SimonWhitfield

Update: 15 x 4min Ha on Sadr @ f/4. The stars not quite right in the corners, with top left being the worst, and they get progressively worse the closer I get to f/2.0. Currently backspaced at 47.5mm and focusing pretty close to the middle of the 'L' mark on the lens. Also found loosening off the lens and camera rings helped with the image, as tightened up they seemed to introduce some distortion into the image, with the FWHM going wild only in the top left/bottom right corners... squeezed lens? Anyway, progress has been made, just some fine tuning to go but already, I am liking this lens... even at f4, 30mins of exposures around Polaris started showing the molecular dust clouds. Repeatable accurate focusing might be an issue, but I have already noted Adrians solution to that. Thanks once again.. I'm sure your help has shortened the time spent resolving this issue already 🙂 Simon

Hi, The area is nice enough, moved here myself about 4 years ago, but last year was the worst year for telescopes since I've been here... always some level of cloud in the way! Simon

Hi Adrian, I think that is what it is going to have to be... fixed under the stars... but this has confirmed my suspicions that something isn't quite right. If I was a few degrees off, fine, but this much? At least I know my next clear night is going to be spent experimenting rather than imaging. Thanks, everyone, for your assistance. Simon

Now, the white focus line on mine is the other side of the 10m mark when attached to the QHY183M and filter wheel and focused on the windmill 2.5km away... but bang on where it is supposed to be when I connect it to the Canon. Simon

Nope, just a simple focus ring, simple f/stop ring... Simon

Hmm, hadn't considered the sensor window. I've got another 10.5mm of mixed spacers I could throw into the mix, and it looks like it would take that much to get the infinity mark anywhere near the focus mark but that would just be silly, surely? From 44mm to 55mm? Tonight looks like it might just be clear enough to run off a few test images, just to see how the stars look. I guess that's the ultimate test, regardless of anything else... Simon

I have used a digital vernier and it all seems right, even measured the individual bits to make sure they were accurate. I even used the calculator on my phone to add the individual millimetre measurements together, just in case I was having a brain-fart 😆 I agree about the Canon... that should be the reference point. This is just weird...

I did add an extra 1mm, which I think was over-doing it as the Baader filters are 2mm thick, but I also tried with an extra 0.5mm. The only difference either seemed to make was to move the focus point slightly closer to infinity, but I still have 60 degrees of rotation before I get close to the infinity mark. Simon

Hi everyone, I have been using a QHY183M and QHYFCW3-M-US for a while and I am now trying to connect it to a Samyang 135mm F2. I say "trying to connect it".. it is actually connected and seems to be spaced out correctly - the Samyang is a Canon EF version, so should need 44mm of back focus. I have bolted the QHY183M (10mm) directly to the filter wheel (17mm) using a 020063 (1mm) QHY183 to M54 adapter, and used 6mm of spacers before attaching to the QHY M54 Canon adapter (10mm) for a grand total of 44mm. The filter wheel contains 7 Baader 36mm unmounted filters, the usual LRGBHOS suspects, and the whole set up is held in place by an Astrokraken 3-ring setup on a dovetail. In theory, as far as I can figure, this should all work fine. I have a windmill that I normally use to test focus, Chesterton, 2.5km away that I can see from my kitchen, and the set up above focuses on the windmill at approximately 9m on the Samyangs focus scale... nowhere near infinity. If I move the lens onto my Canon 6DMk2, i have to rotate the lens to infinity to get focus on the windmill... I have yet to use the Samyang135/QHY183M at night... everything seems to be fine but that focusing discrepancy seems weird. Everyone else I have seen who has one, where focusing discussions are had, talk about the focus being at or beyond infinity. A little I could understand, but to go from infinity being infocus on an object 2.5km away on one camera to 9m being infocus on the QHy183M seems bizarre! What am I missing? Why does the focus seem to change so much for the same back focus on 2 different cameras? Regards, Simon

Hi everyone! I have used this forum, via google searches, on and off for a couple of years. I'm usually researching a bit of kit, or trying to solve an issue, or find an answer to a question. I've now found a question that, despite searching, I cannot seem to find an answer... so I'm finally going to register and then ask my question here 😃 Help me, Stargazers, you're my only hope... 🤓