ONIKKINEN

Is this setup balanceable in DEC? Your mount probably handles it fine either way though.

Last session from somewhat poor skies: The mount and scope lit up by my flat panel, various bits of electronics and the background skyglow. On the ground is my tablet connected to the scopeside headless mini-pc that i use to control everything. Thought it looked cool with the different light sources. Its not sunrise on the horizon by the way, just the way it is in this location...

From the aliexpress page: Operating Temperature-10C--50C Storage Temperature-20C--60C Operating Humidity30~80%RH But i wouldn't be worried about this. This is just standard electronics industry boiler plate claims to normal operation conditions where i believe the manufacturer could deny warranty claims if they for some reason felt the need to, but the way i see it this is just a "suggestion" to use the camera in conditions better than this. Basically all consumer electronics fall under these conditions and if these were actual limits we wouldn't have smart phones, EV cars, or really any devices with smart electronics in them up north where i live. I have used the camera almost exclusively outside these parameters in down to -23C and 99% humidity weather where my scope gets frosty the minute i take it out of my car, and it has worked fine for hundreds of subs so far. Will report if it happens again, but these electronics hiccups just happen sometimes and there is no way to avoid them in this kind of weather...

You can just crop the image in the end so you lose nothing by having a bigger sensor area, so dont choose the camera just because you want a zoomed in view.

Binning during capture can have weird effects if the software doing the binning doesn't treat the camera as a colour sensor with a bayer matrix, and in these cases the colour information is lost. I do know that with my camera i have not found a software yet that loses the colour information and binning works as intended (tried RisingSky, NINA, Sharpcap). But with CMOS sensors you dont have to bin during capture and its actually better to not bin during capture. Leaving the binning process for post processing leaves you with the ability to choose the required binning level depending on the conditions and the quality of data you gathered. With the 3.76 micron pixelsize cameras (533/2600/variants) you would probably be choosing between 2x2 and 3x3 binning depending on the data. The easiest way to bin colour images is to bin the image after you have stacked it (before other processing). That is just a couple of clicks with apps like ASTAP. You can also bin the raw subs, or calibrated subs and then stack but that is a couple clicks more (still not that difficult). I would say dont worry about how to bin for now, there are many options and none of them impossible. The 174 would still definitely need to be binned with its resolution of 0.88'' per pixel. Really at focal lengths over 1000mm hardly any camera will work unbinned in usual conditions. You can also not bin and shoot oversampled, but you will get a worse signal to noise ratio result and not capture any extra detail in the end. Oversampling in simple terms makes your scope "slower" like it would have a smaller aperture than it really has. True, its just a small detail in the growing list of tech jargon advertised with cameras, but less read noise is just straight up better than more read noise, no contest around it (given equal specs otherwise). If the mount does not play along nicely the long subs required with high read noise cameras could be a deal breaker, but probably not in many cases. I think the age of saying that CCD subs are cleaner are well in the past. The backlit sony sensor cameras, like the IMX571 variants produce clean 16bit images with no jumping through hoops required in calibration for 10-30% of the read noise in CCD cameras.

Do you have a budget in mind? I have a few models in mind but greatly dependent on budget. The 294mc is a capable camera, but one that requires careful calibration as it suffers from amp glow and some other quirks but there are many users of the thing and these issues are solvable with proper methods so dont let it affect your decision making. The 533MC has newer tech and is pretty much completely trouble free in terms of calibration and issues, and would have a small sensor, if you want to have one for some reason but you also could just crop the final image to the size you want? A bit more expensive but an excellent camera would be the 2600MC, or one of its variants. If you dont have an ASIAIR pro and dont need to use ZWO products because of it, you could get the RisingCam version of the 2600MC (well not the version of the same camera, but a camera with the same sensor) from aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001359313736.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.6f047164JGhOx6&algo_pvid=88c7fc7f-59b2-4b58-9bdc-a75b08237944&algo_exp_id=88c7fc7f-59b2-4b58-9bdc-a75b08237944-0 Many users of this camera in this forum and elsewhere as well (including me) and from what i can gather its liked and trusted by its users. All of these cameras would need to be binned at least 2x2 or have their sampling rate reduced otherwise (like superpixel debayering) to reach a more reasonable imaging resolution. Dont sweat this part too much, you can do it in post processing with several different methods, some more easy than others. The Astronomy tools calculator is quite vague in how it describes suitable sampling rates and its suggestions on sampling rates are all over the place. Imaging at less than 1'' per pixel seems like a complete dream to me from personal experience. From thousands of subs i have taken with a 200mm aperture scope not a single one of them could have benefited from such a resolution even though the tool suggests a resolution of 0.67''-2'' for average seeing conditions. Its better to think of the higher end of the suggested range as the resolution to go for rather than the lower. Unless you find some old CCD camera like the 414EX for dirt cheap, its probably best to skip them as they are indeed quite old tech by now. The 294 and 533/2600 (same sensor tech) have higher QE and lower read noise, so you quite literally get more done in the same amount of time. Read noise especially can be 5 times higher in older CCD cameras compared to these new CMOS ones.

120 x 60s from less than ideal conditions with my VX8. The location is usually better, but transparency was not great this time. Seeing was also not great, hence some processing decisions made. Calibration and stacking in SiriL, BIN 3x3 in ASTAP, linear processing in SiriL, fiddling with Photoshop and Starnet++V2. Think it turned out half decent considering only 2 hours from a target i previously felt like required much longer.

I have done one mosaic project, on M31. I used Astro pixel processor to do the mosaicing work and it worked quite well outside some minor issues with some panel edges being perhaps more visible than i would have liked, but then again the data i fed it was not great and taken under significant light pollution. In the end it wasn't a big deal and some spot healing brush and other fiddling got rid of the few issues afterwards. APP takes forever and a half to do the processing though, i had to leave it running overnight on a pretty capable desktop PC because it took so long. APP has a trial period that is free and has no limitations on how to use it.

Had my first issue with the camera that resulted in some real head scratching and worrying on my last session: I was focusing with 2s exposures with gain 251 as i normally do and some alarming artifacts appeared. There were horizontal rows of completely dead pixels that randomly changed locations in each frame, but each frame had these. I estimate around 20% of all the pixel rows were dead in each of the frames effected. It appeared as i was still cooling the camera and didn't go away by itself once at -10c (8% cooler power lol). I disconnected and reconnected the camera in NINA, but the artifacts remained. Then i did the good old "have you tried turning it off and on again" by pulling the power plug and it went away and didn't come back again. I had NINA in loop exposures mode but no frame saving so unfortunately cant show what it looked like now, and cant reproduce it. Since i cant reproduce it and it went away, im not super worried. But since i have not read of something like this happening it does concern me a bit. I should note that software hiccups and electronics temper tantrums are sort of expected for me since i use the camera almost exclusively in high humidity (85%+) and low temperature environments where the camera is not meant to be operated. But if i use the camera in its adviced less than 80% humidity type weather i would still be waiting for that first light 👍.

Drop the barlow, it only makes things worse for you. The target is emitting the same amount of light all the time, but with a barlow you are spreading this light thinner, over too many pixels and so thee frame looks darker. What looks darker (and is) would also be the target itself. Without the barlow you are shooting at 1.5'' per pixel resolution, which is pretty well matched. With the 2x barlow you are shooting at 0.75'' per pixel which is definitely without a shadow of doubt oversampled and not helpful. When you are oversampling you reduce the speed of the system by spreading light over too many pixels but dont actually capture extra detail from the object even if the resolution seems greater. The second stack looking noisier and worse is to be expected, unless you spend 4x the amount of time capturing it comparing to the no barlow one. This sort of differential brightness during the night is not that strange, although ideally you would get rid of the outlier subs when stacking. You can have high cloud that is not visible to the naked eye and it will look like the image got a bit brighter, but lost some of the faintest stars. Since you have local light pollution it could also be that at some points during the night your scope is pointing closer to a local light source than others. Subs can also get darker during the night as the target rises higher, and so you shoot trough less atmosphere. There is a dramatic difference in light polluted skies between shooting lets say 35 and 70 degrees above the horizon. Some street lights and yard lights can also be automated to shut down at some point of the night, so the amount of light pollution is reduced. The darkest subs in your session are the ones least affected by your conditions, so would be the best. Subs getting darker as the night goes on is a good thing. ISO speed and noise have some misconceptions around it, increasing your ISO will lower your read noise, not increase it. That said, there is a point of diminishing returns for most cameras where it makes little sense to keep increasing ISO. Dont have a 500D myself, but from what i have read the astrophotography recommended ISO would be 1600. You definitely also dont need to be taking 8 minute subs. 1 or 2 minute subs will do just fine (without the barlow that is. With barlow, dont expose and take the barlow out), even shorter if you have lots of light pollution. If your histogram is not touching the left edge the subexposure is long enough, no special trick to it. If your histogram is getting close to the right edge you would be clipping data, so best to avoid subs this long.

Yes, found the same to be mostly true with mine (i believe they are the same in VX and CT models). Rotating the focuser 90 degrees and adjusting tension with the locking screw helped somewhat but i replaced it in the end. I have the baader diamond steeltrack fitted. Buttersmooth action and cant make it flex without considerable misuse and violence involved. Very satisfied with it. The main hole for the focuser drawtube is barely large enough to fit the BDS, but i enlarged mine a few mm to make sure its not sticking to the tube. Also had to drill 4 holes to fit the thing, but not really that difficult to do.

Stars look wonky when zoomed in really far. Maybe a bit square-ish or triangular? This shape issue is not as obvious as it could be in this shot but i am staring at pictures i have taken far too much and i pick up these issues easily. Guiding was significantly less than half of my shot resolution in RMS so i find it hard to believe the shapes are purely from bad tracking. Could very well also be differential flexure in my guide scope but i will pretend its not as its harder to fix than collimation 😉.

The clips are not supposed to hold the mirror tightly, they are just supposed to prevent it from falling out and rattling in there. You should be able to slide a credit card between the clips and the mirror without much resistance. If you cant, its way too tight.

Thanks you! Probably my sharpest image yet, and one that i could not attempt with my previous mount at these declinations. Quite happy about the result.

120x60s from bortle 4/SQM 20.8 skies with the Rising cam OSC and my VX8. First astrophotography attempt with my new AZ-EQ6. Mount worked much better than i hoped it would at 0.7'' RMS guiding. Some hiccups to iron out but i assume its on the guidescope attachment method and newt mechanics side rather than the mount, since stars are not as round as the guiding suggests. Unfortunately looks like collimation is off looking at the star shapes, but still i think i captured some nice detail on the galaxies so ill include crops of each one for more comfortable viewing: Should probably stop using the dodgy cheap 1.25 inch collimation laser that gives hit or miss results and get a better one, or just use a concenter in the dark too somehow.

Had to handle the mount head on my knees so that i dont fumble on the ice and drop it. Who knew ice would be slippery 😲. Its a very unwieldy shape with no clear place to hold it in your hands. Not too bad with the tripod at minimum height though as its quite low.

I have considerable cone error somewhere in my scope which i have not bothered to fix yet. The tube itself is a bit crooked and the rings/plate are a bit agricultural for imaging purposes in the VX8 so both will probably have to be tended to at one point. I could probably try and shim it and make it a bit better since its so obviously off, but i try not to fix things that aren't too badly broken as to not create more problems. More in the ever growing list of things to fix and tinker with in astrophotography 😬.

Ah, i meant if i dont have sensor real estate to spare. I am imaging a target where i dont really want to have to crop anything off, and having rotation means some parts have to be cropped. If the target is small enough then yes i dont care about it at all.

I use NINA so the flip itself is not really an issue. Platesolving will take the scope to where it needs to be after the flip. The image rotation that will happen with the flip is something i may have to deal with manually, and that would require new flats which i would rather not take. Also would require refocusing. Takes maybe 5-10 minutes total but i was planning on staying no longer than an hour so its a chunk of time lost. I havent heard of this internal limit before on Skywatcher mounts, but i think this is a thing in Ioptron CEM mounts with their internal cable routings. I should test this with mine. I was window shopping Avalon mounts and the M-uno looked really nice with full night rotation and no flips necessary. Would have to sell a kidney for that though... I am imaging with a VX8 and an AZ-EQ6 and ended up going 1 hour past the meridian and then went home. At this point there was no extra room left and i would have had to flip soon. The AZ-EQ6 and i believe the EQ6r have the tripod legs "backwards" where 2 of the 3 legs are towards the north side unlike most models where 2 legs are on the south side. This means the legs are pretty far away and even fat long tubes like my newt dont really hit the tripod legs anytime soon.

Night was a success, clouds stayed away after showing themselves for a bit early on. Only reappeared once i started to tear down my kit. Thanks for all the well wishes, no doubt the clouds heard them and didn't dare to interfere this time 😉.

My VX8 has new legs! The AZ-EQ6 works much better than i expected from a first try, i had 0.7'' RMS total towards low declinations on the first try without much fiddling with settings or anything else. If anything the guidescope attachment to the tube is the weak link now where as it did not matter before. Never set up a mount on thick ice before, but seems like it worked well. Just had to carve dents for the tripod legs to stop it from moving around on the ice 😅. Very frosty and humid, but the dew shield did its job again. Some frost had creeped all the way down to the tube, but none had made it onto the secondary. Also had to prop up my power supply up as much as possible with some other equipment as it gave some low temperature warnings when directly on the ice.

May be a silly question but here goes: Do i have to do a meridian flip if the scope isnt hitting the tripod anytime soon or anything is on risk of being snagged? My gut says no, because why would the mount care? Could be wrong of course but just wondering. Imaging maybe an hour past the meridian doesnt look like trouble and gives me more time with the target at its highest so its a preferable choice for me.

Some high cloud, looks like it passes soon. Even if not, had success already as the kit works well. Mount works butter smooth. Doesnt notice me walking around it, guides well and had no hiccups in calibration or guiding assistant even though there is a bit of wind here. The EQM35 i previously struggled with would have been a no-go in this slight wind so im glad this works well.

Hope so too, far too often the forecast does a 180 and the session is cut short. But it is how it is in this hobby. Not just a heavy lump, but an awkwardly shaped heavy lump. I have it in a sports bag on my shoulder and the weight seems manageable enough so its not that bad but since its very slippery outside ill need to be quite careful with that.

Last time i was out with my scope properly was in 2021 before i got the cursed virus and had to take a break. Honestly still not feeling as i was before, but its a moonless Saturday clear sky, an extreme rarity, so i will definitely not be missing this one! Hauling my gear to a bortle 4 location today for those sweet photons, i am frantically checking every bit of gear so that i dont forget some key piece of kit. Im packing 2 of every cable, a pack of every fuse i need, 2 power supplies, tools etc... First time trying astrophotography with a new mount (the AZ-EQ6) so i am half expecting to spend the time troubleshooting and not getting anything of value done, but that's how it goes with new gear so just gotta get it over with.