BS269

10 hours ago, Paz said:

They are rare and when they come up I think there's a hardcore of buyers ready and waiting. I really wanted a 180 maksutov and watched the second hand ads for a long time (a couple of years maybe), and got nowhere. In the end I gave up and switched to looking for a C8, and found one within weeks.

Good point, I haven’t seen one of this size up on the used market it all. And I hadn’t really heard much about maksutovs until I looked into it as a potential candidate. This made me think that they weren’t very popular for whatever reason. I think the other thing I was worried about getting this scope was that I’ve heard the planets aren’t in very good positions for the next couple of years. Is there anything you can buy to improve the views when they’re so low in the sky? 

10 hours ago, Captain Magenta said:

I can't speak for the C9.25, but I do have an 8" and a 12" SW Newtonian, and currently 3 maks including the mak 180. To answer your question, yes I can definitely recommend the 180 mak, I really really like it, it performs well to my taste. Even after having completely reduced it to its component parts and reassembled and re-collimated it. See here.

One big difference between the 180 mak and, say, an 8" newt is the focal length. My SW 8" f/5 newt is focal length 1000mm, whereas the 180 mak is nominally 2700mm, and with an external R&P focuser more like 3000mm. In other words it's designed for very high magnification, and in that respect some would call it quite specialized, for planets and double stars. I've happily regularly used it on the Moon with a 6mm eyepiece, giving close to 500x magification. But I've also quite happily used it with my 35mm Panoptic eyepiece at only 77x magnification.

They only rarely seem to come up for sale used, which says something!

M

I do really like the idea of having a very high powered one. On a clear night I’m always drawn to the moon and planets. Would you say it’s got a large enough aperture for good detail on them? I’m really stuck between the between the Newtonian or the mak. Newtonian is larger but I don’t have the experience to know how much difference the extra 1” (or 3”) will make. They’re also a lot cheaper so I could buy more gear to compliment planetary viewing with it. But the mak just sounds far more appealing to me. Would you say there’s a notable difference in viewing quality between a 180 mak or an 8” newt?

On 08/04/2020 at 13:06, Captain Magenta said:

I collimated my SW mak 180 two nights ago. It was surprisingly easy and made an appreciable difference. I pointed it at Polaris at 450x mag, observed which edge of the (exquisite - seeing was good, I think) diffraction rings appeared the most squashed by putting my hand over the edge of the front of the scope to see where the obstruction appeared and therefore which colli screws were closest, adjusted it by trial and error until the "squashiness" got smaller and also changed orientation, moved to the new closest screws, and so on. I had the synscan handset in one hand on v fine adjust to keep Polaris centred as I made the changes.

Good luck...

 Bit of a late add to this thread.. would you recommend the SW 180 mak? I’m looking for my 1st scope upgrade (and first purchase) from my 4” reflector to sit on an EQ6R.  I’m very interested in planetary and lunar viewing/imaging and have considered this mak, a C9.25 XLT or a 8”/10” Newtonian. 
 

Cheers!

37 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

This will help with target fov

https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/

If I get the Newtonian I could use the money I’d saved on a good powermate. Could probably buy it if I got the mak too but not sure I’d need it on that.

beginning to realise that the Barlow I bought with my baader EP may not be used as much as I expected 😂

15 minutes ago, newbie alert said:

My take on your questions.. no 1 scope will do it all that's why there are variations,  tastes change from person to person so there's no one scope fits all

1, the 9.25xlt is probrably the best size in the range..smaller secondary to the others, not too big or too small, you started off saying for Luna visual and planetary imaging then in caption 1 you said not too good on widefield , and for use for deepsky later on.. I'd stick to planets and moon with this.. you will need to acclimatise this for 1.5-2  hours beforehand, especially if you store indoors..

2, the 180 mak, longer focal length and smaller secondary than the 9.25, better contrast, in my view probrably has a slight edge over the 9.25 but not by much, again cool down time needs to be considered.. sorry don't know anyone that uses a mak on dso,  it's not it's strengths..

3,

8 inch Newtonian , I'm not familiar with newts but there's a few varieties out there again for slightly different jobs.. let's say it's a f5 200mm with a 1000mm fl, it has less fl than both the above, you images will have star spikes, it's a marmite thing, luv them or hate them.. you will need to collimate most sessions unless it's on a fixed pier,  so look up the proceedure on this... for imaging I'd be inclined to go for the f4 Quattro  if using for deepsky..

BUT, I'd be inclined to strap the 4 inch frac to the mount, and try various things that ticks your box first and then at least you can make a decision.. 100mm on the moon will be sharp and impressive.. fov on the planets won't be that good but as you quite rightly said they're quite low and in the lower thicker atmosphere.. like a try before you buy

Sorry should have made it more clear with the Deep sky imaging with the Celestron SCT - the secondary can be replaced with the hyper star which turns it into an f2.3 and around 500mm focal length I believe, or it could be used for smaller deep sky objects without the hyper star but with a reducer. This however would only be done once I was far more experienced in AP and is currently something I am not interested in. This scope would be mainly used for  visual and lunar/planetary imaging. if you need different scopes for planetary and deep space visual then I would prefer planetary. But I thought a standard Newtonian covered both. 

star spikes shouldn’t be an issue Due to what I said above, plus I also quite like them..

my 4” scope is a reflector not a frac (though I don’t know what one of these is), and yes I do intend to use this scope on my mount, if I can.. it’s a 27 year old TAL 1, I don’t know if scopes require anything in particular to fit into the mount, apart from tube rings. When I go to buy the mount I will check with the retailer if this can be achieved. This is another reason for getting a dob, I can use my current scope on the EQ6-R to practice AP whilst using my dob for visual! 

I will soon be buying an EQ6-R pro as my future proof mount, and I currently have a 4” reflector (my first scope!) which I was gifted but hardly had the chance to use. I’ve done that much research and had that little opportunity in 3 months to enjoy my 4” scope that I have been planning on my first telescope purchase. And it is literally driving me insane. I saw someone on here call it analysis paralysis and I couldn’t put it better myself.

What I wanted to achieve with this telescope is visual and lunar/planetary imaging. I have a baader Hyperion zoom mk III which I want to make the most of as I’ve not been able to use it to anyway near it’s full potential. The 3 options I’ve considered are:

1. Celestron 9.25” XLT SCT - considered a good visual scope (though not the best wide field due to long focal length), with ability to do planetary imaging and even deep space AP (when I’m more experienced in that bracket). Seemed to be perfect. However I’ve read quite a bit about how it produces softer images, and bad reviews on even the visual experience due to the mass making of them. Can get second hand about £800-£850 but risking paying a lot of money for a poor quality scope. Especially when new they are £1300.. makes me think they have been lowered down that much for a reason.

2. skywatcher 180mm pro maksutov - excellent for planets/lunar, which got me very excited. Apparently good contrast on planets and sharp stars. Narrow field of view, but when most DSO is just grey fuzzies, I can wait. Supposedly good for small galaxies too (has anyone done Galaxy AP with this scope?). However smallest aperture of the 3 options at 7.1” and I’ve no experience to know how good the planetary views will be at different apertures, which worries me that this isn’t big enough. Due to the thick primary lens I’ve heard cool down takes a long time, but this doesn’t bother me too much as at some point I will be storing them in an unheated shed. Dew is also a problem, I’m happy to buy a dew shield/heater but I don’t know if that would resolve the problem entirely. I think the biggest worry is that I’ve heard the planets aren’t even going to be in very good Positions for the next couple of years?! I am interested in this scope but if this is true then I feel like it is just the wrong time to buy one. Bought new is £805 so second hand maybe £500-550? Cheaper and could buy some extra toys to compliment it.

3. Newtonian ota / dobsonian - someone recommended I get a 8” reflector instead, as it is in the same aperture range, would perform just as well as the others, has the ability for deep space AP in the future, would fit comfortably on my mount and it’s seriously cheaper, meaning I could buy even more toys to compliment it. Sounds like a good idea.. even though as I’ve already caught aperture fever before really even starting, and knowing that my mount could probably handle a 10” for my intended use, I would be more inclined to go for the 10”. I then realised I could get a 10” dob, dismantle it, put the Newtonian on the EQ6-R for tracked use when I like, but also gives me the opportunity to use my EQ mount for AP whilst Doing separate visual use on a different mount! The downsides to this are that at around f5 my baader eyepiece isn’t particularly great.. I have the matching Barlow so hopefully shouldn’t be too much of a problem, I’m in quite a windy area which is going to affect my OTA quite badly, and lastly.... how the bloody hell do you look through a 10” reflector pointing high at the sky when mounted in an EQ mount?! I don’t want to use step ladders.

I hope this long ass post doesn’t fall on deaf ears. To anyone who is willing to read all this and give me their advice/experience with these scopes then I salute you. I really can’t wait to get into this hobby, I’m just worried my inexperience and impatience is going to result in me buying the wrong scope.

cheers! 

I have had a look at this map before and it gives my sky quality as 20.44, so very similar. I was just wondering if the lack of very local light pollution could have improved it or not. Hopefully I should still be able to see some impressive views!

cheers

I live right on the edge of bortle 4/5 skies, with a sky quality of 20.47, according to the clear outside app. I live in a national park but the light pollution from Manchester is what makes it so supposedly high. However the closest significant local light sources to me (street lights, multiple houses etc) are probably about 1km away (and even further in most other directions).. which leads me to my question. Given the little local light pollution around me, is it possible that my seeing conditions are better than bortle 4/5? Or is this the best it can possibly be and local light sources only make it worse? Is bortle 4/5 skies worth getting light pollution filters? I intend to do visual and all types of AP.
 

I only started this hobby in may and not had many opportunities to actually Do much stargazing, but when I have I’ve been able to see quite a lot of stars, given it never seems to get truly dark this time of year. I imagine it will only get a great deal better come autumn/winter.

Cheers!

So whilst I’m saving money to upgrade, I’m using my 4” reflector to learn my way around the night sky. But I’m trying to plan ahead with what to get next..

Though I have a bit of stargazing experience I’m still very much a beginner, and don’t want to throw myself into the deep end of Deep space AP just yet, however I want to prepare for it. I love visual too and particularly planetary objects. So here’s my thought process- 

Once I have the money I’d buy a EQ6-R pro and a 9.25” (or near size) SCT. This scope weighs about 9kg so it would be used for visual and I believe it would also be okay for planetary/lunar AP. I’m hoping this is a big enough aperture for some decent planetary detail and also some DSO (I know to only expect grey fuzzies but i’m okay with that) and I’d be looking for 2nd hand so hopefully I could get both for around £1600-1700? I’d also get a piggyback camera mount so I can do some milky way AP too. Will use these 2 types of AP with my already owned Olympus mirrorless micro four-thirds camera to learn the ropes of post processing and photoshop. It has 30 min bulb mode and a USB port for an intervalometer/laptop connection. I’m not sure how good the results will be with this camera but I’m expecting the tracking to vastly improve it from my current 30 second exposures, which aren’t very good for this sized sensor. 

Eventually when I decide to go for deep space AP I was looking at the ES ED80 apo triplet. I’ve read for galaxies a longer focal length scope would be required but as I’m more interested in nebulae anyway this should be fine (if anyone has any pictures using this scope pls share!). I picked the EQ6-R as everyone says to not skimp on the mount, it should be able to support the payload and also I think support a bit heavier if I decide to get a larger refractor in the future? When I’m more experienced I could maybe try the SCT for galaxy AP but I’m not sure that’s pushing the mount’s capacity too much..

The alternative Route instead of an SCT would be to get a 10” GOTO dobsonian for around the same price I think (used) - more aperture, I’ve read they give better contrast and would have a separate mount for it. Portability isn’t a problem for me as I’m 22 and quite fit, and I don’t think I would be taking it places in my car much as I have quite good views in my garden (bortle 5 skies but hardly any artificial light sources nearby). My main worries with the dob is wouldn’t it be harder for planetary AP with an alt-az mount? I also recently bought the baader Hyperion zoom which I want to keep, but read that they work much better for slower scopes, which isn’t a 10” Newtonian. My price limit for my visual scope is probably about £850.

If you’ve read all the way to this point then thanks very much for making the effort to get here 😂 does anyone have any advice on my plan? Anything you’d do differently or any other scopes to consider? I’ve barely even started stargazing but I already have aperture fever... 

Cheers!

16 hours ago, sploo said:

I don't know; what camera are you using? All my recent experience (as in - the last decade) has been with Canon DSLRs so I'm not too familiar with other systems.

If you can set the camera to manual exposure mode, say ISO 100 and 1/50th, then without a lens attached it should react (i.e. show some brightness) on the LCD screen when pointed at a light source. The same should happen if you then connect the T-ring. If that's OK then check you can release the shutter (i.e. take a shot) - it'll just be a blur of light, but proves the camera will fire with the T-ring on.

I’m using an Olympus EPM1, it’s a mirrorless micro four thirds camera. The LCD screen does show a blur of light when there is no lens or T-ring attached, it was just black when set up with the telescope and the only light coming through was from the eyepiece. I haven’t tried just the T-ring but I will when these storms settle down (most of the equipment is outside in a shed and would rather not get caught in this rain..). 

18 minutes ago, Alien 13 said:

I would tend to agree with others that you first need to make sure the "shoot without lens" option is enabled in the camera menu.

I do find the setup you are using a little strange through with the total length of the adapters etc in use, in general when using eyepiece projection the camera sensor needs to be at the same point as it would be visually with your eyeball. 

Alan

Now you mention that I suppose that does make sense about it not being straight up to the eyepiece. The extension tube was apparently necessary to get rid of the blur around the edge of the field of view, but my T-ring is longer than the one on the baader website as i couldn’t find a shorter one for micro 4/3. I could try removing the extension tube to see if that helps. It talks about a 55mm back focal distance required, not including the extension tube (you can see it stated on the picture) but I don’t really understand it as I’m new to all this. 
 

cheers

Ben

31 minutes ago, sploo said:

If you're getting a completely black image on the camera's liveview (regardless of exposure settings) even when the scope is pointed at a daylight sky then could you see what happens if you just connect the micro 4/3 T-ring to the camera (without any other parts)?

It's possible that the camera's mount is trying to talk to the T-ring (as if it were a lens attached), and getting confused because it's not getting a response.

I don't know what camera you're using there, but if you put just a teleconverter on a Canon DSLR camera then sometimes it's necessary to cover the pins, as otherwise the camera complains (because it's expecting to talk to a teleconverter + lens combo).

I was wondering if it would have something to do with the sensor not answering properly to the set up. I will look to see if the camera has a setting that doesn’t require a connection with a proper lens. Should all cameras have this setting? 

Hi all

My eyepiece projection equipment came today so have tried setting it up in the daytime to get it all working in preparation for the next clear night. I’m using a Meade 114mm reflector telescope with a baader Hyperion zoom and a Olympus EPM1. I’ve looked through the telescope with just the eyepiece and all seems to be fine, but when I connect the camera to it the live view screen just goes black. I tried taking a picture and again, it’s just black. The zoom eyepiece has a M43 thread so this is my set up - 

telescope - eyepiece - M43/T2 adapter - 15mm extension tube - micro 4/3 T-ring - camera

I’ve read that a Micro 4/3 camera needs a 15mm extension tube, I’ve tried following the picture for eyepiece projection on the baader Hyperion website so I’m guessing it’s a camera issue. Could anyone help me figure out what’s wrong? The camera settings required or if I’m missing anything. I’ve attached a picture of my set up too for visual help and the picture
 

thanks! 
Ben 

I’ve been looking for a camera for AP and my parents dug out their Olympus EPM-1 in the hope it would work for me. It’s a Mirrorless camera so I could attach it to my telescope, has a 4/3 sensor size, decent ISO range, live view with a 2x crop and HD video, bulb mode, RAW option and it appears I can plug a remote shutter control into it as well. 

Has anyone used this camera before and could tell me how good it is for AP? Is there software similar to what canon provides that will allow me to control the camera from a laptop?? 

I am not aiming for deep space imaging yet as I don’t have the equipment for it, I’m just going for the planets and the moon for now.

I’ve added a link below of the specs for this camera, if anyone could have a look through it and tell me what you think I’d be very grateful! I was going to buy a canon 450d but if the Olympus can do the job I’d rather save myself £100 (to spend on other Astro equipment of course).

cheers!

https://www.cnet.com/products/olympus-pen-e-pm1/specs/

I’ve seen that the Nikon d3200 has quite good specs for its price. Has anyone used a d3200 before and rated it??

58 minutes ago, bryand said:

I have two Mirrorless Canons: an M10 which has been converted to full-spectrum by removing the internal filters, and an M6 which is bog standard.  I like both of them: they are lighter and less bulky than a DSLR, and remember that the one part of a camera you don't need is the reflex viewfinder - we have telescopes for that!  The M6 is essentially a mirrorless 77D and should be available secondhand, especially as a Mk 2 version has been launched recently so the Mk 1 may be going cheap.

The moonshot below was taken with the M10:

amazing photo! I was considering the m100 but apparently it doesn’t Support an intervarometer (is that how you spell it?), which I’ve read is a bit of a problem. Do you know if the M10 supports one? i also read that to mount a Mirrorless camera to a telescope you had to buy quite an expensive adaptor.. is this true??

Thanks for getting back guys! Are there any Nikon cameras That could be considered as well, other any other standout canon?? Just want the most options available, so I don’t miss out on a bargain because I didn’t know about them.

I’m starting off with the moon and planets as I only have a 4” reflector (TAL-1 to be specific). I’m not going to try nebula/galaxies yet as I don’t have the knowledge or money yet but it’s definitely a goal someday. Any advice for moon/planets photography?? Should I be any filters?

Looking to start out AP and been doing research but there’s so much information and camera options I don’t know what to get 😂 looking to spend £200 or under and 2nd hand. I’ve seen the Canon M100 looks pretty neat with matching specs to quite a few lower price DLSR’s. Has anyone got any experience with this camera? Or suggestions on another camera? 
 

cheers!