TerryMcK

I meant you get the field of view as seen with an 81 mm focal length lens when using a 50mm FL lens on a crop sensor DSLR so changed the previous post too for clarity 😃 https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/38899/why-do-full-frame-lenses-and-crop-body-lenses-exhibit-the-same-crop-factor-when

Wow that is spooky Marco 👻

I’ve recently been experimenting with the EF 50mm f1.8 STM. Very fast and great for ultrawide field. I am using it on a 400D which is a crop sensor of course and get the equivalent field of view of a focal length of 81 mm as seen on a full frame camera. On your R it will still be the intended field of view. I have been focusing it with a home made Y mask. I tried making a Bahtinov mask for 50mm but the slots are so close together for that it was impossible for me to make - hence the Y. In practice focus is that close to infinity it is really easy to set on this lens.

Thanks for a great piece of software Radek and your replies

No problem Steve. I’m happy to help - been there done that, sort of thing. The meridian flip tick box is in the mount control tab of Ekos. It also has a time to enter. I think I have it set to 0.15 hours. So if the sequence is running it shows a count down timer to the flip. The mount will then flip at some point beyond the time set in my case 9 minutes after meridian. If in the middle of a capture frame it will wait. After that frame has finished it will perform the flip, plate solve, re calibrate guiding if necessary, if you have a focuser it will refocus too and then carry on all automatically. Obviously the next set of frames will be at 180 degrees but DSS or AstroPixelProcessor will turn them the right way up. If however you have a camera rotator it will control that too!

You seem to be having many hiccups at the moment Steve. I managed to change my weather location from Warsaw but in practice that “feature” is of no use at all and you don’t have to use it. It’s nice in concept but you are better off using something like meteoblue or clearoutside.com. I think it can be switched off completely from the task bar. Out of sight out of mind. Also the GPS feature is not required and that too can be switched off or just ignored. Set your location in Kstars and that will get saved and will be used by EKOS and Kstars when necessary. The cut and paste feature is nothing to do with an issue with Astroberry. If you use something like secureCRT you can ssh into the pi, or any other linux machine, from a windows machine and cut and paste like normal when editing conf files for instance. There are many tools that allow you to remote into a linux machine at command line level that work like this. GUI based copying and pasting can be done by using RealVNC from a Windows based client in the same way. Meridian flip couldn’t be easier. It is a tick box and a time that is needed to be entered. Once done it really is simple and up to now, for me, it has worked perfectly every time. Prior to me activating it I nearly clouted the tripod legs with the rear of the scope (actually the camera!) and I bought a pier extension which means it would never get close again. However as soon as I ticked the meridian flip box I could have saved the cash! Hey ho. My 1600 is out on a lend at the moment and due to Covid I can’t get it back for a while. So I can’t point out exactly where the offset parameter is located. It’s not obvious but it is there. There is a Windows version of KStars which includes EKOS. You use it in “remote mode” to control the Indi/EKOS server that natively runs on the PI. The EKOS/Indi running on the PI takes care of the hardware whilst the Windows EKOS looks after the scheduler. There are several advantages to using it that way and a great feature is the simultaneous transfer of subs from the PI to the Windows machine as they are produced. That means you don’t have to take the card out of the PI to transfer them to your PC via a microsd slot. You would use Kstars on your PC as a Planetarium. Unfortunately PHD2 can only be seen on the web interface to Astroberry but EKOS also shows it in one of the tabs so you really don’t have to look at it directly once you have configured it. I’m not sure why you are getting PHD2 camera disconnects but the Pi should be able to provide enough current. That said a powered USB hub may help. There are a few quirks within Ekos but it doesn’t take long to sort them out and if you get stuck I can help you out and there are many others on here who can help too. It really has been a game changer for me.

I picked up a low shutter count Canon EOS 650D - only had 2563 frames on it - for £185 off fleabay in November. It is really good but I don't use it for astrowork. So might be worthwhile scanning fleabay.

I came in last night from an aborted attempt at photographing the night sky and this https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxXlxVmarXu3n340ah5xwqA came up into my YouTube feed. I watched his latest video and found it very entertaining. Well made and edited with lots of tongue in cheek humour. The channel is astro related hence posting it in this forum. If you find yourself waiting for the clouds to clear then give this channel a watch.

IDAS D2 will.

If you do want to do deep sky imaging the William Optics ZS61 or ZS73 are great. But you do need a good mount, a computer, a decent camera, a field flattener and if, as Geoff says, you have light polluted skies which a lot of people do then a filter of some kind is mandatory. Also I agree with the ripping up £50 notes analogy as astrophotography can get expensive as well as addictive. The zs61, zs73 or similar will do deep sky imaging very well and you can also get views of the moon but not highly detailed. Planets are a different animal and different methods of capture and can be equally rewarding. Unfortunately there isn't a scope that can do both unless you go down the very expensive route where you have a camera on the front to do wide field, swapping out mirrors and optics to put the camera on the rear which makes the scope into a long focal length scope. They do exist but are not really for beginners.

Yes a modded 450D will cost around £95 from astromiser. In Ashton I'm guessing the skies are Bortle 6 to 7 and you have light pollution from LED street lights. In that case an IDAS D2 filter will cost around £170 for a 2" one and blocks out LED, sodium, mercury and even domestic tungsten. Just make sure you get a filter that fits your rig or go for a clip in one. However remember that you will not be able to use any EFS lenses on the camera while a clip in filter is in place. EF lenses are ok though. You will still have some change for a can/bottle or two of your favourite beverage

Interesting rig. Food for thought 💭

probably just unlucky on that trip

astronomiser.co.uk fast turn around and great work done

Dark Star is a great name for a telescope brand

I went to NM about 25 years ago and experienced fantastic sunsets but it was cloudy on the nights we were in the state but azure blue skies during the day. Went to see the Very Large Array which was astonishing. I agree that set dressing can be challenging sometimes as there is always someone who notices something awry. However that advert photo is unforgivable.

+1 Blutack

I think as many of your likes are visual and you have minimal light pollution you might be good with a Dobsonsian like the Skywatcher 200P which is purely manual. However if you have £1000 you could upgrade to a goto Dob like the 200P goto Dob https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-flextube-goto.html or even the 250P goto Dob https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-250px-flextube-goto.html You can actually do some Astrophotography work with either of those ( not brilliant stuff but it is possible). The best thing is it will get you in the ballpark and you can view planets and their moons, close ups of the moon and some deep space stuff. You can’t really view nebula visually with this gear as they are too faint for the human eye. But if I had skies like yours I certainly would buy one of these (as well as the gear I currently have too).

I have a Telegismos cover too but the “cheap” one that is silvered on the outside. Nothing from Telegismo is cheap. However it is not really good enough for permanently covering a scope and the 365 is the best bet. But those are really expensive and I bought a 21 quid cover intended for stacks of chairs from Amazon. That goes over the top of the Telegismo cover is held on to the tripod using integral fasteners and a bungee around the whole lot. I can confirm it is watertight and heavy downpours have not got through https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07X57LRT4

Welcome Joel. I was a urban visual only astronomer for several years and was always confounded by light pollution in my urban Bortle 7 skies. Then I decided to go down the Astrophotography route and use filters at home and am now astonished by the images I can take. So you could say I did adapt but went down the expensive path.

Amazing what can be done with an iPhone. Welcome Damien.

A wireless remote timer for Canon DSLR. This almost completes my ultra wide field rig which comprises: Old faithful - Canon EOS400D astro modded - old but still works great. Some people say noisy but not sure if they mean the clatter of the shutter or noisy images - I get neither. Canon EF50 STM f1.8 this came earlier this week and gives a focal length of 81mm on a crop sensor like the 400D Most important part is the KOOD 49mm to 48mm step down adapter that allows me to use my 2" filters And latest addition is a PixelPro Wireless timer remote that clips onto the hot shoe of the camera with a separate transmitter (which can also be plugged into the camera). I have the Shoestring DSUSB module but unfortunately it doesn't work on EKOS hence the intervalometer. Still waiting for a lens hood and a 48mm lens cap that I have ordered from Bristol Cameras. I think it looks lost on the HEQ5Pro Rowan though! So future purchase will be a StarTracker probably the Skywatcher one for some point and squirt astro photography! I have made a Y mask to aid focusing too as when I looked at the printout of a Bahtinov mask for 50mm diameter it was almost impossible to cut the slits out.

I set it to a low value say .1 with an ADU of 20000 which seems to be ok for my ASI183 then set the no of frames to 50 and click calibrate. It then goes off and does its stuff and works out what the correct setting is. I then take note of that setting for the future for the combo of filter, gain etc. I use a flat generator panel btw.

Thinking of the WO ZS81 this is actually a doublet (not a triplet as somebody said earlier on) and with the addition of a x0.8 flattener gives a focal length and FOV similar to ZS73 (the flattener is a X1 on the ZS73). Not certain if the slightly more light gathering of the wider aperture justifies the extra cash needed. That said if you do decide on a WO scope the difficult part is choosing the colour! I went for red and it is gorgeous. Very similar in shade to my ZWO cameras and hence satisfies my latent OCD.

I have the a pair of 900's and without a lens on it looks just like your image. There is not much difference between an eyepiece being in focus and what is seen after inserting the 900. Probably a turn or so on my reflector.