Shimonu

When I compare the Skywatcher PDS newtons to other brands versions, like the TS-Optics Photon series I don't see what's really motivating the higher price for the Skywatcher. They include some eye pieces but is that it? Are they significantly better quality in some way?

I'd love to go to FLO, it's where I got my telescope but as I'm in Sweden it got pretty expensive to buy from FLO after brexit. I've seen the thread on Baader and the new ultra narrowband seem promising even though they didn't seem perfect. I was wondering if halos and/or reflections are just a given or is it a bit of luck with your combination of equipment? And is it tricky to fix in post processing?

Opps, double post

I'm having trouble choosing narrowband filters. How do I navigate this jungle? What should I look for? I'll likely be shopping at astroshop which offer Atik, Baader, Optolong or ZWO as far as I can tell. The prices can be pretty different and I don't want to end up buying something I'll regret. So I'd prefer to wait and save up a little if it's worth it. Right now I guess I'd be looking at something in the €4-500 range. Eqiupment is in my signature.

Since I'm always going away to shoot I'll have prepared the equipment beforehand. So hopefully I won't be swapping anything during a session. But I'm interested in getting a something like 200/800 newtonian in the future and I want to make sure it won't give me any surprises.

I had never heard about it but it seems like a well used and good focuser. Certainly cheaper than the ZWO. Great tip, thanks!

You mean there's no driver support for manual focus, so if you don't get the hand controller you have to rely on the automatic focus and already being somewhat focused? It won't be possible to do any manual in/out focus in any software? But surely it has to since you figure out the backlash by manually focusing in and out, right? I saw that Ekos can perform refocusing based on the HFR and the amount it has changed, so temperature shouldn't be an issue.

I'll most likely be ordering an electronic auto focuser in the upcoming weeks and I wanted to check if there's anything I should check or keep in mind. I'll be using it with my WO Z73 and possibly a newtonian in the future. I was recommended to get one with a hand controller but I'm not sure I understand why, would that be to get the focus roughly right? I would like to make sure I know how it's used, I photograph in the field so I might have to do some setting up each night. But I'm hoping I can pretty much leave it alone as I carry my scope as a package. Before using it I understand you have to set up how much backlash it has. I was considering getting one without a temperature probe as I already have one on my pocket powerbox but I'm not sure if it will be able to use it in Ekos. Could I just refocus every 10-15 minutes or would that add a lot of time to my session? Thanks!

If you didn't do any cropping then there likely isn't any. There is certainly a learning curve but for me it's been a lovely one. I feel like I spent all last year just browsing forums, watching youtube and reddit trying to learn as much as I could in excitement. Now I'm trying to get some serious equipment. I have to embarrassingly admit I've got a serious mono rig but still haven't gotten anything for doing flats. That's my next goal.

Is this cropped anything? It looks like you're a little out of focus. With such a wide lens it should be possible to get pretty small stars. I started out the same way myself. I put my Nikon D60 on a tripod and used an IR remote. I'll share my picture of Ursa Major/Big dipper. I don't remember if this was with my kit lens or the 50 f/1.8 I got later.

Was finally able to try out the mount after going over it and the guiding has certainly improved. I was able to get 1.1"-1.5" stable and depending on the exposure length. I haven't had a chance to open the logs on the computer yet but the calibration looked pretty bad still. So I'll have to look at that and perhaps the guiding can be improved even more. I'm guessing that ideally it should be a perfect cross?

Well it's hardly his personal idea, is it? Someone wants to use SpaceX as a launch provider for a satellite billboard. Hardly a nice thing for anyone but why not attack the company wanting to put up the billboard? Sure, you can also say it's something SpaceX shouldn't be doing but don't start lying claiming it's his personal idea

Yes the goal of SpaceX is to make humanity multi-planetary and Musk has said he wants to die on Mars, just not during landing What may appear as a lot of failures from SpaceX is a very deliberate methodology. They like to find faults by testing, sometimes deliberately to know the exact breaking points and weaknesses. It's to avoid over-engineering, saving time and resources, I believe. They're also at the forefront of rocketry, they're developing things that nobody has done before. They are the first to land a first stage booster, they're the first to fly a full flow staged combustion cycle engine. The Starship will be the first fully reusable rocket system and the largest rocket every built. They have accomplished a lot of first and will continue to do so. Frankly, there is no other rocket developer close to what SpaceX is doing. What's also exciting about them is that they are so open about their development. Elon likes to answer questions and share details about plans and development progress as well as allowing people to put up permanent cameras outside their development facilities.

Just waiting for a clear night to test it out. Forecast shows no opportunity any time soon.. 😕 Hopefully it's wrong.

No worries, I appreciate you taking the time.

I'm not sure what you're looking at, a lot of this sounds strange to me. I'm working with indi drivers and an NEQ-6, I don't have any 290MM mini, just a 294MM Pro or a 120MM-S. Also I'm using the internal guider of Ekos. Anyway, I've gotten the RA axis apart and noticed the worm shaft wasn't turning smoothly. Hopefully this is the issue. I just needed to loosen the locking ring for the shaft. There are some pretty nasty tool marks on the end caps from the previous owner and I suspect he's been in there trying to do god knows what.

I found a tutorial and loosened them and retightened just until there was resistance.

I don't think so, I was really making sure I was only tightening enough to make the slop disappear. I went back a few times so I could feel it again and just tightened a very small amount to see when it went away.

I haven't done much. Previously I've just noticed the RA had some play when trying to move it with my hands and I've adjusted the grub screws to tighten the worm drive until I couldn't feel any play at least. Otherwise I've only done stuff with the software and try to interpret logs. I haven't seen any change at all really.

But essentially I should take it apart, inspect and feel that everything is in good condition and moving smoothly? Sorry, I'm not sure I'm following. Look at what exactly?

Unfortunately, no. I have pretty elongated stars so it would appear the values being reported were not true. Thinking about it they were pretty much half of what I would normally see.

Sorry for the lack of info. I've been trying to get some help but got the feeling guidelogs were not appreciated as I didn't get any response. I'll add the log from the picture. So I was using mostly 2s exposure and trying 1.5s to see if it made any difference. You're very much correct that blue is RA. I appreciate the input. If I'm understanding you the RA axis is loose in some places but getting stuck in other places? I guess it might be worth going for the belt mod as I'll likely need to take it apart and inspect it anyway. guide_log-2021-08-05T00-15-32.txt

Sorry, I was a bit unclear. I was only trying to use PHD2 for the guiding assistant or other tools for diagnosing issues. I normally use the internal guider with multistar guiding.

I've tried adjusting my RA axis so I don't feel and play. I thought I solved it by binning my guiding camera but that seems to have just changed the numbers without improving the actual guiding. The calibration in Ekos seems to go through successfully but I'm not sure how I read the plot. I've included a picture of what the guiding looks like from Ekos. I'm getting really desperate, I'd really like to understand the issue before I start replacing things on random.

Well that would be a bummer... I'll post in the indi forums to see what they say.