R26 oldtimer

Just for fun really. I was trying to demonstrate to a friend that his 102/500 isn't completely worthless for imaging.

299x60sec, unguided, / 30 darks / 30 flats. SW 102/500 on Heq5, Canon 500d modified, baader 7nm Ha, from Athens Greece, bortle 8-9

I've used to mount my 5" F/9.4 bresser on a TAL2M and it was rock steady, even at high powers. Good tracking too, with 180 teeth worm gear and synchronous motor. It should carry up to 20kgr without any problem. It is nice, vintage, simple and cheap when they do come up from time to time. The bresser is sold now but I still have the TAL mount...

P.S. This is getting a bit cliche but it really is built like a tank 💪

Perhaps no focus confirmation?

A bit late to this thread, but what mount are you using?

I have an azeq5 & an azgti, and they both have a snap port that controls camera exposure just like an intervalometer . I am sure that the star adventurer also has one.

If you decide to go with the AZ Nano, check this :

https://www.bresser.de/en/Sale/Display-Items/BRESSER-NANO-AZ-Telescope-Mount-with-Tripod.html

40 minutes ago, FLO said:

If one of us were to catch the bug (there are ten of us at FLO) plans are in place to ensure we continue dispatching orders to customers.

Sent that person for a 3-week payed isolation (holiday?) as far away as possible (Atacama?).😊

1 hour ago, carastro said:

Is that a portable mount? Have you got a link to it, or it's proper name?

Hi Carole, it's the sw azgti on a photo tripod with a fluid video head serving as eq wedge. As long there is no wind or you don't touch it, it is actually pretty stable, but the keyword here is ultra portable!

If it is an Eq1 or eq2, then it has a small tangent arm to fine tune DEC instead of a worm wheel , which has a limited travel of a few degrees.

I would save the  £90 from the zwo guidescope + the spare £100 and would go for a 130pds. You can make a diy adapter to use the 6x30 finder that comes with the pds as guidescope, or get a second hand 8x50 finderscope/guidescope  later, for under £50

Thanks to @Stu
this great little mount arrived yesterday!

It took some time to get to my hands (2 months) since it was first posted in mid-December. It began its journey from the U. K., came all the way to Athens, Greece and stayed in the local courier post ( a couple of hundred meters away from my home) for a 3 week "vacation" because the "fellas" at the local courier post, never bothered to deliver it, before sending it back to Stu.( At this point, Stu, I am rather surprised that you didn't contributed to this thread, upon its arrival 🤣)

Even though we've asked for at least a free re-send or refund that never happened. To his credit, Stu paid in full for a second dispatch, even though I offered to chip in, or arrange for a week's stay, should he had decided to deliver it in person😁( don't worry..., next time). And now, it's finally here!

Let me say at this point, as I've read some recent threads on not wanting to sell abroad, this: Couriers sometimes do a lousy job whether a parcel is delivered within one country or multiple countries. Of course during those two months there were a couple of hairy moments, but neither of us got afraid that the other part wouldn't honour his part of the agreement, even beyond what was originally agreed, to satisfy the other. I think that's because we all share a bond as fellow amateur astronomers, that's even greater than just living in the same country or speaking the same language.

Now, without any further delay, here is what the postman brought!

And this, was the last piece of the puzzle, of my ultra portable setup!

Hi Alan. Is this a single sub or the stacked image? I have seen some checkers artifacts with dss from time to time, which are not present in the individual subs.

It's a very fine visual scope. I sold mine to fund a sw 120ed, but that was just a luxury I could afford.

Works wonderfully with almost every eyepiece, great focuser, very nice finder (kept mine) and very well built. It also handled high magnification really good, most of the times seeing was the limiting factor.

And the looks!! A proper frac, not one of those tiny camera lenses 😁. I miss mine so much, that I haven't changed my avatar.

Fantastic project!

On 28/01/2020 at 16:18, Chriske said:

I might add a cordless drill or a hammer to put in their hands(or a hacksaw...😁)

Or perhaps an eyepiece and frustrated look on their face? 😂

Yes, I guess the poles will have to be 50-60 cm longer, but I don't think this would be any problem?

Hi Michele.

You've mentioned that you intend to make this an imaging scope rather than visual. If that's the case, then wouldn't be easier to skip the secondary mirror and place the camera directly to the upper cage assembly?

This would give you far less weight, up there, so the cage could be designed to be substantially lighter, and a round body camera will give you a smaller secondary obstruction. My guess is that it would also be easier to colimate and the only downside would be that probably you could not use a filter wheel.

Go ahead, do it!

I was also a bit scared of this a few months ago. So I first tried to modify my old nikon d50. It was successful and even though it was a pain to focus without live view, it blew my fears away, so shortly after that, I bought a Canon 500d of mpb which was easy to modify.

Now I have bought an IR pass filter from ebay, and still use the old Nikon for daytime infrared photography, breathing a new life in that old Dslr.

I think it's time for the zarkov cloud and satellite mark II, upgrade. 🙂

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/zarkov-cloud-gun.html

Black & white?

Hi Vlaiv, sorry for the late response.

On 02/02/2020 at 23:20, vlaiv said:

And what should be criteria on FOV and resolution?

I've seen very good results with resolution as low as 3-4 "/px , and certainly a  FoV of 0.5° is pretty much decent.

So, one can use small sensitive sensors ( like zwo asi224, zwo asi290, lodestarX2c) with small focal lengths (telephotos/ 60,70,80mm refractors (preferably ed) with or without 0.5 reducer/ small newts 114p/500 or 130p/650 or heritage) on a small mount (like the azgti or eq3goto).

Or go to a camera with a bigger sensor (like zwo asi294 or atik infinity) with a bigger focal length (<4" triplet refractors/ sct's with 0.6 focal reducers / 6"f5, 8"f4 or even faster newtonians like the sharpstar F2.8 or the Tak ε-180) on a bigger mount.

On 02/02/2020 at 15:05, vlaiv said:

4. Needs to achieve SNR of at least 5 in following conditions:

- one minute total exposure in 4s subs

Although my lodestar shows almost everything in a minute, it is a bit noisy and have to give it 2-3mins for faint targets. Also the cmos cameras, even the very sensitive 224, needs more time to build up a decent image, so I think the total exposure limit, would be better at 2-3mins. Still very fast and still eeva in my book but as they say, YMMV.

As for the subexposure length, again I find it varies greatly depending on the target and usage of UHC or NB filter, so no need to restrict that as long as you've set a total integration time.

I've seen them too, they look fine but in the end I've ordered a 70/300 "toystore" scope from Ali for 27€ to try as a guidescope.

Are you sure that this is a good scope?

Just saying, because I don't see many of these often...🤣

HI Vlaiv, I don't think it can be done cheaper or that there are many reasonable setups that can even achieve "SNR5", but I think that some of your criteria are very strict.

Take for example the FOV. Although it would be nice to have 1°, this excludes smaller sensors, while most dso's are not bigger than 0.5°.

Then there is the sampling rate. While 1.5"/px, is where the seeing  limits you for decent AP under moderate skies, I feel that eeva is all about speed, so a bit of undersampling (up to 4"/px works fine with me) could be allowed.

As for the scope, F/5 would be OK, and we should really aim for workable (minimum aberrations) subF/4.

I don't like bumps. Someone said that they are kind of selfish, unless offering better price, and I completely agree. I like that SGL doesn't have that kind of spam. I also like that there is a time period where an old ad expires automatically and if not sold, you can repost it.

Do both motors work at the same time or one after the other? Looks like power supply problem. Have you checked with another power supply?

Fantastic framing!