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Wonderweb

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Everything posted by Wonderweb

  1. Only just managed to get the bits together to have a go. I've got a couple of sheets of 3mm proplas premium from wickes and some 2mm black craft foam sheets from the range. I think I've probably spent about £8 so far and I've bought twice as much as I need incase I can improve on my first attempt. I had couple of clear nights earlier this week and needed to put something together quick as I had dew issues on my secondary mirror last time out. I picked up a £3.99 yoga matt from asda as a temporary fix and it works really well. I've attached a picture of it. It looks rough but works a treat. Its just a little bit floppy. I'm just wondering whether to refine this one a bit or try the proplas.
  2. Hi all. Has anyone tried a coroplast dew shield? I have an orion optics ct8 newtonian and I can't find a dew shield that fits ok as the carbon fibre tube has a rim that sits proud by about 5 mm. I am thinking of having a go with black coroplast. It seems really lightweight and rigid, and if I flock the inside it should work I reckon. If I put some 5mm.sticky back neoprene foam on the scope at the back of the rim, I should be able to slide the dew shield over it and it should stay put. Has anyone had any experience with it? Thanks
  3. Maybe its better to let phd2 deal with a bit of backlash than have it fight binding??
  4. Have a look at northern panorama on YouTube. Its a guy in Swedish lapland who regularly images down to minus 25 with his eq6r-pro and it seems like the last thing that ever gives him problems is his mount. Thats why I'd be so surprised if my issue is temperature related.
  5. I did set the worm gear inside the house (so probably around 20 degrees). I also had the mount empty (no scope or counterweights) when I did the full rotations to check for binding. I did spend alot of time trying to tune the backlash as fine as I could get it. The shaft lock nuts are set as loose as possible without any lateral movement within the taper roller bearings. When I slacken the clutches off the scope will drift towards an out of balance position of its own accord. I dont need to set it in motion.
  6. Hi all. Just wondered if anyone has had an issue with their eq6r-pro in cold weather. I recently replaced the bearings and belts on the mount and spent alot of time tuning out the worm gear back lash. When I had finished both axis did full rotations in both directions with no binding. Following this my guiding was between 0.3 and 0.6 total rms. Last night while imaging, the temperature dropped quite sharply from around 0 degrees to minus 4 and my guiding really suffered and I couldn't get better than around 1.1 total rms. Have I sailed too close to the wind with the backlash tuning and as the temperature dropped and the steel contracted it has started to bind? I will check without a scope on my mount and do full rotations when it drops really cold again but just wondered if anyone has had the same experience Thanks Darren
  7. Is there something specific about Derbyshire that limits the seeing?
  8. My current guide setup is 3.22"/pixel and my main scope is between 0.75 and 0.86"/pixel depending which coma corrector i am using. I am.trying to improve my guiding. I am currently getting between 0.7 and 1 arc second total rms with my eq6-r but would like to get it down to around 0.5-0.7 if I can. The mount is well set up and the rig well balanced.
  9. Hi all. I've tried searching for this topic but couldn't find anything. I am torn between getting an off axis guider to use with my orion optics ct8 at 900mm or try a x2 barlow with my 240mm guidescope to hopefully improve guiding at 480mm. I've heard some horror stories of people spending all their time searching for guide stars with an oag and with precious little imaging time with work and clouds, I dont want anything else limiting my exposure time. Is there much benefit in fitting a barlow to my guidescope or should I try the oag? Thanks Darren
  10. Hi all. I ended up going for a really nice set of Barr and stroud series 8 8x42's and to be honest I'm loving just scanning round on clear nights while my astrophotography rig snaps merrily away. My wife finds them really easy to use and hold when she can grab them from me (well I did buy them for her so i suppose I ought to let her have a go every now and then). Just like to say thanks for all your advice and support and also to the shop who were very patient and helpful while I tried every set they had! Clear skies Darren
  11. Its absolutely fine! 👍 Nice to know for future if I ever see a pair for a fiver af a car boot sale!🤣
  12. Thanks all. Really appreciate your input. I think I'd be best to go to my local dealer and try a few out. Better hurry up though or I'll miss santa.
  13. Thank.you all for the advice. Are there any "stand out" 8x40(42) binoculars in my price range (up to £200) that you would recommend
  14. Hi all. My wife has asked for some binoculars for Christmas so she can look at the night sky while I do astrophotography. I have been doing some research which, as usual with this hobby, has thrown up more questions than answers. I am wondering whether she would be better with a lighter, less magnified 7x50's or slightly more zoomed in but wider field 10x50's. I'm conscious of making them as portable as possible so she can use them while we are away on holiday and I have my travel rig set up snapping pics. I am happy to pay up to £200 for the right set Thanks for your help. Darren
  15. Thanks for the info David. I'll look into it. Theres bit more to this than I first thought.
  16. Thanks for the replies. The items draw the following current: Az gti - 0.75 a Gp cam - 0.175 a Asi178mm - 0.170 a Dew heater - 2 a Total - 3.67 a I can't find any info on the power consumption of the mount hub or USB hub but if we say I have a total consumption of around 4 amps I think that would be a reasonable assumption.
  17. Hi all. I have put together a travel rig for my holiday in gran canaria in November. I am powering an az gti mount, a usb hub, a hitec astro mount hub pro compact, an asi178mm, an altair astro gpcam guide camera and a small dew heater for the main scope. I'm just short of a power supply to run the whole thing for at least 10 hours but is allowed on a plane and will fit in my hand luggage along with rest of the rig. Has anyone got any suggestions? I understand the talentcell power banks are good but I would appreciate your input before I buy one. Thanks
  18. Hi all. Not sure if this is the right forum but I was wondering if it was possible to use a televue parracor type 1 for astrophotography? Also does the type 1 have the 15% barlow effect as well? Thanks
  19. Thanks for the info I am currently using a 269c pro tec and, when I can get it to work , shoot at around 3 minutes which seems to be a pretty good exposure time with an idas d2 filter. Im pretty sure I could quite happily push this to twice that length if I needed to. My guiding is usually good and I dont suffer with elongated stars. They are just really soft. What sort of exposure lengths do you feel I would require to swamp the read noise with the ccd? Im usually in a bortle 5-6 area.
  20. I appreciate there is a difference between mono and osc but from reading your final paragraph, am I to assume that the g2 8300 is better suited in pixel scale to the esprit 150 (1050mm fl) and will give a more pleasing image (personal preference) than the imx571 (zwo2600mc) with its smaller pixels and cmos sensor? If this is the case then I feel alot of my questions regarding which way to go have been answered. The moravian g2 8300 is well suited to my scope (orion optics ct8 - 900mm fl), will give me great results as seen with the m33 images and on astrobin, and is available at a very reasonable price second hand which is about a 3rd the cost of a new 2600mm. I have also discovered that it is still well supported by latest image capture software and, so long as I dont want to sell it and expect to recover anything like my original outlay, will serve me well for years to come.
  21. Would i be better off going for the moravian g2 8300 with the bigger pixels than the 1600mm pro? Or am I getting hung up on pixels scale (G2 8300 1.2"/pixel - 1600mm 0.8"/pixel). Will i notice any difference if my guiding is good?
  22. To be honest I was looking at getting a zwo2600mc pro until the price went up by £400 overnight so I decided to have a look on astrobin what people were matching up with the scope i have. People are producing fantastic images with the g2 8300 (or variants with the same sensor) so if I am able to set up a system that takes great images, should I really be bothered if its totally cutting edge? My main concern was spending money on a camera that was not supported by the image capture/scope control software that i use. The pixel size of the 8300 gives a very nice pixel scale for my setup so I felt it fit well and the images on astrobin sold it for me. While I appreciate cmos is taking over from ccd, I dont want to buy gear with a resale value in mind, I want a camera that fits my rig, doesn't break the bank and will work with my image capture software.
  23. Thanks for the info. I havent got the camera yet. I'll check if it has the filter wheel. Thanks
  24. Would you consider the atik or QSI cameras to be better than the moravian?
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