PeterC65

With EAA you're observing on the night at close to real time, so live stacking the frames and stretching / making minor enhancements on the fly, usually using SharpCap. I capture snapshots of what I've seen as a record of the session, and sometimes I will enhance these later using Affinity Photo (just stretching and colour tweaks since the stacking was done on the night). I don't do AP but it seems to me that it is a data collection exercise on the night and then later a task of stacking and enhancing the collected data to build an optimal image (which requires significant skill). AP images are generally much better than what you get with EAA so people doing AP are generally more concerned about getting the last bit of performance from their kit.

I've replaced the focuser clamp with the Astro Essentials compression ring adapter and have considered changing the whole focuser, but the only sensible upgrade is to the Baader SteelTrack and that's almost as expensive as the OTA and requires the drilling of new holes. I have a dew shield which stops the secondary from dewing up and helps reduce spurious light, and use a dew heater for the primary. I've just bought a black shower cap (double layer, from Amazon) as I've noticed light entering from the primary end. Other than that, I'm disinclined to make changes that require the OTA to be dismantled such as flocking and changes to the primary mirror, but I'm doing EAA not AP so I'm noy looking for perfection.

I keep hankering after a 4" refractor but feel it would be quite an extravagance as I already have an Explorer 150PDS which covers the same territory. That hasn't stopped me from researching the options though, and the Starfield 102 (or its TS Optics Photoline 102 and Altair Starware 102ED-R equivalents) seems to be the best option. I had ruled out the Askar 103 because it doesn't specify the glass (just ED rather than FPL53) but from the comments above this doesn't seem to be an issue? Other options to consider are: TS Optics Premium 102 - same spec as the Photoline 102 but FPL51 glass and £200 less expensive than the Starfield 102. StellaMira 110mm ED - slightly bigger aperture but FPL51 glass and "only" £719 at the moment.

I think this is a great idea. A way for existing visual kit to be easily used for EAA, either at the scope, or on a tablet via WiFi. I've been thinking for a while that a WiFi enabled camera would make EAA much more accessible. The display in this product is a nod to those wishing to continue with the outdoor visual experience which I think will make it more attractive to some. It looks well engineered and is using a great sensor, but how good it is in use will depend on the software / apps. There is mention of SkySafari integration which implies it is meant to be used with a tablet rather than a laptop, and no mention of imaging software / apps (such as SharpCap).

I have and it's fine. Some people don't seem to like laser collimators and I don't understand why. Mostly you just need to check and adjust the primary alignment, sometimes the secondary alignment, and only once (unless you drop the scope) do you need to adjust the secondary position.

I use my laser collimator with a 6" and 8" Newtonian. What I really like about it is that I can watch the laser dot move into the right position while at the same time adjusting the primary or secondary screws. I don't need to stretch to look through a Cheshire / collimation cap, or worse, go back and forth between the Cheshire / collimation cap and the adjustment screws. I suppose camera based collimation systems are popular for the same reason. I haven't replaced my secondar adjusters with Bob's Knobs but I suppose this would make it easier to adjust the position of the secondary, allowing you to feel for the right knob and adjust it while looking through the Cheshire / collimation cap.

I find that a laser collimator is the best tool for aligning the primary and secondary. The secondary alignment rarely needs adjusting but the primary alignment needs it regularly. For adjusting the position of the secondary (along and across the axis of the scope, and its rotation) and I use a Cheshire eyepiece. But that only needs doing once. The laser collimator I use is this one. It was correctly collimated itself from new and makes alignment of the primary and secondary easy in daylight and in the dark, although in the dark I do need to use a torch to be able to see the centre mark on the primary. I use it in 2" focusers with a standard 2" to 1.25" adapter as the one that comes with the collimator is plastic. What I like about this laser collimator, compared with say the Baader, is that the laser target on the collimator is at 45° so you can orientate it so that you can see where the laser dot falls on the target from the primary end of the scope, allowing you to stan at the end and make the necessary adjustments.

I've just come in after a visual session to try out some travel kit. I upgraded to an AZ-EQ5 at the end of last year and decided to keep the old SynScan AZ GOTO as a travel mount, and tonight I wanted to check that I could set it up from scratch and had all of the necessary bits to hand. The travel kit consists of either the Skymax 127 (which I used tonight) or the 72mm refractor, both with the 2" diagonal and just two eyepieces, the Baader Zoom and either the Baader Aspheric 36mm (with the Skymax) or the StellaLyra UFF 30mm (with the refractor). Setup and alignment all went well and it was actually nice to have just the two eyepieces, with one in the diagonal and the other to hand on the tripod tray. I often think that I see more with lower magnification and so it was tonight with even small objects clearer and more obvious with the Aspheric 36mm. This eyepiece has been a real disappointment with all my faster scopes but with the slower Skymax it works well and the lower magnification and wider field of view (1.5°) was very pleasing. I concentrated on Messier objects, mostly galaxies (it being galaxy season) with some star clusters, and one planetary nebula (M97). The Beehive (M44) just fitted into the field of view of the 36mm and with it I could take in M81 and M82 together. What really impressed me was being able to observe all three of the Leo Triplet galaxies. M65 and M66 where obvious but for the first time (with averted vision) I could also make out the shape of the Hamburger Galaxy (NGC3628). Markarian’s Chain was harder but similar. M84 and M86 where obvious and I could just make out four of the fainter galaxies. Doing EAA seems to have given me a mental picture of what these objects should look like and that helps me tease out more detail when I observe them visually. I’m not sure if I saw M101 but I’ve read it can be hard to see. I’m more confident about the Owl Nebula (M97) as I had checked beforehand what the surrounding star pattern should look like. It would have been easier to confirm this planetary nebula if I’d been using the filter wheel and could have switch in and out the UHC filter. I was very impressed with the Aspheric 36mm when used with the Skymax, and glad that I hadn’t sold it!

Is that Pex Hill in Widnes? I come from Widnes and regularly went to Pex Hill as a child but didn't know there was an observatory there.

I bought the Aspheric 36mm thinking it would be flat and give a slightly wider field of view, but with my F6 refractor and F5 Newtonians (the indented use for this eyepiece) it was frankly terrible. Rather than admiring the wide star fields I was just noticing all of the seagull shaped stars. I can't imaging it would be better than the TS Paragon ED 35mm which is another eyepiece that I considered. After much deliberation, and much frustration with the Aspheric, I bought the StellaLyra UFF 30mm which is fantastic as many others have commented, but its field of view is narrower than the Aspheric. I was going to sell the Aspheric but it does work well with the Skymax 127 and gives that extra field of view, but I wouldn't use it with any of my other scopes.

I have a Skymax 127 (it was my first scope) and have made the conversion to a 2" visual back, fitted with a Baader 2" ClickLock. Mostly I use it with 1.25" eyepieces via a Baader 32mm prism diagonal that has a 2" nosepiece fitted to the scope side and a 1.25" Baader ClickLock fitted to the eyepiece side, but I also use the 2" visual back with a 2" mirror diagonal and a Baader Hyperion Aspheric 36mm eyepiece to gives me a 1.50° field of view. While the Skymax 127 is inherently narrow field, this does allow me to observe larger DSOs such as M45. I've not noticed any vignetting but haven't looked hard for it. The Baader Hyperion Aspheric is pretty disappointing with faster scopes by the way, but with the slow Skymax 127 it works well and gives me a wider field of view than my (very much better) StellaLyra UFF 30mm.

I also see this sometimes with my EAA setup (200PDS + Uranus-C). It seems to vary from object to object and from time to time. I put it down to three things: Stray light The object might not always be close to the axis of the scope, just in a position where the light from it gets in. I now have dew shields for my Newtonian's in an attempt to stop this happening, and I also switch off all house lighting, just as I do for visual. Cloud I often find that when I check outside there is very light cloud around the object which I think is reflecting light and lightening the background sky. Not much you can do about this but it's good to know. Dew Sometimes it gets worse towards the end of a longer session and then I suspect dew build up. I've reduced this considerably by using a dew heater on the primary and hopefully the dew shield will limit any effect on the secondary.

I particularly like the snapshot of Pons-Brooks. Unfortunately it's behind a hill for me after dark. Not that I've been able to get out observing recently!

I've also observed Vesta recently via EAA. Not the most exciting of targets but it's nice to find and identify it. I'm particularly pleased with this snapshot from mid-January when Vesta was passing by M1 ... This was taken with the 72mm refractor, Uranus-C (IMX585) camera, no darks or flats, 23 x 15s exposure, x400 gain.

The problem I had with the filter was to do with AliExpress playing fast and loose with photos. In the photo the filter was clearly marked Optolong but an unbranded one arrived.

I ordered a filter from AliExpress a few months ago at a "too good to be true" price and that's exactly what it was, so it will be good to know what you receive. Looking carefully at the description, I think what you may have bought is an adapter for the Oasis focuser rather than the focuser itself, but if you do receive the whole focuser then let me know and I'll get one too. It's a pity it doesn't take its power from USB though. That would make it perfect.

OK. I do remember looking at that now. Quite a lot to download. The issue I'm having is with plate solving my stack snapshots. These are usually PNG files so they don't have the FITS header with the starting point. The only plate solver I've found that works reliably is the one built in to SharpCap and that one won't allow saving of the FITS header as far as I can tell.

@Fir Chlis, thanks, this is really helpful. I've tried following your method but using ASTAP to do the initial plate solving and that seems to work. I think the problem I was having is that the initial FITS file I was using wasn't properly plate solved. I need to spend some time now properly trying out Aladin. I'll also take a look at Pretty Deep Masks. I can't find it on Google. Can you post a link?

Some nice images there, especially the second one of M51. I was surprised by how much more I could see with longer frame exposures, even with the same total exposure time. I find the longer frame exposures a bit less "close to real time" and my mount is in AZ mode so I'm limited to no more than 15s, but that's generally the frame exposure that I use now. I haven't used the brain function for a while but will give it another go as it seems to have been suggesting settings for you to use that still make sense for EAA.

OK. Then I think the additional cost and effort of the built in screen is unnecessary, and I think the user experience would be better with a smartphone or tablet than what you could achieve with a built in screen. I think a WiFi connected astro camera and a well written app would be much cheaper and easier to implement and actually better functionally.

I've considered upgrading to the Baader Steeltrack but decided against it as the installation seems unnecessarily complex. As I understand it, the inner elongated holes in the Steeltrack base are just to hold the base while you mark out the OTA for drilling of the new holes. You then use the new holes with the outer rods to attach and adjust the focuser. I was very surprised that the Baader Steeltrack was not just a direct replacement for Sky-Watcher focusers, like the Astro Essential focusers are for example. One thing that did cross my mind was whether the inner alignment holes could just be used to permanently attach the Steeltrack, ignoring the outer rods (and probably their adjustment function).

The S50 can be used with a tablet (I've seen it done). It may well need an internet connection but a tablet can provide that, even via the cellular network. Having set up EAA from the separate components I understand how complicated it can be. I've deliberately kept my setup simple though and I don't use a computer on the mount, either an ASIair or RPi. I think there is a gap in the market that could be addresses by a product like the Astrowl. That gap is between a component based solution and the S50. The component based solution is complicated to setup and expensive, but it allows flexibility of kit (particularly the scope) and reuse of existing kit. The S50 is easy to setup and relatively inexpensive, but you are stuck with a particular scope with no possibility of upgrading, and any astronomy kit you might already have cannot be used. Something in between would be a simple way to attach a camera to existing kit to do EAA. The Astrowl does that but uses a built in display which greatly complicates the design. I think a better solution would be to use a tablet to provide the display and UI and write a really good and easy to use app to connect to and control the camera. A WiFi enabled camera would remove the need for the cable, and would allow the camera and display to be located in different places which is one of the big pluses of doing EAA.

I think there is a place for technology like the Astrowl as a simple way to convert a standard visual setup to do EAA. I'm not convinced that the current incarnation is the way to go though. I would have thought a WiFi enabled camera and a tablet app would be a better solution. Building displays in to consumer electronics is rarely done these days because tablets and smart phones are so ubiquitous and the cost and complexity of doing so is so high.

Looking at the video from the S50, it's what I would expect, live video and the planet looks quite small. To be honest, it's not dissimilar to what I was observing via EAA before SharpCap added live stacking of planets. The planet still looks small but that's down to the short FL. The only way I've found to observe planets via EAA is with a longer FL scope, and using the SharpCap live stacking function. The S50 does at least allow you to see that it's Jupiter though, and to observe the bands.

I find that the SharpCap brain function suggests settings that are more appropriate for AP than for EAA, and for an EQ rather than AZ mount.