LaurenceT

Thanks for pointing out the Altair offering, I hadn't seen that one.

You've provided me with a great deal of information.

That's clearer now, many thanks.

Many thanks for that, not being in the slightest way an engineer I'm having trouble visualising what you mean. The orange bar is in fact a WO dovetail bar, one side being Vixen compatible and the other side being Arca Swiss although that's probably a red herring!

Having recently acquired an Askar FMA 180 I would appreciate any ideas for mounting this with a my Evoguide 50ED guidescope/camera setup on an EQ mount. I can only come up with a solution involving a comparatively cheapish Geoptik side by side mounting plate, (why are the other mounting plates so expensive?)

My pleasure Matt, it was great meeting you.

22 hours ago, Louis D said:

You could use it to achieve critical focus visually, I suppose.  You would then remove it to observe and resist the temptation to tweak the focus.

There is an apodizing mask you can make from window screen material and crafting foam board to supposedly improve planetary views.  I made one back in the late 90s and get it out sometimes to see if it helps.  My impression of it is that it makes very little difference in contrast or sharpness.  However, it makes for a really trippy view with lots of diffraction effects going on everywhere outside of the center.

"trippy view".....love it🤣

To scratch my itch for an ultra-portable lightweight widefield imaging setup, I'll mount it on my Az GTi. I did puzzle a bit about mounting it on a dovetail bar but found a screw that fitted it together. Doesn't include the camera, just trying it out for size. My thanks to @Second Time Around.

18 minutes ago, powerlord said:

i

@Alien 13 I've often thought there's no reason why a standard mobile phone gimbal couldn't be made to AZ track.  Some do object tracking fine with the right software. With some mobiles having 10x optical telephotos now, with the right software to do AZ star tracking it would certainly be interesting to see what the cameras could do.

 

Pentax cameras have sensors that do star tracking with the Astrotracer function, I'm surprised it's not been incorporated into phone camera sensors. Then again, maybe it has and I've missed it.

PENTAX: The choice for astrophotography / explore | RICOH IMAGING (ricoh-imaging.co.jp)

1 hour ago, powerlord said:

just measure the diameter and have a look on ebay. There's plenty of lens supports on there. Just something a bit bigger, and some slices of rubber, etc and yer good to go. Elsewise, get a 3d printer - I've made my own supports (and EAF mounts) for all my lenses. once you do one, it's easy to modify it to do more.

stu

Thanks for that. I've had a look on Ebay and decided the best solution would be a tripod lens collar. The diameter of the lens at the best place is about 61mm and the internal diameter of the collar is 65mm so I'm sure I can find an adhesive something or other to stick to the inside of the collar to absorb the excess in size, just not sure what. In fact I've bought 2 because the asi224 camera is the same diameter so I can mount the collars on a dovetail and support both of them. Sorry to waffle on but I'm pleased I may have found a solution.

Edit: I've just put the Vivitar on my Sony body and I'm quite pleased with the quality of the lens. 1/400th, f5.6, ISO4000.

25 minutes ago, imakebeer said:

Oh OK, thanks, I missed that.

You may not have seen but I posted some pictures here of my planetary imaging so far with my basic setup.

I've tried lunar shots last winter with the scope or just my DSLR, but the moon has been AWOL in the last few weeks when I've been out there doing planetary. Now it's back again it hasn't stopped raining!

Haven't tried any deep sky yet but that's a different kettle of fish to planetary, very long exposures vs. lucky imaging etc.

You're quite right, I hadn't seen those images. I think they're excellent, you're further down the road than I imagined.

Excellent images

I used to have lots of fun with elderly Canon FD lenses adapted to my Sony FF body. I bought them all from Ebay over the years but sold most of them when I realised how much people value them these days. I did keep this one for some reason and it gets good reviews and when stopped down to F4-5.6 is said to be very sharp. I'd like to have a go with this and my ASI224mc planetary camera probably for some EAA to start with but I'm hitting a brick wall with regards to mounting the setup onto a dovetail bar. I've managed to secure an FD to T2 adapter.

36 minutes ago, imakebeer said:

Yep, that's the one. Why'd you ask?

If you follow that link there is a lunar image taken with your kit.

14 hours ago, imakebeer said:

@allworlds @Stu @LaurenceT - thanks for your comments, and I will take a look through those threads 👍

What I'm getting is it's a bit of "your mileage may vary", "you get what you pay for" and "keep your expectations vs. budget" in check. At the same time I'm sure there are people out there who would tell me I can't possibly do planetary imaging with the gear I have, to which I would respectfully disagree. Perhaps it's more a case of spending twice as much won't generate images twice as good? Or to put it another way, if you images twice as good you need to spend 10x (I'm guessing) more.

Just looking out the window at the clear blue skies as the sun goes down and hoping 🙏. And then checking the weather forecast and seeing we're in for another deluge! Why sky gods, why! 😫😂

Is your setup this one?

Sky-Watcher CAPRICORN-70 (EQ1) 70mm (2.75") f/900 REFRACTOR TELESCOPE - Optical Vision Ltd

UKAstoBuyandSell website

53 minutes ago, imakebeer said:

@LaurenceT I had a feeling you might say something like that.

What's really confusing for a noob like me is on the one hand that's not the first time I've read experienced folks saying that even the EQ5 with or without GoTo isn't up to much (and it ain't exactly cheap!). Yet on the other hand FLO will happily sell you a bundle of the Explorer 200P + EQ5, or the Explorer 150P/PL/PDS + EQ3 or 5.

I don't doubt what you and other seasoned astronomers say - you're speaking from personal experience afterall. But likewise I don't get the impression that FLO are a bunch of cowboys who will sell you complete garbage (and their forum is lovely by the way 😁).

It's honestly starting to seem like I can have a small refractor for £200 or pay 10-15x that for a full setup and there is literally no middle ground at all ☹️

I refuse to be defeated though! 😜

The kits you refer to sold by retailers are within spec for visual astronomy, it's when the extra kit required for astrophotography is added then the mounts can be overloaded so it can be said that retailers are being somewhat disingenuous in their marketing of scopes/mount combinations for example in the Skywatcher PDS range. I spent many years as a hobbyist wildlife photographer, many times I was asked what kit I used to produce a certain image and there much anguish from beginners when I told them the cost of lens/body exceeded £5000, if you want to play the game at a higher level then you need to stump up the cash. I sold virtually all my photo gear to get into astrophotography 2 years ago and I'm still at a quite basic level for gear, I won't be going any higher!

My combination of EQ5 and 130PDS satisfies me both for visual and astrophotography although I haven't done much of the latter with the 130PDS yet.

1 hour ago, imakebeer said:

Thanks for the offer 👍 I have an EQ1 at the moment so I understand how to use an EQ mount and what it's doing, but I imagine the EQ3 & 5 are rather more weighty and so less portable. But by home much?

I was looking at your list of gear in your signature block - do you by any chance mount the Explorer 130PDS on your EQ5?

Specifically my current top of the list is an Explorer 150PDS on an EQ3/5 GoTo, but I'd like to see one in action just to be sure before I fork out. The scope performance will be dictated by location and seeing at the time, but I'm more interested to see in exactly which postcode the eyepiece will end up depending on the orientation of the scope! 😂

Also on my list (and still looking at your signature block 😉) was the Skymax 127 Maksutov (thermal issues? Newtonian delivers more bang for buck?) and Startravel 120T (refractors = chromatic aberration?)

My EQ5 copes very well with the 130PDS. With the 150PDS plus all the ancillary bits of kit you will be probably over the load limit of the EQ5 of 6.5Kg. My camera, Asiair and guide scope add up to 5.3Kg.

A quote from that thread:

"My first set up was the EQ5 and SW 150pds and I quickly realised that it was too heavy when the camera and guiding was all attached"

Welcome to this forum. You say that you want to have a look at an EQ mount, I have an EQ5 mount, certainly not the strongest around but then neither am I!

I'm fairly close to you in Camberley so if you want to have a look at mine I'd be happy to oblige.

Just a question about the Point and Track feature in the Synscan app. For instance, if I enable Point and Track for the moon and then use the app arrow keys to point the scope at a slightly different part of the lunar surface will it still continue to track or do I have to re-enable it?

I fitted the focuser about a year ago I think.

I decided to fit it to eliminate the annoying trembling in the eyepiece when focusing, it works very well.

The finished product

1 hour ago, TheThing said:

I'm going to hang the Motor off a L shaped dovetail them use a belt drive and toothed cogs to actually turn the focusing know.  I've seen a YouTube on it, I think from Cloudy Nights, which seems to work quite well.  I struggle to find focus for solar system imaging, even with a clothes peg on the focusing knob. I'm hoping that the motor focuser with an old HiTechAstro controller will do the trick like it used to on my old newt.

 

I would be interested to see the video you suggest though.  Might be easier then trying to find a L shaped bracket long enough but not too heavy!

I tried a couple of times with an L bracket and had big problems, I then found this fellow on YT who makes a 3D printed adapter kit that suits Mak127's with a fixed dovetail, just make sure that the orientation of the dovetail on your tube corresponds with the one in this video. If it doesn't then he also makes a kit that is suitable for the other orientation.

How are you planning to connect the focuser to the Mak127? I tried a few methods that didn't work but eventually found a fellow in Portugal who makes a great 3d printed system.

If you're interested I could post a link to his YouTube channel.

On 29/10/2022 at 19:23, TheThing said:

I want to add a L shaped bracket to hold a motor focuser.  I won't be removing the dovetail, just taking that bolt out to then bolt the bracket on.  Possibly will have to try a longer bracket and use one of the spare holes  instead.

What motor focuser will you be adding?

1 minute ago, Ratlet said:

Looks good mate.

What scope/camera?

WO Z61 with ASI533mc pro camera.