Tomatobro

Taken with the following equipment.

Skywatcher ED72 with 0.8 reducer

Skywatcher Star Adventurer GTI

ZWO ASI585MC

ZWO ASIair Plus

180 x 30 second images dithered every 10 frames

I found my 585 produced sharper images if I had an IR filter in the optical train.  taken with an ED72. 180 x 30 second exps

I always go for the Startech industrial hubs. These are powered by a separate power supply. Sometimes can be got for a reasonable price on Ebay.

There is a used 4 port 3.0 for £34 available.

I have looked at the data sets available since joining PA but this is the first write up I have seen on what you get for the money. Nice image.

Looking at the exposure time and recording time if yours is GMT then this could be a match as ours is tagged with UTC

https://archive.ukmeteors.co.uk/reports/2024/orbits/202404/20240409/20240409_225146.475_UK/index.html

I had a pitch booked but could not justify the risk so decided to stay at home. I guess others have done the same.

Cloudy Nights has a post on this so worth a look

 search on ASIAIR Plus Speed Test, Planetary Imaging

38 minutes ago, TiffsAndAstro said:

Bit apprehensive about it tbh 

I can understand this as it can be all a bit confusing.

I always do my setup tests in daylight. I aim the scope at the top of a distant tree, set the camera to a very short exposure and see what I get.  If the scope is a total unknown back focus wise I improvise something without all the reducers etc just to get an idea of what the measurement is. The cardboard tube from the inside of toilet rolls can be useful for this. It excludes the light and you can slide it in and out watching the monitor till a rough focus position is found then mark it with a pen. Now I can start putting together spacers etc.

Flo confirmed my scope was the first of the long tube versions sold by them.

Here is a photo of my setup. With the rotator, then the reducer, adapter, ZWO mini filter wheel and then the camera the EAF winds the focuser out to 9800 which is about 12 mm of focus tube showning.

Hope this helps

On 01/04/2024 at 14:41, tomato said:

I wonder what will be a hot topic then

Image processing software that looks at your subs, decides they are not up to standard, takes control of your scope, retakes them and wakes you up next morning with a cup of tea and the best picture you have ever seen. Shows you your picture and compares it with the one it took with comments as to where you went wrong.

A bit like how the  Asiair passes comments on my polar alignment performance the other night.

5000..... Wow

1 hour ago, John_D said:

Well designed ( usually more expensive ) switched mode supplies can handle transients very well. Similarly, badly designed ( usually cheaper ) linear supplies, with insufficient smoothing capacitors for example, can have poor transient performance

True of everything. But I stand by my basic advice i.e.  a good linear PS would be my first choice.

Switched power supplies are small and efficient but poor when dealing with transient loads. Linear power supplies are big and heavy and not very efficient but are good at dealing with transients.

Linear power supplies are being phased out (EU directive).

Never in the field of astro photography has one item been loved by so many and disliked by so few.  

My allsky has 25 watts of heat going into it and when its switched on in the evening the dome will show a degree of misting some nights. After about an hour its clear.

I read somewhere that someone tried reducing the volume of air  inside the canister by packing it with high density foam. The idea I think was that as its the air that is holding the moisture then reducing the volume inside with the foam it reduced the amount of water available.

I have packed the housing that holds my Unihedron SQM meter and it seems to have worked but have not tried it with my allsky.

Robin's demo of the latest version of Sharpcap shows just how far it has come from version 3.1. Met up with some from the Wolverhampton Astro Club.

And I saw a SeeStar in the flesh for the first time. I also saw some walking around with one under their arms with a "how am I going to justify this" look on their faces.

I just updated my air plus and all seems ok. The only thing I spotted is that "gain" is misspelt on the guiding page.

looking at the frame edges the stack has been dithered? What calibration frames were used for the stack?

A gust of wind is the usual culprit or a cable snag

Since my last post I went through my phone pictures as I have a habit of taking pictures of each stage but although I have some with it installed non are of the actual process.

Looking at the pictures it does look as in you have some leeway on the longitudinal positioning post hole drilling but not much side to side. The side to side is not so critical as the mirror can be rotated to suit. On that basis the actual hole positioning is not a s critical as it would seem. Just make sure you mark and drill in the plate slot centres so you can raise and lower the focuser as required.

A long time ago I fitted a steel track to a SW MN190 and like others have commented nothing lined up hole wise. From what I can remember I placed strips of masking tape around the hole and lined up the focuser using a collimation cap in the focus tube to the secondary. While holding it still I then marked out the position of the base plate onto the masking tape.

The tape had the benefit of not letting the drill slip when starting the holes.

A local club member suffered a stroke recently and to be able to take over my portable imaging rig to his house to offer some mental stimulation I had a problem of the WiFi range with my Asiair plus.

Setting up the scope in the back garden the WiFi signal was not strong enough to reach the lounge and I did not like to use his home WiFi in station mode so I came up with this battery powered WiFi extender

Once the scope is setup and polar aligned I can put this extender on the kitchen window sill and we can sit in the lounge controlling the scope with a Doogee tablet.

The usb powered WiFi module is from Vonets used in extender/repeater mode and has a surprisingly strong signal for such a small unit.

I don't own a SeeStar but if I did I would keep its operation within its original design limitations. Did ZWO foresee what folks outside of the target market for this scope would be doing modification wise? I think not.  Therefore  the product was value engineered accordingly.

In the end the choice to extend its capabilities is down to the user. Any unit returned under warranty that has gear or support bearing failures will be questioned.

I have no doubt that the engineers in ZWO are taking note of what owners are doing with the SeeStar and we will see the results in the Mk2 version.

Gene Kranz

I don't  care about what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about what it CAN do

 "Gene, from my chair the Odyssey is dying".

1 minute ago, Raum said:

Do you mean the e-mount or a-mount

No idea. I purchase the Sony versions second hand because they are a lot cheaper than the Canon ones.

The mounting that Tomato has is different to the others probably due to the back focus of the Rising Cam camera but I don't know for sure. I have attached pictures of my dual setup for comparison