Gallandro

Thanks for the tips and info. I’ll watch for those.

3 hours ago, inFINNity Deck said:

The dovetail is about 125-130mm in length

Thanks for those stats, they’re super useful and cements it for me now that I’ll be looking to buy this model scope.

Really appreciate your help!

@newbie alert Nice. Thanks.

Do you have the length of the standard dovetail? More or less than 100mm is what I’m trying to find out.

Hi all.

I’m just getting into the hobby and was looking to join an astronomy society/association.

I’m just outside of Brisbane Australia and there appear to be four that cover my area:

Astronomical Association of Queensland

Brisbane Astronomical Society

South East Queensland Astronomical Society

Redlands Astronomical Society

Does anyone have any experience with, or information about these associations that might help steer me towards one?

For example, do any of them have specific focuses, etc?

Thanks! 

On 23/11/2021 at 20:56, AbsolutelyN said:

The dovetail does let it down a bit though in my opinion.  Its fixed to the scope and only a few inches long.

You don’t happen to recall if the length was greater than 100mm by any chance?

Hi.

I wanted to get some help on the SW Esprit 80ED.

I’ve been looking into it and found the specs for it on a few different websites are different, e.g. weight, dovetail type.

Does anyone know, is this because there’s been different models with different specs, or just because some of the websites are incorrect?

And for those who actually have these (and if there *are* multiple versions, then those who have the latest/current version), what type of dovetail does it have, and how long is the dovetail?

Thanks!

4 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Let's be clear about what the Starsense (camera +handset) does. It automatically performs a star alignment, saving one the bother of choosing alignment stars, finding one of them in the finder, then the main scope, and performing a 2-star align or autoalign. While the Starsense is doing its thing, you could be moving accessory gear outside.

Starsense works by plate-solving, but it is not a direct equivalent of the plate-solve you can perform yourself with your own camera and software. The results of a Starsense plate-solve cannot be directly accessed.

I have found that the Starsense is of most benefit when attached to a quick-deploy setup like my C8 SE, where the whole assemblage can be caried outside as a single unit, Starsense started and the setup ready for observing within minutes (ignoring cool-down time).  Personally I have not found the Starsense to be as accurate as a good 2-star auto-align. but it is accurate enough to get objects into a low-power eyepiece and it certainly saves some annoying fiddling about and crouching. And the handset has some handy object lists.

If you have a heavy kit that needs to be assembled before use, and which has GPS, the time taken by doing a 2-star align is a small proportion of the total assembly & setup time (typically 20-30 minutes), and it hardly seems worthwhile attaching a £300+ accessory to shave a little off this time.

What kind of imaging are you intending to carry out? Your choice of scope and mount implies that you have in mind either planetary imaging, or deep-space imaging of small objects.  Be advised that while the former should be fine, the latter is by all accounts NOT for beginners.

I have tried unguided images of planetary nebulae with a C8 and the images are no sharper (allowing for the difference in image scale) than those taken through a much cheaper 102mm achro refractor.   You may get more satisfying results if you start your deep-space imaging with a small hgh-quality refractor, or even a camera + telephoto lens.  Have you acquired and read the book "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards? It is repeatedly recommended here as a guide for would-be astro imagers.

Thanks Geoff for your comments.

I’ll get a copy of that book.

16 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

Using an OAG for astrophotography requires careful choice of spacers to ensure that the main camera and guide camera are both in focus at the same time. When observing visually, different eyepieces have different focus points and you would be unable to use the telescope focuser to focus the eyepiece without changing the focus of the guide camera. The only option would be to fit a helical focuser to the diagonal and use that to focus the eyepieces instead of the focuser. As far as I am aware, these types of focusers tend to have limited travel and so you would be limited to eyepiece ranges that claim to be parfocal, and would be unable to use items like barlows and binoviewers that can change the focus position significantly. The way to get around this issue would be to use a separate guide scope instead of an OAG, which is basically what Starsense is. If you want to try to save yourself the cost of buying a Starsense unit I would be inclined to try just manually running through the alignment procedure when using the scope visually as you don't need the ultra precise guidance that you do whilst taking long exposure photographs.

Thanks for your help, that makes sense.

Hi.

I've had a long term interest in astronomy and am just preparing to start getting some gear.
I've spent a while now doing some research, reading and watching videos.

I want to get started in visual observing, but I hope to, get into some astrophotography as well at some stage.
I will definitely always want to be able to do visual, so I can share this with my family, and also I plan to get some decent scope experience for a while doing visual, plus I was thinking in terms of cost, starting out just visual allows me to stage the cost outlay by buying the camera gear later.

I've mostly settled on the gear I'm looking at getting, but wanted to get some advice on one aspect.

I am planning on at the start getting a Celestron SCT with a CGX mount plus the SkyPortal WiFi module.
I was planning on also initially getting the Celestron StarSense.

My plan for later was to get a not-too-expensive ZWO mono camera (at least to start with), EFW, plus a ZWO mini guide camera and an OAG.
To manage all this I was planning on using either an AsiAir or Astroberry setup.

So my question mostly revolves around whether or not the StarSense is effectively a waste in the long run?

It seems to me that the functions the StarSense performs will end up also being able to be done by the cameras with the AsiAir/Astroberry.
So instead of spending the money on the StarSense, can I simply earlier on buy the OAG, guide camera and AsiAir (or Astroberry) and then attach the OAG inline with the star diagonal, and then use the guide camera and AsiAir/Astroberry for alignment and mount control, while still doing visual astronomy (i.e. before I actually buy the "proper" main camera"), and thereby obviating the need for the StarSense altogether?
Or is the idea/setup I've described completely stupid and non-functional in terms of visual observing?
Can I actually use a guide camera via AsiAir/Astroberry for alignment, or does it have to be the main camera (which I wouldn't have in the initial setup I've described)?

Hopefully I've explained myself well enough.

Thanks.

Hi.

I'm Paul and I'm from the Redlands, just outside of Brisbane Australia.

I have had a long term interest interest in Astronomy, from having a telescope as a kid, to taking a few classes at uni (even though I did no other physics), and now getting older I'm rediscovering my passion for this and am looking to get properly into it.

I've spent the last 4 months or so doing research, reading websites and forums, and watching videos on YouTube, and am finally at the point where I'm happy to start asking questions on here so I hopefully don't look too stupid

Thanks in advance!

Paul