catburglar

I’ve got no personal experience if these, but what about one of the TS Power Newton scopes? The 8inch F/2.8 would be nice and fast @ 560mm FL.  Obviously  collimating will be key, but if you’re not fixed on a refractor setup you could get data pretty quickly once you’ve fettled the setup. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p4611_Boren-Simon-8--f-2-8-PowerNewton-Astrograph---Carbon-Tube.html

I don’t think you need the -L and -H parameters in your custom options string...your scale minimum parameter is setting the minimum image scale to 1.32 degrees and then the -L parameter says it’s 0.5 degrees- and likewise for the scale maximum / -H pair...I don’t know how the solver handles this...but I’d remove them from the custom options string. 

The issue with most unmodded DSLR’s is that the IR cut comes in a bit too early therefore blocks most of the H-alpha signal.

I think Uranium235 has hit the nail on the head...My understanding is that the CLS-ccd filters add back a bit of IR cut that you’ve lost by modding the camera without blocking the H-alpha.

Victor- Can you measure the diameter of your t ring aperture as shown in your first picture (the threaded part not the bayonet that connects to the camera. ) if it measures approx 48mm you need the first  item you linked, if it’s 42mm then you need the second version. You don’t need precise measure- a ruler across the opening should make it obvious.

There have been loads of suggestions here- some relevant, a few less so. You seem to have tried all the relevant ones and they’ve not worked for you, so I think you just need to get the ryzen 7 and the ram upgrade and let us all know that PI is now flying through your workflow.

I got an AZ-EQ5 on the back of the exact same thought process. Unfortunately, I find performance in AZ is frustrating. It works, but there’s quite a lot of slop in the AZ axis that can’t be tweaked out. It’s OK for low power, but it’s irritating trying to focus at high power when the object disappears out of the FoV with the slightest touch. If you search in these forums you’ll see it’s a fairly common - although variable - feature of the design. This is much less of a problem in EQ mode because it’s possible to unbalance a little in RA to neutralise the problem and minimise the sensitivity to touch induced wobble. So in practical terms I use it almost exclusively in EQ mode. It’s really easy to do a polar alignment that’s sufficient for visual use with the new sky watcher polar alignment scope and the polar clock from the SynScan app- it takes no more than 5mins. There are still some advantages over the HEQ5- ability to use USB natively to control the mount, belt drive etc, but the Alt-Az mode isn’t one of them in my view.

If iso200 is optimum for that camera and I got that histogram I’d be tempted to expose for longer to get more signal in each frame.

Obviously you need to make sure your guiding is good enough for the longer exposures and you don’t introduce too much thermal noise.

The ring nebula is very small, and may still just look like a star even with the 15mm eyepiece(60x magnification) if you look closely, you might see it as slightly fuzzy compared to stars of similar brightness. 

The dumbell nebula should be obviously non stellar, although it doesn’t look dumbbell shaped to my eyes in a small scope -  it looks rectangular.

My advice would be to double check you’re in the right field- it helps if you can print some charts customised for your specific location and eyepiece and look for some through the eyepiece sketches  on these forums- they’ll give you a much better idea of what they’ll look like

37 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I am confused as to the scale of those images, did you do massive crops? and why would you crop so heavily with such a lovely widefield lens...

Alan

They are cropped images... There were a couple of issues I couldn’t easily fix at the time:

1. I could never get the flats sorted, so I always had complex gradients that I couldn’t seem to process out if I didn’t crop.

2. The PC i was using to process the images was a bit under specced  for the job, so it was easier/quicker to process cropped images.

I soon moved on to a modded DSLR, so don’t have many example images with the unmodded cam that are relevant to the thread.

4 hours ago, Arran townsend said:

Did you use a telescope or a lens for these images?

I used a Samyang 135mm lens- typically 30-60 second exposures at F2 and ISO800

Many nebulae shine in H-alpha, so you might struggle with some of them. But for galaxies, open clusters and globular cluster- you’re not missing out too much by not modding the camera. I’ve attached a couple of pics from when I started out with an unmodded 1300D- from Bortle 5-6 skies. They’re not world beaters, but I was quite chuffed at the time.

 One final point before the pics- the Baader modification keeps normal white balance so you can still use the camera for daytime shots.

The CCD version  blocks IR- which may be needed if you have a modified DSLR(although not if you’ve got the Baader modifies option from CheapAstrophotography).

I’m not sure if that means you can’t use it with an unmodified camera- but you certInly wouldn’t need it. If you’ve got no plans o get a modded camera- stick with the CLS, if you think you may be getting a modded cam, then I’d probably hang on and get the CLS-CCD with the modded camera.

I use a bahtinov mask and take 5s exposures at isi 800 or 1600 depending on the brightness of the star I’m using for focus. It’s much easier to see the relative position of the diffraction spikes than trying to use live view, and can usually get it nailed down inside a minute if you start from somewhere close to infinity focus

The SW ED120 with matched reducer gives 765mm FL and pretty close to 1arcsec per pixel. 

Not the ultimate apo, but has refractor simplicity, and the weight shouldn’t tax the mount too much

Just for clarification.........M1 and Veil Nebula are SNR's , M27 and M57 are planetary nebulae.  So is this challenge for both or just the SNR's as per the title?

On 27/04/2018 at 03:01, DelBoy1967 said:

Hello Miguel1983

How did you do with updating your firmware?

If you were successful, could you please advise.

As I have just received my AZGti and also have the same v3.6.A5

I would like to update the to new AZ/EQ dual mode (experimental) firmware they have just released 20/04/2018

Unfortunately, I keep getting the "Failed to update firmware, power cycle the mount and retry" or words to that effect.

Thanks

Del

Del

Don't know if you got this sorted, I had the same issue. Upgraded to 3.10 first then to 3.11 and all went OK second time around.

Good luck

There’s a fairly straightforward way to determine if you may need a barlow for any given scope and camera combination.

The optimum focal ratio for planetary imaging is somewhere between 3.56-5.36 x pixel size in microns.

For the ZWO 120 and 224 cameras with 3.75micron pixels you should aim for a focal ratio of around 13-20.

For the 290 series with 2.9 micron pixels aim for F10-15

For the 178 series with 2.4 micron pixels aim for F8-13.

I wouldn’t stray much beyond the upper threshold because that just reduces the signal to noise ratio, although you can recover this by stacking more frames in post processing.

I think your mak is F12, so you probably need a 1.5-2x Barlow for the 120 cameras and probably don’t need one for the 290 and 178 series.

Could get this guiding bundle from FLO and then mount the lens&DSLR on the mounting rings using the included camera attachment

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-cameras/guide-scope-bundle-suitable-for-side-by-side-bars-or-guidescope-mounts.html

The general advice is to stay away from zoom binoculars. The model you refer to are likely to be heavey and therefore require a sturdy mounting. The high magnification settings will be almost useless unless the binocular is very steady.

I would also stay away from the permafocus model. Fixed focus optics might sound appealing, but are going to be limiting if you intend to use these for anything other than astronomy.

My advice would be to spend your money on something with a 40 - 50 mm objective lens and 7-10 times magnification.

You can get some pretty nice binoculars the £125 of the permafocus, but you can also get a decent set for much less.

Binoculars with magnifications greater than about 10x or with objective lenses bigger than about 50mm may need a mount of some sort to show their best.

FInally, if you're after customised star charts for your specific location consider getting some software for your PC- Cartes du Ciel and Stellarium are both available for download, and allow you to show the night sky as it will appear from your exact location. If you want a good binocular book, I quite like Binocular Highlights (Sky Publishing) it's got some useful advice and some decent and descriptions of what you might see (but it's not specific to your location).

Others on this forum might advise some different books.

I also have an AZ4 with a WO Zenithstar 80, and can echo pretty much everything that Natalie has said:

• it's substantial without being unwieldy
  
• very smooth motions (at up to 180x)
  
• easy access to the zenith
  

There are a couple of negatives:

• the pan handle is next to useless- there are two positions, but neither are convenient, and one will prevent you reaching the zenith
  
• the dovetail is held with a single screw- it's never come undone, but a safety would be nice
  

As far as access to the zenith goes, it will depend a little on the length and position of the balance point with your scope, but I'd guess that any scope with a tube diameter of less than about 140mm would be able to reach the zenith.

All in, I think this is a top performer and would heartily recommend it. I've not seen a weight limit for it, but from the S&T October review, looks like it will handle the SW 120ED quite nicely.

Just completed my first transactions with these three suppliers. First class handling on all counts. All items delivered within two or three business days.

Only one small point to note- that I didn't get any shipping notification emails from ACE cameras, but it's almost irrelevant given the speed of delivery.

All in all one very happy customer- I will be using these again.

Just completed my first transactions with these three suppliers. First class handling on all counts. All items delivered within two or three business days.

Only one small point to note- that I didn't get any shipping notification emails from ACE cameras, but it's almost irrelevant given the speed of delivery.

All in all one very happy customer- I will be using these again.

Just completed my first transactions with these three suppliers. First class handling on all counts. All items delivered within two or three business days.

Only one small point to note- that I didn't get any shipping notification emails from ACE cameras, but it's almost irrelevant given the speed of delivery.

All in all one very happy customer- I will be using these again.