Chefgage

Any guiding being used. Interested as I use basically the same setup but start to get star trails at about 45 seconds or more. This is with good polar alignment.

Even with your 8mm eyepiece and good seeing conditions Jupiter will only be as big as what you see in the attached photo. Unfortunately expectation versus reality is often not good in astronomy. The link above showing the thread of what to expect is a very good read. The problem is that images you see of planets are not really what you will see at the scope eyepiece. But, spend lots of time looking at say Jupiter. After a good few minutes if seeing conditions are good then it's surprising what you start to see. The longer you look the more detail seems to come through. You start to see details even though the image is small.

Me personally if they are offering a full refund I would go with that. You bought a scope new which should arrive fully working and in new condition. Unless they refund some of the cost and then send you a repaired scope then maybe that would be ok. I would not accept a another scope unless it was a brand new one but like what has been said you might just get one that has been previously returned by someone so not strictly new.

I find a good tool to use to quickly look through say 120 light frames looking for any not so good ones.

I don't bother jotting anything down. For my canon the camera creates a small file that I export off the SD card along with all the lights, darks bias etc. On the pc you can then right click on each one to see the details which will show if it's one of your lights, darks etc. As you will take all your lights together, then your darks etc. They will all be grouped together anyway. Then I use Adobe bridge 'free down load' to go through each one. Adobe bridge is good as it shows all the details of each picture (iso, exp etc).

Take a look at this YouTube video. The poster uses GIMP to process but the same will apply if you are using Photoshop.

Post up your processed M31 for us to have a look

I have just been watching Nico's videos. Came across a point in GIMP that helps subtract light pollution after aggressive stretching that looks helpfull.

As above, I also did not have a problem achieving focus with my Canon 200D DSLR connected directly to the 200p telescope.

The first point to make is you should be shooting raw images to stack.

I had a quick look. The thing that bothers me with this tracking mount is the polar scope. It just uses a green laser to align to polaris ( pointing a laser into the sky is never a good idea, could land you in trouble with the law). It does not use a traditional polar scope. It says it gives an accurate alignment to polar using this laser pointer. But I am a bit sceptical about this. For the money they charge for this mount I think you would be better looking at something like a star adventurer or an ioptron skyguider.

Looks very good. I am a bit jealous of your samyang 135mm. I am still waiting the delivery of mine, looks like it's on a back order at the minute.

Using a field of view calculator is handy in this situation. Putting your scope details in along with a 10mm eyepiece shows the field of view and size of Jupiter you will get with your scope. This is shown in the attached picture. As you can see Jupiter will appear quite small with your scope and a 10mm eyepiece.

Quoting myself but I did end up going for the right angled erecting 6x30 skywatcher finder scope. It's a nice little finder scope, weighs less than the original 9x50 I had so just right for my purposes. Now we need some cloudless skies. Unfortunately I have just made quite a few equipment purchases (asiair pro, power pack, samyang lens, filters etc..) so apologies to all, it's my fault we have all the clouds at the moment.

I think that will be probably something like. As it's a 6 x 30 instead of the original 9 x 50 I was using there might be a weight saving.

Forgot to mention I do use a red dot finder mounted on the DSLR hot shoe, so I am after something in between.

I have a 72ed refractor that I am using to image with. I was using the skywatcher 9 X 50 finder scope off my 200p dob but I have sold the dob and finder scope. Any suggestions for a new finder scope? Ideally it could do with being a lot lighter than the standard one supplied with the 200p dob. When I used this one I did have some balancing issues on my mount (star adventurer pro). I could also do with it being a right angled one.

Thanks as soon as my power supply arrives I have a go and see what happens.

Very nice image, also thanks for the info. I have my asiair now, just waiting on a power supply and I am good to go.

NGC 7000 North American Nebula. I posted this in the imaging section but as it was taken using a Star Adventurer pro it belongs in here as well. Taken using the star adventurer, a modified Canon 200d, 75mm to 300mm lens @ 180mm, ISO 800. 44 lights stacked at 120 second exposures, 15 darks. Stacked using DSS and processed using GIMP. I was trying out a CLS clip in light pollution filter but coupled with the cheapish canon lens gives the stars a bit of bloating and halos. Got a Samyang 135mm ordered so looking forward to trying that and retiring my cheap canon lenses.

Very nice image. Seeing all these images done with the samyang 135mm has convinced me to buy one.

34 Lights, 15 darks. Lights were ISO 800 and exposures of 150 seconds. Equipment was a star adventurer pro mount, canon 200d modified camera, canon 75mm - 300mm lens at 200mm f/5 with CLS light pollution filter. The stars are a bit bloated and have halos. The cheap canon lens coupled with the light pollution filter was to blame from what I have read (I am going to have a go at star reduction in processing). Stacked in DSS and processed in GIMP.

I have used this one on my 200p with a S8 plus. It's a bit fiddly to get the camera to align with the eyepiece but it does work. It's the holder, second from the right.

I went with astronomiser. Got my camera back in 6 days. Cannot fault that kind of turn around.

I have posted this a few times. But for anyone else that is interested this is how I set up the inclinometer and encoder to give me a push to Dobsonian. It details how to accurately set up both digital gauges.