Xsubmariner

My Altair Astro 250TT (GSO 10” ver2 truss ) has a back focus of 230mm from the back plate. Yours may vary slightly but it’s a good place to start.  If you are new to this type of scope, be prepared to find a lot more fiddling is needed to get it just right for your imaging train.  I have a 3” feather-touch fitted and used it with my SX36 full frame camera, so your cameras will present similar fun. Getting the guiding right with an OAG (loadstarX2) was problematic given the prism is on the edge/outside the flat field (due to sensor size), this resulted in guide stars that are elongated which compounded the usual seeing challenges. No a problem if you have an ONAG or are fortunate to have an unguided Mount, in the end I settled for using a smaller sensor with this scope.

Good luck with your scope, you will learn a lot configuring your new setup.

Martin

Hi Derek, welcome to SGL and Astro Photography an addictive and fascinating hobby.

Hi and welcome Michael, let’s hope the scope didn’t sustain any damage from the fall.

I experience the same problem with my SX FW. Once I’ve completed the system power up, the FW spins up, then when I select the FW maintenance box in SGP all appears ok until I attempt to connect the FW in SGP, when it hangs. Unplugging and reconnecting the USB on the FW solves the problem and everything then works fine. Both of my active USB 3 extension cables have independent DC supplies, suggesting it is not a signal level issue. More likely a port connection conflict in the PC.

Hi and welcome, there’s plenty of information available.

Hi, 

Your ESO naming is definitely appropriate and your innovative solutions to enable this mount are Impressive. My Mesu Mk 2 with it’s CW bar fit snugly into my 2.2M Pulsar Dome so I am not dependant on a home arrangement just yet, but will be very interested in any solution to support such an arrangement for my ROR observatory.

I operate my Mesu using only plate-solving and it guides great using PHD2 without the need for a Sky or PEC model. How are you planning to operate your mount?

Hi Fabio,

Great image of Mars and welcome to SGL. Looking forward to seeing future images.

  I have a 10” RC and fitted a heater element to the secondary mirror base and have a large dew heater wrapped around the body in line with the primary. You will need to re-collimate the scope if you fit a secondary heater. My advice is to pay for a secondary heater at point of purchase, hopefully Your supplier could then fit one and re-collimate before delivery. You may be lucky where you are that you don’t suffer dewing, mine did so I had to fit a heater.

Do to the ongoing virus spike in South Wales, I will have to pull out of this weekend.  Site informed, hopefully third will be better next spring.

Martin

It could be the Chinese communications satellite that orbits the moon to talk to the dark side🤭

Hi and welcome, Astronomy is a fascinating hobby.

Hi John, welcome back and May I ask what type of Astrophotography are you planning to pursue?

+1 for Baader filters. I have 2 sets of 2” Badder filters and am happy with them at my level and stage of imaging. I would recommend going for 2” units if you want longevity as they will support a good range of sensor sizes. Unless you need all seven filters in one wheel, then 1-1/4 will work provided it supports your camera sensor.

Hi and welcome to SGL. It’s worth raising a post in the beginners section reference your binocular queries.

Hi Matt and welcome to SGL.  Great image, looking forward to more in the future.

You would be best to fit the focuser to the coarse focus knob.  If you remove the grub screw next to the course knob in your picture, it creates a hole through which you pass to access the grub screw on the course knob ( just loosen it a couple of turns. Then by rotating the course knob you will see a second grub screw through the hole, undo a couple of turns and you will be able to remove the knob.

Hi Jonny & friend, welcome to SGL. AP is a great hobby that can be both frustrating and addictive. Once it takes hold your bank balance will suffer but you will have amazing images to cherish.

You can always use POTH to control the dome from the mount. I am sure that if enough people migrate to NINA, there will be a growing requirement to include dome / ROR management. 

SGP is a very usable application that has its strong points and not so great points. But to ask us to pay more than we currently have is a bit rich without some assurance of future benefits within the subscription model future.  It seems that we are asked to pay more for what we already have, the roll out of this change has been very poor in selling any benefits, so one can only assume it is more of the same. No you can’t have multi camera working because not enough users want it?

I will not be moving to the subscription model. Gave up MS Office and Photoshop for the same reason. I have been very disappointed with SGP’s response to my and others requests for multi camera . While there has been suggestions of its development for the last 8 years, nothing has happened. I started learning NINA for that very reason.

Noticed that an early version of SGP 4.0 was released accidentally recently but there was no indication or mention of multi camera working. The current arrangement of running 2 instances of SGP on one PC is not doing it for me.

I have enjoyed reading this thread and whilst opinion is decided as to the value for money aspects of this scope, it is clearly a new and exciting development in the evolution of the telescope.  It’s easy to criticise its capability against a dedicated imaging setup but that is missing the point. This product with its ability to visualise an enhanced image through the eyepiece bridges the gap between an observers and imagers toolset.

I remember paying £5000 for my first plasma TV, if it wasn’t for early adopters in the technology development funding would have dried up and we would all be the poorer today, where a cracking large screen TV can be acquired for a fraction of the money.

I hope this technology continues its development and look forward to seeing one at a future star event. 

Hi Wulfrun, welcome to SGL. Great that you have rekindled you interest, is a Telescope purchase likely or do you plan to stick with binoculars?

I would use a plastic pipe outer sleeve and you might want to consider drilling some holes in the steel inner to screw in some stainless steel screws to lock the concrete (prevent any possibility of outer sleeve rotating).

Hi Pete and welcome to SGL. You have a nice equipment setup on order, have you decided what image processing software to use?

Hi Greg and welcome to SGL. Great start to your new Astro imaging hobby with those pictures. I think the slow supply chain did you a favour, your R variant comes with belt drive and is an excellent mount for anyone starting Astrophotography. This is a very addictive hobby and before you know it you will be contemplating an observatory.