Rich1980

Haha consider it filed away. 

Thanks, I'll take a look and set some targets for when it is next clear. 

Hi, 

Just got hold of a 180 Pro and wondered what would be good targets to first have a look at? 

Moon, Jupiter, Saturn (if it's not too low), m13. Where should I next be heading for? 

I've got the 9mm eyepiece it came with and a set of cheap 23, 10 & 4mm eyepieces too. 

Thanks in advance, 

Rich. 

That is amazing. Great work. 

If using a laptop I'd look at extension cables to get into the wamth, I used to run mine through a 4 way USB hub and 20m cable. As said though the asiair and WiFi is a much easier although more expensive option. 

It probably took me about 2 months to shoot my first good image, I just didn't know it until around 4 months later when I learnt to better edit it. 

Received my L-extreme filter from FLO, much sooner than expected too which is great. 

Currently out trying it. 

3 hours ago, wimvb said:

@Rich1980, that's a nice clean setup. What's your opinion of the pegasus powerbox?

Cheers, one benefit of lockdown time to kill.

I love the pocket powerbox, I have it powering my Canon dslr, zwo guicecam, asiair, eaf focuser & 2 dew bands. Just leaves me to power the mount separately. 

Setting up the other night. 

If I'm selling something I have a price in mind that I'd ideally like and I have a price that I'd go down to. If I get an offer less than that I can choose to turn it down.

If I buy something second hand and sell it on in mint condition, going on the 2/3 price, is the price I should sell it for 2/3 of what I paid second hand for it? Or is it still 2/3 of the current RRP price? 

I travel out with mine each time I use it, a drive of about 5 miles usually so I have to split it down, but I do so into as few parts as possible. 

Six in total-

- legs 

- neq6 mount 

- esprit 100 scope, Canon 550d, asiair and pocket powerbox all connected

- zwo cam & finder scope

- counterweights

- SkyWatcher power tank 

I can be set up and aligned in around 20 mins by keeping it simple. 

8 hours ago, Newforestgimp said:

Hi Sorry for dredging this post up again, but I'm interested to understand why you do not power your mount from the Power Box ? I'm considering purchasing a power hub and now wondering if its worth it if i cant power the mount ?

No problem, yes it's pretty much just for ease of use. I could've combined it with the serial cable from the mount to the asiair I guess. I'm not sure if I've a cable long enough to stretch from the mount to the powerbox but if I have I might actually do that the more I think about it. Any technical benefits are beyond my knowledge although sounds like there could be having a separate power cable to the mount. 

21 minutes ago, Paul M said:

 RasPi 4 is sulking in a drawer... "can I come out now? I'll be good". NO! No! and thrice No!

😂

23 minutes ago, oymd said:

I had been imaging without guiding or any connection to the mount for the past year, using a laptop beside the mount in the garden, and remotely connected to it from inside the house with TeamViewer. I would setup, do star alignment, bhatinov mask, choose the target, start the sequence, then go inside the house.

I had never tried guiding yet.

Last month I bought the ASI Air Pro and the 290MM Mini.

I wanted first to setup and understand how guiding interacts with the imaging session, and also how to control the mount using EQMOD and Stellarium. I did not want to introduce a completely new and different platform like the Air Pro, just to avoid overwhelming myself.

The plan is the ultimately I will use the Air Pro, but wanted first to be familiar with the traditional mount control and guiding.

Ah OK, I see what you mean. Try a dry run on the asiair though, you could be spending time like tonight trying to fine tune errors on a system you might not come back to if your aim is to use the pro going forward. 

I don't think setting the asiair up would overwhelm you as it is very user friendly.

1 hour ago, oymd said:

 ASI Air Pro still in its box, I WONDER how will it integrate with all of this, but that will be for another night!!

I don't understand, how will you eventually be controlling your setup, via your laptop and APT or via the ASIair Pro on a tablet etc? 

I found the ASIair app easier to use than when I did use APT. I do still keep the software on my laptop but have never gone back to it as cable free works better for me. 

Welcome, I don't know if anyone has recommended the book Making Every Photon Count already or whether that is one of the things you are already reading? 

Nice setup. Is the synscan WiFi needed though with using the asiair Pro? 

Good to see many working with the combination, I'll get one ordered. Thanks for your replies. 

18 hours ago, rnobleeddy said:

Where does it say that? In fact, I'd suggest these filters are perfect for DSLRs!

Can't remember exactly where, I've read and watched so much but mainly see it used with a dedicated camera. What I recall was a dslr would struggle focusing and framing with the filter. Hence my wanting to hear from people who have actually used the combination out in the field. Good to know it's workable. 

Hi, 

I've seen many references to such filters aren't suited to a dslr but have recently seen one or two people using them. 

What are the general opinions here? Anyone using them together? 

If I were to get one, the filter would be an addition to my setup too for when I move to a dedicated camera. 

Using the original version with a 550d here. Simplifies everything, best purchase I ever made. I power my camera and everything else (except the mount) via a pocket powerbox.

That's a brilliant write up and can relate to so much of it. 

I started out using a polemaster and their software to polar align then APT to plate solve and capture images. Phd to guide. All connected by a USB hub with long cables to the laptop so I can sit in the car and keep somewhat warmer. I then sold the polemaster and used Sharpcap to polar align. 

I now use an old ASIair and a ipad, no cables running from the scope is a joy but the simplicity of the asiair to align, navigate, auto focus and capture images is so much easier than anything else I've tried. 

Always taking my gear out and about I needed as simple and quick a way of setting up so I could get on with imaging. 

My full setup process when out in the field now is-

Setup mount legs (level and facing North) 

Attach mount

Attach scope (camera, asiair, powerbox already attached)

Attach guide scope and plug in (camera already attached) 

Plug in powerbox & mount

Use ipad to roughly focus then polar align

Get out the cold, navigate to target, start guiding, autofocus, start capture process 👍

Processing afterwards is the next step I need to sort out so will have a look at APP and Pixinsight after seeing many recommendations. 

37 minutes ago, Desmond said:

Final update on this one.

The vendor did take the scope back 'for inspection'.

They paid for postage when I asked for it.

They cleaned the scope and returned it to me. The optics are now 100% dust free so I'm happy with the final outcome.

I do feel I had to work overly hard to get a resolution to this and at no point did they say they were sorry that their customer was not happy.

So in conclusion, would I buy from them again? No, I'll stick with FLO (as I tried to do originally) but the outcome is just shy of a name and shame post I think.

The lesson?

As stated by many people in this thread, stick to your guns and insist on a good outcome. Do not be 'fobbed off'.

I did contact an independent telescope servicer for his opinion and he did state that in many Chinese manufacturing lines of mass produced scopes you can sometimes get unlucky and get dust in the optics. So they were not lying to me, just reluctant to make me a happy shopper.

Anyway, anyone got some clear skies I can rent?

Good to hear all sorted in the end. 

Shame you've got to battle for a resolution when it is something that can obviously be done in shop. I know demand is high at the moment but surely a good quality check before dispatch is a benefit to all parties. 

Fingers crossed for some clear skies soon to use your new scope, enjoy. 

Very nice, I think I prefer the first version actually. 

SkyWatcher Esprit 100 on a Neq6 mount. 

AsiAir original, Pocket Powerbox, EAF focuser, Modded Canon 550D. 

Not pictured- SkyWatcher 9x50 finder with Zwo 224MC, 17ah power tank and iPad to control it all.