ONIKKINEN

I agree with @malc-c about the PSU quality thing. Was this a "gold" rated PSU? If its a no-brand HP something something smoke and spark machine, dont bother using it for anything, including a PC! The non branded and rated ones are quite good at starting fires though, if that's what you are after. Its the one part that must not be saved money on when building a PC, and would imagine it wont do you any good if repurposed to run expensive astro equipment either so i would definitely take another look at the whole idea before hooking it up to something you dont want to lose.

Thank you for the feedback! Will have to try that software and see if it does what PIPP could not.

Long Perng 90mm F/5.5 barlowed to maybe around F16, 2 panels with 60 still images each with a 550D and untracked on an AZ5. I think it turned out pretty good for a quick and dirty shot with less than ideal equipment for Lunar imaging. Couldn't figure out a way to make PIPP center the frames in any of its image stabilizing modes and so had to manually do this in camera raw by panning the images in their X and Y axis, which was pretty annoying. But after some fiddling i got the frames to align and stack in AS!3.

How do you like the semiapo filter? I was looking at that too but just sort of cointossed towards the fringe killer for no particular reason. My scope probably should be called a semi-achromat instead of a doublet. It has one Lanthanum element in the doublet objective but no FPL glass or anything so there is residual colour at high powers.

My Lunt has a permanently installed ND3 on the bottom of the eyepiece holder so the extra filters were just for comfort only. It seems perfectly safe without any eyepiece side filters installed with a 90mm aperture, but i found that a less bright image was better for detail. For comparison the Moon through my 200mm newtonian is much, much brighter than the Sun was with just the Lunt wedge with an ND3 in it with the 90mm frac. I see, i should expect much lower power than nighttime viewing. Good to know! I might have to try some kind of observing shroud as i too was bothered with the surroundings a bit. I tried to cup the eyepiece with my hands to block out as much periphery as possible but it wasn't ideal, and introduces some shake with the AZ5 the scope was on.

Caught the Sun today when it was still over 20 degrees in altitude just now and had a quick look with the Long perng 90mm F/5.5 and a Lunt wedge. Finding the Sun was not that difficult, i didn't bother coming up with a solar finder but just sighted it with my hand blocking the sunlight so that i dont stare into it. 24mm eyepiece in a 2.5x barlow and found it straight away and already seeing a surprising amount of detail. 1 huge sunspot with a fainter ring around it to the right, and several smaller spots to the left of that. Then i tested how much power is the right amount of power for solar. I put in a 7mm in the barlow for 180x but this was not great. Quite soft and i felt like i actually saw less than with the 24mm. Same story with an XW10 in the barlow but less worse than the XW7. Then i took the barlow off and found that the 7mm eyepiece giving me 71x was the right power for the job for best detail. Maybe there was a power between 71x and 125x that would have been optimal, but i ran out of glass to test that (XW5?...). Does this sound right that only 71x is what i could get? Sun was at the moment around 25 degrees in altitude and the limb was "breathing" quite heavily, so soupy seeing it seems but never done solar observing before so dont know what to expect in terms of useful magnification. Then tested my available filters on what works best. I tried a #80A and 25A but these were distracting at best so off they go. Then tried a Baader fringe killer and an ND96 filter separately at first and then together. I found that the best combination for clarity and contrast was the ND96 and fringe killer stacked and kept that in the XW7 for the actual observations. Baader solar continuum would be ideal and i have one on order but dont have it just yet. Many interesting sunspots of various sizes and shapes were present. The obvious giant one to the right of the center was sort of alone and had nothing obvious next to it. But to the bottom and left of that is a "chain" of sunspots, one resembling the big dipper with Dubhe missing and one shape resembling the Pleiades with a tight grouping of spots. The smaller, uncountable spots dotted around this diagonal chain seemed to breathe a bit with the seeing and i wish i could have gotten a closer look with more power. Many small spots all over that are hard to observe with only 71x, gotta try to catch the Sun earlier in the day next! Edit: Actually i just realized that the Lunt wedge has an awful undercut right where the Long perng supplied compression ring clamps it and i can feel it sink in a bit. Its very much possible that that took the scope well out of collimation and it was soft at 125x. I will try with a Baader clicklock adapter next time as it does not seem to sink into the undercut.

Quick hop outside for some planets and the Moon with a new splurge investment , the Pentax XW7 and a Baader fringe killer filter for the 90mm Long perng to cull the CA around Jupiter. The filter completely eliminates the purple haze behind Jupiter and the view is MUCH clearer throughout all of the disk, but of course everything is covered in an off-white creamy yellow cast. Got used to it in no time and its much better than the purple fringe, but not sure if it will stay in the diagonal for less bright objects, time will tell whether that is the case. With a 2.5x barlow i was pushing 180x with the XW7, which the seeing surprisingly supported quite well for Jupiter. Seeing allowed glimpses of at times a fairly clear serrated looking effect on the southern side of the main belt (is it the SEB or the NEB, dunno?). Saturn is still low in the sky over rooftops and so the seeing was quite heavy. Not much detail to be seen but the rings themselves are just so cool it doesn't matter. The Moon, its made of cheese! Or at least that's what the fringe killer makes it look like 😁. This one took some getting used to, and im not sure i did get used to it just yet, but it was also very low in the sky so had an additional yellowy cast added to it. Other than that the Moon is a thing of beauty with the XW7. Very comfortable observing experience with the tack sharp 70 degree field of view with good eye relief, i feel like i can have my head at any angle and still see clearly through the eyepiece. Mars is still a nondescript not quite round reddish blob. Bigger than a star but no detail to be seen. Loving the new grab and go scope that doesn't require hauling 60kg of equipment down the stairs to use!

Very nice. Some background galaxies make an appearance too here and there!

I wouldnt bet on my math, so lets say i got it wrong. Come to think of it, when focal length doubles the speed of the system is not halved but goes down to 1/4. So you are right, it will be a bit slower. I still think you should bin x2 by either superpixel debayer, bayer split or just bin the linear stack x2 after stacking. You will lose nothing but gain SNR.

The resolution will depend on your seeing conditions mostly, if the mount plays along nicely, Vlaiv has gone into that in detail. But the speed will still increase, even if you dont bin/keep debayering using interpolation. Your focal length will increase by 1.87x but aperture area increases by 2.2x so it will still be a little bit faster in terms of integration times. Your subexposures will need to be a bit longer, but swamping read noise in bortle 8 is not difficult even with narrowband filters so this is something you dont have to worry about either.

TS and Astroshop.eu still sell the Explore scientific mak-newt. Long delivery times though. https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/explore-scientific-maksutov-newton-telescope-mn-152-740-ota/p,22534 https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p12005_Explore-Scientific-MN-152-f-4-8-Maksutov-Newtonian-Telescope-with-Field-Correction.html

Its how these things go for me it seems like. Ill probably find a way to disagree with today's me 2 months from now... Guess what happened once i got used to the Pentax XW10 and tried my other eyepieces? (hint is in my signature) 🤣

Sounds like you would hate a newtonian, maybe pass that idea for now. Newtonians might be the furthest thing you can get from a petzval plug and play APO so probably not a good idea! With the 107PHQ you could BINx2 to reach the (more or less) same resolution as your current setup gives you, so now you have the same working resolution but with more aperture = speed increases and you might find that you can get away with shorter total integrations (but with smaller FOV). But since you are using an OSC camera its not quite so simple, as using debayering methods other than superpixel debayering results in basically an upscaled image. So if you debayer the subframes using some method that does interpolation, you are basically artificially getting to the quoted 1.9'' per pixel resolution your current setup at a glance gives you. The camera samples the sky at half this rate in reality, so the real data is at best 3.8'' per pixel. If you then bin that already upscaled 1.9'' image to 3.8'', you dont get the full benefits of binning that a mono camera with the same sensor would. Its better than not binning at all but does not improve SNR by x2. You can test this with your own data to see that it really is like this with OSC cameras. Resample one of your processed images to 50% using some quality preserving resampling method and then resample that back to 200%, so to the original resolution. There will be no change in the fine detail level as that level of detail was not captured in the first place.

Mine is like a sail🙄

I have a USB travel router attached to it that creates its own wifi network, just without actual internet connectivity. I then connect my tablet to that dummy wifi and control the PC with remote desktop on android. Works anywhere, even when there is no cell reception in some backwater dark sky location. For file transfer i just use a USB stick.

Transfer the executables/installers with a USB stick and install them on the mini-pc. You can keep your mini-pc offline indefinitely and dont need to download anything on it! My mini-pc has never, and will never be connected to the internet. Makes life much easier with windows being unable to "help" by updating itself randomly.

Sounds like an 8" newtonian is what you need, although i am not sure if i would recommend one. Depends on how much you want to tinker really. Dont worry about F/ratio in terms of imaging speed, it only affects the length of your subexposure and in your light pollution they will remain short with higher F/ratios. The thing that matters is aperture and working resolution, and if you keep the resolution as same (binning) and increase aperture you get a faster scope. So in reality the F/7 107mm scope will be much faster than your current one (if binned). If i were you i would go for this premade quality newtonian and add a good focuser and coma corrector on top: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p6119_TS-Optics-8--f-4-ONTC-Carbon-Tube-Newtonian-telescope---fully-customizable.html The price is high but compare it to the 107mm APO and its much more palatable now. I think youll be surprised how much DIY you need to bring a cheap newtonian up to astrograph standards so up to you to figure out whether elbow grease or more spending is the way to go.

I very much like my BDS and it made many things much easier when fitted. Not perfect in how fluid the mechanics are down to -25c but i doubt anything is. The important part is that it doesnt move on its own and the friction knob doesnt cause the drawtube to move when used. I have an aluminium tube so just used a simple round file to shave off a few millimeters to make it fit. If i had a steel tube i would probably not bother manually filing but use a rotating sandpaper roll-thingy (dont know the name of that) on a drill to do the trick.

21c in Finland and was as low as 10 degrees just a few days ago. Looks like the heat is maybe coming back but not to the extremes the UK is seeing and will stay under 30. Very unusual summer for sure.

The temperature difference thing and its side effects are probably not a big deal, but its a problem i have control over - by taking flats each time, so no reason not to take that precaution. If for some reason someone doesn't want to take flats every time, then they have to figure out how to make flats work each time. I am guessing this is primarily a newtonian problem, but lower end scopes of any type probably suffer as well. Taking my newtonian as an extreme example with flats taken indoors/in summer at +20c and the lights taken outside at -20c: 750mm primary to secondary distance changes by 0.66mm with a 40 degree temperature difference. 0.66mm is not nothing, its actually pretty large and the difference between a complete miss in focus and great focus. This means the focuser must be racked in by 0.66mm more to reach focus and if the focuser is not perfectly straight in its movement (i know mine is not) it will also move slightly sideways bringing the scope out of collimation (and causing flats/lights mismatch). This should be easy to test by taking flats right after lights, then racking the focuser in by 0.66mm and taking flats again. Calibrate lights with both sets separately and compare results. They should be identical if it doesn't matter at all, and im guessing they will not be identical. Okay, well one could take flats in different temperatures and build a library. One could make sure their telescope is micrometer perfect in all mechanical aspects. Or one could take flats each time. Your choice, but i will be taking flats every single time i use my scope.

Cant tell you an exact reason why this is the case, just the way i have noticed it with my flats. But to guess a few: Temperature differences deforming the tube differently each night, focuser maybe in a slightly different position (also depending on the tube length - which is dependent on temperature), perhaps collimation was 1/10th of a turn of a knob different than last time. Many reasons with not-ideal scopes why flats suck. I have solved many issues, but not all of them so its a safe bet to just take the flats each night. With a modern camera it shouldn't take more than a few minutes anyway.

Have to disagree with this. Personal experience has shown me that with my newtonian the flats do have to be taken each time, and if OP is imaging with one (or an SCT) i would recommend to take the flats each time. Lower end refractors probably have some stability issues around the focuser too so with those the flats should also be taken that night. Actually i would take flats each time anyway regardless of type of telescope, it takes 5 minutes at most and guarantees that the data is usable. No matching flats = No image.

Hello and welcome to SGL There are many targets that can be enjoyed from light polluted or bright summer skies with your scope! Other than the Moon which is always nice there are the 3 bright planets out and about: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars although of these 3 Mars is very small at the moment and will become much better later on in the year, but Jupiter and Saturn are a treat for sure. Open clusters (of stars) can look spectacular even in a bright setting with your scope so its worth having a look at those. Double stars are also interesting to observe, although less of a "spectacle" so to speak but trying to split a particularly difficult pair of stars can be very rewarding even in bright conditions. If you are interested in finding things in the sky yourself i will recommend a book called: Turn left at Orion. That book has easy to understand pictures and instructions on how to find the most common objects in the night sky, and also has plenty of dark sky not required type of objects to see, highly recommended! As for the astrophotography side of things i would advice to leave that for later. Its an unending rabbit hole of spending money and things to learn and best delved into once you get your "astro legs" going with observing first. But once you do star to get the itch for astrophotography, the T2i you have is a good camera to start with. Remember to have fun with the scope, that is sometimes easy to forget when learning new stuff!

That result looks great, i would be super happy with that collimation! That few % fwhm difference will not be noticeable in a final image. I installed the Baader diamond steeltrack on my VX8 and had to drill 4 holes for it to fit. Also had to enlarge the drawtube hole on the OTA just a little bit to make sure it doesnt freeze on me. An afternoons work at best, not difficult to do at all. It comes with a couple of shims in the box to make it sit flush on different sized tubes. It also has full adjustment in pitch and a little bit in yaw to do final adjustments on centering it on your tube. Bit pricey yes, but well worth the cost IMO, one of the better purchases i have made for sure.

Yes, indeed mine is the more affordable one of the 2: https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p11438_Long-Perng-90-mm-f-5-5-Doublet-ED-Rich-Field-Refractor-with-2--Crayford-Focuser.html Quoted from the description: No mention of any specific glass type like FPL51, but just that "lanthanum glass". If it did have an FPL-something lens in it it would be marketed for sure so safe to say it does not. But i am pleased to see that CA on this one i can live with for the most part, but will try filtering that out anyway to see if Jupiter gives a bit more that way.