bosun21

I have only used mine with my 102 refractor and the focus point was only moved about a half turn on the focuser.

I have owned two of them and I found them very good. They are practically invisible when in use. I was considering buying a powermate but the ES is basically the same design with the same benefits.

What a nice charitable thing to do. Bravo.

DPD dropped off an ASI585MC camera for my new journey into EAA and some planetary captures. Just another couple of bits to acquire before I can get started in earnest. If it turns out it’s not for me then so be it, at least I gave it a shot.

You are not alone. I am just about to start some planetary imaging/EAA with the option of perhaps moving onto a bit of AP. I was reading up and watching numerous tutorials on the various software I will be required to master. After a while I was overloaded and slightly overwhelmed by the amount of information I would need to ingest. I am just going to take baby steps and hopefully progress with it all. If it all implodes then I can always go back to 100% visual.

Each Maksutov I've owned I fitted an electric focuser. Makes a massive difference in achieving accurate focus.

It is along with the others already mentioned the Altair 102EDR is also the same scope.

Buy a good alarm clock ⏰. Seriously though I know that the asiair has a plan utility that you can preset to take a certain amount of exposures etc. I don't know whether it will shut down after it's finished though.

The 10mm in your scope with a 2x barlow will give you 240x. This will require good seeing conditions to use it effectively. I find this too much for Jupiter on most nights and I generally aim for around 150x. Saturn however can soak up the magnification more than Jupiter can. You can perhaps buy a 15mm eyepiece something like a BST Starguider which is very reasonably priced and gives a 60 degree FOV. This will give you 80x and 160x which I think you will find provides a more pleasing view.

I'm finding that with the frequency of clear nights in the UK it gives ample time for dust build up. I'm going to move the one in my sitting room to the bedroom to join the others so it's out of sight.

Definitely another thumbs up 👍 for getting a 4". I find myself gravitating more and more to using my Starfield over my other scopes. I do prefer my 150 Maksutov for planets although the 102 certainly holds its own in this regard. Definitely an all rounder.

I keep my scopes indoors and even then I have a full dust/water proof zipped cover over them. It may seem like overkill but it keeps them in very good condition should I decide to sell them further down the road.

It's looking much better apart from not being centered with the focuser. Loosen the three secondary screws a little and turn the centre screw clockwise to pull the secondary forward to the open end of the scope. Once it is concentric with the focuser draw tube you only need to use the three secondary screws to make the secondary mirror perfectly round. It's certainly close enough at the moment to be used as is.

I am in the process of buying a refurbished laptop to do some EAA. I have narrowed it down to 16GB ram, i7 processor and 512 GB SSD. Is windows 10 okay or am I better with Windows 11? Finally is the intel Celeron processor okay or best avoided. Best to check these things before buying I guess. Thanks.

Looking at your scope you should be able to achieve focus as the Quattro is designed for it. It may be the distance between the coma corrector and the sensor that is incorrect. Edit the title with the addition of Quattro added and someone who owns one can put you right. Good luck.

Thanks for that. I may just download Sharpcap and Stellarium and run them via ASCOM using the USB port on my mount. I can use All sky with Sharpcap for plate solving. Thoughts?

Thanks Peter, it's appreciated 👍.

How do you control your mount?

You don’t need a coma corrector for planetary as you are only capturing the planet on axis. Remove it and try again. What model of scope is it?

The secondary should always be collimated before the primary. Your secondary isn’t perfectly circular which can be rectified with the three screws on the secondary holder. I can’t see the focuser draw tube to check the centering of your secondary.

What software do you use to do the plate solving Peter? I will also need to use a 5m USB2 cable until I move to an asiair.

Can the camera (585MC) be run okay from a USB2 port on the mini? Thanks.

I think I'll just use it with my tablet then download the images when back indoors which is about 10m. I'll look into the Ethernet cable for control as I thought the USBC was for the downloads.

I was looking at the mini but was put off with it only having USB2 ports. If in the future i decided to do a bit of AP then I reckoned the USB3 would be better. There's also a new (I think) plus 256GB version out which is supposed to have good WiFi range but they always say that don't they. What if I ran a good quality Ethernet cable from the asiair to the laptop? This dipping of the toes is proving expensive but I'm determined to give it a serious go.

I intend to dip my toes into planetary and EAA. Can I use the asiair for the video and captures then once back indoors download onto my laptop for processing? Also what is the effective range of the asiair WiFi in practice? I have been looking at the Asi Studio or would i be better with Sharpcap? Sorry for all the questions. This is a new world to me.