bosun21

I have found that a standard dew shield is adequate for protecting the secondary in a Newtonian. I experience heavy dew from time to time and the shield has worked for me. A heater will cause warm air currents which won't really help with imaging IMO.

What do you mean when referring to “stacking”?

You may want to get a barlow lens for the planets as they are small in the eyepiece of short focal length scopes.

@Neil H is talking about his 127 refractor and not the Maksutov which you own. To capture images you indeed use the capture setting and select how many images you want to capture at the settings you have already set (exposure/gain etc). Remember that the images will be saved to a file on your laptop. You can also use the live stacking setting.

No. The Maksutov should have enough focus travel to reach focus on its own. Using an extension will increase the focal length a little if you do decide to use one. The OP has the Bresser 127 Maksutov.

Yes. Either that one or if needed the other one that FLO sells (65mm which you can remove the nosepiece from the camera and screw it directly onto the extension. You need to measure how much extension is needed for the scope. Fit an eyepiece and see how far out you need to move it to reach focus in the daytime.

You want a 1.25" extension that slips into where the diagonal went and the camera nosepiece slips into the other end of the extension.

Are you screwing the camera on or sliding it into a fitting?

No that's a nosepiece. You will need an additional extension to reach focus with a refractor. They are designed for use with a diagonal so when you remove this you will need to replace this with an extension to make up the distance. Try a 2x barlow to move the focal point outward.

What length is the extension?

Have you got the scope on the left side of the mount while pointing north? Set the exposure to 2 seconds and increase the gain. Then rack the focuser in and out until you see stars. If you are not using a diagonal then you will most likely need an extension piece to reach focus with the camera.

Hi 👋, welcome to SGL.

I had a couple of hours of partially clear skies so I rather hastily wheeled the new dob outside to try and capture some images of Jupiter. It’s really cold here and my fingers were numbing up quickly. I had to align a Baader RDF on Jupiter which isn’t that easy with a new go to dobsonian. It took me longer than I would have liked to centre Jupiter in the eyepiece and adjust the RDF to the planet also. Got the laptop and camera, ADC all set up with Jupiter in the centre of my screen. Just about to start capturing the videos and my newly fitted Electric focuser completely jammed!!. I tried to fix it on site, but to no avail. My fingers were numb so I had no intention of fiddling with screws and Allen keys in the dark. I had to abandon everything and head back indoors. To make things worse I managed to free the focuser in roughly 5 seconds when back inside. I had the draw tube fully drawn in when it seized for some reason. I can’t get this to repeat after many full range movements. So my lessons learned is that Sod’s law is very real and secondly I just have to get a G&G set up.

I thought that.

When you are pointing the telescope north the scope should be on the left hand side of the mount 👍.

100% Agree 👍.

I would also go for the 585MC. It will allow you to photograph a larger area of the moon at a higher resolution. It will also provide frame rates up to 200fps using the ROI when capturing the planets.

A new smart scope perhaps? They don't presently have a horse in this race.

Not for me I'm afraid. I would be continually knocking things off it all night.

I personally don't see what's innovative about making a product you already produce smaller. Am I missing something?

It's often best not to be fully dark adapted when viewing Jupiter as it can be too bright to allow the details to show.

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🙂.

To add to what has already been said above, dew formation on the secondary mirror is pretty common with the Heritage scopes especially if you are not using some sort of shroud on the scope. The secondary mirror is basically exposed to the air so will dew up if the dew point is reached. A home made shroud would be beneficial.

I never managed it with a 4" scope, not for the want of trying mind you.

Where in the UK do you live? I haven't had a cloud gap in the last month!