Sunshine

Welcome to SGL!

I wonder if the engines are the legendary RD-180

Hmm, if this is the way Starship is supposed to touch down on Mars, it just seems like an awful complex maneuver to undertake, too much that can go wrong.

I want a refund for my Mars ticket, please.

Engine failure??

We amateur astronomers never catch a break. At least your belly was full of warm dinner, better luck next time!.

21 hours ago, vineyard said:

Been waiting for this for 10 days..

Feels like Christmas!😊👍

That is one beautiful and pristine classic scope you have there my friend! enjoy it, looks like a museum piece.

Well, having had a CPC i can say that you won't find it comfortable to use unpowered, you can loosen the clutches and move it manually but, it will move easily as there are no friction bearings or the sort to prevent the slightest force from moving the scope. What i have done on occasion was use the scope powered but instead of using the goto feature i would manually move the scope to target, engage clutches then use the arrows on controller

to move the scope in azimuth mode. Otherwise this scope is built through and through to be used under power.

Sweet mount! i have one too and love it like a newborn, i don't have a goto system for it but, i know that Skywatcher makes a system that will fit the GP mount. Below i will include the website for the skywatcher system, the Company Seven website which supplies drives for this and other Vixen mount and, a thread from CN where this same question was posed. It seems the Skywatcher synscan would be the solution which ticks off all your boxes but, have a look at the CN thread to see if someone brought up any issues with adapting the Synscan to the GP mount. On the FLO website (link below) it says that it fits Vixen GP mounts.

Good Luck! great find, the Vixen GP is smooth as silk and built like a tank.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-mount-upgrade-kits/synscan-pro-goto-version-3-upgrade-kit-for-eq5.html

http://www.company7.com/vixen/mounts/drives.html

https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/608722-synscan-upgrade-to-vixen-gp-thoughts/

Yes, please give me manual and powerless telescopes/mounts which i can have up and in action in the time it takes me to walk out and set it down. My vixen GP is only guided when i need one axis and that involved plugging on the 4cell battery pack and controller, easy as pie, otherwise i love turning knobs to move the scope.

Hello my friend, first off welcome to SGL and, we would never be impatient as we all were beginners once. Below i have included a link to Celestron's website where support software is listed, on the list is the software you are looking for which is for Mac OS. Let us know if it doesn't work, let us know if it does as we'd love to see your first image!.

https://www.celestron.com/products/neximage-10-solar-system-color-imager

Pretty neat what can be done with mobile phones these days!

Oh my word those are simply beautiful images, the double cluster left my mouth open, a bit taken by its majesty. No doubt in the near future you will be taking some more stunning images, congrats on the new scope.

I'd like it to be my new desktop background if that's alright?

Congrats! wonderful isn’t it! on a darker note the astronomy bug has set in and, you better develope negotiating skills akin to a hostage negotiator cause you’ll need them in the coming years.

18 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Lovely, I soooo want a Lunt 100 DS. In my dreams, lol. 

You and me both, a dream to own, a nightmare inducing credit card bill.

41 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

This might help you overcome "fear of the quark"

Want to have both full disk views, medium magnification and high power Ha viewing, all in one package?

Get quark combo. Quark combo is a bit different than regular quark in that it is:

1. a bit more expensive

2. does not have integrated barlow element

(less things for more money - perfect , isn't it )

What is the catch? Combo quark has a bit wider blocking filter and allows full disk views up to 1800mm of focal length. However, you yourself need to provide means for it to operate on F/15 or higher.

You have 805mm of FL natively, and let's say you want to do nice full disk views.

Get x2 telecentric amplifier like this one:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlows/explore-scientific-2x-3x-5x-barlow-focal-extender-125.html

With x2 telecentric, you'll be operating at 1610mm of FL - still within 1800mm, and you need to work at about F/15-F/20 - higher F should give you slight boost in contrast. How to make your scope be at F/20? Make 80mm aperture mask for example.

Now you have 80mm F/20 full disk capable solar scope for the price of 50mm unit.

Want to have higher power still? Add x3 telecentric and use it at full aperture. That will also be F/20 but you won't be able to do full disk any more.

In any case, you get the point, combo quark let's you dial in your own F/ratio and focal length, and can be used with small / cheap grab&go refractor in the same way - even simple achromatic doublet - something like 80mm F/8-F/10 will give you range of options for different magnifications and full disk included.

 

You are an astronomic encyclopedia, Sir.

I thought the combo Quark was only for high focal ratio scopes, many thanks! My fear does not lay in the quarks versatility but, it’s questionable reliability. All these options are great if it works like one would expect.

4 minutes ago, Paul73 said:

Not sure that I would risk my hard earned cash though.... 

2 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Just about to return another defunct Quark to Daystar, supplied new March 2019.

Oh no, looks like a Lunt it will be, this scares me.

8 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Thanks everyone, as peps are saying, the sun will now only get better to observe.

Breathtaking! your solar disc shot crosses the line into art, absolutely stunning!

Acquired my firs frac last year, been having a great time splitting stars but, wife threatened to split my skull if I buy another scope.

10 minutes ago, wimvb said:

Secret Astronomers Society

Good one!

15 minutes ago, Barry-W-Fenner said:

The 300p towards the end of last week, viewig the Moon and Mars. Not many clear opportunities sinse then. It was quite cold, wet and foggy. A good opportunity to try out my winter kit! 😁

I didn't know the SAS were into astronomy!

1 hour ago, Kitsunegari said:

I hope some others on here can help you decide.

I could sooner decide on either keeping my left or right arm lol. You have brought up a great point regarding the high magnification of Quarks and my local seeing trend. 

Aside from that i notice your user name reminds me of an X-file episode title.

Big as life beautiful moonshot!

10 minutes ago, andrew s said:

...but it is evident in deep space objects. Field stars can show halos due to CA.

Regards Andrew 

Uhhhm, disregard my dense question, I seem to have forgotten that DSO images include multitudes of stars.

On 23/11/2020 at 12:13, MalVeauX said:

Hey all,

Woke up to a non-cloudy day, rare for me lately with the storms. Anyhow, took a chance on the seeing and it was poor to average so worked with the 120mm aperture. AR2783 persists and is still an interesting region, but AR2785 and it's neighboring new big spot has taken the show! There's a nice hedge prominence near by and big filament under it, along with small surge prominences shooting up from the region. But most interesting is the faint looping prominence over the region!

B&W:

Colored:

Equipment:

120mm F10 Refractor
80mm F7.5 Refractor
Baader Red CCD-IR Block Filter (Primary internal 50mm DERF)
PST Etalon (HA)
Lunt B1200 CaK (CaK)
10mm HA BF (HA & WL)
ASI183MM Camera
ASI290MM Camera

Very best,

Your solar images are an inspiration my friend, I wish to reach your level of technical prowess imaging the sun, I have decided after much going back and forth that I would love to give a daystar quark a shot. If I may please pick your brain regarding my intended setup it would be great. I have a 115mm triplet (I’m aware triplet has no benefit for solar)  , I assume I’ll need an IR cut filter on my diagonal, is this correct? do you feel that my my 115-805mm FL won’t provide full disc views, for this I would need a very short FL scope which can be acquired for cheap in the future if I want. Regarding the two models, chromo and prom, I can’t afford both but do you feel the chromo offers decent prom detail for imaging/visual? I understand I can’t have best of both. Are there any other accessories you can suggest which will enhance my experience considering my intended scope/quark setup? a mono camera will follow closely but, I’ll ask questions about that when the time comes. 
 

thank you! I’m stoked about this.