david_taurus83

First complete image with the Esprit 100 and Atik 460 combo. I took a lot of L subs but even 300s subs maybe too much for my crusty old CCD! Pixinsight tries to stretch them too much and the L just washes the galaxies out. Interestingly I did start to pick up on some IFN from my bortle 6 garden but it's still too faint so just looks like colour blotch or a gradient. Processing is a bit tame so may have a go at this again and just concentrate on the galaxies and stars instead of trying to push the background. Have plenty of data so should be able to get something better out of it. Any comments, criticism and advice welcome! 

5 hours each RGB 300s subs

11 hours L 300s subs

7 hours Ha 600s subs

Tame version, stretched Lum and a colour version with full Lum added to it.

Why would it be scrap? Surely they are mass produced to the same tolerances so a new corrector should work the same as the old?

What equipment did you use? Even with dithering it won't eliminate all noise. I notice it more in the blue channel if I use my DSLR. 2 hours isn't a lot of integration either for narrowband data.

To check, put the cap on and connect camera to PC and run a series of looped exposures. Note the average ADU value in the histogram/statistics. Then shine a very bright torch on the camera where you think it may be leaking in light and check the ADU value. If it goes up, you have a leak. If it stays as it is, no leak.

If the cap is metal then it shouldn't leak. Or if its a plastic or rubber cap, put tin foil around it. No need to put the camera in a bag.

48 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

That seems too cheap. Even the 115mm is cheaper than the 80mm WO ota. I'll have to check out some reviews on that one. Could be a winner. 

That price doesn't include VAT.

When WD40 and leverage fails I find an angle grinder works wonders 😊

18 minutes ago, Mike Q said:

The last thing I would try is to get what we call creeping oil.  It's very thin oil and put just the littlest amount on the head.  It will find it's way onto threads.  

Is that not WD40 in the US?

We've all got Allen keys knocking about our houses but most are probably metric. Good idea to get a set of imperial as well when dealing with Chinese made scopes.

Great camera for astro! Here's a few of mine from various scopes. 

North America Nebula taken with a Redcat (3 hours, Optolong L-Pro filter)

Orion with a 70mm quad refractor (5 hours, IDAS D2 LPS filter)

Wide field Heart and Soul with Samyang 135 (5 hours, Optolong L-Pro filter)

Heart and Soul with 71mm refractor (4 or 5 hours, IDAS NB2 duoband filter)

My 6D has only had the first IR filter removed. Still have the anti aliasing filter so some level of IR-UV protection is present. Even so, its great for nebulae. 

19 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

Yeah, been looking at that. My credit card is starting to cry in the corner of the room. Been watching reviews on YouTube all afternoon

I had the GT71 as a first refractor. Lovely scopes. The WO reducer will be best suited to it. If on CC then just order the lot and cry about it later! 

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

That's a lovely bit of kit  but can't justify the extra cost. 

The only thing else comparible price wise would be a WO GT81. In stock at FLO as well.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/384433-new-stellamira-90mm-ed-triplet-refractor/

I hope you didn't buy it off somebody on here...

The least the seller should be doing is taking it back and returning it for a warranty repair on your behalf.

If he/she/non are unwilling to help at all then you don't have much to lose by trying to fix it yourself. At the moment the scope is worthless. I doubt it left the factory like that ( at least I would like to believe that) so likely the shipping process has thrown it out. It may be that something has come loose. Worth investigating yourself. 

This was my first image with my Redcat and full frame Canon 6D. They can perform well so don't give up on it yet.

26 minutes ago, Elp said:

You could double up the dovetail bars one on top of another to give you the clearance you need for the focuser?

You can also get block spacers that raise the rings further away from the dovetail.

Can you not rotate the focuser so it's on top?

Picked this up today from a nice chap. Needs an upgraded focuser for imaging obviously and a bit of tlc but mirror nice and clean. Something to fettle with now and again. Will have a go at some 1m imaging in the darker months. I can no honestly say, hand on heart, my scope collection is complete and I'll not need to buy another one 😄

Your almost there with a full setup so I would put hand in pocket and fork out for a guide camera and small guide scope. It will make things so much easier from the get go. With a guide setup you can use Sharpcap for polar alignment which will be far more accurate than eyeballing through the mounts polar scope. Apart from Sharpcap which is £10 for a years licence, all software is free that you need to guide and image. With a DSLR I would recommend APT for starting out. 

Edit: Here's is what I would recommend. 

22 minutes ago, Adam J said:

This is an obvious one for one replacement for the Atik 460EX, you would likely see more advantages in terms of much shorter narrow band exposures and slightly higher QE. It shares properties of the 460EX such as no darks being required due to low numbers of hot pixels and no amp glow, its a very clean sensor. 

But having said all this the delta in terms of real word image quality, while noticeable is not going to be mind blowing. 

Adam

Yes I'm inclined to think the same. I currently do 5 min LRGB and 10 min narrow subs on the Esprit and so far looks OK. I wouldn't mind 5 min narrowbands though and the lower read noise and better cooling. Hmm..🤔

Can't seem to find any info on that filter but the Astronomiks cut UV but not IR. Thr UHC-E tails off at the IR end but not much. 

Wondering if this would be much of an upgrade from my Atik 460? 🤔

Not my imaging PC but my everyday laptop, it came with W10 and I upgraded to W11 when it was released. Works fine and I have none of the problems I had years ago after upgrading from 7 to 10. The only quirk W11 produces on mine is it won't open the File Explorer if I left click on the icon in the task bar after I start the laptop. Windows momentarily stalls and refreshes after about 5 seconds. I need to right click and select file explorer from the drop down menu and then it open. After I do this once the single left click works fine until I restart the laptop and have to repeat. A small irritation I can live with.

1 no. custom Birds Custard almost 2kg counterweight. I cast a nut into the bottom so it can screw up or down for fine tuning.

As I suspected the bar is just a tad short so will pick up a length from B&Q and cut down to around 400mm or so. Apart from that I just need to set it up to work with Stellarmate and we're away 

I wouldn't use batteries on this mount as they'd die down pretty soon. Small 12v supply will be better.

What is the fault and how do you know it cannot be fixed? I'm sure ZWO have used a UK dealer to try and fix the oil leak on the 2600's so they may also be able to perform other repairs.

I've been busy concentrating on my main pier mounted setup that my little GTi has been a bit neglected. @geeklee I stripped it all down last weekend and loosened up the retaining ring that made it too stiff. Swings free as a bird now 👍 Also meshed the gears up and regreased while I was at it.

I pulled the finger out today and finally made a homebrew counterweight. A few rough calculations, scope at 3kg and approx 150mm from fulcrum needs around 1.8kg counterweight at around 250mm from fulcrum. So a concrete cylinder of around 100mm diameter at 100mm deep is about bang on the money. I may need a slightly longer bar but will see what it's like tomorrow.