Jkulin

You won't regret the Esprit at all Gav, I was so impressed that I also bought the Esprit 80 as well.

I have a moonlite motorised focuser on the 100 and a lakeside motor on the 80, the later using the original focuser and if I am honest the actual focusers are very comparable, the moonlite has the edge on looks but the handset controller of the lakeside is better.

HTH

Might be a good shout there Ray, I'm also changing over from APT to SGP because of the autofocuser regime seems a lot more advanced, might need to tap your knowledge if I get stuck (If that is OK?)

25 minutes ago, RayD said:

I found mine to be quite critical, and literally down to cutting a 0.3mm spacer from the lid of a spread tub.  Took me a fair while to get it right, but that was over the APS-H sensor, which is pretty big.

Your using the 16200 Ray which correct me if I am wrong is exceptionally critical, I believe with the 383 and my imaging chain that I can't do anything better than what I have, apart from human error and that my focusing could improve which I am working on.

39 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

@Jkulin - the reason I asked was because I noticed significant star elongation in your image’s corners, which looks like coma to me that would normally be sorted by the flattener. As you are using one already, could this be a spacing issue?

As I said this was just a calibrated image in Ha that I have done nothing else with, I thought that it was better to provide something like that.

No spacing issue as bang on the measurements quoted for it.

Hi Gav, Yes I do use the SW Flattener, but haven't noticed the field any flatter because of it.

Here's a quick grab from my screen of the PacMan in Ha I did at the beginning of January with a full moon, it has been calibrated but apart from that nothing else has been done to it.

If you use the lakeside then don't buy a new box just get like I have for the 80 a new motor and mount for just over £100 and switch between them, in fact I am going to fit the motor to the 80 this evening and hopefully get imaging tomorrow night if it stays clear.

I have the Esprit 100ED and have been blown away with the quality, simply amazing, the focuser is excellent and for £300 you can motorise it within your budget if you look around.

I was so impressed that I went and bought the Esprit 80 as well.

I have had mine hypertuned but not used it yet as I only use it when I go to dark sites for widefield imaging.

Whilst in France in June I was getting 450s un-guided and the attached shows how good this little mount is and this wasn't hypertuned then, so how good will it be now.

The image is unprocessed (Just reduced in size for here) at ISO 160 F2.8 14mm on my Nikon D800, it wasn't even well balanced as I had left the counter weights at home.

The only thing I always do is use my Polemaster for a polar alignment

Had this before, as mentioned have a look in device manager what Com port has been assigned then go into the toolbox and assign the same Com port, should fix it.

Credit where due...

I ordered another dew heater from Barbara at W&W Astro Dew Heaters and whilst out for a short while one of my boxers (The Mischievous one) decided to chew the package and destroy the heater.

I made a quick call to Barbara just to check the polarity and she very kindly said she would send me a replacement free of charge!

Originally bought of fleabay at : - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/W-W-Astro-dew-heater-40-cm-for-5-telescope/192323865878

But you can purchase direct from her at the following: -

W&W Astro
www.dewheater.com
shop@dewheater.com
Tel: - 07449065886

Couldn't ask for better service :-)

4 hours ago, bottletopburly said:

Before having powder coated , I will set up and Pa  I haven't tapped pier head down yet so once I PA  I will gaffa tape pier adapter to top plate and drill and tap .

Thanks, so will you temporarily bolt the pier down to the concrete before marking up the pier adapter?

Maybe it's me being paranoid, my mate who is sorting out the design doesn't want to machine elongated holes into the top of the pier so that the top plate can be adjusted perfectly, but I think he's being a little too cautious on the stability front.

My mate is designing something similar but with full length supports at the side.

Just a quick question, how are you planning on rotating the pier adapter so that you can align north or are you just going to drill holes after rough alignment and then just use the AZ bolts for perfect alignment?

No prior to polar alignment I aim my camera via the ball head on the tripod into the area I want to image, I've only used it for the MW and not with a long lens or scope for DSO etc. so can't comment how easy it is to align very finely.

I don't touch the clutch at all once polar aligned and just swivel the ball head with the camera attached if I need to align or position my camera better.

I remotely fire the shutter using Backyardnikon so that I don't inadvertently knock the alignment.

Hope that helps?

When I mean set everything up I mean everything including the L Bracket, camera, polemaster, laptop, everything and then start the QHY Polemaster software and connect, make sure you are perfectly level and point as near as dammit to North, once connected set Polaris in the centre of your screen and follow the prompts, its dead easy as long as you don't knock the tripod and anything else, make sure switch it on after alignment to the star on the dial.

Oh and make sure you have fresh batteries and they don't run out half way through like mine did and I had to leave everything in the field and walk back to the Gite.

I use my polemaster on my SA when travelling and for widefield imaging.

Set everything up including plugging in your laptop, follow the prompts exactly as per the polemaster software, its a bit tricky as you have to manual slacken the clutch, but if you don't tighten it tight then you can undo it without moving the tripod.

Last month I was 30 miles south of Le Mans in France with perfect dark skies, I took the liberty of pushing it a little too far at 7 1/2 minutes unguided and got tiny trails but I reckon if I would have kept it to 3-5 minutes then the very tiny trails would not have been visible.

The attached was taken at ISO160, F2.8 for 450s on my Nikon D800 and Samyang 14mm lens, if you zoom in you'll see what I mean which I feel is not bad considering it was unguided for 7 1/2 minutes on a light weight carbon tripod in the middle of a windy field.

Thanks Ian, Much appreciate your time and effort.

When I travel I prefer to combine my general photography with Widefield Atrophotography, just returned from Meigne-le-Vicomte about 30 miles South of Le-Mans, beautiful dark skies and I managed some rather nice images of the Milky Way, I tend to use my Nikon 800 combined with a Samyang 14mm F2.8 Lens or my Leica T with an 11/23mm F3.5 Lens. The Skywatcher Star Adventurer is perfect for this and I have achieved up to 450secs unguided with just a very tiny amount of trails.

My Leica only has 30sec max exposure, which means in a true dark site of shooting at ISO3200 F3.5, but the images are really quite lovely.

I travel with a MS Surface Pro to download my images and Polar align with my QHY Polemaster, I use a Carbon Manfrotto Tripod set low to the ground for stability and weight saving. The Hanger was an accessory to point me North in the picture blackness.

On 06/11/2015 at 12:11, Starflyer said:

Hi Chris,

You drill the holes, blow out all the dust with a bicycle pump, half fill with the supplied epoxy resin, wind the bolts into the resin to the bottom of the hole and smooth out any extra that comes out of the top of the hole.  It set rock hard within about 15 minutes, but I left it 24 hours before bolting the whole thing down.

I had too much bolt sticking out after it was finished so had to cut some off, if I did it again I'd drill down another 20mm.

Glad you like it.  I'm so happy with the design I may well get a few more made for sale on ABS.

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Ian, sorry to drag up an old post, your pier is exactly what I am looking for, have you got a drawing or plans that you would be willing to share? Would you by chance have a link to the pier adapter on eBay if they are still making them?