Vroobel

If I properly understand, is the Bino Bandit a double eyecup with heaters? Could you please share some details about that with me (us)?

Hi, First night with ZWO EAF. I love it! 🤩 Guiding isn't best, but I don't care, finally several hours without the rain till 5am (including flats and darks).

Slightly. 😆

The bottom one is the Altair Starwave 102/1122 ED (FPL-51) - the excellent planet killer. They do it, together with the TS and I think also other brands. Recently even the TecnoSky released very similar tube, if I'm not wrog it has 1100mm fl. The top one is the great Vixen A80M Japan (not the A80Mf). That's why I want to finally compare them. 🙂

Something like that? There is the original Vixen/SW style bar underneath. I'm ready for a direct comparison, but still something else is to do. 😐 BTW, the focuser 10:1 reductor also works not so smooth like the one attached to the triplet, but it's better than nothing.

Presently they have two different purposes. The triplet is of course for astrophotography, while the planet killer is to allow me to spend time nice, when the first one work hard. I wrote that the triplet is better, but I mean it's better made. It's quality is not only because of better glass, 7-8 years difference in the production brought huge savings in materials. Look please at the rings used. Even the modern knobs are empty inside. Recently I found that my stepper motor attached to the focuser in professional way lifts the planet in the field or drops it slightly while refocusing. The triplet keeps the planet in one place. Without the motor I was unable to observe it. I love the F/11 scope. It has perfect correction confirmed by star test and the Ronchi test, it allows to watch planets in magnification 250x and the Moon in 320x (with proper Ortho EPs) with no aberration at all. It's cheap and I highly recommend it to planet watchers. But they have to forgive the savings...

Hi, The Heart was missing from the HOO set.

Hi, Not tonight, that was on 21st Dec. A comparison of two Altairs, respectively in order of use: the 102/715 EDT and the 102/1122 ED. The first one is better, no doubt...

Hi, This is my first attempt of turning the picture taken with the OSC (modded Canon 6D) into the HOO. Slowly, but surely the oxygen comes to the top...

😊 Thank you.

Hi, I'm sorry that I stopped reporting about the progress somewhere in middle, but the life plots its own scenario. I was focused more on the mount than on writing about it. Actually, I can say that the most important work is done. Of course, we can always find something to improve, but the mount works and it works satisfactorily. Everyone happy to pass quickly through the history of its building within 18 mins is welcome to my channel.

It just ends, we have a rain now. I hope the rain won't turn into ice again...

Hi, The Soul is added to the set, to the Heart. Altair 102/715 EDT, Optolong L-eXtreme, Planostar x1.0 FF, EOS 6D mod. 96 (80%) z 121 x 240s (6h 24m) + 3x25 calibration frames. Here is its a little bit darker version, not so burnt. Another change, the background is dimmer now to better match the Heart Nebula taken two days earlier, which is very close.

☺️ Thank you.

Hi, One week later I aimed my mount at the same DSO, but significant change happened in the meantime. Instead of the 17kg 10" 1270mm Newtonian OTA a medium size refractor hung on top of the fork. It is an Altair Wave 102/715 EDT triplet APO that weighs 1/3 of the Newtonian OTA weight, so I expected much better stars on the final picture, even if the guiding didn't change too much. Its focal length is about twice shorter, so I can reach DSOs usually unreachable for the 1270mm reflector. I decided to perform a series of 10 min exposures to increase a number of fotons. The composition is similar to the previous one just for comparison. Altair 102/715 EDT, Optolong L-eXtreme, Planostar x1.0 FF, EOS 6D mod. 21 x 600s, ISO1600 + 3x25 calibration frames.

Thanks. What do you mean?

Hi, Thanks to @tomato I am a new owner of the Altair 102/715 EDT triplet APO equipped with a dedicated 3" x1.0 field flattener and simple moto-focuser. Printing some important accessories and adapting my ATM EQ fork mount to such a small OTA took me several days. The shelf made with a piece of plywood is a temporary solution to check all calculated forces and outcoming balance. I'm going to replace it with an aluminium plate that is heavier and will also work as a counterbalance. The shelf will be ready for something like RC8. Everything works superb and my mount discovered its new face. The big, 17kg 10" Bresser-Messier Newtonian generates big inertia, so I never could set a guiding in Dec in the Auto mode. Now I see it's possible. Also, possible became performing 600s long subs (or longer, depending on the guiding). 😲 Now I learn a new way with the Heart Nebula. The unexpected benefit of replacing the OTAs is that I can take the shelf with the OTA and the camera attached home to do flat frames.

My first impression was that it's a big hole in the ground with a concrete ring inside protruding half a meter over. It would be a great idea if not for the worse view (houses and trees).

But what about the new moon? You seem to have not too much choice of direction.

One double, two single...

Wooow! 😲

So I'm not in the worst place, when I have to use dew heaters to warm up EPs in my bino that causes laugh on the East Side...

Hi, This time I follwed the PHD2 developers guidance: if the mount has a significant backlash in the Dec axis, then the PA should show error, but no bigger than 10'. It was 9.5'. 2022.12.07: The Fish Head Nebula, but I would rather say a Veiltail... Newton 9" F/5.5, Optolong L-eXtreme, MPCC III, EOS 6D mod. 35 of 42 x 300s, ISO1600, 3x25 calibrating frames. The stars are finally sharp and quite round. And this is the best PHD2 graph I ever obtained. To be honest, it wasn't like that all the time on that night, but it doesn't change my satisfaction. 🙂

I mean not only the sky, it was about the space around...

I'd like to be there now... 🤩