Anne S

Ioptron supply the correct cable minus the serial to USB adapter with their mounts. I used to use EQmod with my eq6. I've been using Ioptron Commander for years and it's very straightforward. Once you've found which com port you're plugged into and connected once Commander connects automatically the next time. There's also goto options built in and several park positions should you leave your mount up between sessions. There is some information in the software downloads section about connecting the mount to the laptop. I've even found an Ioptron Mount lead with a usb plug on the other end, so no serial to usb concerter needed. I use Commander with my new CEM60 and older IEQ30pro quite happily.

I've got the blue. It's very pretty. Need the correct adapter for my IEQ30pro. It's coming shortly.

Definitely with my small tripod. Having said that I've been imaging fine on it with a 60mm telescope.

I bought one of these shortly after the IAS. It is very solid but fairly light to move around. It's a replacement for my 1.5 inch tripod. I'm waiting for the IEQ30pro top section as mine had the one for an EQ5. I also thought I could use it with my Skytracker using an adapter from FLO. Has new stock arrived at the shop? They've been delayed because of the problems in China.

That's lovely. You've got plenty of detail When I imaged the Jellyfish, I went for the same colours. Those really bright stars are a pain though, I had a problem with halos on my version from the filters.

I'd love Astrodons but I suspect my husband wouldn't!

I'm using Astronomik 36mm on my SXVR H694, 36mm ones. I'm really pleased with them. I took subs of the Ghost nebula, IC63 last night and Navi is bright but I can't see a halo around it after a rough process. My 2010 vintage Baader narrowband struggled with the bright star near the Jellyfish nebula. I do think Baader have improved their filters since, there was a recall several years ago following halo issues. I am using a focal reducer on both scopes so that might have had something to do with it. The scope I used last night has a 5mm extension between camera and fw as I was getting bad reflections on the camera from light sources outside the dome last year. Something to do with the reducer as I only got them when using it. That may explain why my Astronomiks are working so well. A spacer is suggested as a workaround with some scopes when using reducers. I must try that on my other setup. Or try turning the filters around, which is also suggested.

I'd love to buy some Baader ultra narrowband filters but they don't seem to stock one in 1.25" size. I don't need any bigger for my Atik 428 and I can get 9x1.25 in m'y filter wheel, so I can try a couple before selling on the older Baaders.

What size laptop are you using. I use a Hypercam178 with the Lunt50. It's a very big image because of the small pixels and I need to zoom out to see the whole frame.

Astronomik do do 36mm. I got some last year.

I'm using a 102mm F7 refractor so not particularly fast. I did have slight vignetting in the corners with this setup. Once I added a 0.79 reducer it became a problem so I bought a set of Astronomik 36mm filters after checking with Starlight Xpress, the ccd manufacturer. With the 36mm filters, I'm not aware of any issues. As I understand it, the faster the telescope the more issue you may have. I suspect it steepens the light curve as it comes through the telescope so there's more chance of catching the edges of the filter. I used the same camera and 1.25 filters with a 6 inch Ritchey Chretien and 0.6 reducer. The vignetting was visible then. Given that you may well fit a reducer to a SCT as the are fairly slow, I think you would have a problem. I didn't have issues when using the RC without the reducer. The SX camera is fairly long back focus, for example some of the Atik cameras have 12.5mm and I believe some of the ZWO ones have 6.5mm which will change matters substantially. Hopefully one of the more experienced member on here will chip in.

I use 36mm with a 16mm diagonal ccd with a back focus of 17.5mm. Mostly because adding a focal reducer gave me bad vignetting with 1.25 filters. It did work with the smaller filters without. Any reducer brings the focus point closer in which causes the problem. I believe the ZWO cameras have short backfocus which may make the smaller filters possible. FLO lists 1600 cameras in bundles with various filter sizes, it might be worth asking them. Flats will deal with any difference of illumination but it gets more difficult if the there is bad vignetting. As to the filters, 12nm filters are normally for noisier cameras such as DSLRs. CCD and CMOS cameras can use 6nm or narrower.

My observatory is sitting on paving slabs laid by a friend who works for the council. It is very stable and has a Pulsar dome sitting on it. I use an Ioptron tripier and a CEM60ec with refractors on it. No problems with walking gently past it when I'm imaging. I also didn't have any problems with my eq6 which was on the standard tripod. The garden used to be a car park so is really difficult to dig down any depth. i would imagine you'd only have an issue if you mounted a very long focal length telescope.

I've got various Altair scopes. The main one is a Wave 102 triplet which I've had for about 10 years. I also have a Starwave 70edt to double up with the Wave and a 60edf which is used for travelling. I do use smallish ccd cameras with them, SX694 and Atik 428. if you're going to use a dslr with them you'll need a flattener or reducer. You'd need to check whether they're suitable for a full frame camera. The most likely scope should be the Wave ones as they have bigger focuser and flatterner or reducer. My 102 has the earlier 3 inch focuser, the newer ones have 2 and 1/2 inch. The smaller scopes are 2 inch focusers which may give problems with a full frame camera. One day I'm going to try my Canon 650d with the 60mm but I need to get the flattener first.

I would keep the heq5 as it's more portable. I switched from an eq6 to a Cem60 last year but it's not moving from the observatory. I also have a ieq30 pro for portable use. There's nothing worse than coming home from an event, finding a clear sky forecast and having to set up quickly. It never works!

Some cameras can take a 2 inch nosepiece, it might attach to that. I thought I was going to have to do that but I'm currently sharing the filter slide with my husband, he uses it at home and I use it at starparties. I've got the observatory and filter wheels on another ccd at home.

I got my Baader nb filters along with my SX694 around 2010. I had an issue with the Jellyfish nebula and halos. I thought all 3 nb filters had the halos! But there is an extremely bright star! I wonder when the faulty batch started....

I bought the same filter at the International Astronomy Show. I'm using it with Altair Astro's filter slide. I'll be alternating it with the Ir/uv filter that I've been advised to use with my Atik 320e.

Before buying my Cem60ec I specifically asked my dealer about payload. He confirmed the quoted payload is correct for imaging. The mount has belt drive so balance is important and long telescopes can be a problem if they are heavy too.

I had a Nexstar 8se some years ago. For aligning I always used auto two star align, it's quicker than the 3 star align where you point to three bright objects. Mine used to fail as I was using Dubhe as one of the stars and it isnt bright enough! For auto two star I used Dubhe and Altair if that was visible, if. It something near. The first star you move the scope to manually after choosing it from the list, once centred you choose a second star from the list as far away as possible and ideally higher up. The mount will slew to where it thinks that star should be and you correct with the hand control. One other thing that could affect your accuracy is backlash. You need to have the final movement in a particularly direction, something like right and down. It makes sure the gears do the final movement in the same direction it's tracking. It's also useful to calibrate the Mount using the hand control. I suspect that tells the mount the focal length of the attached telescope as it moves the mount away from the star you're pointing at and asks you to move the mount back, if I remember correctly. Also, if you want to concentrate on one area of the sky you can replace one of the original alignment stars with one placed closer to where you want to look. There used to be a website called Nexstarsite to help with all the versions of this mount. The owner stopped updating it some time ago but it was still there when I last looked quite a few years ago. Hope that gives you some ideas. Anne edit: I used a cross hair reticle on the 25mm eyepiece to centre the alignment stars.

Thanks. I also had some misalignment of the images as I couldn't get Maxim dl to centre where I was on the 1st night, that's why I switched to sgpro for the remaining 2 nights. I'm not as good guiding using Phd2 as with Maxim. I also did a bicolour version, see below. It's more muted!

Here's my version of the Elephant Trunk nebula imaged over 3 nights last weekend. 16x600 seconds for Ha,Oiii, and Sii shown in the Canada France Hawaii palate (Ha-red, Oiii-green and Sii-blue. My first attempt with sgpro. SXVR694 and Altair Wave 102 on Cem60ec Mount. I'm struggling with autofocus, so I think focus could have been a bit sharper.

Where did you get those knobs? I find Altair's hard to tighten.

I owned the later 8SE which had a removable ota. Therefore it's possible to put the tube on pointing the wrong way. That might upset it....