powerlord

Just to add, I weighted it and actually just 5.2kg. Good to know u can get results with 500mm. Heres setup

ZWO.. use german gearsets ? possible I suppose, but I imagine not.

Oh I dunno, a fiver plus postage back?

I wonder if it'll be worth me renting out my spyder 5 for a nominal fee? Once calibrated, yer done and its easy enough. I'd imagine there's a lot of folk could use it?

Clear in Ipswich 6pm till midnight, so about 5 hours worth of RGBL with EQ6r-pro, asi1600 and TS-Photon 150 Newt with Baader mk3 Coma Corrector. Oh, also took 25 mins of Ha just to pick out a bit more reds. Processed in Startools for a change, with fidling afterwards in Affinity Photo. stu

Main mount shooting M33 this evening, so I thought I'd upgrade the AZGTI firmware and see how the guiding is now. It was VASTLY overloaded with the 80ED, EAF, asi533 and guidescope on it - need to weight tomorrow, but can't be far off 10kg. Really just a test to see if the azgti is guiding correctly with latest firmware with ASIAIR.. and shock horror - it is finally!! yeah! Not wonderfully - sometimes 3" rms, sometimes <1 rms". but it's not running away, and frankly I'm asking a lot of it with the heavy 80ED on it. None the less, it did it - 500mm FL with an AZGTI.. not bad. Here's the result, 130 mins of 13 x 10 min of the best subs. L-extreme of course. stacked in APP, processed in Siril and Affinity Photo. Not bad for a wee cheap azgti imho at this Focal Length !

my shortlist was the SW 150p and this. chris @ flo said the ts had a better focuser and secondary - so I thought I'd plump for that. with coma corrector yer talking 400 quid. vs about 6-700 for a similar fl apo refactor+flattener, and even then it's not going to be as fast. I'm glad I went with the newt. Right now it's out there imaging m33 🙂

I'm really interested to see how it turns out. A few 'reviews' on zwo saying they were beta testers and it had issues, but then.. that's what beta testing is about. 2000 quid is still a lot of money. I'm not sure looking at the price of existing mounts is a great idea, as there is no way there is anything like 1000 quid of tech in, what is at the end of the day a fancy motor.. never mind enough to justify a 6k price tag. stu

yeh guidescope and focuser. did the trick 😀

it's only a little scope, so can't imagine problems with flex. The F4 is a different beast - more than 100 quid more expensive. Focuser wise - I found you do need to have it pretty tight, but then it's fine - no slippage for me and I've got a fair old weight on the end with the asiair and EFW. Never noticed Halos except on Almitak - I suppose I'm not that much if a star peeper.

It's been a fascinating year in the hobby - learning every week. From not knowing anything about telescopes, the sky, imaging, stacking, etc - to where I am now. From my first post asking for advice on scope choice: It's been a great experience learning, and very much helped by all the kind people on here. To my first questions once I got it on 7th January last year: I wanted to share one photo that I think sums up what, a year ago, I thought would be impossible to achieve. Back in March I shot the Rosette Nebula for the first time. With my DSLR. I'd had 3 months to realise I like imaging and wanted to do more. I though it was amazing, magical, awe inspiring. And I looked at other pictures - like @carastro 's pictures and some of the ones I could find online - the animal parade! - amazing. Though I was amazed by what I shot, I could also see just how far I was from reaching that level. I did a video merging between my rosette and one from the internet to show how far I still was from what I could get to: Well, back into Rosette season again, and I think I can finally be happy that I've got there. processed in Siril and Affinity. Now that I have achieved my goal, I can now sell the house full of telescopes, cameras and mounts I have accumulated and find another hobby. only kidding. 😛 happy new year all. stu

here we go - much happier now it's balanced.

I got this OTA just before xmas to sit in mid-range FL space. I have a 72ED, and now also an Altair 80ED for the 4-500 space, and I have the 9.25 with 6.3 reducer for around 1300. And of course higher FL without it. I have a 200P newt, but it's big and a pain to setup and balance. So.. after some discussion on the forum where I wanted to say away from newts, I ended up going for a smaller newt! for value for money it just seemed a no brainer. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/ts-telescopes/ts-photon-6-f5-advanced-newtonian-telescope-with-metal-tube.html After first light I was impressed, but it was in need of a coma corrector, so on advice from FLO I bought this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/coma-correctors/baader-mark-iii-mpcc-coma-corrector-photographic.html So about 400 quid all in. Possibly the ideal beginners scope ? I've used it quite a few nights now, so wanted to just give a quick review - not war and peace, but as FLO has only started selling them, I figured it might be useful to potential buyers. It came in a solid box, and seemed to have good collimation out of box. I've as yet not re-collimated. It looks nice in 'zwo red' and black, going well with my other ZWO bits. The focuser is a crayford job, which though according to FLO, is better quality that the rack and pinion Skywatcher equivalent, does need careful setting up to avoid slipage with my asi1600, and EFW on the end of it. I use the ZWO EAF - this took a wee bit of creativity to mount as the screw holes are not suitable. So it is on with one bolt, and some tie wraps - but it does the job and focuses reliably all night long through my filters automatically. If, like me you came from a 200P, it might surprise you just how much smaller and more manageable it is. It's no longer a burden to setup like the 200p, easy to balance, less couterweights, and I am getting 0.4" RMS guiding pretty constantly with my EQ6r-pro. It has an open back for the mirror, so be aware of that for darks. As I have quite a lot of ground light pollution I cover that up with masking tape. I've had no dew issues so far, though I have woken to find it covered in frost - but the mirrors have remained clear. With the coma corrector it appears sharp edge to edge - a few pics below from the last few days. All in all, I'd say it's a great scope at a great price. I'm a very happy punter - it's going to be getting a lot of use in the coming months.

I'm gonna have another go at processing this tonight - the data is good, but I'm not happy with result - too flat, but increasing contrast makes the darks break up.

turns oot, about 30% of my subs are rubbish.. looking like maybe stickiness in mount. that's my guess - frozen a bit. never had that before.

Getting a roll on with these clear nights. Shot last night, processed tonight in Siril and Affinity Photo.

last night, I shot the same target with my altair 80ED and asi533 OSC - for comparison.

Count the Galaxies. A quick RGBL of a bit of the Makarian chain last night with the 150 newt.

One from last night. SHO of M42. 30 x 60 sec subs per channel. Integated in APP, and processed in Siril and Affinity Photo.

Here's the results (I shot M42 and IC1396 too, but still need some channels to finish those).

fair enough, understood - thanks. Yeh I was using asi120 last night. though wouldn't I expect the guiding to jump around up and down with each measure as per your half meter stick example ? as that's not what I see in the phd2 graphs ? stu

One fyi for others really. I've been using this for 6 months or so, and took SVBony at their word, setting 240mm as the FL in asiair for guiding. tbh, it's worked fine, with a 0.6" RMS on my EQ6-r pro most of the time. Last night though I thought I'd let asiair plate solve it.. and it says it's 175mm! The info itself from svbony is not exactly clear: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Svbony-Helical-Focuser-Astronomy-Telescope/dp/B07N1BNS4C 50mm..F4.. but 240mm FL. Anyway, my assumption is that a plate solve cannot lie, so I set it to 175mm for guiding. Whether that helped or it was just good seeing, my RMS last night was often 0.3" for many subs. Possibly one for @vlaiv to explain ?

2 mounts set up imaging in freezing outside while I enjoy some wine and a read of the forum. Nice. 😁

If it's not off topic, that's something else I've noticed 'wrong' with millennials - they seem to have no qualms about Shilling. It's constant. Even with podcasts where I really respect the presenters (e.g. No Such Thing as a Fish). Whether it's rubbish like Harry's Razors, or nonsense like HelloFresh, each is talked about personally as if it has made their life complete. In the UK we had/have laws against that sort of shilling nonsense - it's why on the radio you don't hear the presenters read out adverts as it would be seen as them endorsing them. But this behaviour has been common in the states since radio began. It seems that it has been allowed to jump into podcasts, youtube, etc with no controls and just become acceptable in the UK too by most people. And of course, being part of the content even an adblocker does not remove them - one has to skip past the shilling mince. Anyway, on another topic, why not try Blinkest* - I have been a subscriber since birth, and would find it difficult to survive a day without it. Blinkest lets you read books in minutes by condensing them into a few pages of meaningless drivel succinct content. When you subscribe, use the code 'IdSellMyGranny4aPound' to make me money save you a pound on the first month. *this is a real thing.