TerryMcK

I got one of the ZWO 2” filter drawers and was doing some darks during the day yesterday. I’ve looked at the results this morning and can confirm that the drawer does bleed light in. I’m attempting to fix it by wrapping some black modelling foam around the drawer holding it in place with a few strategically placed removable 10” cable ties.

I will try out some darks and flats later on. Sure the convenience of having a removable drawer is compromised but I don’t envisage it being a major issue. After all I tend to leave the IDAS D2 in most of the time and only recently started to use the Altair tribander.

A box of assorted stainless steel washers and spring washers.

I installed a pier extension a few weeks back and the supplied cap head screws came loose when I moved the rig back into the workshop for storage. I’ve just refitted the screws with large washers backed up with some spring washers. The pier extension is tight as a drum now.

I remember the first time I saw Saturn "live" and was blown away. Glad you saw it too.

Yes still use the flattener or coma corrector

6 minutes ago, petevasey said:

Neat setup Terry.  That will give you a field of view of 25 x 17 degrees - just enough to enclose the Plough, or Cygnus Cross or the main body of Orion among others. Nice!  Don't forget a dew heater if you plan on long exposures.  Unless you're using mains, how long will your batteries last?    You can certainly buy or make 'dummy' batteries for the camera reducing 12 volts to 7, so you can use a 12 volt  lead-acid or similar power pack to run everything including the dew heater .

There are tiny 'buck voltage regulator' units which will comfortably fit inside a battery case - if you are handy with a soldering iron and have a dying battery, carefully open the casing, make sure you know which are the output terminals, remove the actual battery and fit  a regulator with the 12 volt input lead matching the slot in the camera case.  You need a test meter to set the output voltage to 7, then glue the case back together.  These regulators are so cheap I suggest you buy two, and test before using on your camera!  I have a similar unit which I made for my 700D and it runs for hours without getting hot.  Photo below - as you can see I used a piece of 'veroboard' to mount it, but that's not strictly necessary.

An intervalometer might be a better solution for control - then definitely no computer needed.  They are very cheap for example this one.

Best of lukc

Peter

Nice tip Pete. Yes I will incorporate a dew strap and may ultimately power the rig with a battery.

I power the imaging rigs off the mains at the moment with a 12V ham radio supply housed in a protective plastic box. I have a dummy battery and 8 volt supply for the DSLR. But when Covid-19 disappears and I get out into the field a battery beckons.

I'm just pulling together an ultra wide field setup that I can use starting late 2020.

Camera and Lens

This will utilise my old goto standby of Canon EOS400D DSLR camera that is astro modded. Not the newest kid on the block but it works fine, is built like a (plastic!) tank and has always produced good results from its APS-C sized 10.1M pixel sensor.

I have just ordered a second hand Canon EF 50mm f1.8 STM prime lens. When it arrives this will fit on the camera albeit with a more handy 80mm focal distance.

The lens has an M49 filter thread. So I have bought a cheap M49 to M48 step down ring off Fleabay to fit my 2" light pollution filters - I made sure it was the right way around. This might produce some vignetting but hey ho. Crop it out or gradient adjust in Photoshop.

Mount

I already have a short SkyWatcher vixen rail and a look through my bits of photography equipment found a ball head mount with quick release to screw onto the bottom of the camera.

This little setup can go onto any mount and I'm thinking either my HEQ5Pro (maybe even dual mounted with a bigger scope) or a separate little mount like the SW Star Adventurer or one of the IOPTron mini mounts. Put this onto one of my photographic tripods.

Control

Also to control the shutter I can use my Shoestring Astronomy DSUSB box that can be velcroed onto the top of the vixen rail.  The shutter release on the 400D via USB can only hold the shutter open for 30 seconds under USB control. This is a limitation of the electronics within the camera. However the DSUSB box works by holding the shutter open via the mini jack socket and can hold it open as long as you want. An alternative shutter controller is of course an intervalometer. No computer required for that.

I'm not sure if Astroberry on the Raspberry PI recognises the DSUSB box. I shall have to have a play with that. Otherwise it's back to a Winders lappy running windoze drivers.

When/if this Covid19 crisis is over it can just be a portable rig to take out into the field.

Just another thought the 72ED is great for wider field work (thinking nebula etc) so if you have a separate 50mm guide scope it would mean you can use it for that too. Otherwise it is an OAG attachment. Either way its going to cost .

You might even find that this works fine for your gear - it would be fine for the 120ED too.

Sky-Watcher 9x50 Finder & ZWO ASI120MM-Mini Bundle https://www.firstlightoptics.com/guide-scopes/sky-watcher-9x50-finder-adapter-zwo-asi120mm-bundle.html

I am using the same setup albeit I came from already having an existing finderscope. The whole rig is fairly lightweight and you don't actually need the bracket if you have rings. 

Stacy from Astrostace showed how to do some basic image processing with this Affinity Photo software from Serif the other day. It looks reasonably competent and cheap as chips. Not a replacement for Photoshop, GIMP or PixInsight etc but even so it looks like it might be a good addition to an image processing arsenal. 

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

+1 on the Polemaster or Ioptron Ipolar.

You don't get a crick in your neck, get muddy knees, have to discern some unfathomable scale, nor have to fiddle around trying to get the polarscope aligned.

I have a shiny new William Optics ZS103 with a few more bits and pieces coming soon from FLO . I'll have to wait until the dark nights comes back to try it out though

I can see the coma. It is very apparent. I'm not familiar with the scope so cannot really make any suggestions but no doubt there are other here who can.

Very nice work

The internal thread of Skywatcher Finder scopes (and many clones) is M51 x 0.75. You may be better off buying a straight SW guide scope and Astro Essentials Sky-Watcher 9x50 Finder to C Adapter from FLO (£39 and £29 respectively) rather than trying to find something which probably doesn’t exist.

I do. I use a spreadsheet that stores dates/times, targets, filters, scope, location, camera, weather, temperature, etc.

Interested to see how others do it, software, notepad or something else. Anything goes.

If you have LED street lights near you I really can vouch for the IDAS D2 filter (either clip in or 2"). Expensive yes but works extremely well. Cuts out old style sodium and mercury emission street lights as well. Also tungsten emissions and domestic LED emissions from private houses too.

Astrophotography is not cheap!

2 minutes ago, stevie1980 said:

Will I be able to see it with my s9?

Dunno. Possibly. I have an Iphone 11 and only use it for occasional low light night time shots, which it excels at, but not held it up to an eyepiece.

Oh +1 on Astromiser by the way. I had my 400D done by him and it works really well. Just have the IR cut filter removed not the whole lot as you might not be able to focus at all if you do the full spectrum mod.

Orion probably November and Andromeda a little earlier in the year (Aug/Sept). It's too low in the sky for me at the moment (May) when dark and so the longer days have put the kibosh on Andromeda.

Have a look for Bode's Galaxy instead. That is circumpolar and you can see it quite clearly.

That is a very nice lens. I wouldn’t personally try to fudge making a 48mm filter fit a 78mm front element. Just get the IDAS D2 clip in. Problem solved. Keep the 48mm one for the WO scope or other 2 you have.

Even then the lens would have to be an EF Mount lens (which your camera will take BTW) rather than EFS lens mount. The EFS protrudes too far into the camera body to permit a clip in filter in there too.

No. A clip in filter for your model of camera is the only way.

My HEQ5Pro with Rowan belts is as quiet as a mouse. The only noise you hear when slewing is the gentle zuzz of the motors. Very quiet indeed!

The £9.98 subscription is the one I use and it has everything in it that you are likely to use for astrophotography. I also use it professionally so the ongoing monthly money cost is not an issue for me although it can be for a lot of people.

I found my Ekos/Kstars to crash after a recent update. Fortunately I worked out through a process of elimination it was the Lakeside focuser config.xml file that had become corrupt. I restored a backup of the file and all is well again.