teoria_del_big_bang

46 minutes ago, Roog said:

Hi @iantaylor2uk thank you for your help, the Williams optics is one on my list of APO’s to consider. Can I ask, what is a flattener, why do I need one and why does it affect the focal length?

A good explanation HERE

Steve

I am maybe not as experienced as many that have already given advice as it was only about 3 1/2 years ago I was asking the same sort of questions on SGL, and very glad I did.
But, this is probably one of the most asked questions, certainly from newcomers to the hobby, and also maybe one of the harder questions to give a definitive reply.
Why, well for various reasons, different scope / cameras will give very different FOV's and so lend themselves to different targets and as a newbie its very difficult to say what targets you really want to aim for, many times before you are into AP you are not sure. So maybe the only decision at that stage you can make (and I think you need to) is Planets or DSO's, as those requirements are quite different and I suspect you are aiming for DSO's.
My route was very similar to your own, and I suspect many others, starting with a Dobsonian and then getting enthralled by the hobby and wanting to take some images.
So from my short time in AP the bits of advice I could give is yes there is the route of saving and buying the best you can afford with a view to having a scope and mount for life, but in essence if you find out AP is for you and you get through all the pitfalls and difficulties you WILL encounter (good images do not come easily) and do not fall by the wayside and sell up (many do) then you more than likely will go on and the equipment you start with will not be what you are using 3 or 4 years down the line.
Also, you will find that AP does need more than a good scope and sturdy mount, so there will be more stuff to spend your hard earned cash on when you get into the hobby:

• Guiding scope and CCD - may not be actually essential to start with, if mount has good tracking and is polar aligned accurately, but you will probably want this eventually.
• Processing software, to calibrate, stack and to bring the details of your images to life. There are many free programs to do this but probably the better ones do come with some outlay.
• Filters- may be in the form of LRGB (if you go the Mono route), Narrowband,  Light pollution filters
• Flat field panels for taking flats - again not necessary to start with but you will probably and up buying one.
• Auto focusers - again not needed to begin with but you will find this invaluable later in the hobby.
• Imaging software to set up sequences and just make the whole process of imaging much easier - so many of these are free and great programs.
• Flattener - yes you can take images without but really in order to get the best out of your scope you will more than likely want one and it is better to start off with a scope and flattener that is designed for use with that scope.

So which route do you take ?
I probably am not helping and can only tell you my experience.
With lots of advice from SGL I ended up starting out with a New WO73, flattener, 2nd hand HEq5 (which I then added the belt mod), 2nd hand DSLR from Ebay, New WO guidescope and 2nd hand guide camera. Cost probably about £1400 3 1/2 years ago. Now although the gear I use has all changed this was a great start and was perfectly fine to take very reasonable images (Only thing preventing this was my own inability and nothing to do with equipment).
And that's really the point I am trying to make with this long ramble. One of the main requirements for good images is your own ability, not necessarily the equipment, and that is not something you can order and get it straight out of the box.

So yes get equipment that is capable of taking good images (many do achieve good images with small mounts and maybe scopes really too heavy for the mounts but it does get that much harder so best not to go that route unless money prevents you doing otherwise) but I would say do not spend more than you need to to start with. Getting the best gear in the world will more than likely not yield great images for many months, even years until you develop your skills (both in obtaining the data and with the processing of that data).
Much of the gear you probably can get 2nd hand to save some cost but I would say a HEQ5 is a good start and a refractor of 70 to 100 mm and a DSLR. I initially bought a guidescope and cam but due to having enough on lining up targets and getting exposures right and all the other things a newbie has to learn I didn't actually use the guiding for almost a year, I just concentrated on 60 to 90 second exposures and relied on good polar alignment and tracking of the mount to achieve images with no (or very little) star trails. And this is probably how I would suggest you start as @Elp suggests.

Use a simple but sturdy setup and then invest the time into yourself and developing your skills for a year or two, then decide the way you want to go, probably as many do going the mono route with filter-wheel, filters, dedicated CCD and so on but the two years with the simpler gear will not have gone to waste.
In addition you will find a HEQ5, 70mm (ish) small lightweight refractor and flattener, either a dedicated colour CCD or DSLR is maybe not the lightest of grab and go rigs but it is not too bad and certainly able to be used as a mobile rig.

Sorry for the waffling on and hope this helps and does not just confuse you even more 🙂 

Steve 

Good news. Thanks for letting us know the outcome. Enjoy the camera it really is a great camera.

Drivers eh, pain in the backside but we can't live without them 🙂 

Steve

That's a lovely image Tony, lots of detail but subtle colours which I prefer 🙂 

Steve

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

I have a few targets, but I'm asking myself if there will be another clear night. Ever

 

if there isn't in Dorset then we may as well pack it in this far North.

Lets be upbeat and say that 2022 will be far better than 2021 in many respects 🙂 

Steve

14 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Strange how a lot of people seem happy with it. 

Odd isn't it ?
But of course must be True, Amazon would not allow anything but genuine reviews.

Steve

But all those 5 star reviews, surely must be one  of the best scopes ever for under £200 🙂 

I think reading those reviews (if that's what you can call them) demonstrates why you should not even bother believing any review on Amazon.

What really annoys me about things like this is that as a complete newbie, without further research, or help such as this forum, claims like below are perfectly believable, so on receiving your wonder-scope, in one fell swoop you are put off astronomy for life. 

And then this reply to a question says it all and is maybe the only slight bit of truth in the whole listing that starts to contradict the initial claims.

Steve

15 minutes ago, bomberbaz said:

well we are only a half hour away buddy, maybe we can organise something with ourselves and anyone else local to us in the NY. Kettlewell should have some decent skies I would have thought. 

Absolutely, indecently I have a great affinity to Burnley, I went to collage up Omerod  Road ( I think it has moved now)  for 3 years many moons ago and spent many a night out in Burnley, but all that aside I am well up for anything we can organise in the new year 🙂 

Steve

2 hours ago, bomberbaz said:

Having recently sold quite a bit of gear which was my foray into imaging and used that money to improve my visual equipment, I don't have any plans to shed equipment unlike a few on here.

So it will come as no surprise my aim is to do more visual this year as follows.

1. Do more double star, asterism or other unusual star related objects.
2. Also get out to dark sky sites more often and at the same time try to find a better option than my existing one. (current one is dark, but too exposed)
3. Hunt down more really difficult objects such as quasars/super distant galaxy clusters etc.
4. Attend more star parties, they really are good fun.
5. Refurb my recently acquired 60/700 prinz astral and turn it into a really pimped up, instant grab and go. (This will be shown in the DIY section later)

I still want to try to get some good data for my AP but I really agree that I want to attend some star parties, t tried 3 times in last 2 years to do so but flooded out the first time and Covid put an end to the other two so here's hoping.
 Maybe we can get to the same one on 2022 ?

Steve

On 28/12/2021 at 12:49, DaveS said:

No plans at all for astronomy in 2022, think it's become a waste of time.

Sad to hear and at times my sentiments entirely, but I am hoping it will be a better year in 2022 and will give it another go.
Perhaps the only way to get any worthwhile data for imaging in the UK is to have an automated Obsy, so I need no more spend on my rig but maybe that would be my last outlay in the quest for some decent data 🙂 

Steve

Must be one of the few captures in UK yesterday.

Considering the short integration time, weather and beverages thats pretty good 🙂 

Steve

5 minutes ago, Ags said:

Thanks, I am giving M45 a try tonight. 

Good luck, Nothing doing here north UK so might as well open another bottle of red and make the best of it 🙂 

Steve

Hi welcome to SGL, and yes it is a beautiful  part of the country 🙂 

Steve

Have you installed the "All in one package" ?

And then opened EZCAP_QT

But then the camera is not recognised when you try to connect ?

Steve

I cant see any text, looks like black text on black background 🙂 

Steve

I cannot say for certain but I bet it is just the taper bearings that have too much pre-load that is making the axes stiff.
Unless something else is badly wrong there is not much in there that could make the axis stiff.
There is one of these tapered roller bearings in in both the DEC and RA axis. 

The more the nut that keeps these in place is tightened then the taper gets forced into an internal taper in the outer ring and so becomes wedged.
As explained in the Astro Baby guide these really do need tightening not much more than hand tight. 
This is really important for a free spinning axes, they need tightening enough to stop any end play but not so much it affects the spinning of either axis.

The good news is you can check this without a full strip down.

Another possibility is that the clutches, or locking levers, are set wrong and are still binding a bit when unlocked but again this should be easy to check without a full strip down.
Unless you are wanting to fully strip down and check everything I would be tempted to check these things out first. 

Steve

A great image Wim and the feint galaxies are almost insignificant until you start to think how far away they actually are and how long ago those photons started their journey, how long they travelled and to end up on your CMOS sensor that just amazes me every time. I start to think of it.

Well done 🙂 

Steve

Just a superb collection of images Lee, thank-you so much for sharing them with us 🙂 

Steve

3 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

I did not even mention unstable / unusable bias.

My ASI1600 has larger mean bias value than in short exposure. If I used bias - I would end up getting "negative dark current" in my flats.

Even as a novice and not understanding all of these arguments this was a big worry of mine going back to using Bias for CMOS.
Using Bias for my ASI1600M just never seemed to work for me.

Steve

Great news 🙂 
Just remember to put on charge at regular intervals if not in use and to charge after a session and should be good to go .

Steve

Simon, was it the switch wiring then ?

Steve

Both are great systems to use albeit very different to drive.

If you are wanting to keep costs down though Astroberry does exactly the same as Stellermate and is totally free and both intended to run an a Rpi 3 or 4.

Basically both Stellermate and Astroberry are just packages of all software required to run your equipment and setup an imaging sequence (Target, number of exposures, exposure length, filter type etc), the heart of all this is KStars, which is a planetarium which you can use to see what is in the night sky in your location on the day and select a target, it then uses EKOS to set up a sequence to use for the night.
You can in fact use this to run a whole home observatory and all the equipment in it.

NINA does all the same stuff but using different software, I have had a go with NINA and think it is a great bit of software and has many users who are very happy. Personally I thought EKOS was a bit easier to learn and use and does all I ever want and also really wanted to run it from a RPi on the mount and remote connect to it over WiFi so ended up using Astroberry (and did pay and try Stellarmate OS which worked fine but really is just the same as Astroberry only not free).
Of course I still could have done most of this using NINA just would need a small frame computer at the mount rather than a RPi which is a little more expensive.

Steve

Have you read the advice on this website or asked the questions on this website , he is very good.

cheapastrophotography

So long as the camera will only be used for AP then I do not think there is a need to put another filter in the camera itself, I certainly didn't.
I just had the IR filter removed, not the LP1UV filter and then shimmed out to maintain auto focus. capability.

I will not profess to know all about astromodding DSLR's so not sure what other advice you were given, I just sent my camera off to Juan on this website and for about £80 it was all done for me and seemed to work just great.

Steve

7 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

Good point so yes, it's important to know which he has. However, using the "wrong" one does only mean the illumination might not work. Negative earth has been the convention in automotive for many years and seems to be the most common in other low-voltage gear, including astro stuff (I think!)

True, its only the led the other way round I think 🙂 

Steve

1 minute ago, wulfrun said:

If you have a test meter and aren't sure which terminal is which on the switch you can find out as follows. Remove the switch entirely, or at least disconnect all terminals. Set your test meter to "ohms" and short the test leads together, it should then read roughly zero. Now connect across two terminals of the switch and see which pair gives zero (ish) with the switch "on" and "infinity" with it "off" (digital meters usually display a "1" or "O/L" or similar for infinity reading). These two are the two you need to connect in the power line. The third will be "earth" for illumination BUT the switch MUST be in the positive side and not in the negative lead as per your original diagram. Switching the negative is unconventional and leaves the output with a permanent "live", this could come back to bite you (not literally, at only 12V!) in future. It may also fail to light an LED, if that's what it uses for illumination, if in the negative lead.

If the switch illuminates whether on or off, swap the incoming and outgoing power terminals (assuming you want it lit only for "on").

The positive switches, which are wired as you describe. are the most common but you can get negative switches as well which do pass the -ive through to the load rather than the _ive, just to confuse things.
This is ideally why a link to where it was bought from would help or a look at the terminals with a good close up image of the actual switch.
 

Steve