Mandy D

I have Astrophotography by Thierry Legault. I don't know if you would consider that the appropriate level, but he is an engineer and discusses things in quite some depth.

This illustrates my point nicely. I have been in business for more than 25 years and never work on the basis of undercutting the competition. I've seen far too many businesses go to the wall by failing to maintain margins. On the same principle, recessions serve a purpose by getting rid of poor businesses that do a great deal of damage to marketplace. If your business can survive a recession, it will come out the other side with greater potential for profits as much of the low-price competitors will have gone to the wall. Of course, if you can lower prices without lowering margins or profitability, through technological innovation, etc, then by all means do so.

Competing by undercutting prices is a potentially dangerous tactic which can start a price war that leads to no-one making money. This is Economics 101. The better thing to do, as a manufacturer, is to keep your prices slightly above the competition and focus on quality and benefits to the customer.

Hi Gina I don't know if you can help, but I want to run a Raspberry Pi for imaging with a ZWO ASI178MM camera and Daystar Solar Scout. However, I need to run with a monitor and keyboard as I intend to take the setup to Gran Canaria for the Mercury transit and will have no other computer with me. So, I have a couple of questions: Do you know if this will work with the new Raspberry Pi 4, as mine will not arrive until next month, now? I have some 3B+ Pies, if not. Do I need to do anything other than connect a monitor and keyboard to use this in normal mode, i.e. not headless? Basically, I need a complete stand-alone solution which will run from the car battery via USB 5 V converters and possibly a small inverter, which I would rather avoid, but might need for the monitor. Thanks.

Hi Michael Thank you. That is what I want to know. Is it likely to be OK for H-alpha with my Solar scope? My reducer is this one: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/antares-05x-focal-reducer-125.html Obviously, I can adjust it's position with extension tubes to minimise aberration and tweak the focal length a bit. Mandy

Thanks for the explanation, johninderby. That makes sense. I'll be using mine in the H-alpha and a Skywatcher 250PX with 1200 mm focal length, so it could be an OK match. I take on board your comments about the focal reducer and the bigger pixels of the 290, but what I really need is the larger sensor in the 178 to fit the entire Solar disc on with 0.5X reducer. From my research, it appears that the 178 does do binning. Here is the relevent section from the manual: "6.6Binning The ASI178 camera supports hardware bin2 and bin4 mode. The ASI178 camera supports software bin2, bin3 and bin4 mode. Hardware binning is supported by sensor but is done in digital domain like software binning and use 10bit ADC. The only advantage of hardware binning is faster fps. We recommend customer to use software binning if you don’t care speed. " Thanks again. Mandy

I'm confused. Why do you suggest that the 290 is better suited to longer focal lengths? From my research it has a smaller sensor than the 178 (1/2.8 against 1/1.8). I'm also not sure what the effective focal ratio of f/15.5 has to do with it. Surely what matters is the effective focal length or am I somehow getting confused? It looks like you have an interesting setup, there. I guess that is a geared stepper motor you are using for focussing with an inside-out timing belt around the barrel to act as a matching gear. I need something to focus my 800 mm mirror lens, so I might look at doing the same. Thanks for your reply. Cloud Bringer makes me smile. I've seen no blue sky since I got my new scope.

I've just bought a Daystar Solar Scout 60mm DS for H-alpha imaging of the Sun. I am now looking for a suitable camera to use with it. I know I could use my DSLR, but for H-alpha that is not going to give best results, so am looking for a dedicated monochrome imaging camera. I have identified the ZWO ASI178MM as a possibility that fits my budget and has a large enough (I think) sensor to image the entire Solar disc if I use a 0.5 focal reducer which will give me a total focal length of 465 mm. Does anyone have any experience of this camera in this application, or know if it will be suitable? I know it does not have an IR blocking filter, which I understand is an advantage for H-alpha. The spec is available here: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/zwo-asi178mm-usb-30-monochrome-cmos-camera.html Thanks Mandy

I've just bought a Daystar Solar Scout 60mm DS for H-alpha imaging of the Sun. I am now looking for a suitable camera to use with it. I know I could use my DSLR, but for H-alpha that is not going to give best results, so am looking for a dedicated monochrome imaging camera. I have identified the ZWO ASI178MM as a possibility that fits my budget and has a large enough (I think) sensor to image the entire Solar disc if I use a 0.5 focal reducer which will give me a total focal length of 465 mm. Does anyone have any experience of this camera in this application, or know if it will be suitable? I know it does not have an IR blocking filter, which I understand is an advantage for H-alpha. The spec is available here: https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/zwo-asi178mm-usb-30-monochrome-cmos-camera.html Thanks Mandy