M40

Thanks people, looks like I have got to read that chapter again 🤣 and just checking, the sidereal period of Earth is one year doh...🤦‍♂️

It doesn't surprise me that the PA is off, I virtually never see the whole of ursa minor and it can sometimes be difficult for me to see Polaris.

On tracking, if I set it to track Mars, the rate is auto set to sidereal so I know that bit is ok 🤦‍♂️ not really tried with DSO yet as I have been trying to sort myself out whilst I can still see Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. 

Thanks 👍

Hello all, I am working my way through a few books as I seem to have an abundance of spare time during the day and more than a couple of clouds at night, so.....

As I understand sidereal rate, this is the time taken for a body to orbit the sun, as such Earth sidereal rate is 1 year and all the other planets have a different sidereal rate. On the synscan handset, when you set to track Mars for example, the speed of tracking is set to sidereal rate, which I presume is Earth sidereal rate, which explains why I have to keep centering Mars in the scope.

In order to overcome this, is this where guide cameras and the associated software comes in?

And I can't quite get my mind around it at the moment, but the DSO's are also tracked at sidereal rate in the synscan which again would need centering periodically?

Does that sound right?  

Enjoy

This is something that I am trying to understand, so if I make an error hopefully someone will correct me. On a manual mount, your astrophotography would be limited to the time it takes for the object to drift across your field of view. 

Using a manual mount, you can either take single pictures, or a film of the object as it crosses your field of view. The picture or pictures can then be processed in some magical way that I have yet to try. I managed to get some very pleasing pictures of the moon just taking single snaps using a dslr.

Also, have you thought of part upgrading which would be primarily to buy a mount that can be upgraded to a goto type mount in the future. This will be a more expensive route than just buying the goto mount but at least it's an option.

Food for thought. Enjoy 

We are in a bortle 6 area and using a 200P didn't cause me too many challenges with light pollution but with the skymax the DIY dew shield is a must. If you can create a shadow using a sheet or screen of some sort I am sure that will also help.

Enjoy

Hello and welcome. The Dobsonian's are an excellent telescope being very easy to use more or less straight out of the box. They can be heavy (why I stopped using mine) and are large to store but if you are keeping it in your garage you have the best of all worlds in that it's close to where your setup is and it's already acclimatised. 

Enjoy

Hello and welcome. Not jealous of where you live...... honest 😜 A few years ago we had a break in mid Wales; knowing it to be a dark area I loaded the car with my 200P and lots of bubble wrap. We were fortunate enough to have some very dark and very clear nights when we were there. Didn't bother with the telescope, just sat outside and looked. First and only time I have seen the milky way.

The 200P is an excellent, very easy to use and enhance telescope but not very portable. If you have thought about taking your telescope with you for when you blank at your other hobby you may want to consider something a little more portable, if on the other hand the telescope is staying at home, then an 8" Dobsonian is a great choice.

Enjoy

Welcome and good choice on the Heritage, looks a great starter choice 👍 

Another +1 for turn left at Orion, it will not only give you more than a few pointers to look at but it also gives you some calculations for eyepieces and telescope maths. I must admit I found the book a difficult read initially, but you learn and understand it's content as you go on and then the book becomes very useful. I also find a planisphere very useful for spotting the brighter stars very quickly helping you find your way around.

And saying telescope.... does that make me uncool? Oh yeah.... that's cool 🤣

Look at that bad boy 😎 raised the OTA 16" and will now clear the fence, giving me the opportunity to at least try and get a few pictures of the conjunction. As you can see, I have a very small window of opportunity but hey, you have to try 👍 

Its an interesting fit in that you could end up with it out of alignment with the North leg of the tripod but if you put a mark on the mount and the tripod, install the extension tube, then just line the two marks up and away you go. Also have to say that it makes leveling the mount an absolute doddle. By placing a bubble on the extension tube you can very quickly level it up. 

12 hours ago, Astrid said:

Hi! Is the barlow necessarily? I own a 2x one that has a T2 thread but I'm afraid that the field of view would be too small to fit big DSO like Andromeda or M42. (canon DSLR too).

I was just taking pictures of the moon and planets as far as I could so didn't really try with DSO other than double stars. You can use the FLO field of view calculator and play with different set ups using your telescope to see what you can achieve only problem is it will definitely add stuff to your Christmas wish list 🤣

As others have mentioned, I had a 200P for a number of years and bolted a Canon DSLR to it using a Barlow, don't recall having any problems other than how fast everything moves. Enjoy

Hello Mohib, if the clutches are locked so you can't reposition the mount by hand and you can hear the mount driving, it could be driving at such a slow speed that you may not notice it. Ramp the speed up using the controller and see what happens. Hope it helps.

And so it begins 🤣 who needs money anyway 😜  I tried afocal photography initially and couldn't get on with it, so I moved to a DSLR. I bought a used unmodified Canon EOS 100D primarily because of the weight of the body, its about as light as they come. It's an old unit now so there are likely to be newer and better models with a similar weight out there, have a look around and see what you can find. Enjoy 👍

Agree with nephilim, once you get into it you will realise how fast everything moves so it will take some practice on a manual mount but single shot pictures and getting the best out of your camera and telescope are part of things I enjoy about this hobby. A tracking mount will most certainly help in both observing and astrophotography 

I am also unfamiliar with the 6SE having a MAK180 but the two are similar and I have been playing with a focal reducer on that. According to the book of words, to achieve the stated focal reduction, the focal reducer should be installed at the visual back. I would guess that without a Crayford focuser the VB on a 6SE is the same as on the MAK and the FR is fitted into the VB adapter. You then need 105mm between the FR and the EP to get the full focal reduction. I would suggest that if you have a Crayford focuser fitted, the FR should go before the focuser, but that is a just a guess.

On mine, with the FR fitted at the VB, after focusing, bang slap in the middle was a huge great secondary mirror making the thing a waste of time. However, by continuing to play and fitting the FR at different positions, and using different spacing's you can still get focus and the secondary disappears. The best I found was to fit the FR to the EP, what the actual focal reduction was I have no idea but it was still significant.

Hope it helps.

45 minutes ago, SStanford said:

If I plug a DSLR straight into my scope with the specs above with a t-joint, how will I know the magnification? 

 

Hello and welcome, you will find answers to all your questions here I am sure..... however..... that question has some very interesting answers that I really don't understand. There is a very similar and recent thread on here that you may wish to search out, it has answered the question using words like radians, pixels etc, so my version of the answer to the question is that you don't get magnification from a camera, you are taking a picture. 🤔

Enjoy

+1 for sky at night magazine. And maybe consider a planisphere? Not a book but will help you find your way around the night sky.

First off, I can't believe that something of that value does not provide storage solutions. Hey ho, the world we live in I suppose. I don't have that telescope but it looks like the mount and OTA has a similar arrangement for attaching to the tripod which is by means of a long bolt that you tighten through the tray? If so, is it possible for you to put that bolt or a similar threaded bolt through your sturdy table and fix the mount in position on the table and as such keep the OTA in a balanced position on the mount?

I was talking to my son the other day about the sad but true point that I found the maths around eyepieces to be interesting. He then admitted a sad fact from his childhood (he is now 38). He loved a Japanese anime programme called Dragonball Z. In it, the character's came from a planet called Namek. The story goes that they used an a space ship to travel to Jupiter from earth which took 57 seconds. He calculated that the ship was travelling at between 34-56x speed of light. They then traveled to the planet Namek taking 37 days. This puts the planet Namek at between 3.49 and 5.74 lightyears away. The planet Namek has 3 stars, one being a Red Dwarf. Turns out that Alpha Centauri is in that distance range, Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf and there has been a planet found called alpha centauri B in the habitable zone. The cartoon Dragonball Z started 26/4/1989 and the planet alpha centauri B was discovered 24/8/2016.

What do you reckon? 🤣

Disclaimer: These numbers and all information are all my sons work  🤔😁

Great topic 👍 For me, seeing my first double star, Achird, seeing and getting a picture of a phase of Venus, talk about grin 😎

16 hours ago, MathewRimmington said:

Hi guys,

At the risk of re-igniting this discussion, I thought I'd share that my 200P has finally arrived. Only been able to use it once, but so far I'm blown away by the views. Managed to get a good look at Saturn, never seen it in so much detail before.

Mat

👍 My first "proper scope" was a 200P. Get a good app for the phone, take your Dob outside, plonk it down where you can see the object of your choice , line it up and away you go 👍 Probably the most important thing is to get the finder scope lined up as close as you can get it, you can do that at anytime during the day so clear skies not needed. Pick the furthest object you can see to line it up and try and leave the finder in position when you put it all away. If you are a clutz like me, you will knock the finder scope but do try not to. You don't have to worry too much about dew, if you can, leave your Dob safe in a shed, that way temperature won't be too much of a problem either. You will be surprised at how fast things move, so the clutch and bolt torque will give you a learning curve. 

I couldn't get on with the phone holders so didn't really try too hard at afocal photography but its well worth a go as I did get a few "lucky" shots, so that will dip your toe in the astrophotography field 🤣 or there are all sorts of adapters for your DLSR.

Enjoy

Try a second hand car mechanics box. Plenty of sections, plus its lockable and verrrrry heavy.

Thanks for all the info vlaiv. I have been working my way through understanding the EP and that makes sense; I see where you are coming from with the tunnel vision. Between you and Captain Magenta and his topic reverse engineering of the skymax, I have more than enough maths to sort out 😜 Not anywhere near getting to grips with the focal reducer so that's my next challenge.

It has become very clear though that to get the whole of M31 in the frame using this telescope is not really going to happen, so you saved me a couple of pennies on getting an EP that wouldn't work so many thanks for that.

Thanks for that Louis, I think I need to get a grip of these terms. As I understand it, afocal projection is placing a camera with lens fitted against the eyepiece of the telescope whereas eyepiece projection is removing the lens from the dslr, fitting the camera to the eyepiece and prime focus is fitting the dslr direct to the telescope with no eyepiece or camera lens but possibly a reducer or barlow. 

I also need to understand the numbers that vlaiv has posted. 

My plan was either to do eyepiece projection with the Hyperion asph 36 and to get the field of view bolt on a 2" reducer or a different telescope route. Looking at FLO FOV calculator, doing prime focus with a 0.5x reducer, dslr and the skymax180 will not get the whole of M31 in the picture; but doing eyepiece projection using the asph36 and the reducer will. I already have the reducer so no cost issue there but I didn't want to throw a few pennies at the eyepiece if it doesn't work similarly with the telescope. Not interested in buying a massive camera lens, I would rather go the astronomy route.

Thanks for the comparison of images 👍

Many thanks vlaiv, so I now understand that the eyepiece route is not the way to go 👍

On the basis that there are very limited items on the shelf at the moment, I have had plenty of time to consider things rather than just splash out, which gives me time to ask your thoughts.

I am not into imaging as such, but I do enjoy sticking the DSLR onto the telescope and taking a single shot of what I am looking at. I am trying to get the best grey smudge I can of M31 but I am now at a bit of a crossroads, do I change the telescope or do I get a different eyepiece. I am very much on a budget but do have some flexibility. I have a skymax 180, my options as I see it are to purchase a new eyepiece like the Baader Hyperion Aspheric 36mm with a 2" 0.5x reducer or get a different telescope such as the SW 150PDS and use the eyepieces I have. I like the Baader eyepieces simply because I can bolt my camera directly onto it.

Your thoughts would be most welcome. 

57 minutes ago, Nate67 said:

Advice from anyone would be great. Complete novice here looking at x3 telescopes for planet and moon viewings and nebula/dso. For both viewing and possibly basic photography:

Bresser messier 10" dobsonian

Bresser messier mcx-127 goto 

Skywatcher explorer 200p eq6 goto

Thanks all

Got to say that my first proper telescope was a 200P dobsonian which I would still be using if I hadn't been in fear of dropping it each time I moved it. That on the goto mount will be superb. Which leads me to a question for dweller25, according to the info I can find, the 200P ota weighs 8.8Kgs, have you weighed yours at all with the bearings removed? My reason for asking is that I passed my Dob onto the grandson but I believe that its collecting cobwebs, so my thoughts were would my HEQ5 pro mount be capable of moving it plus DSLR plus eyepiece? Your thoughts would be most welcome. 👍