George Gearless

No worries. Understandable. Good luck. George

I don't feel competent enough to say what you can do better. In fact, I can't realy think of anything. But allow me to point out a few things that I think work very well in this forum format (in case you were thinking of removing them ) That you allow even newbies, such as myself, to upload pictures and thus bringing a strain on your bandwidth, is a big plus. It is also very easy and intuitiv to do even for a first timer. Making it so easy inherintly encourages people to do it in their threads. This livens up the thread tremendously instead of staring at a wall of text. Here's a picture of a firetruck The "like" and "thanks" buttons are extremely useful. In other forums I find myself compelled to write a bit more than just "thanks" if someone has responded to my post. Sometimes it's hard to come up with new reasons to say thanks. Clicking, and thereby sending your aknowledgement to the replyer, makes things so much easier. I bet people get a lot of aknowledgments and thanks that they would otherwise not have gotten. I would think that this encourages people to respond again to another thread, now that their effort are being appreciated. In the beginning I found that there were too many categories. But the more I delve into the subject of astronomy, the more I see the reason for the divide. It makes sense now. I also like the graphic design. The people in the forum is a chapter for itself (which I know is beond the control of the forum creaters). Rarely have I seen such a helpful bunch of people. The knowledge they collectively posses is staggering. And they share it readily just because they can. The forum is alive. The time I have to wait for a response to a post is usualy counted in hours (sometimes minutes). Not days. There's a free feeling of knowledge exchange which lessens my fear of saying something stupid or ignorant. If I haven't already, I most certainly will in the future .

Only thing I can think of that would 'upgrade' you, would be a polar wedge to turn it into an equatorial mount. You'll need to upgrade your firmware for the controler. I know how to do that on a Wifi mount, but not sure how to go about it with a hand controler.

Looks very interesting. Without commiting to a deal just yet, would you be able to ship via UPS to Denmark? At my cost ofcourse. Btw, I'd be looking for a straight up money deal. I only have a Mak 127mm which is of little or no use to you.

I recently purchased an equatorial mount (EQM-35 Pro) because I wanted to do more astrophotography. I've (according to myself) been pretty successful in taking some good pictures. But I must realize that my 127mm Skywatcher Mak, just doesn't cut it any more. So I'm looking for a replacement. During my less that scientific research, I've found an AP refractor to be the way I want to go. Price is quite an issue, but I found the AP 80/600 Evostar to be juuuust within my pricerange. And pleasingly, the Astroshop.eu says it is 'very good' for astrophotography. And then, much to my delight, I came across this post in the 'for sale' forum (Skywatcher Evostar 100ED DS pro). On the face of it, it seems like a no brainer. Go for the bigger scope. Right? However something gave me pause. On the Astroshop.eu website the smaller scope gets the 'very good' mark for astrophotography. Whereas the bigger scope only says 'yes'. So now I'm wondering: Did they just type 'very good' in order to push this scope quicker through sales, or is there a difference (apart from the obvious) that I am missing? Keep in mind, that whatever scope I decide upon, its primary function will be for AP. Here's hoping for some good insights and inputs. George

If this is what you call a 'start', I can't wait untill you take a 'good' picture. Don't sell yourself short. This is a great picture man. Can't recal having seen Clavius this crisp and detailed. As for the colours I can't realy comment usefully because I'm colourblind. But I do notice that the picture is much more 'alive' than usual pictures. I'd call it a success. Well done

I reluctantly agree with Olly. I say reluctantly, because despite the advice of my betters, I did pretty much what you are thinking of doing. In my own defense, I did not start out with the specific intention of getting into astrophotography. It just turned out that way :). I got a Skywatcher 127 Maksutov with an AltAz GoTo Wifi mount. Regardless of what I wrote above, I still maintain that it is a realy great mount (and telescope) at this pricerange. You will have hours and hours of fun with this setup. And yes, with a halfdecent digital camera and some T2 fittings, you will even be able to take some pretty cool pictures. Not only of the moon and planets (where the Mak truly shines) but also of nebulae and galaxies. Just know that your limit will be around the 20-25 second mark. Exposures longer than that, will start making trails and mess up your picture. But even with that exposure time, you can take some pretty great pictures and have a lot of fun doing it. I know *I* am :). Here are two pictures that I have taken of the same target (Orion nebula). One is taken with my AltAz Goto mount and the other is taken with an equatorial Goto mount. I feel confident that you will be able to determine which is which without help. These are not 'showcase' pictures. I am a true novice in astrophotography. They are just to show how big a difference there is, even to a beginner like me, between the AltAz and the equatorial mount. And keep in mind that a 127mm Mak is propably the least useful telescope for a target such as this. Still, I hope you get the picture (pun intended) :).

Ok, that kind of makes sense. Thinking back, I probably spent a little too much time trying to improve the picture that I actually made it worse. I guess I'll have to learn when 'enough is enough' :). Thanks

Hey guys. I recently lost my financial mind and bought an equatorial mount, Skywatcher EQM 35-pro :). I am terribly pleased with it allthough my better half displayed a somewhat less enthusiastic demeanor when I broke the news ( I took cover behind the couch and threw small pieces of chocolate at her, until she calmed down). Anyway, cue crappy weather for 3 weeks but then I finaly got a quick run at M42. Only 7 lights and darks, 150secs, ISO I forget, EOS 7 Mark I. Stacked in DSS and enhanced in Startools. Yeah, I went a bit overboard on the red, but I wanted to see the clouds on the right side a bit clearer. Plus, I'm still learning Startools. It was a trade off: Given I'm using a 127mm Maksutov, I'm not sure I can ask for much more. But it does seem quite 'grainy'. I'm also having trouble keeping the background dark. It's very red. A week or so later I gave m31 a go. The result was discouraging :(. Take a look: Incredibly 'grainy' and now with a distinct black-lined grid across the whole picture. I pressume the grid has something to do with the sensor on my camera. But how can I avoid it? Secondly, I realize that my telescope is far from ideal for DSO's. Is the grainy quality just something I'll have to deal with, with this telescope? Or do you have a tip or two that'll help minimize it? And if you suggest getting an apochromatic refractor, my girlfriend will kill you :)! George

Agreed. This has my 'sticky' vote.

With my AZ GTI mount I can get around 20 secs consistently. On a wind calm night I can get 25. I've taken one or two photographs at 30, but can't do so consistently. My scope is a 127mm Maksutov with focal length of 1500.

Sounds good, guys. Maybe it's as Ben says the shipping weight with the aluminium case that comes with the purchase? Never mind. As long as it doesn't conflict with the mounts capabilities, I'm fine. Thanks for the confirmation checkup, Ben and Star Struck.

Since I'm expecting to win the lottery within the next month or so ( ) I've been browsing for all the great stuff I intend to buy with my new gotten wealth. But, being the modest man that I am, I've set my eyes on this Skywatcher Apochromatic refractor AP 80/600 EvoStar ED OTA . The problem is, that the mount I've also set my eyes on, supports only 10kg of operating weight. And the above link says that this telescope has a total weight of 10,2kg ( tube weight of 3,1kg). I then set out to find out what was included in the 10,2kg (to see if something could be 'trimmed' off) and searched the telescope on another site here: Teleskop Service . It doesn't list the total weight, but here the tube weight is listed at 2,5kg. So now I don't know what to believe. I watched a few youtube 'unboxing' videos of that telescope, and I struggle to see how it can achieve a weight of 10,2kg. But since I haven't had one in my hands, there realy is no way of telling by just looking at a youtube video. So, what I'm realy asking here is: Is this telescope too heavy for a mount that supports 10kg of weight, when I intend to use it for astrophotography (adding the weight of a DSLR and possibly a guidecam)? Or, if you want to get all technical about it; what does the damn thing weigh?

Ugh, I've figured it out. I was too hasty. I've discovered that there was an inlay ring (in lack of a better word) that has the appropriate aperture. That ring had fallen out of the main coupling, due to the three tightening screws not being tightened. This inlay ring serves as a M48 to M42 'converter'. So essentially the coupling came in two parts. So I slipped this inlay ring into the main bajonet coupling and tightened the three screws to keep it in place. And voila! A perfect M42 thread for my camera adapter. Sorry for wasting everyones time . I'm not a smart man.

Welcome. I too was a long time lurker before I joined. Never regretted it. You'll find the SGL members to be the most helpful, not to mention patient, amateur astronomers out there.