AstroMuni

Welcome to SGL. If you specify what is your budget then folk here can provide better guidance. Between the 2 scopes you have come across the Celestron is the better one but as Cornelius V has mentioned, it has its issues. My suggestion is take a look at other posts here as well on advice given to others on buying new scopes before taking the plunge into buying one. If there is a local astro club join that first.

Good luck!

Thats interesting. If you have the lynx astro cable then you should be able to use platesolving to get accurate go-to positioning. Check if some parameters have changed such as incorrect date or location.

Are you planning on manually stitching the images together using Gimp?

As you have good experience having used this many scopes, which of these would you say would meet the needs of what you want now? Just go with your gut and get it (again if need be) 🙂

Just to understand more clearly, you are saying that it successfully completes the alignment and gives a warning message. But after that the objects are off target. Is this correct? When an object is off target, how far off is it to actual position? If its close but not on the dot, then that happens depending on which stars have been used for alignment.

You have chosen a good scope. If you want bang for the buck go for a Dobsonion with maximum aperture that you can afford. Your scope will show wide star fields and the brighter Deep sky objects. Planets will however look small compared to the pictures you are used to seeing in forums, magazines. Unfortunately there isnt one scope that works well for both planets & DSOs. EDIT: You beat me to it @Cosmic Geoff 🙂

Are you looking to do visual or photography?

See if this article throws some light on your issue? https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/783742-help-with-back-focus-measurements-mating-a-qhy268mm-with-an-fsq85-±-x-101-flattener/

Is the backfocus distance the same for both cameras?

I looked up the ES127 here https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/explore-scientific-ed-apo-127mm-f75-aluminium-essential-triplet-refractor-ota.html And if we are talking about same scope, I think you could be stretching the weight limits of the HEQ5 Pro.

Could this be due to balance? Otherwise cant see why a different scope can change the behavior of the mount.

Have you tried to see the longest duration you can get without guiding? I can easily get 30s with no elongation and mine has no Rowan modification. HTH

Interesting. The Evostar line up shown under their US website are heavier. https://www.skywatcherusa.com/products/evostar-80ed?_pos=1&_sid=c3ddca3c5&_ss=r Wonder whats the difference 🤔

That sounds very light -are you sure? I thought the 80ED itself was around 4kg

Worth bearing in mind that the 120ED is quite heavy and HEQ5 Pro may not be suited if you want to get into AP at a later point in time. Just a HEADS UP

Thats a whole new beast and as many of us say, a slippery slope for adding more and more equipment 🙂 We all want to take pictures of some kind, its just what exactly are you aiming to capture. I started using a simple phone camera attached to my scope to grab pictures of the moon. From there I have got interested in DSOs, hence purchased an astro camera. So knowing your short term aspirations, budget and long terms ones will help others advice you better. Good luck.

Do consider the weather and number of opportunities you get for imaging as well. If you have the luxury of a dome or even a permanent pier that makes life easier. With the mono cameras you will need to spend time imaging with each filter to get the full LRGB. I will stick to an OSC as I dont have the luxury of dome / pier and also being able to stay out late at night during weekdays. 😞

Spot on 🙂 Install the relevant software on your laptop (ASCOM, EQMOD, PHD2) prior to doing these. Get the right EQDIR cable for the mount as that will allow you to connect the mount directly to laptop (without synscan controller in the middle). If you find that your laptop doesnt have enough USB ports you will have to invest in a USB hub. The advantage with ASIAir / Raspberry Pi/ NUC is that you can have the luxury of sitting with your laptop inside your home while these smaller devices are sitting out in the cold with the mount. Some folk leave a laptop outside on a small table beside the mount and establish a remote connection to laptop via ipad/phone. That is also do-able. Here is a suggestion - get the laptop to mount connectivity working first and learn to control the mount using EQMOD, Stellarium etc. Then you can add the cameras, guiding etc. To be fair you DONT need guiding to start with as a mount like EQ6-R can give you very good tracking without noticeable star tails upto a minute and possibly more. I can get between 30 to 60s with my HEQ5 Pro. Good luck.

Siril complained that it couldnt do photometric calibration on mine, perhaps due to the small FOV. Astromaster 130 on HEQ5 Pro, ASI224MC, 30s x 60 subs. Bortle 6. I didnt muck about with the symmetry point, just left it at default. Something new to learn about Barnard-29. I wasnt aware of this 🙂

Gave it a try using one of my images of M13. On the left is using asinh, histogram stretch and on the right is using GHT. Certainly makes a big difference without blowing out core or star bloat.

Are your images taken by attaching DSLR to the scope? Dont be put off by the fact that your scope is considered basic. I have got very decent results with my basic Astromaster 🙂

Not sure if this solution would help. But this is what I use - A Netgear AC1200 that is plugged in outside my house. This has an ethernet port and I have connected a ethernet cable between this and my RPi which then connects to mount. And when I remote in, I connect to wifi extender rather than home router.

It absolutely does a fantastic job with those. I havent managed to put in as many hours as Padrepeace but even with the few hours that I got the images have come out quite beautifully. A few of them are in my signature link.

Good start. How do you suggest this be used?