6footgeek

Multitasking here in the midlands. My telescope is freezing outside so sat next to my toaster of a pc having a quiet game!

Let me know how this goes - im super interested in that filter!

Off to the races on NG 6992 (Eastern Veil) - was supposed to be up to 5 hours of data but my computer rebooted last night - so this is hour 2

Thanks! I got 15 minutes on it earlier this year without a filter / my mount - just on a star adventurer but it didnt go well! The moon wasnt helping this shot last night at 4am...

Quick edit of an hour capture I got on m42 last night - was meant to be imaging the Western Veil all night, but a windows update on my pc rebooted it just after I went to bed. Anyway at about 4am I remoted in and pointed it at Orion. This is ~ 1 hour of exposures at iso 800 for 180sec. Overcooked the vibrance, but hey, im excited From the ever polluted skies of Birmingham, UK. Skywatcher 72ed Canon 450d Guiding with zwo mini guider + 120mm mini Skywatcher HEQ5 pro SkyTech CLS Canon EOS Clip Fit Filter 15 darks, 80 bias, 80 flats Leaving a tiff here with just light pollution removed and bg calibration if anybody wants to play glory_be.tiff

Hi @freiform sorry for late reply on this. I really can’t help with those questions. I’m stuck in limbo on this myself. Torn between the 183 and 1600 monos for me I think the 183 makes more sense. But, really need to invest in reading more about them! Best of luck

The star travel 120? As far as I can see it’s not a doublet and doesn’t have the coatings on the glass of the 72ed. The 72ed comes with a lovely travel case. Additionally the st120 comes with eyepieces / diaganols. But the biggest difference beyond that is that the 72ed has a much better focuser on it. that being said I think people do image with it, it just depends on what you want. I personally would go with the 72ed for the glass and focuser, but if you wanted to get rid of the 200pds and have a single rig, maybe the quality of glass could be lessened in favour of that setup. if you had the money then you could just get the 120ed ds-Pro and get the best of both

Hmm you know I have never used it for visual - I have a 150p for that. You would (I assume, I’ve never had a refractor for visual) also need a diagonal for visual, but then I believe you wouldn’t require the 2 inch nosepiece for focus as you would have the EP.. but, all roads lead back to Rome and you would need all the other stuff for AP. I think the main reasons that this scope is recommended for imaging is that at 72mm and 420mm it’s very forgiving, with a lovely wide field with a dslr. So it’s great to get started with. Another reason is that it’s a nice price point, and the 3rd reason being it’s a great scope to grab and go. I for instance keep mine fully built upstairs and just carry it down in its entirety when we get a clear night!

Hey Simon, I have a 72ed on my heq5. I use the following combo. 72ed -> OVL field flattened and a canon t-ring adapter. Works great for me. Pic included! my understanding is that you can swap the OVL for a 2 inch nosepiece to achieve focus but I wanted the flattener anyway so it was the logical choice for me

Very cool! What time was it captured?

Good luck with the sale. It looks like you are selling everything i need for my all sky camera setup - money is short this month but id probably buy this next month

Welcome! I spent too long running around Dartmoor to ever return for a camping trip - but I imagine the sky’s would be lovely. Whenever I was there I was very wet and scratched from crawling through gorse bushes

Yes please! I’ll take this

Sorry taff just saw your reply above! The bolt is just an m10 x however long you want it (M10x114) etc if you wanted to just get a longer one

Hey @Taff there think you have 5e exact same problem I had with my heq5. I wrote about it: https://astrobits.co.uk/blog/skywatcher-heq5-pro-latitude-adjustment/