RolandKol

I am strongly considering to try Anycubic Photon next year.... My Mega-S works fine, - but a bit slow @0.1mm Photon @0.1 should be ~ 4 times faster... Need to hide all cast iron frying pans before that purchase

And get ready to the "Bahtinov mask session"! I have 1, very nice, 6 or 7 hour imaging session full of spikes! too much of automation sometimes leads to fails as simple as this I hope, it was the 1st and the last one!

"Where does idea of infinite size of universe come from?" I think a bit simpler on this matter. Once "we" started to understand we are the part of the universe, the obvious question came in, - there does it end? As no one knows the answer, all possible versions been applied, - model of three whales, Ptolemy and Aristotlel models, and a bit later "Infinite" came in. Further more, if someone will want to support the statement "it is Not infinite", but in other shape/form witch is closed, - he will face more very interesting and intriguing questions, like what is beyond the border? What universe expands to? and etc It is hard to imagine the Infinite Universe, at least for me... And not interesting at all to be honest! It sounds like a "dead end" for cosmology... Plus, the infinite one! It eliminates all the other interesting questions and probably is comfy in some cases to apply.

Sorry, I have not made a picture, But I saw the dust on the filters directly, - not on the images (of-course, they are also present on images).... So it is 100% present and in enormous scale... Mechanism works flawlessly, plus the dues is quite bright, - metal/plastic would be black as the EFW body. I will put all a part during this week, clean it... and check how it goes for next month... really disturbing...

Hi guys, Has anyone come across a Dust problem in ZWO EFW? Not sure what I have done wrong, - 1 month ago I have checked the setup, it was just some dust (acceptable level) after almost 8 months of use, but yesterday... I removed my camera again and my jaw has dropped.... Insane amount.... not sure why.... 1 month ago, I just checked all the filters visually, I have not unscrewed anything... Insane... Is there any way to seal the EFW body completely? Silicone maybe? My setup ZWO 1600mm, ZWO EFW, 11mm extension ring, ZWO OAG, CC. It looks like it should be sealed... but not...

If QIS will not be able to perform as SPAD from the The example with the lamp above, - I will be waiting for SPAD Interesting, how they will react on the light pollution I have a very slight hope Astrodons will become dinosaurs once these sensors will hit the market

Just an opinion.... Before you go ahead an buy something cheaper than HEQ5, check how many nights are cloudless in your area... So if you will start your DYI project from a very cheap mount, - you will end up wasting £££££ and LOoooots of Clear nights.... Which are somewhere between 1 and 3 per month in Uk... sadly... Just imagine, - you placed some motors, connected, checked during a day time, looks all good... And wait 3 or 4 weeks to test... during a test you find out something does not work as should be... so wait for another 3 weeks ... plus, keep in mind, even if the night is clear, - you cannot be 100% you will be able to image due to other/personal reasons. Summer comes... If you are able to see planets, you can try Planetary imaging on your current setup, you just need a high speed cam, record short vids 30sec or 60 depends how fast Planets will drift of your FOV, - with highest frame rate per sec as possible and stack the best frames from them... and if you will start enjoying the hobby, unfortunately... start saving £££.... and the highspeed cam you can use as a guidercam later.

And did I understand it correctly, 35mm extension tube is needed for DSLR even if FF is used?

Thanks for a nice review. As per balance and the locking screw, - how stiff is the drawtube without locking? And won't you lose camera at some point? Why not to turn OTA in the rings 180 degrees?

There are 2 types which are mainly used, - Skywatcher Coma Corrector (which is also 0.9 reducer) and Baader MPPC (no reduction) Not sure which is a better one. There are some more, but usually more expensive.

nice as per ASI1600MM, - it is probably the cheapest cam with quite a large sensor to give you a nice FOV, but there are alternatives like Altair Astro Hypercam 1600 which has even 4GB DDR3 RAM (not sure if it does any difference, for me even 256MB is enough). Also, there are some "quite cheap" CCD cams with smaller FOV. You probably know this web http://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ , but check what you would like to have at the final image before you pull the trigger! P.S. Also, always keep an eye on the backfocus of the camera you choose. For example ASI1600 backfocus is only 6.5mm which allows to use small 31mm Filters without vignetting. The larger the backfocus of the camera the larger vignetting you will get with small filters... And if you will be made to go for a larger filters, - like 36mm, - check their prices first

HI Andy, And welcome to the darkside! 1) Maybe yes, maybe No - it all will depend on the camera Focusing distance. If you will get cam in focus with Focuser's Drawtube rolled out a lot, - you will not need to "Circumcise" anything as the drawtube will not cast much shadow on the Primary mirror. 2) 150PDS - the same issue 4) Have you done any imaging before? if not, I would suggest trying any DSLR camera you've got for the start, or the second hand one... As you will spend lots of nights learning things which are not Related to Imaging Directly (guiding, platesolving processing and etc etc). However if you want to skip this part with cheap DSLR and dive directly into MONO, look at something like ZWO ASI1600MM or Similar. Note: for mono camera you will need FilterWheel and Filters, all brand new around £1800 in total. P.S. With ASI1600MM you will need to chop off a bit of the drawtube for the Perfect Results, but if you will use Coma Corrector which does not work as Reducer (for example Skywatcher CC is 0.9 reducer) you will be able to live without circumcision as distortion will be quite little, - probably... "Circumcision" of the drawtube is not the Most challenging task with PDS, in fact, it takes around 10 - 15mins and I doubt someone managed to damage the scope during this procedure. If you will need to, do not chop a lot, go with 1cm first. The most challenging thing with PDS is collimation of the Secondary Mirror (not Primary, but the smaller one). So if you will get a New One, at the start, adjust just a Primary Mirror if needed, - do not touch bolts of the secondary at all.

Yep... the same always happens to me! I usually process at home on the notebook and get scared once I check the final result at Office But in your case, it is Very good short RGB result during Full Moon even a galaxy is slightly visible at the bottom P.S. happy to see your new cam does the job as expected.

I think this topic should be renamed to "Obsy building Standard"

In opposition, I have tilt with my Canon 1300D if I not support it. If you check astro pictures from the different users on astrobin or flickr, you will notice evidence of the SOME tilt on Some images So if someone does not have tilt... it does not mean, you will not have it... It is probably very related to camera quality plus Altitude of the target. However, if you will not able to support it "Properly", - FOV is quite wide with Sammy and you will be able to crop without loosing much data, as I do at the moment

Hahaha My stepper motor cables are braided in the same manner like yours

Hi Guys, Has anyone managed to find something like 2" Baader ClickClock or any other 2" eyepiece clamp which would enable to achieve Focus using Canon or ASI1600?

Nah... he leaves no room for EFW and my autofocuser... Plus his camera left hanging... I am almost sure it will introduce tilt... I saw one model on his web, were bracket at last Holds ASI1600MM properly, but this bracket will have no use for my Canon and even EFW!!! So if I will need to buy from him, I will end up with 2 brackets and with: + manual focus, +manual filter change. Not the way I want to go. My PDS is collimated, not perfect, but Close enough to make me happy And we have plenty of Cloudy Nights to make a Proper Bracket with the place for all the automation my toys have and one for both cameras

At F2 exposures will be Strongly Location + Camera Dependant isn't it? I cannot go longer than 30sec @ISO100 with my Canon 1300D in Woolwich.... And ISO100 is very noisy... Thinking of stepping down to F4, till I manage to print my bracket/holder for ASI1600

Yep, all Newtonians will have this shadow with Focuser fully in. I had to circumcise mine also... Not difficult at all, but I cannot use scope for visual after. Please note, not all cameras are focused on the same spot, - so if you are lucky enough and your camera is focused with focuser Out, your images may not suffer from the shadow at all.

My ASI1600MM is off the scope at the moment, I can produce some darks in the basement for you and share them via dropbox, just let me know temp, exposures and amounts... if needed

Was it only 90sec Darks? I do not remember so much glow on my 180sec darks.... Sadly PC at home is Off, - will check once back home...

As Carole said, de-focused star will show all the collimation problems. Try keeping it in the center of the frame as you do not use Coma Corrector and even the perfect Collimation will look Off if your star will be on the corner or even halfway. So if you will target a rich star field, central de-focused stars are the ones you need to look at and ignore the ones close/midway to the corners. Your 8 sec sub has slightly prolonged stars even in the middle. If you were guiding, - you probably had the tilt of the camera in the focuser, - or guiding was very bad, which I doubt. So also, keep an eye how you place the camera in, - it has to be stiff and have no play towards any direction.

Simply defocus on the star... It is the best way to check

yep... this is what I want to avoid with my All in One bracket... but I afraid I may tilt it with the motor belt Anyway, I am sure I will fail from the first attempt