Mandy D

@astrolulu I have been looking at collimation in more detail over the past week or so and I have to say that it has made a noticeable difference to my 200P. I know you have seen those latest images since I collimated it, so I won't post them here. I have just got a copy of Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes by Suiter and it certainly makes the concept of collimation a lot clearer and more scientific. Your latest image is, as always, stunning. It is the standard I am now aiming for and collimation is certainly helping.

I've found a USB3 A-B 5 metre cable for £5.70 at CPC. I'll order it in the morning. That just leaves focusing and control of the mount to deal with. This is starting to look like remote operated telescope territory, now! I think I am going to have to start with the DSLR on the A105M until I can get a laptop outside or remote everything.

@happy-kat Is that a plain 10 m cable or one with a box of electronics? Can I ask where you got it from? The dew shield is something I hadn't given a thought to, so I will note that. Thank you. Definitely a big no on using the DSLR with this telescope, I have longer lenses for that. Although I will be getting the dedicated 50ED flattener from Skywatcher. Interesting note on the n star alignment. I always imagined the 3 star to be superior, but it loks like the one star actually uses three stars anyway, just in a different way. I'll remember that. Having just checked, I can confirm that 2" filters do not fit the ASI camera body, at least, not the 178. I'm going to hang fire on a red dot finder for now. Thank you for a wealth of useful information.

Thanks. In an ideal world, that is exactly what I would like to do. However, I'm pretty much stuck at home for now. If the chance arises, I will do this.

Polarscope is optional for this mount, but the software can handle it via three star alignment, which should be good enough for now. I fully intend to use it in visual mode, first. I have a Vixen A105M that I am going to stick on it for that purpose. I still move my Skytee the wrong way, so it's not just you! The 50ED is so small and has nowhere to mount a finder or Telrad. I might have to find some proper tube rings for it so I can do this stuff, better. I never use a finder with any of my scopes and point them exactly how you describe. Once the azimuth is found, you just rack the tube up and down to find the object. It takes me literally seconds to find the Sun or Moon like this, although with the Sun I use the Dob side support shadows to find azimuth. I've put your Sky at Night Siril link in a new tab and will look at that shortly. Thank yo9u for that. It should help a lot. I usually forget to put a card in the DSLR and spend ages wondering why it won't trip the shutter release with the remote, or I forget that I have it in muppet (MUP) mode and can't understand why it won't take a picture on the first press of the remote! Doh! Thanks for these tips. I think it is what I need.

@Elp I'm begining to think that I might do what you did and use the DSLR for the first stage of learning this. Sadly, no threads on Evoguide, so I'm back to rear filter. The 178MM on the Evoguide has a similar FOV to my D800 on the 300PDS, so that should help. But, shouldn't the mount be finding the targets, anyway, rather than me doing it all manually?

East is the one direction I just cannot get from home. I have Siril, but no idea how to use it, yet. Right now, I just want to get set up and grab a few trial images. Processing them comes later and is a long way off at the moment. As soon as I have a long USB cable, I will point it at the Moon and see what happens. I have chosen M42 as my first deep sky target, as it is now moving into my late evening sky and I can easily get it. What I could do with at the moment is some pointers to get me set up. The advanced stuff can come later. As both you and Vlaid have indicated I need a UV/IR cut filter. My current one is 2", so no good for this setup. I wonder if I ought to step back a bit and focus on the mount, getting it set up and running with the A105M on it as a visual only setup, then come back to the imaging part as a separate entity. Thanks for the thought provoking input.

I'm clear to the north and can see Polaris on a clear night. I have a rough daytime focus, already. I'm going to hit the Moon, shortly. Given the mount I have, I think a software assisted 3 star alignment is my first choice. I'm not even close to considering a guidescope, yet and the 50ED will become my guidescope at some point in the future. Given the software I listed as my preference for a starting point, is there a good reason to switch to Sharpcap? Thanks for the pointers.

Good point on the UV/IR. I only have a 2" one, so will order a 1¼" one.

I'd like to do some deep sky imaging alongside my lunar and solar and could do with some advice. My proposed setup is an Evoguide 50ED and ASI178MM on an AZ-EQ5GT mount. Obviously, the mount is adequate for this setup. I will be getting the Evoguide field flattener later, but for now I just want to get set up. I'm not worried about over/under-sampling right now, so let's not talk about that, beyond which it is at the moment. That can be discussed later. What I am concerned about now is getting this lot set up and working. I need to get a longer USB3 cable for the camera, as I don't have a laptop set up yet, so will be viewing the camera output from my living room about 2-3 metres from the imaging rig. I have ASI Studio for capturing images and would like to stick with that for now, if that is sensible, even though better options may be available. Likewise, I use PIPP and AS3! and only wish to add anything to this mix that is absolutely necessary or if these are going to make life difficult. My planned target for starting is M42, as it is an easy one to begin with. So, here are my first questions: 1. Is my choice of kit suitable and do i need anything else? I'm not considering colour imaging, yet. 2. How do I best set up the mount, as I have never done this before? I have the instruction manual. Let's leave the questions around actual imaging and processing for now and come back to those later, once I know how to get set up properly.

Having made some good headway with properly collimating my 200P, I decided to get this recommended book, Star Testing Astronomical Telescopes, by Suiter. Someone had linked to it on FLO's website, but it came up as out of stock, so I looked for it secondhand and found ridiculous prices (up to £200+) and astronomical postage as most were in USA. There were also a lot of first edition copies on offer, but I didn't want those. Then someone else noted that it was available direct from the publishers, Willmann-Bell, who seemed to have gone out of business. It turned out that Sky and Telescope had taken over their inventory in 2020 and were in the process of moving it (70 tonnes) to a fulfilment site, but only listed a few titles under Willmann-Bell, which did not include this book when I looked. It is now listed here: https://shopatsky.com/products/star-testing-astronomical-telescopes-2nd-edition It took me two days to work my way through the above and eventually get a copy ordered. It was due to land at my home on 17 September and turned up yesterday. So far it looks good, although a few of the pages were not properly cut and were joined at the edges.

Hmm, that leaves a possibility I've been sent the same unit back "repaired", when I am supposed to have received a new unit. I will check further with my photographs of the unit. Thanks for your help.

That is exactly what I did with the azimuth knob. What I was really interested in was whether the shaft that the azimuth control know fits on was bent on delivery, as they were on both mounts I have had, so the knob wobbles eccentrically. Good idea about the clutch knobs. I will look at that on mine.

I really do not like the saddles supplied with the Skytee 2 and changed mine to double screw types, like you have. I have had two of these mounts now as the first one had to go back under warranty due to a stripped thread on the azimuth backlash adjustment. How is your azimuth control shaft? On each of the mounts I have had, it arrived bent on one side so one of the knobs wobbles eccentrically and scrapes against the locking lever as it goes past it. Does yours do the same?

@Steveyzy I think it is probably time to contact Skywatcher about these problems. I am sure they will be helpful. My Skytee 2 mount had to be replaced when a thread stripped in the casting. It was no problem, but took a couple of weeks as no UK stock.

Looks like George Stephenson has been out and about again with his railway tracks!

I've pushed the contrast a bit more in GIMP by adjusting the curve, here.

I was out at that time, too and heard the church clock strike 5. The sky was very hazy, but Jupiter was shining nicely next to the Moon and Orion was lovely in the south. I spent about 15 minutes just looking, but didn't feel it was worthwhile dragging a scope out. By 9 it was completely different and I'm glad I did. I hope tomorrow morning works out for you.

Thank you! I think the effort of properly collimating the 200P has paid off.

The Moon, now 66.9% illuminated, imaged about 9 o'clock this morning.

Thanks. I have Siril, but haven't a clue where to start with using it, yet!

Yes, 08:40 today. Single frame, as I cannot get these daytime images to stack in AS3!

I'm looking forward to seeing those images. I'm up against the same problem with my ASI 178MM in the 200P. Right now, I'm trying to set it up with an Evoguide 50ED (242 mm FL), which I reckon is a great match for the full lunar and solar discs. I've just run a quick calc and the 178MM on the 50ED is close to the same FOV as the D800 on the 200P. Your sensor is quite a bit smaller than the 178, but I reckon you can just about fit the full disc on the short side with a 50ED and there is a field flattener / focal reducer that I am looking into that would help. Thanks for posting the transit finder link, as I'd lost that, so it saves me looking for it again. This is my Moon image from this morning, also through a 200P, but with the D800. https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/413351-77-waning-moon-in-daylight/#comment-4410173

Of course! I should have realised that, as the D3200 can only manage about 4 frames per second in still mode and the transit time is normally around 0.5 seconds, so you'd have got about 2 frames at most. I really must blow the cobwebs off my ASI 178MM and start shooting videos again. Have you seen what Thierry Legault is up to with ISS transit imaging with his new Olympus OM-2? Not only does he capture the transit, but he puts the ISS dead centre on a large sunspot!

Yes, there is a lot of truth in what you say. But, there is also the reality that in fact we do not, in adult life, ever need large parts of what we were taught in school. The problem is in deciding which parts we will need.