Astro Dad

nice scope F2 is awesome but very specialised and less flexible in terms of possibilities than with an SCT. Faster but doesnt have the focal length for many tasks. For larger field a cheap APO does the job, ok you will need more exposure time for same data but then you have an extra grand in your pocket. look forward to seeing what this is capable of, but the last review i saw by trev at Astro backyard didn't really wow me.

sorry just seen this and has kindly been replied to, but yes as above i just use a spirit level to find the true vertical position for my home position. My losmandy rail also has a bubble in it. Or just mark the mount with a sharpie

try a spirit level on the counter weight bar to know your orientation then adjust polar scope to suit. depends on your intentions, if imaging and how long an exposure. The polar scope is only vaguely acurate for a decent PA to do imaging a polemaster or the ASI air are two ways to get your PA down to a few arc seconds

Please find my below link for an attempt at polar align, plate solve, guidance and imaging using my Ipad pro 11" via ASI Air youtube link I feel like the last few revisions of the software have really seen the ASI Air make significant ground in becoming an all in one package. This makes it more accessible to my kids so a big thumbs up so far

Hi All Im very comfortable tracking DSO with my HEQ5 and guidance. However what I have been unable to find is a setting for lunar tracking using the handset, is there something really simple i'm missing? ta very much!

Hi all, i'm new to this forum and firstly just wow i'm blown away by how pleasantly different opinions are presented here. I've spend some time on the cloudy nights forum and that just turns into a 'i'm right, you're wrong thread'. I have a Celestron Edge HD and a william optics z73 and currently image with a modded canon 750D. I have bortle 4 skies. My biggest issue is noise and I have looked for months into a cooled dedicated camera. Having seen results on the UK cloud magnets facebook page, I'm torn between the ASI 294MC, the 183MC and the 1600MM. I live on the coast and I have had 3 clear nights since June, and perhaps 6-7 since April/May. As opportunity to image is limited and I like to be able to image one night then process and see results the next few days I am leaning towards the 294 and a dual/tri band filter. I always see the argument of time to gather data as mono is at least three times the sequences e.g RGB, or Ha,O,SI, however does the increased sensitivity mean that you can take 3 times less frames? I'm also just starting to get my head around pixinsight and worry that mono processing would be a step to far at this stage of my astro journey.