Jkulin

I am sure that Altair are aware of this thread and knowing Ian he will get in contact quickly and professionally as you would expect.

I had a thought, if you bought it from the Main UK dealer for Pegasus equipment such as Altair Astro, then I think you will find Ian is amazingly helpful and if you had contacted him via email then he would have replied and dealt with the matter if it was in warranty and even if it was out of it then he would have helped, in the same way that the lads at FLO would help out if requested.

@blinky and @WanderingEye I have met, chatted in depth, conversed via emails with Evans and Angelos at Pegasus and you truly couldn't wish for a nicer more helpful bunch of guys, last year my mate Mark had a problem with his UPB, the lads said to him to bring it along to the 2018 IAS and they would bring a spare board over with them and changed it whilst he waited at the show.

I have 4 UPB's and two focus cubes, and all but one of them bought at the full retail price, the 3rd one was second hand off here, and this was based upon the reputation of the lads at Pegasus backed up by Ian at AA.

My first contact with Pegasus was via their on line chat at 21:30 on a Sunday night as no one had stock at the time in the UK, at 09:00 on Tuesday morning 2 of my UPB's arrived from Greece at no extra cost.

I do believe in standing up where there is good service, in the same way I would for any manufacturer/dealer.

BTW I have no commercial affiliation with either AA or Pegasus, I just like and appreciate quality service, and don't get me wrong where that hasn't been received from other companies, then I have ended up in court with them and won!

If you PM me I will send you the lads email address so you can communicate directly with them.

Hope that helps?

Sorry Haim, for me that is just buying time on equipment and apart from the processing takes very little skill.

I note that you publish in magazines many of your images as well with no reference to that fact.

They are truly beautiful images, but without mentioning precisely how they were captured, they don't carry the same amount of weight of someone like Barry Wilson and Steve Milne who travel regular to control their own mounts with all the paraphernalia that goes with, buying your own equipment, personally setting it up, problem solving and sorting out gremlins and all from over a 1000 miles away from their homes.

No offence intended, but last time you published an image you said that you take your laptop with you and this time you are saying that you use the observatory's PC, in my opinion its not really cricket.

On 19/08/2018 at 19:17, Hughsie said:

Came to the conclusion that if you want to pay top dollar for an observation chair then just type “astronomy chair” in google and watch your wallet empty. However, type “ironing chair” and suddenly things become a bit more sensible price wise. See example below;

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leifheit-Multi-Seat-Niveau-Chrome/dp/B000VJE5SI/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen-appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1534702409&sr=1-2&keywords=Ironing+chair

That's what I have, I don't do observing but its perfect to sit on if I am trouble shooting.

On 18/11/2019 at 22:59, WanderingEye said:

I will always want a replacement, or refund...that is your right...it should, in my opinion, last at the very very least the year before it needs repair... 

Actually its not, under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 after 30 days the seller has the option to repair or replace, if they repair, they only have one chance and then you can insist on a replacement.

I have been through this in great detail against a seller and I won.

Ok Adam, so you weren't able to use an OAG?

That was one of the main reasons I switched to Moravian because of Atiks FW thickness.

31 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

Thanks John.  I just bought an Atik EFW3, so I figured it was just make more sense to use the Atik 383L.  I've it spaced to perfection now so I wont be touching it!!

So with the EFW3 and the 383 you can get a backfocus of 55mm? Are you not using an OAG? As that was why I changed from Atik as I wanted to use an OAG and Atiks FW was too thick?

Adam that is really lovely.

What camera are you now using for these latest images with the Epsilon

Beautiful gentle colours David, lovely taming of the stars

Haim, is this another one where you just take your laptop to capture the images using commercial equipment and then publish the images?

Thanks Rod, I have similar thinking as you.

I do wonder if the OIII and SII degraded the Ha because it was a near enough full moon.

I agree about the structure in 2 vs. 3.

It was more than a pebble in my shoe, it was a bloody great boulder!!!

Yeah it is it for now, unfortunately we have not had a clear night in over 5 weeks now, so I fear spending any more time capturing better OIII and SII would be lost time on other targets.

I truly appreciate your thoughts though, thanks.

1 hour ago, ollypenrice said:

I think it would be true to say that a DSLR works best with an Epsilon (see Maurice Toet: https://www.mauricetoet.nl/ ) but I can't see any reason to think that an Epsilon works best with a DSLR, at least now that dedicated cooled cameras with tiny pixels and large chips are available.

Anyway I think Adam has made a great start with an excellent, if challenging, scope.

Olly

Thanks Olly, I have seen so many good images taken with the Epsilon, that if money allows then it may well appear on my Birthday Honours list 🙂

The lads at Pegasus are brilliant, but they do travel quite a bit, they would hate to think you had a problem and are always as good as their word at honouring and fixing any problems.

OK, its been doing my head in today, I hope this is the final: -

I didn't realise just how hard this was going to be to process, I'm still not convinced I have done this justice. The data seemed good but the stacking was a mare.

No matter how hard I tried to remove the green it just didn't look right without it, so I have left it in, arguing that if the Hubble can have green in the Pillars of Creation, then I can have it in my Propeller...lol

It initially proved a pain to stack and finally a good mate had a look and discovered one light frame just wasn't behaving and once removed then it was fine. For the first time I combined in Pixel Maths which allowed me a little flexibility.

It is what it is and it seems like an eternity ago but was in fact the last time we had any clear skies.

The Ha looked so promising, but just guess I need to keep practising to get it better.

I also experienced for the first time ever hundreds of scattered random red pixels, I have cloned many of them out in PS, but no matter how hard I tried on the stacking they were always present, I did wonder if my new darks library may be to blame, any thoughts would be welcome.

Well this was from the last clear night we had in Mid October, we have got to get a break soon!

Link to the full details: - https://www.astrobin.com/b5du3j/?nc=user

I agree with some of what the OP says, as I have said before there are a number of classifications that should apply.

1. Those who set up their own equipment in the UK or abroad, manage it personally and control it personally and also process it personally.

2. There are those who supply their equipment and get someone else to set it up and all they have to do is control it.

3. There are those who rent space, don't set the equipment up or own it and have very little knowledge about 1 or 2

4. Then there are those who use other peoples images and just process them.

5. There is also those who process Hubble or similar professional images and then go for Image of the Day and win, sorry but that really to me is cheating the system.

I fall into the classification of 1. I live in Bortle 5 skies, 19.51SQM, I work very hard to learn, put into practice and capture my own images, If I haven't processed it then I don't publish it, simple. However bad the skies, I enjoy all aspects of Astronomy, whether it is playing with new technology, new software, new techniques, capturing and processing, it's a hobby and a release from the pressures of running my own business.

2. doesn't take a lot of skill as you are relying on others to help you capture and problem solve.

3. and 4. I don't even acknowledge and if people let slip that they have rented equipment remotely on a pay per download per minute, then to me it isn't cricket and I move onto the next image. I seem to remember someone saying that they took their laptop to a remote dark site and captured some very nice images, c'mon...really, in my mind it certainly doesn't count especially if the person then writes for magazines publishing the images as his own!

With 5. I can understand people wanting to play, but please don't post it on Astrobin with the intention of winning IOTD as it doesn't count, on Astrobin there is an option to exclude your image from being selected from IOTD so why don't people use it?

JMHO

Personally I'm not fussed, anyone can meet me in the street or anywhere else for that matter. My photo at my age isn't going to grab the attention of loads of fans like it did in my youth🤣

Just now, Gina said:

Should update my avatar I guess (grey hair)...

Nah Gina, I bet that's just the way the sun catches it😉, ladies mellow whereas us men just look old and knackered!

The Esprit is a triplet and the contrast is so much better.

I had the 80ED Pro and for me I would never go back, you can find them second-hand as I did and my 100 Esprit was unused

OK, here you go: -

I was having a bad hair day! I'm on the right 🙄. Hopefully it will be presented better tomorrow 🙂

I shall be there on both days as I have booked in for a few talks, I was looking forward to hear Paddy Gilland, But I understand he's not well or his wife isn't.

2 hours ago, freiform said:

I really wouldn't mind getting rid of the handcontroller to reduce the clutter.

No need for the hand controller once you have obtained your zero setting, haven't used mine since, except for firmware upgrades..

2 hours ago, freiform said:

@Jkulin what aspect of the the CEMs are in another class compared to SW? Handling, performance, build quality?

All of those things, everything is so much better than the SW, it is lighter yet carries more, guides so much better little or no backlash and the build quality is superb.

4 hours ago, DaveS said:

5 hours ago, gajjer said:

Forgive my stupidity, but if they are telecoms satellites wont they be geostationary? If so, wont they just be extra pin points of light. Sounds a lot but the sky is very big.

Sorry, just a bit skeptical.

cheers

gaj

No, they're not geostationary, he's putting them into low earth orbit.

50 minutes ago, don4l said:

I wonder if this isn't a case of the Internet getting all worked up about nothing?

These satellites are going to be in fixed positions on a narrow line across the sky. 

Has anyone ever even photographed a geostationary satellite?

 

As @DaveS said they are not geostationary

There will come a time when people will pay to destroy these satellites, governments will want to stop the eavesdropping political parties will want the same, there is only so much eavesdropping that the world of politicians will stand.

I have owned a CEM60EC and it was fantastic, I now own a CEM120EC and it is superb and have just ordered a CEM40EC which I hope to collect at the IAS from Altair, I have owned an HEQ5 Pro and an AZEQ6GT and the iOptron are in a different class compared to the Skywatcher.