AstroGS

@powerlord well done mate. I would love to see the scope to work as it should. 

The most frustrating was the fact, that it would have been super easy for the seller to just coordinate/facilitate the repair. 
 

Also, my experience from other forums has shown me that if you are about to buy 2nd hand items, of a certain value and above, it is best to buy them from a dedicated to that subject forum. Usually, the members of those forums will be less inclined to hide issues with the item they sell, as they value their hard earned reputation as more important. 
 

Selling platforms are very often misused by people that just want to get rid of their faulty garbage, without being able to regulate that. 

Hi - your input will be highly appreciated. 
 

I am planning to have 2 setups - one with the EQ6R-PRO, WO GT81, flattener, Astro Essentials 50mm, ASI290mm mini and ASI533MC and one portable with AZ-GT, Redcat51, WO 32mm guide scope with again ASI290mm mini and ASI533. 
 

I am plying around with the idea to add o my setup a ZWO OAG for both setups. I have read different opinions on if this helped others or not. 

Any thoughts if I would benefit or not?

p.a is this even the correct thread for this question?
 

By the way …. Do you know that the Redcat51 V2 is on sale already?

https://www.widescreen-centre.co.uk/william-optics-redcat-51-v2.html

51 minutes ago, symmetal said:

I suspect that the screw material needs to be softer than the glass they're pushing against to avoid getting 'pinched' optics. They are probably made of nylon. It's likely that whoever tried to adjust them used metric allen keys when they are possibly imperial sized grub screws. You can sometimes get away with it with metal grub screws but nylon ones are likely to burr over.

Hope you will be happy with whatever new scope you get George. 😊 I bet it's put you off buying second hand in future though.

Alan

I cannot agree more with you, re buying 2nd hand - especially without inspecting it first. 
 

I think I know where the come came from. 2 of the screws were extremely tight that could have easily pushed the lense even a bit. Those 2 screws seem to have been tinkered by someone. It did not look like a factory issue. 
 

Even the corrector lense at the back has 3 springs ( I assume for easier adjustment) but all 3 screws were again very tight. 
 

As I said the lenses are almost perfect and it could be a nice opportunity for someone to try and fix it. 
 

Unfortunately the seller is not willing to help or of course take any responsibility. It seems that someone tried to tinker with the alignment screws at the front lenses as a couple of them are wear off. Since he is also avoiding to provide me with the receipt it makes me believe that he knew about it. And no he is not from there forums - I bought it from ABS. 
 

It is an expensive mistake but, I have started looking into it on my own. The lenses are perfect but, removing the screws I found out 2 things:

1. WO are using very cheap plasticky-feel screws that can be very easily broken! Why WO?

2. If someone has the knowledge, they could make good of it. 
 

I have made the decision to offer for sale the OTA + Redcat ring + dovetail for around £150 in case some one is willing to try and fix it. And I will go for a new scope.

Managed to get close to 8 hrs of 600-sec subs.

WO GT81 + Flattener

L-Extreme filter

ASI533MC

EQ6R-Pro

5 hours ago, symmetal said:

George,

I assume these are from your Redcat. The two images are showing different results, neither of which are particularly good. I've found that CCDI tends to ignore coma if it's small as the star centre itself is still defined enough to get a reasonable FWHM figure. With your coma being so bad, it is affecting the results as your FWHM figures are also large. To be honest I don't think you can get any meaningful results from CCDI until the coma issue is resolved. 😔

Alan

Thanks @symmetal,

To be honest, probably i want to believe that the issue is with tilt rather than anything else.

By the way - i see that you have a ZS61. Are you happy with it and are you using it as a travel scope? How does it compare with the Redcat51?

Best

George

Ive managed to check the frames with CCDI - thoughts?

Frame1:

Frame2: 

Frame2:

OK - i am still trying to figure out how to proceed with this but, i need to comment that @FLO has been great with their willingness to help, even if they do not have to. A genuinely great company to deal with - hats off.

So, i need a wide field, light and with great optics travel scope, to work very well with my ASI533MC. My options are:

• New Redcat51
• ASKAR230
• Sharpstar 61EDPH II (do i need a reducer for flat field)?

If i did not have 2nd thoughts, i would have gone for a new Redcat51 but, may i please check (if you know) how susceptible are they to lose lenses alignment or to other issues?

27 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

Looking good George. 

I will say like I said to David in a previous post that your az gti mount could do with moving in the direction of the red arrow so the top of the mount is in line with the main pillar in your tripod. The reason I say this my setup was the same and I had awful trouble adjusting the Dec adjustment bolts as the were really hard to turn even with the clutch off. The top of the mount should be inline with the orange arrow, then it balanced better on your tripod too. A longer dovetail bar will help with this. 👍

Have you managed to get your redcat to be looked at and fixed? 

 

Interesting. Do you have a picture of yours on how you did that?  With a dovetail?

Got it and set it up today. Unfortunately, first light needs to wait a bit longer as my redcat has an appointment with the telescope doctor. 
 

But, happy to see that it is ready 😀

Just now, George Sinanis said:

@Adam J thanks for your post - it seems the seller has made his position clear and not much to wait from that side.

The telescope has a tilt adjuster that i was advised by RVO to use but, i am not sure if the tilt adjust can make any difference in such a severe coma situation. I have emailed WO awaiting their input and i have also asked FLO for any possible advice, although they have no responsibility whatsoever to answer/ help me.

 

@Adam J Also i was trying to get more info regarding ES Reed...do you happen to have any link? Many thanks in advance.

@Adam J thanks for your post - it seems the seller has made his position clear and not much to wait from that side.

The telescope has a tilt adjuster that i was advised by RVO to use but, i am not sure if the tilt adjust can make any difference in such a severe coma situation. I have emailed WO awaiting their input and i have also asked FLO for any possible advice, although they have no responsibility whatsoever to answer/ help me.

11 minutes ago, Elp said:

Just a thought, did you try taking a preview image without the filter in it? It may however be as @symmetal has described above.

I did try it indeed without the filter but, not without the filter drawer. The results btw were the same. But, i do not understand how could that impact the image to get such a coma.

1 hour ago, tompato said:

Don't RVO do servicing and test reports on refractors and stuff now?

They could still do so but, for this type of OTA it needs to go to WO, if a repair/ service is required.

Unfortunately, not much help from the seller or RVO on this matter. My only alternative now is to go to William Optics and try to see if they can help or what they advice.

Is there a way to test this by myself and try to fix it? Any step-by-step guide on how to investigate this matter on my own, will be highly appreciated. Otherwise i just threw £500+ in the bin. I would assume you buy cheap --> you buy twice.

Morning - I just checked also WO’s inspection checklist and it seems that this one left the factory on 14/8/2021 so I would assume that are not from the first releases. I will speak with the seller and RVO today and see what can be done.

12 minutes ago, symmetal said:

Hi George,

Is this a new scope you're trying for the first time?

What your seeing is severe coma over the whole image. Early releases of the Redcat were prone to these problems due to the internal lenses not being properly aligned. I bought one of the first releases and had to return it as they had issues like this. The replacement was worse and FLO sent one off to Es Reid to be aligned. The one I kept in the end has slight coma in one corner but was acceptable.

The spacing itself isn't critical as it's a Petzval design and the specified spacing merely makes focusing at infinity line up with the infinity mark on the tube.

I'm afraid your only recourse is to return it or get its lenses professionally aligned. 🙁

Alan

Thanks Alan,

I thought so…..no this is a 2nd hand RC51 bought allegedly from RVO and it was immaculate. It might be a case that it was mistreated during shipping (al though it was in its case and very well packed).

Would FLO/RVO help with this if of course I pay for the service?

Best

George

Last night everything worked perfectly for me bar the focus part for the Redcat 51.

gave up after 3 hours.

Here is a 3mins sub of the heart nebula. With the Bahtinov mask it seemed focused pretty well….but, something is wrong here.

setup:

Redcat51

ZWO filter drawer with L-Extreme

ASI533mc

spacers as per the guides

including a screenshot as fyi in case it helps

1 hour ago, AstroNebulee said:

Very nice indeed George 👍. I'd be interested to see how it balances with your guidescope and AAP there. Let us know how you get on when your az gti arrives 😊

Having the same thought tbh……it balances pretty ok with the Star Adventurer…..a bit off at dec but, nothing major. When I get the az-gt I will report back definitely. If it does not work, I will move the Asiair under the front of the dovetail.

Placed the order for the AZ-GT. it might need some tweaking to get it to 3mins guided with PE less than a 1”. Will be used with WO wedge, AZ extension tube, Redcat51, Asiair Plus, ASI533MC, WO Uniguide + ASI290MM mini. Total weight, 3.25kgr (including cables).

Have bought a Manfrotto carrier bag, that will fit everything and with total weight less than 10kgr (including 2 kgr weights) 

Morning.

I am debating with myself the need to buy a full go-to portable mount and replace my Star Adventurer. Probably I will be getting the new SW Adventurer GTi when it will be available later this year.

Currently, I do have a SW Staradventurer with a WO Wedge which I’m using with WO Redcat51, Mini120 guider and Asiair Plus, combined with an ASI533MC.  My question is, which one would you consider best option for DSO astrophotography - for 2mins to 4 mins subs? Is the AZ-GTi superior to the the SA?

I am asking as I will be flying to Greece this summer and I am preparing a portable rig that I will take with me. To be honest, the one thing that always frustrated me with the SW SA is the need to frame correctly the target but, after that I could easily do 3mins subs with 1”-2” PE.

Taking now 600 secs of subs for as long as we will have clear skies tonight.

Out of 30 frames (from 1st night) i managed to keep 27 and used some darks and bias (no flats).

Just cropped, quick DBE and stretch in PI - no further processing right now.