simonharrison

Ok good to know it's not just me... Thanks. Will try again when weather allows and try mode switching see if that helps.

Hi all I've been playing with an ASIAIR Pro connected to a ZWO 462 camera for imaging Jupiter and Saturn, and I'm finding it rather tough working with some extreme lag that occurs on the live video feed when I reduce the ROI to smaller than the full res. Is there something I'm missing or is this just a feature of using ASIAIR Pro over wifi to the ASIAIR app? Just to be clear what I'm doing is: - set up lightbridge 16" dob on eq platform, find and centre Jupiter using 9mm eyepiece - swap over to ZWO 462 cam and connect it to ASIAIR Pro - on my phone, connect to the AISAIR wifi and open the ASIAIR app - Click 1080p to get max resolution and find and centre Jupiter. (Note the lag while in 1080p mode is not too bad, about 1/2 a second between focussing or moving scope and seeing the movment in the app) - Click 480p to reduce ROI. => the lag between focussing or moving the scope and seeing the result is now massive, about 5-10 seconds - this makes making any adjustments eg centring the planet in the now tiny FOV very frustrating! Is there perhaps something I'm missing or doing wrong? Connecting the camera to a PC directly there's no lag whatsoever so it has to be the ASIAIR Pro and/or limitations of wifi. Wondering whether I should have gone with a little laptop instead of the ASIAIR. cheers Simon

Interesting, didn't expect that re: Barlow, as I'd read so much on forums about pixel size * 5 being the optimum F/number to image at. OK so for now I'll leave out getting a barlow, as I already do have an Altair 2x focal extender. Can see how it goes. I just looked up my scope (Meade Lightbridge 16") and it's actually F5 and the focal length is 1829mm. Thanks for the tip about IR pass filters. I'll get one of those as well. cheers

Hi all I'm looking to try imaging the planets and moon. I have a 16" F4.5 Meade Lightbridge on an equatorial platform and just picked up a used ZWO 462 on eBay. Firstly having read around about optimum pixel sizes and focal lengths for imaging, I believe I need something around a 3 or 4X Barlow. The 462's pixel size is 2.9 microns and according to the formula often quoted: pixel size * 5 (or 6 or maybe 7) gets me to a range of F14.5 to F20.3. So F14.5/4.5F = 3.333... and F20.3/4.5 = 4.51111... so essentially that means to image optimally I need a barlow of 3 or 4. Have I got that correct? In terms of the barlow itself I'll probably try and get hold of a 4X Powermate as it's 2 inches (all my lenses are 2" so it can double up to be used with them for visual). I assume there's no real preference between 1.25" barlows/FEs and 2" ones? Apart from 2" ones being costlier! Lastly I believe I need the following gear to go with the 462, 4X Powermate: IR cut filter probably go ZWO again - not sure whether to get 1.25" or 2" though? ADC (eg ZWO 125 - I assume it's OK to go 1.25" for this? Assume it will fit in the Powermate?) A long USB cable and a cheap laptop with USB 3 and a decent SSD to stream the images to Or would an ASI AIR Pro be able to stream the images to my indoor PC? Did I miss anything? Thanks for any help, Simon

Hi folks @supernova I've just received an equatorial platform made by David Lukehurst. I had aimed to make one but between house move and job and kids it's time (and probably tools) I did not have... It seems to work although I've only tried it once. Quick test with my phone (OnePlus 7 Pro) clamped to 9mm eyepiece with 30s exposure bagged the below quick shot of the Ring nebula M57. Next step is a camera to try imaging planets, although weighing up whether to get a ZWO 224 vs 385 vs 462 vs 178 is frankly mindbogglingly confusing and I need to read many more forums first...

Thanks that looks better than some taxi magnets! What's the make / where can I get it? cheers

Addendum - I just checked the price and it's gone up since I bought it to now a bit under £2k, unfortunately...

Couple of snaps. Orion and moon taken just by holding my phone up to the eyepiece.

Hello! I did end up buying the Meade and just posted a followup in the reviews section. cheers Simon

Hi all Following on from my thread back in Feb: So towards end of Feb I did buy the 16" lightbridge directly from Meade. There wasn't a lot of choice for me as Skywatchers were completely out of stock and the prices had risen enormously, and second hand wasn't an option because of lockdown. So I pulled the trigger and now I've been used it for not far off 4 months I thought I'd share my experience of it, as I know when I researched the purchase a lot of the information about the lightbridge on forums etc goes back years and maybe some up to date info might help some new purchasers. So without further ado... Observing So far I've used it purely for visual. I was concerned about the size a little, but it's actually a great size, near zenith I can view standing up normally, and lower down I have an old gas strut kitchen stool that I adjust the height of for viewing. The weight though - well I knew it was 80kg - but BOY is it heavy... the base isn't too bad but I can't carry OTA more than five to ten metres away from the shed! The wheel barrow comes in very handy for the few occasions I need to take it down the end of the garden for a better view. Over the few months since it arrived I've had great views of Orion, Andromeda, Uranus (bluey green!), Mars (not so much detail, too far away), the Crab nebula (faint), Owl, all sorts of star clusters, M81 and M82, Leo triplet and NGC 3593, M51 whirlpool (can see the arms), sunflower galaxy, and of course the moon, which is just incredible to view. I also viewed Jupiter and Saturn a couple of nights ago - North and south equatorial belts on Jupiter and other belts visible above and below them. Jupiter's moon as discs instead of points. Saturn's cassini division very clear despite a bit of cloud. All my views so far have been without any kind of shroud, in bortle 4 skies. I don't have any streetlights but there are some (non-intrusive) security lights from nearby neighbours. Also, I didn't even collimate the telescope for the first month as I couldn't decide which tools to buy! I bought a magnetic Wixey off Amazon which really helps finding objects. The tiny laser pointer included on the scope isn't as bad a people say, it's very small and light and easy to adjust. With that and the Wixey I've managed just fine finding objects. I may look at a telrad and/or finder at some point though. The azimuth movement of the scope is buttery smooth and is really nice to use. The altitude is not as good, a bit more sticky, but it's OK. I keep the scope outside in a large shed, which helps keep its temp cool.. It comes with a fan and battery pack and I'll stick this on for a while before I start viewing. The scope comes with a plastic "bin lid" which fits snugly over the mirror. I'd read that it used to come with some cap which came loose during shipping and scratched some people's mirrors but that no longer appears to be the case. No other dust caps come with it though so I use plastic sheeting to cover it when not in use. Collimation I've found the scope easy to collimate and use a Hotech laser most of the time (also have collimation cap and a Cheshire). I read lots about the scope not holding collimation too well and I have found this with mine, especially when slewing down to high or low altitude - with Hotech laser on you can really see the laser point move due to mirror shift. However there are some things I found which helped enormously: tightening up all the screws attaching the spider vanes to the upper tube assembly tightening up all screws on the OTA body such as those on the metal 'lip' edges tightening up the screws on the focusser - before I did this the focusser wobbled a little when all the way out tightened the primary collimation knobs all the way in so the screws on which the mirror sits are fully compressed, and then collimated from there. This means the mirror is held more tightly by the screws mark the struts, and use the same struts in the same positions. Even better, I now never detach the struts from the mirror part of the OTA. Doing all the above made an enormous difference to the mirror shift. It still shifts but only a little and only at the extreme ends of altitudes. If switching from high to low alt target I'll tend to quickly recollimate anyway. Eyepieces Back in Feb lenses were in very very short supply (still might be). I eventually managed to source three 2" Explore Scientific lenses: ES 82 deg - 24mm ES 100 deg - 14mm ES 100 deg - 9mm 2" Altair Lightwave 2x focal extender I adore the wide views of the 100 deg eyepieces. It's like floating in space! However, they are heavy and if combined with the focal extender the scope pulls down and I need to use the altitude brake, which is flimsy and doesn't work very well, and also makes nudging the altitude much stickier. I've ordered a couple of 300g taxi magnets from ebay to help with balancing. Jury's out on the altair extender - I had trouble making out details on Mars in March using it. There's only 1 thumbscrew to tighten a lens in, which seems inadequate. I might try the Explore Scientific extender. Future purchases I have an equatorial platform coming tomorrow that's built by David Lukehurst (UK scope maker). I was going to make one but I was fairly convinced my own DIY would turn out to be crap! I also plan to buy: Astrozap shroud. Can't get these anywhere for love nor money. All my obervations the scope & trusses have been 'naked' so I'm hoping this will make a nice difference when I get it. i might need to DIY one if stock doesn't come in soon. I have no filters currently. Plan to get an Astronomik OIII and an H-alpha. I did try my Canon 5d mark II DSLR on a T ring on the end of the Altair 2x focal extender but I still couldn't reach focus with it. When the eq platform comes I'm looking into trying planetary photography so I'll be looking for a ZWO camera - any tips on which gratefully received - might make a separate thread on this. Overall I'm very happy with the scope. Yes it's super heavy, but the views are impressive and I've not even realised the potential of it yet (eg no shroud!). The price from Meade was £1700 and when you compare that the the newly revised Skywatcher prices (£2199 for the equivalent 16" or £2999 for the GOTO version) I think it comes up as good value for money in comparison. So if your back can take it, or you can keep it mounted somewhere permanently, it's a great scope for the dosh. Cheers, Simon

Hi all, Many thanks for your replies. I've been mulling it over... quite a bit! I agree £850 is a lot of money to pay for GOTO and drives. I'm happy enough without GOTO (I reckon I could find a way to mount my phone as a crude Push-To), but having the drives is the thing I really would quite like. But at £850? That could get a lot of nice eyepieces, or even a halfway decent secondhand scope on an EQ driven mount. Equatorial platforms is a thing I'd not heard of before and I've now done a lot of googling, so thanks for that. Could I build that DIY style? Not sure - it'd have to be built strong to take the weight of even an undriven 16" like the Lightbridge (I think it's 50 kilos or so). I'd have a go though! Free time is somewhat an issue however, what with juggling work and my 7 and 5 year olds' homeschooling. I have googled to find any info about the optical quality difference between the Meader LightBridge and the Skywatcher but what i've found is a little inconsistent, Skywatcher mirrors seem well regarded but I'm not sure what the consensus is with the Lighbridge mirrors? That could be the deciding factor. cheers Simon

Hi all Newbie here. Not a newbie to astronomy though - I began many years ago aged 15 with a 4.5" reflector on an EQ mount, bought from BC&F (whatever happened to them ?) then at university my wife and I were lucky enough to occasionally use the telescopes at ULO (Joynson 6" refractor, Radcliffe 24" and 10" Meade LX200's). But since year 2000 - nothing. I've recently moved to deepest darkest rural Sussex, well, maybe not so dark, no streetlights but still Bortle class 4...Anyhow, here I am, the new house has a large double-doored shed with flat patio and good sky visibility. So I'm after a telescope for mainly visual. I'm not constrained by portability or size, and I'm not one to muck about so I'm after something fairly large like a 14" or 16" Dobsonian. But I have very quickly realised there are nearly no new telescopes in stock anywhere on the planet! Companies have told me Skywatcher dobs may be coming towards June/July. I'm not sure I'm that patient. It's also galling to see the massive price increases which may be here to stay. So I'm basically severely limited for choice and mainly to classifieds or eBay. But, with some searching I do have two firm options: - Skywatcher 16" 400p with GOTO - £2600 - Meade LightBridge 16" (all manual) - £1750 Both brand new, although the Skywatcher is a customer return (too big apparently... The dilemma is I would rather like to have tracking. GOTO would be useful, but mainly the tracking. Partly to keep things in view, eg for when the kids come to look at a planet, or I head inside for a cuppa. Partly to do some webcam photography of the planets. The question is whether tracking (and goto) is worth all that extra outlay? Appreciate it’s kind of personal a choice, but maybe to help me decide, a couple of questions: 1. Does anyone have any opinions about LightBridge vs Skywatcher dobsonians, in general? I’ve read lots of opinions about the Skywatcher, but there’s not much about the Meade. 2. My use will be mainly visual but I’d like to stick my Canon DSLR or buy a CCD to do some planetary imaging using frame stacking, just for fun. Will this be entirely a pain with planet racing across the FOV at high mags? Is it even easy to nudge a huge 16” dobsonian to keep a planet in view at high mag? Thanks. Simon