaging scale is ~0.9"/pixel, so anything higher than that results in less than stellar frames. Mounting it securely also makes an equally weighted contribution to good guiding. HTH
  16. mAnKiNd
    Added some luminance data with my mono. Got a coma corrector to fix those stars in the horizonatal edges for future captures. full resolution: https://www.astrobin.com/1mbaoz/E/
  17. mAnKiNd
    I've read about many cc's and they all have their stated pros and cons, but in my own search for a cc, I've personally decided that two are worth exploring: TSKomakorr and TSGPU. My rationale for preferring these two, is that they can be directly threaded to the 130PDS focuser with either one of these two adapters: FUFmpcc and TSM54-T2, which to my own peace of mind, is a more stable connection vs. clamping and also helps with having enough backfocus. Having said that, I sincerely respect other people's opinions and wonderful results with other cc's and do not contest that. Such cc's include the: Sky-Watcher f4 Aplanatic Coma Corrector, Sky-Watcher 0.9x Coma Corrector (though users have reported reflection issues), Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector and Explore Scientific HR Coma Corrector among others. These cc's are all clamped into the focuser and not screwed into it. I would however personally consider a clamping style cc if I purchased a Baader 2" ClickLock M54 Clamp with it, so that I could leave the cc permanently clamped into the focuser rather than taking it on and off every session. A clicklock however, will eat up backfocus, which can cause reaching focus issues. I will be getting me a TSKomakorr soon, so I can report my experience with it in due course. The above comments are mostly my own perceived thoughts about connectivity and not actual performance. Without having owned any of them to test for myself, I can only reiterate other peoples comments and results regarding performance, so I bow out for that. HTH you with your search as it has in mine.
  18. mAnKiNd
    I use an eqm-35 which is "similar" to eq-5 and it glides. You should be gliding too. Hth
  19. mAnKiNd
    I like it, especially for it's"built-in" tilter! Great job.
  20. mAnKiNd
    Impressive that you built one. Yeah, no rotation is a bummer, but I suppose I've learnt to live with it. I took off (and lost) the rotation ring on the FUFmpcc because it compromised stability, which was my whole purpose for using these adapters.
  21. mAnKiNd
    Yes! I've been using one since i got my 130pds. I also have this one: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p203_TS-Optics-T2-Fokaladapter-fuer-Skywatcher-Auszuege-mit-M54x1-Innengewinde.html
  22. mAnKiNd
    There's no cable mess when I'm setup for a session, just in that photo i wrapped them around the equipment... Cable mess drives me nuts too!
  23. mAnKiNd
    I went from a QHY miniguidescope on the findershoe to an evoguide 50 screwed onto the top dovetail of the mounting rings and saw a huge difference in guiding i.e. went from a total RMS (px) error >1.5" to ~ -0.5-0.7". Hope this helps. Minos P.S. excuse the cable wrapping mess...also, you can see that I'm now using the qhy finder rings to run camera cables through..!
  24. mAnKiNd
    love the showercap! I'm getting one thanks! :)
  25. mAnKiNd
    Thanks Adam I currently have the ASI290MM-Cool and ASI290MC-Cool. One for narrowband and luminance and the other for RGB. I have owned a number of cameras over the years, but I sold them off to finance other projects. 290 is a great little sensor, albeit small. Cheers
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