Stu1smartcookie

It seems the AVX gets a lot of love... Payload is good , price is good , and the ability to limit the slew speed . 

13 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

You can set the maximum slew speed of the AVX to limit the noise. In normal tracking operation you won't hear a thing, but it is noisier (although I don't think noisy) when slewing between targets. Setting maximum slew speed one down from maximum eliminates the noise issue for me. It takes a few seconds longer to move between targets at opposite sides of the sky, but if moving between targets in the same area of sky you probably won't even notice the difference.

Thats a great shout ( or whisper if we are talking about reducing noise ) , Many thanks for that .

Well well well , the weather geeks have done it again .. got it wrong of course .. meant to be cloudy all evening but there is enough clear sky and the seeing is absolutely perfect.. in fact I’ve never seen Sirius so still . The moon is the star of the show with plato looking resplendent . A happy Smartcookie just sitting outside . I left my 180 Mak outside for just over an hour before use . It proved to be a winner . 
 

well , thanks to the three of you for your input here ... all valuable advice . 

From my perspective 

Cost = AVX 

EQ + AZ = Az-EQ5

Simple alignment and practicality including inbuilt power = Ioptron 

Eq doesnt really bother me , i like visual astronomy but i cant get over the fact that the avx is 400 pounds cheaper than the skywatcher . 

The "silent " running on the ioptron is a real plus point , the last avx i tried briefly was a bit noisy ( but that may have been down to other factors ) . 

WATCH THIS SPACE guys . 

Many thanks 

Stu 

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

I've mounted my SF102 on my hem15 and that's 6.5 kg for the OTA and hardware alone, the guidescope and imaging equipment is on top. Imaged at 570mm fine, the test will be imaging at 1000mm which I'm yet to try with the C6. Ioptrons in my experience track incredibly well, my gem28 does too. When I imaged E3ZTF last year at 300mm FL with the gem, I don't think the comet even moved from centre over the course of an hour, I was just using the mounts sidereal tracking.

i reckon my scopes are a little heavy for it and in the case of the Newt a little "clumsy" . I really do like the Ioptron , everything tells me to buy it but i still keep coming back to the AVX 

I honestly hate choice 🤣

i reckon its around 8.0 kgs but i also have a 200mm newt that is around the same ( ish) 

2 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Stu, what does the mak weigh with finder(s) diagonal etc ? It must be a considerable lump of stuff !

1 minute ago, Elp said:

If you're going to buy new I'd suggest a HD mount, after using them you won't want to go back to using counterweights. The hem15 and am3/5 all mount onto photo 3/8 thread tripods as do most HD mounts which is how I use my hem15.

I think the Hem 15 ids a good bet ... where did you get yours ? Flo have not got them in stock .

17 minutes ago, Knighty2112 said:

Used to have an AVX a few years back, and sold it off because I needed some money quickly at the time. Can’t remember the mount being noisy in any great way. Got a Skywatcher Heq5 Pro now (no Rowan belt kit fitted) and sounds much the same. AVX always worked a treat. Wish I hadn’t sold it on now, although the Heq5 Pro is just as good.

Gus , i like the AVX , its also a really good price and  is very  sturdy 

Heather thats really helpful , many thanks ... have to wait for it to ship though , mind you its a real saving 

2 minutes ago, Elp said:

What's the budget?

its really only between those three mounts ... the ioptron with the tripod and the az-eq5 are nuch the same price but the AVX is soooo much cheaper 

I need a tracking mount , mainly for my 180 Mak . I only do visual but of course want to tak a few nice images of the Moon and Planets . The question is ... What Mount to get ?

I have a couple of options , ( 3 in fact) 

An AVX , a skywatcher AZ-EQ5 and the Ioptron AZ- Pro . 

Cost suggests the AVX but its a bit noisy ( i have neighbours with small kids ) 

My personal preference is the ioptron but i loathe having to buy the Lite Roc Tripod for £274 to mount it on ( unless anyone can suggest a way i can use my stella lyra wooden tripod )

The az-eq5 looks a good  as it does bothe Eq and alt az and can handle both my 8" newt and the 180 mak . 

Any thoughts ?

Stu

My advice to the op is "go for it" I, like @Elp  have had great views of planets in small scopes , small but sharp. I used an evostar 72 ed . More importantly , do what you want in this hobby , nobody should judge you . 

12 hours ago, PeterW said:

I’ve always been a right eye observer, but when the exit pupil gets small, the floaters start to get annoying. Well tonight I decided to get the other eye have a go, and it seems suffers less from floaters. Previously I’d found it harder to use as it’s my non-dominant eye. Quick session as there were clouds about and so I didn’t get the maps out. 

Saw a fine shadow down the southern edge of the alpine valley and a couple of the small craters along catena Davey with the 127Mak, which seems good, so maybe left eye for the moon from now on!

 

Peter

I actually maentioned this topic in one of my posts as i am usually a right eye viewer . But when i tried my left eye it actually made the image brighter . But getting used to observing with the left eye is very difficult . Maybe bino viewers is a good idea ? 

Finally clear in Cambridgeshire.. but I got the scope out a bit late . The moon looks fantastic though . Stars not so as the scope is not properly cooled . Having said that , Uranus is about 11 o’clock from Jupiter .. about half way to the plaides , and is showing its distinctive colour . Just good to get outside after what seems like weeks of cloud and rain . 

3 hours ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

This argument about the small field gets trotted out almost every time SCTs and MAKs are mentioned.  But let's ask, how many objects are there, that you can see with a small telescope in the kind of environment where most of us live, but will not fit into the field of view of a small SCT or Maksutov?  I think, not many at all. 

When I acquired my 127mm Mak, focal length 1500mm, I found that a handful of large and bright open clusters would not fit into the field of view, but thousands of other objects did.

As for large galaxies, quite a few are big when imaged, but do they look big when seen through a small telescope in Bortle 6 skies? No, they don't.  All you see is a fuzz of the central nucleus. Same with small and large nebulae which asides from M42 are basically invisible in an urban environment.

An aside about the Celestron C6 - this is a long-established design and is available as a bare optical tube and also with an unusual variety of mounts, from serious mounts valued at around £1000 to starter mounts which depending on the deal on offer may be included at almost no extra cost.

Plus 1 for the above ... i have just bought a 180 Mak and already i am seeing DSO's that i thought i wouldnt see due to the "experts" narrow viewpoint ( pun absolutely intended )  . 

I think once you have a diagonal and an EP and an RDF or some other type of finder you will be getting to the upper limits but the good thing is , the c6 is quite short so it should be ok 

Hi , The C6 scope is a real winner as is the Starsense , The only weak link is the mount .... But , the C6 Is a light scope and i'm sure it will be a great set up . 

Out last night for about an hour with the 8”newt but the highlight for me was spotting the beehive cluster in cancer . Lovely . I’ve  never seen it before without optics so I was delighted to spot it . Obviously points the scope to it but really needed a really wide eyepiece to fully appreciate it . Ended up looking through the 8x50 finder scope which really showed it off 

Forward to tonight : 

Just set the Mak outside to cool but caught a glimpse of the crescent moon . Predictably a bit low on contrast as it was still light , around 4:30 .

Tonight will be Jupiter and Uranus . And  a bit of Orion ..I think it’s due to be clear until 9pm . Got to take these moments when we can .  

8 hours ago, iantaylor2uk said:

Not sure I agree. An astronomer is someone who does astronomy, which is what we all do. Calling yourself an astronomer doesn't imply you are doing research. Those who do such things can call themselves professional astronomers if they wish, but I think most of us (and most of the public) regard ourselves as amateur astronomers and we're not misleading anyone in any way and we don't need to justify it either. 

I agree with you … let’s take sport as an example here … if you play football you are a footballer … you may play full time for a club in the national league but you are still a footballer.. if you play in the premier league you are still a footballer. The difference is just doing the same thing but at different levels . Astronomer encompasses all levels , although the word ameteur usually means you are not getting paid it also lends itself to being a hobby . 

I bought and quite quickly sold the seestar . For the first few nights it was aweinspiring ... amazing ,"look at what i can see ". But i didnt see it , did i ? A camera saw it and was able to give me an image on my phone in seconds . Still very impressive of course and something i should have embraced as i dont have the patience to sit teasing details out from Photoshop or the like . I found it all a rather soul less experience in the end . Having said that , putting a camera on a star tracker and manually pointing at an object you hope is going to be in the FOV ,painfully trying to get the iso right and more importantly the focus ,and then back to the computer to process the image , trying to get the colour scheme right to concur with photos from others . NOT FOR ME . 

I do have a dwarf 2 scope but it rarely gets an outing . My astronomy is built on visual , call me old fashioned , call me what you like come to think about it lol. 

The above is not a rant , but a personal experience that i went through to end up with the way i embrace the hobby . 

On 06/02/2024 at 12:44, Richard N said:

A few months ago I started my EAA journey. I have ended up with an Altair 290M camera, and a SVBony SV503 80mm scope with reducer. Plus AZGTi, heavy duty tripod and mini PC mounted by the scope. Thing is, everyone locally seems to be getting SeeStar 50s. I wonder if I have gone down the wrong route really? I quite like the fiddling around with my setup and its flexibility for changes. The scope will be great for grab and go visual. So what can I do that the SeeStar users can't?

So , back on track ... if you like a bit more of a challenge , and a greater choice of targets because the Seestars has issues with framing . If you like heavily processing your images , sometimes for hours on end and if you like a bit of G&G Visual , you've already made the right choice . 

If you think you want to just level the scope turn on the Seestar/Dwarf etc and let it callibrate , press your phone or tablet a few times and then sit back in the warm watching , i must admit , magical photo build up in front of your eyes without too much input , there is NOTHING wrong in that at all . 

I reckon you made the right choice when you bought your gear . 

Just my opinion of course . 

12 minutes ago, greglloyd said:

..until you proudly answer "Yes, I'm an astronomer" in a serious tone, and Joe Public follows up with "So.. have you seen ur-anus?"

Cue Carry On Spaceman movie . 

Ok so lets look at both terms 

Stargazer ... a media favourite word ... conjurs up a person open mouthed looking up in awe . I can see the headline " stargazers in for a treat as Meteors set to light up the sky " ... i hate it ! 

Ameteur Astronomer ... a nerdy term for some but a term that implies seriousness and gives our hobby credability . ... I love it ! 

A walk in Ely this evening , the clouds parted just enough to see some stars 

3 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

Having sold my EQ5 Goto a few days ago I retired my Az GTi from EQ mode last night with a few hours on the Pleiades, it's going back to AZ mode because today I welcomed the replacement. After much painful research I decided on this mount to fulfill my modest needs using my small imaging refractors. I decided to buy new because of the QC problems associated with the earlier versions and this morning it passed it's first test, I shook it and nothing rattled! It's marginally lighter than my Az GTi and WO wedge but considerably lighter than my EQ5 which is important to me now. 

A big thankyou to FLO, 22 hours from placing the order to it arriving at my doorstep. It's also a great day for other reasons. After being stuck on the drive for 6 weeks due to MOT failure my elderly but lovely Mercedes is going in to be repaired, a victim of the worldwide Mercedes subframe corrosion fiasco, Mercedes Germany are forking out over £2,500 to replace the subframe. I didn't have to argue the case, they agreed immediately, good for them. It's also our youngest daughters birthday 🥰.

nice one Laurance ... something i am looking at as well

14 minutes ago, Saganite said:

This Lyra Optic 102mm f11 was collected a week ago but had first light last night.  

I recognise that scope ... its certainly found a wonderful home