Shaun_Astro

https://www.altairastro.com/skywatcher-evolux-82ed-refractor-telescope---ota-only-2575-p.asp Altair have the page up for these fracs. The 82's glass type isn't listed (al-la Evostar 72ED) therefore is unlikely Ohara FPL-53 of the Evostar 80, or even fp-51? It is listed as improved ED glass. Interesting but I don't think this will be a step up from the Evostar 80 ED?

Interesting, as said on the other thread... Opticron (aka Vixen-UK) are no longer distributing Vixen products And distribution is moving to germany, another Brexit casualty probably.

A 200p is great. Rock steady alt az mount, 200mm and no CA. I wonder why people spend ££££s on APOs when a £300 newt will show you much more.

Hi, Just wondering why all the vixen scopes are unavailable with FLO now. Kind regards, Shaun

I managed a couple of hours on M45 the other night while very clear. Took the opportunity to do some visual with my 200p dob. Luckily the below freezing temperature inhibited dewing on the 130's secondary.

Wow another clear night I was able to use, makes two in as many months! I took some more subs to add to my M31 picture, I'd like to get a high quality looking image of one target before moving onto the next. I also purchased Star Tools and have found it much better to work with than DSS>Lightroom & Photoshop. Although I need to use PS and HLVG as a final touch! About 270 x 30".

I took some more subs of m31 last night. The moon was over 90 deg away, yet the stacked image shows a glaring gradient swamping half the image, is this the moon? I've not seen anything like it. I think it might be the SW 0.9 CC perhaps. Since I have used it my flats never seem to work properly. I'll add an image once back from work..

Great, can you use smart phones with this yet? How about polar aligning with just a tube to look down?

Did the 90 1200 end up being OK? It's a shame I can't find anything about this frac. Does it have two lenses like the evostar?

Much better thank you!

Beautiful shot. Only 30 minutes? What size newt?

Bit over stretched, but a hour and a bit on m31. Dew ruined half my subs!

Hi, The 150 has a longer focal length, so a higher magnificatoon. With the ZWO it will be at a higher magnificatoon due to the smaller sensor, so you would probably need to guide! 60 sec unguided is great anyway with that scope. Cheers, Shaun

Make sure you have the shutter speed set to high. I spent ages not being able to see a star because I hadn't set it to 30sec.

Great work. Perhaps add some narrow band to it? Simon Todd recently imaged this, it's quite a small target. To small for my 130pds.

Lovely globular cluster My first stack with my 130pds on my heq5 of M27. A bit noisy because of iso 1600. Also bad shaped stars because of the sw coma corrector. Need to chomp the draw tube off a bit.

I've just noticed with my 130pds that the images at the beginning of the session show 90-100 stars, and by the end 45. Also sky blackness goes from 0.9% to 0.3%. I use a 130pds. There didn't seem to be any dew on the primary at the end, but something has to have caused this as my target was approaching zenith at this time, and the nearby street lights turned off near the end. Has anyone else had this issue, and what can one do about a primary dewing up?

That's very nice and quite a high resolution for fl700mm, this wasn't a DSLR shot was it? I also photographed this target, but my 130pds I have a much wider FOV at FL585mm...

Hi Gordon, No the dec axis would only turn intermittently and wouldn't slew in dec even with just a DSLR attached. I sent it back for a refund. I recently purchased an HEQ5 and it's infinitely better. It's not much heavier, (another thing that I found odd about the EQM-35), but it's easy to balance and the clutches work as they should. 0 problems with it so far and it doesn't have any of the external exposed gears and motors or janky clutches. I saw on youtube someone has the same stiffness issue, and compared it to a star adventurer, which was very easy to balance. Honestly would avoid it and get an HEQ5 as it's paired well with a 80mm frac and guiding equipment.

I bought the EQM-35 in January I think, the DEC motor was kaput out of the box so I returned it. Another thing to point out... even with the clutches loosened it was so stiff it was impossible to balance properly even with 6kg scope.

Thanks Ian. Just that listed in my signature: 130pds, Star Discovery Mount, 1300d, DSS, Lightroom, Photoshop. Had to crop it pretty hard again because of bad flats & amp glow.

M35 and NGC 2158: iso 3200, 150 x 20" sub, 30 dark, 40 bias, 40 flat. Did this when I started last winter, this is an improvement I think, still would have liked more subs!

Yeah I wondered what that was. Just the camera lens: Canon 75-300mm lens @75mm f4.5

I've wanted to take this wide field shot for a while.. Messier 37, 36 and 36 from the bottom, Elnath bottom right. 75mm lens on my star discovery @f4.5, 60x30", ISO 3200. A fantastic set of open clusters that each fit perfectly in my 8" dob with a 37mm plossl's FOV.

Nice Crab! As for balancing, I find that as the target rises or sets, the scopes balance changes from front to back. I see what you mean a little front heavy, it's like being East heavy on an EQ, to keep the pressure on the gears. I'll try and make it a little front heavy in the East, and back heavy in the West now. I took some more subs of M45, and didn't constrain DSS to process only an intersecting area this time. It's not as bright and overly stretched as the last one, but has more detail. Still struggling to remove this grainy noise though. Also this SW 0.9 coma corrector is a PITA. The draw tube sticks into the scope and makes the stars look like "D"s. Also I can't seem to get that "crisp" focus I could without it, I have the appropriate T mount.