Stephenstargazer

That naked tray needs eyepiece holes - right now 😠

Thanks @Astrowl will try that next opportunity and with a larger scope too. Have loaded up the latest software 1.13b and that brings my Astrowl Box up to date with the User Manual on the website. Brings some useful new features. Interesting to see that the anticipated SeeStar S50 also chooses the sensitive IMX462 sensor (IR cut built in?), but only with a 250mm fl objective of course. That might seem a bit limiting once the initial enjoyment has worn off? With a fairly large FoV of 1.28 x 0.72 deg forget planets and many DSO. Perhaps it is a forerunner for something bigger? But certainly a challenge to other 'auto-scopes'

Happy Birthday @paulastro ! Our forebears seem to have worked harder and recorded better with simple equipment. Maybe our "stuff" is getting in the way?

For info of those looking at using a camera lens, the distance from lens flange to sensor should be as below (flange focus distance).Any more will not reach infinity. Canon EOS EF. 44.0 mm M42 (Pentax,Praktika etc) 45.5 mm T2 (Tamron et al) 55.0 mm C mounts. 17.5 mm. CS. 12.5. mmm Others you can find online!

Baader do an M42x1 to M42x.75 adapter, quite small light path ? 3mm. Mine was nearer £20, probably more now! Still need spacers though. S/H M42x1 'macro' spacer tubes cheapest, T2 variable most convenient.

Just the motor drive set to add then? Actually I recommend enjoying the mount as a manual for a while before you decide. Have no fear these are built to last centuries not years!

Many people take widefield astro photos with a camera lens. So there is no inherent problem. It is generally reckoned that fixed lens are preferred and it would be simpler to use a manual lens, so that it can be stopped down. A 2nd hand T2 or M42 is probably easiest to connect. Camera sites have cheaper adapters. You my find some good advice here. Ian has tried most things and researches the ideas well. https://www.ianmorison.com/

I have a camera for EEA with a relatively small sensor. Can use it with ridiculously cheap C type lenses and recently acquired a Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm lens in M42 for £33 . These will give me wide fields and work at f/3.5 or less. Cheaper than these doublet guidescopes and proper camera lens quality. Not expensive to try! You may also be able to adapt your camera lenses to fit the astro camera? I have used them for daytime testing, to sort focus point, but not done a proper sky test yet - whilst solving other problens! (To work out fields of view use Sky Safari scope display or do the maths with the sensor sizes)

Another SW 6X30 RACI user. Cheap and easy, shows most stars as in Pocket Sky Atlas. Useable fov is over 7deg. Tarted it up with some aluminium thumb screws. My other bigger (better?) finders dont often get used. This is better for star hopping and enough for alignment.

I must disagree about thread! The 1/4 " UNC ithread s well suited to fixing which is regularly done and undone and in softer materials like aluminium. The M6 is a much finer thread and M8 rather large for cameras. Neither would be better. ISO metric coarse threads are better suited, and generally found in larger diameters eg as structural bolts. In engineering terms there is nothing "better" just because it is metric. Steam turbines are very efficient compared to diesel generators - horses for courses!

Nice Snapshot and would look that good live. Excellent news about website - added to my favourites! I have an Astrowl now and find it easy to use, so nice to just connect a power bank and off you go. Simple controls which are genuinely intuitive on the tablet/phone and the picture on the Box just like an eyepiece. Definitely good for anyone with ageing eyes (floaters or glasses) and wanting to avoid a laptop. My initial use was quite restricted as my equatorial tracking mount got sold. However I found that it would work with non tracking.mounts with smaller scopes (up to 500mm fl) and even would stack 20-30 frames - helps to align the frame with direction of drift, as you will lose the leading edge. This phase has let me establish best arrangements for being close to parfocal with eyepieces, and fitting in filters (IR cut essential). I did some daylight testing to get familiar. I now have a tracking alt-az mount again and can get going on more ambitious work such as galaxies - which are all but smudges in my sky. Just to see how I could focus better (now tracking) took this of M35 with 60mm scope, to fit in frame, so probably underexposed? All settings were default Star Field, stack view. 2 buttons, no fiddling around, this is what you see at the scope - significantly more than an eyepiece in my sky, comparable to a larger scope. Early days but see the Astrowl as a way to keep deep sky observing going, alongside eyepieces and binoviewer for brighter objects. I should also add that Arnaud is great to deal with and his continuous improvements to the firmware have all been worthwhile and actually work! I have no idea what deconvolution does, but only have to press a button to do it. (Actually the Manual does tell me and is an example for bigger enterprises. Do have a look.)

True, but well off topic! They can levy VAT at charging stations but not at home. We are likely to move to road charging instead (electronic tolls).

Back to the rant........petrol is priced per litre in Europe because the cost per gallon is astronomical 😀

Let us know if it is a good match as the Berlebach equivalent is expensive. Presume your AZ75 is M10 then. It says the tripod has an M10 adapter, do you know what is under that? Eg is the adapter removable? I am looking for 3/8" but can swap out the screw.

In day to day life like many my age I still think of distances in feet, yards, miles but am more polylingual when it comes to volumes and weights, happily swapping metric and imperial. My engineering degree was done in SI units however at work both imperial and technical metric (German habit) persisted for years after. The worst being for a renowned American petrochemical contractor who would only accept calculations in USA Imperial. including kips (1000 lbs) and short Tonnes - we had to rewrite some software to produce them. I think of chains when I listen to cricket, and remember surveying with actual chains which were by then 20m long. 😁 Now back to that thread - if it is 1/4" UNC aka National Coarse aka 20 tpi then that is still the defacto standard photo thread that you will find on the base of your latest mega pixel digital super camera. Some people think it is a Whitworth thread but they disappeared, along with BSF, when UK and USA agreed Unified threads after WW2. (I am the proud owner of two substantial boxes of taps and dies with thread gauges - when in doubt measure!)

Yes - the webpage firm ware and connection to Sky Safari (and maybe other planetarium apps) is functioning, as many have reported on this topic, either with motors on or off.

Not yet is the answer! The Rowan website says it will be able to work with a Nexus DSC. The Motor Drive System Manual states : Connections: RS232 - For Nexus DSC @Dek Rowan Astro e-mailed me in January "Firmware coming soon for the AZ100 to work with the Nexus DSC, which we should be able provide a Beta version for testing. " The firmware has not been updated since version V1.0.4 issued in November. So this is still a work in progress.

Not at all - the serial connection is for a Nexus DSC. I have the cable and patiently wait to use it. (The Nexus and Nexus DSC are two different products from Astro Devices, and do not have the same functionality.) Hope that clears the misunderstanding . PS there are in fact a Nexus, Nexus II, Nexus DSC, and Nexus DSC Pro. https://www.astrodevices.com/

The software to use a motorised AZ100 with a DSC (and perhaps a Nexus?) is not available yet. There would be no gain in adding a Nexus to the motor controller which already has a WiFi output, which is all the Nexus does. You would need a DSC or ano to avoid using Sky Safari. The Web browser Rowan built in software is not at present a complete alternative, though someone may be using a mount with that alone??? I see that @Adam_Wade has ordered already so I point this out for others. In fact installing the motors at a later date is a very easy job with excellent instructions to follow. People should not be put off trying a manual AZ100 first if they are unsure. After fitting motors the slow motions are not actually very pleasant to use, though it is possible. It is of course not difficult to unfit motors! I see that @swsantos and I disagree about the slowmos with motors - but I do agree about push to being useful and the benefit of tracking 🙂

There is of course no problem if you put the clamp handle and weight on the right hand side. If you want to keep clamp and handle on left then Rowan make a spacer that moves the clamp out. Depending on where you position the handle, I suspect the weight could still potentially clash or have limitted movement.

You only need to add a counterweight if the tripod is likely to tip. It depends how the scope is attached to the mount and how heavy and wide the tripod is.

First light was brief. Aligned in twilight and 100% cloud came 1/2 hr before end of astronomic dusk. However, enough to be pleased, despite groping for absent slow motions a few times 🙂.. The horizontal stop is far more use than I realised - eg alignment start position , setting up and taking down scope were all assisted. Clutches can be set just so and movement is smooth, even at higher mags for Venus and Mars (waiting for stars.....). I knew it would be quite solid with a 4" but actually never noticed any shakes. I haven't used a pure push too for sometime (at least not one this size) so there is some learning curve before it becomes second nature. Sometimes less is more, it's nice to have the choice.

IMHO and blessed with perfect foresight........ I think the hobby will diverge even more strongly into those who want to use robotic telescopes in observatories, some who persevere with better domestic robotic systems and a retro movement determined to use the simplest historic gear with no aids at all and a Mk1 eyeball. The latter will be using some of the stuff we leave behind......there wont be a market for new visual gear. And obviously the first two groups will be using every wavelength of the EM Spectrum.

I have joined the club and bought an AZ75 with encoders. The AZ100 got a bit ungainly with motors and now sits on the pier, though technically still transportable. My small portable mount (based on Vixen AP modules) is not quite man enough for the FC100df fully dressed, but is perfect with FS60. (It does hold it steady but any clumsy mistake and the bearings could need resetting - tedious stripdown.) So the A75 is the 'goldilocks' transportable solution for the FC100 and all three mounts (bears?) share the Nexus DSC. Sort of 'one ring to control them all' (mixed metaphors but only one software to remember - good for ageing braincells). Fit of the DSC bracket is neat (tight 🙂) but only required an extra hole. It sits well on UNI tripod and, like any Rowan, will last forever. First 'light' tonight🫰🫰🫰 k,

And at this time of year the Beehive (M44) also Double cluster, Coma Berences and many asterisms which tend not to fit in a telescope f.o.v. Comet hunting too.