scitmon

23 minutes ago, Jm1973 said:

Aha! This looks interesting. So this fits in place of the stock connector on the 0.85 reducer? And enables rotation?

 

Yes, where you would normally screw your reducer onto the draw tube, you screw this adapter on instead.  Then the t nose slides into the  focuser like an EP would.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/astro-essentials-adapter-for-sky-watcher-focal-reducers.html might work?  I successfully use this with the stock focuser, reducer and a dslr.

I'm certainly no expert so don't take this as gospel, but whatever you attach to a battery will only attempt to draw the amps it need.  So if your mount requires 5 amps, the battery will only give it the required 5 amps.

Yes that makes sense.  I may aswell keep the barlow and perhaps purchase a 24mm ep in the future, would give me a nice range or 6.7, 12 and 24.

Just came across this post while researching my dilemma. 

I currently have a ES 6.7mm 82 degree and 2x Barlow for my Skymax 180, but considering selling them after I purchased a 9-27mm zoom ep.  Will the ES offer much advantage, if any, over my zoom EP for planets and moon?  I don't want sellers remorse. 

Are you working to a budget?  Presuming you are not doing any long exposure photography, Alt-AZ is easier to use, but for heavier scopes can get pricey.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth-astronomy-mounts/ioptron-az-mount-pro.html might be a winner?

I get my electronic versions via a subscription to readly which is 7.99 a month.  Granted quite a lot more money, but if you are interested in other magazines too (and newspapers) its not bad.  Can also split cost with friends and family.

Yes it is for guiding, never use it for anything else.  Similarly with the 80ed, that is pretty much only used for imaging. 

I don't really see any point in keeping the 6.7mm either when I have 9mm in the Hyperflex zoom?

As someone who is primarily an astrophotographer, I rarely actually do any visual gazing.  My sole visual scope is a Skymax 180, which I will use for planets and the moon 99% of the time. For this I have a Hyperflex 9-27mm Zoom, a Explore Scientific 6.7mm 82 degree ep, and a Explore Scientific 2x Barlow.

As I have come to understand over recent years, decent eye pieces tend to go to waste in long focal length telescopes like the Skymax.  Is there any point in me keeping my Explore Scientific glass?  I think I could get half decent money moving it on, which I could reinvest elsewhere, but I don't want to sell and later regret it.

2 hours ago, Nikolas74 said:

I think i will need a long ethernet cable from the router inside my house to the balcony were the NUC will be, or maybe i can try a wifi extender but then again it's actually wifi connection...the thing is if there are any advantages using a wired connection in terms of speed and not to have disconnection issues due to weak signal or lag etc..

If the long ethernet wire is too cumbersome, consider using some ethernet power line adapters.  

If I recall correctly, it should be under Start->Programs->EQMOD

33 minutes ago, Nikolas74 said:

I didn't try that yet but it's worth an effort , although my laptop is expensive and i feel sorry to leave it outside in winter time.

Not to mention the cold would not be good for the battery, I would avoid this.

can you send a screen shot of your "ASCOM Setup" screen? looks like:

15 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

Just get a raspberry PI, it will do the lot with Astroberry....cheap and very small....you can run it all from that, or just use it as a INdI driver server on the mount, and then run the Kstars software from your indoor PC, completely wireless........ 👍🏼

can you schedule refocusing yet?  That was always the deal breaker for me.

Connecting to the hand controller port is correct.  As has been said, it will probably be the COM port issue.  Double check the correct one is selected in the EQMOD setup.

Unless you are planning to do day time photography too, I would recommend looking at getting a modded one from https://www.cheapastrophotography.com/ 

Thank you for the review, they certainly are a tempting upgrade from the SW DS-Pro's.  I too am toying between mono/filters and colour/dual band filters.  Very informative.

TIF images are not compressed, which means you can 'stretch' the image to bring out the details in the image you are looking for.  Once you convert to a compressed format such as a JPG, the 'hidden' data is removed, hence why they take less space to store.

So to summarise, once you have finished processing your image and are happy with it, you can convert to JPG so it takes less space on your disk and less time to upload to the web.  If you want to keep processing in the future, keep your uncompressed TIF file for further tinkering.

In theory if you don't move the mount at all then you don't need to re align every time. 

But in the real world, unless you use a pier mount then I think you would be moving the mount slightly every time you remove and put the OTA back on.  It might not be moved noticeably, especially if you are at short focal lengths and are guiding.  Try not polar aligning and see what happens.

9 hours ago, chiltonstar said:

The OP raises the question of special filters; IMO a 10% neutral density filter works well with Mars and Jupiter and brings out more detail. I've tried other filters, but I'm not sure they really made any significant improvement.

I own and was using https://www.firstlightoptics.com/moon-neutral-density-filters/baader-neutral-density-moon-filters.html, specifically the weakest one, "0.6".  Do you know how 0.6 translates to %?

EDIT: looked on Baaders website, and 0.6 translates to 25% transmission, perhaps a little too strong...

Thank you.  I suspected that maybe the low horizon could be a factor on Jupiter and Saturn, but should I not be able to get more than 100x on Mars though?  I did see some Chromatic Aberration too which I'm not sure if that is common with this scope or not?

Hello all,

With Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all in the sky at the moment, I've been getting my newish SW Skymax 180 out a lot more.  I am having a couple of 'issues' with it though...

I bought a Hyperflex 9-27mm zoom ep to use with it, but I'm finding I can only get sharp images with the lowest magnification (27mm 100x) which I'm a little disappointed with.  I should at least be able to get 200x shouldn't I?  I know this scope takes time to cool which could be the issue? I do keep it in a box in my shed so it's not coming in from a warm house.

Also I'm finding the likes of Mars and Jupiter to be so bright they look washed out of any detail.  I have tried my Baader moon filter which helps a bit, but is this a case of needing a more specialised filter?

Its a tricky choice... My thought processes would be:

• Stick with DSLR, possibly buy https://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction-imaging/optolong-l-enhance-narrowband-deep-sky-imaging-filter.html, and astro mod your camera if you are willing.
• or, buy a cooled cmos colour camera, https://www.firstlightoptics.com/zwo-black-friday-christmas-promotion-2020/zwo-asi-533mc-pro-usb-30-cooled-colour-camera.html possibly.
• mono + filters + filter wheel will come in at way more than £800

I would vote for option 1 and save up for option 3 in the mean time.

What mount do you have?  That is an important factor too.

I would be inclined to perhaps start off with just using your camera + your existing lenses and get https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-star-adventurer/skywatcher-star-adventurer-astronomy-bundle.html

If you get the astrophotography bug, then you can save up for sturdy mount (minimum https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-heq5-pro-synscan.html) and ed80/150pds.  Mount stability is so important, if you compromise it will become a frustrating exercise and will put you off for good.  

From what I have read it helps the cladding to dry and prevents trapped moisture...