nfotis

Got an email from TS claiming that this motor won't work with the focuser I mentioned (hard to believe, it's a typical GSO Crayford focuser) There was a suggestion to get this adapter and a ZWO EAF: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p13058_Wega-mounting-kit-for-ZWO-EAF-motor-focus-on-Monorail-N2-focuser.html Maybe this one should work? I would prefer a simple low cost DC motor myself. https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p6385_Skywatcher-AccuFocus-for-Dual-Speed-Crayford-Focuser.html The manual of Orion Accufocus seems to imply that's suitable for my needs, but I would like to verify before ordering. https://www.telescope.com/assets/product_files/instructions/29246_06-11.pdf N.F.

The Orion/Skywatcher/Celestron/Meade Maksutovs are made by Synta, with small differences in finish and accessories. The Skymax 127 is the first scope I bought, sharp and contrasty and easy to handle. Just bought a Skymax 180 (wrote a small "first impressions" topic under "Scopes"). The good thing about Maks is that these offer a nice contrasty view like refractors and are excelling in planets and the moon/sun, while their construction with spherical glasses is quite reliable these days. The SCTs offer more aperture for their cost and are more general purpose (you can also use Hyperstar for ultra-fast imaging). The view is usually less contrasty, but their larger aperture is very helpful in imaging ("aperture is king"). Usually they need some more careful collimation in order to give best performance. Both types are closed tubes and their front glass element insulates adequately the internal optical elements from dust, dirt etc. The Classical Cassegrain don't use any glass in their construction ("it's all done with smoke and mirrors" 🙂 ), so they don't suffer from chromatic aberrations AFAIK. Their open tube construction means that you will accumulate dust etc on the mirror over the years (you can wash it carefully), and the secondary mirror has to be mounted using spider vanes, which cause diffraction spikes on bright stars. If you hate spikes on stars, you may not like the CC series. N.F.

I think that the most easy/simple system is a Dobsonian telescope, which has manual tracking, and you can store it in the closet. The 6" and 8" are the most popular versions. Ideally, you should get one with metal focuser (the plastic ones WILL break some time). This is one class of scopes most suited for visual observation. Another possibility would be a Maksutov scope, these can be mounted on a camera tripod too (a Skymax 127 is quite powerful, as it offers 1500mm focal distance, and you can fill your camera with the moon or the sun - and you can quite easily observe Jupiter and Saturn, depending on the mount). Then, there are the Schmidt-Cassegrain scopes, like the Celestron C5 or C6. These are comparatively light for a reflector, and these are offered with various mounts and tripods. And there's the refractor group of telescopes, with a huge variety of designs. Achromats, apochromats, ED glasses, triplets, etc. Not all scopes are suitable for all tasks. I suggest that you watch Ed Ting on Youtube, he's quite entertaining. For example, look at this comparison of Dobsonians: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qVXy7SDDo4 For an intro into astronomy, you can do *much* worse than watching his introductory videos for beginners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IlmekWsEAQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zALE-KhlsEQ If you don't have a local store where you can touch and experiment with equipment, it'll be hard buying sight-unseen. Add the problems in availability of equipment these days, due to the pandemic screwing the logistics chain and the explosion of interest in astronomy due to the lockdown, and you might have to search for used equipment. Hope that this helps, N.F.

If your wife has some medium to long telephoto (200-300mm) for her camera, a star tracking head might be the best idea. If you are dead certain that you want to do astrophotography, the mount is the critical part. A Skywatcher HEQ5 is one of the cheapest and lightest suitable for long exposures. Then, you mount your camera and lenses up to ten kg or so (The mount itself is approximately 15 kg, without the counterweights) Astrophotography is quite a challenge, I have to say. I am dabbling on this hobby a year or so, spent more than 2k EUR and I am still a beginner. N.F.

It looks extremely clean, indeed. Enjoy it. N.F.

One idea I read is bolting a motor on the second place for mounting extra accessories, then driving the focus screw via a toothed belt. Will see about it (in fact, I have one TS Crayford focuser somewhere, but it seems that's of a large size, probably SCT - will have to take some measurements) https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p3947_TS-Optics-2--MONORAIL-Dual-Speed-Focuser-for-SC-Telescopes---SC-Thread.html (I think that's the one - will check if it fits the Skymax 180) If it works, I think that a simple motor and a remote control like this should work? https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p7908_TS-Optics-Focus-Motor-for-many-2--focusers---for-motor-driven-focusing.html N.F.

The land target photos were shot as a test after my tests on the Moon etc yesterday, trying to get something out of this all-nighter. Forgot to add that I liked the supplied finder. Quite bright and useful when trying to hunt a target. I haven't understood how to rotate the eyepiece, it seems fixed orientation, but I may have missed something. N.F.

Since I saw Synta raising prices across the board, I decided to get one from a German dealer who had this in stock and hadn't raised the prices (yet). I have an old abused HEQ5 mount (which I bought used), and I reckoned that it should be able to handle the Skymax 180 more easier than the C9.25 I bought from a member of the forum, since it's more than 2 kg lighter for the OTA. The good things I noticed: - Finish looks good, the package survived the trip to Athens without much exterior damage. - The size of the OTA is easier to handle than a C9.25 - The view through it looks quite sharp on land targets (I attach some photos from my Canon 80D mounted on the visual back). The antennas are approximately 6.5 km from me, while the house is approximately 3.5 km away. The bad things I noticed: - Focus is hard to achieve manually when shooting photos (too narrow a range for optimal focus, and the HEQ5 is not stable enough). At 2700+ mm focal distance, the image is quite sensitive to vibrations as I touch the OTA/focuser. - The 9mm eyepiece doesn't seem useful - I would prefer Synta including a better version than this. Heck, even my SVBONY zoom eyepiece is sharper and offers a better eye relief. - The adapter from 2" to 1.25" has only one screw, and it's really bad. Very hard to secure stuff from it, better to throw it away and buy a new one. Things I would like to do in order to get better results before resorting to a pricey higher category mount: - Get a good 2" to 1.25" adapter (preferably with a pressure ring) - Find an electronic focuser, in order to get accurate focus without touching the OTA. I think that I would like to get a focuser with a handheld control, maybe in combination with a Crayford type focuser? - Get vibration reducing pads for the HEQ5 tripod, in order to reduce the jelly-like view (here's a video showcasing it): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKlq80kJ-QA My and my nephew used the OTA visually with a 2" Bresser 25mm eyepiece on the Moon, the Synta 25mm 1.25" eyepiece and the SVBONY zoom 7-21mm. The moon was lots of fun, as long as you didn't jerk the OTA too much trying to get perfect focus. Tried it also seeing the double star Albireo, it was ludicrously easy to separate them even in light polluted Athens. The two-inch eyepiece was quite pleasant to use (bought it used from another member), I think that I should get one more wide in order to contain the complete moon disk? (not a big deal, to be honest) N.F.

I use SharpCap with my ASI462MC camera. Quite simple, really: 1) You unscrew the all-sky camera and its adapter (if they won't get removed together). This ultrawide lens can be used for fisheye views or monitoring the sky (there's a tripod screw receptacle above the ZWO logo in your photo for this, if you wondered, so you can mount the camera on a photographic tripod looking towards the sky) 2) You screw the nosepiece/T2 piece on the camera (you can also screw it on your dSLR, if you don't own one already) 3) You screw one 1.25" filter on the nosepiece, either IR cut (suitable for colour subjects, like Planets) or IR pass (suitable for the moon and other colourless subjects) 4) You screw the camera into the visual back (keep at least 55mm distance) or where you prefer (maybe after the diagonal, if you wish). There may be other things in the imaging chain (Barlow, ADC etc) 5) You connect the camera to the laptop/PC via USB. If you haven't downloaded drivers already, you should do now (I did it in house, checking that cabling etc were working, before mounting on the scope). Then you open SharpCap or another program. You select from the drop down menu which camera you will connect to (you should see an "ASI462" selection available), and you should be looking at the video output of the camera in real time. You check focus (you WILL have to change focus after you exchange eyepiece with camera), exposure speed (in milliseconds) and sensitivity (Gain). After you are satisfied with focus, exposure (check the histogram), you press the "Start Capture" button, which will start capturing video. The camera can feed a USB3 connection at up to 136fps or so (using an SSD is quite preferable compared to a mechanical disk - these things produce lots of GB quickly!) Enjoy your new camera, N.F.

I feel that the EQ6-R is a very good mount, if you don't require AltAz operation. Else, your best bet would be the AZEQ6 mount. I own a HEQ5 (bought used) and it's struggling to keep steady scopes like the C9.25 and the Skymax 180 when touching them for focusing (never mind for DSO imaging) N.F.

I thought that a dew shield helps with stray light already? N.F.

It would be nice if somebody did a before/after comparison. I suspect that the practical difference will be quite small, since there's a tube (baffle?) between the secondary mirror and the visual back, which should take care of stray reflections. Or the manufacturers may consider the results "good enough for government work"... N.F.

You may want to check this video about upgrading the Skymax 180 (flocking, rings, etc.). The price of the Orion UK rings aren't out of line compared with standard rings at this size, you just have to wait a bit more. From what I know, the Celestron 180 Mak has a suitable Losmandy bar, but I don't know how you can order this separately as a spare. Probably ask FLO? The C8 has 238mm outside diameter, so a Losmandy bar won't fit it exactly. N.F.

It'll be quite interesting to compare both (just received my Skymax 180, and I have a C9.25 XLT bought from another member). Now, we'll have to wait a bit until the gas giants raise over the horizon in a less ungodly hour... N.F.

The diameter of the Skymax 180 tube is 216mm, AFAIK. That's not a typical tube diameter, very few companies offer to create suitable rings, like Orion Optics UK. N.F.

Well, I broke down and bought a Skymax 180, since Bosma doesn't want our money... N.F.

There's a CN thread here (and a sensor analysis): https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/739387-risingcam-imx571-camera/ https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/747251-risingcam-touptekaltair-imx571-sharpcap-sensor-analysis/?hl=%2Brisingcam Quite intriguing, I might try buying either from them or directly from the Risingcam store in November N.F.

That would require sourcing robotic mechanisms, which are an altogether different market. And that would mean depending on another supplier (it's my understanding that Synta prefer to be vertically integrated as much as possible, in order to be able to control costs and quality themselves). That makes me wondering: how much of the materials and parts in the Skywatcher mounts and telescopes are in-house designed and built? N.F.

I read with interest the huge CN thread on this mount. It seems that you are required to use guiders, it doesn't work well otherwise. The manufacturers seem to be making a hard effort to debug it (there are some "interesting" bugs with ASIair and meridian flipping, if memory serves me correctly). I like the portability idea, but you have to watch out if you let it become too unbalanced - you cannot cheat physics, you need a good tripod and a large footprint. Me, I think that I'll upgrade to an EQ6-R later from my HEQ5 Pro mount. It may be more pedestrian and heavy, but it's much cheaper. N.F.

More competition is good for us consumers. The current (mostly) duopoly between ZWO and QHY isn't bringing the prices down. It's quite hard to polish device drivers etc, though (and documentation... even the incumbents have a long way to go in this area). N.F.

If I didn't have already the ASI462MC, I would be sorely tempted by their IMX464 camera. Now, about hot pixels, you maybe could operate the 462 for shorter intervals? N.F.

Sent an email to a Greek astronomy equipment shop (I think that they're the main dealer in Greece) about the Orion part. I suppose that Skywatcher doesn't offer this part in EU separately. N.F.

I suggest that you play with the field of view calculator, to get an idea (select "Imaging Mode", then your target, eg M31 Andromeda, then a lens/scope and a camera, then press "Add View"): https://astronomy.tools/calculators/field_of_view/ A 50mm lens should be a nice general purpose lens, suitable for half body portraits (my favourite is the 85mm/1.8, since it offers a tighter headshot). With a 400/5.6L you get a tight framing of Andromeda galaxy, to give you a sense of perspective. And a nice view of M45 Pleiades. Enjoy your photographic journey, N.F.

Depends on the flange distance. If your dSLR has larger flange distance than, say, Nikon F, then adding a X amount of distance doesn't cause a focus problem. Mirrorless cameras don't have a problem with flange distance and needed optical correction lenses, but you have other problems like body-lens electronic communication (of course, Canon and Nikon have built adapters for attaching their dSLR lenses to the respective mirrorless bodies). N.F.

Hello everyone, I am thinking about upgrading my second-hand HEQ5 Pro to a dual saddle which can accept both Vixen and Losmandy dovetails. The ADM saddle/puck is prohibitively expensive (almost half the price I paid the the used mount!), so I stumbled upon this one: https://www.telescope.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=132366 Trouble is, the shop is located in the USA and I am in EU. Ordering from them means being stabbed with a fifty EUR charge from the courier company to process the order (really!), *then* a VAT and import tax etc., which could almost triple the cost. Is there a EU retailer who sells this adapter or an equivalent? N.F.