Anne S

I've been imaging Thor's Helmet for the last couple of nights in Ha and O3. I notice that RGB data can be used to correct star colour. What exposure is recommended to capture the stars and how many should I take? It looks as if I've one more clear night for the time being.

Thanks

Anne

Price point unknown at present! I'm hoping to replace my mount shortly. That's more urgent.

 The main problem is my lack of technical knowledge. I'd probably need to buy something, I thought Pulsar only made their drives for the newer dome.

I need to win the lottery then I can get an all in one solution for the new house I'd move to in a part of the country that has more clear skies! Or the South of France.

I've no technical background at all and no knowledge of the what the parts are and where to source the .It would need to be a kit of some sorts. I also don't want to wreck my dome in trying. 

I need someone to make and fit one for me!?

That looks like the newer Pulsar. It's got the extra section under the sliding section of the dome. It also  has the inside of the dome overlapping the walls on the inside. Mine is like sloz1664's dome.

49 minutes ago, Nightwatchman said:

Thanks Steve for sharing your automation build. Nicely engineered, congratulations. I bought a Pulsar 2.2m dome recently (age uncertain- round dome - sliding shutter) and just about to start automating it.. Did you obtain the (40 tooth?) cog from beltingonline as well?  Any particular windscreen motor you would recommend? Would appreciate any tips you would like to share of the build. Graham

I'd be interested in how you do it. I keep hoping someone will develop a very simple (and cheap) way of motorising the dome. I only want it to track so I don't have to keep going out to turn it when I'm imaging. I don't know that I'd trust our weather to image all night!

20 hours ago, carastro said:

Taken at Astro camp back in the summer before I changed my Atik314L & Manual Filterwheel for an Atik428EX & EFW.  The cables are wrapped around the ED80 from when I covered everything up the previous night.   

Anne, I see in one of your pictures you are also using the Skywatcher Guidescope Mount to mount your dual rig piggy back.  I find that works really well, as once you have got it pretty close, (as you seem to have done), I can plonk the top scope back into the Guidesope mount and it's pretty much there, (usually just a small tweak and I do this when I have a bright star in the FOV), the only thing I have to be careful of is placing the two cameras orientated the same way i.e. sensor horizontal.  So it is hardly a chore at all.   It would be even less of a chore if I had a permanent set up, but as I go to astro camps monthly I have to set up every time. 

I got my both scopes pointing at the same star but with some rotation but I was getting bad traillng with the upper scope. It was suggested it might have been the SW guidescope Mount. As I also need to buy some 36mm filters as my SX694 was showing bad vignetting, I took everything down till I could get them. That's when I discovered the findershoe base was loose! The other issue was that the top scope in my Pulsar dome couldn't be used when I was imaging high up. I want to try getting them as close together side to side as possible next but I need to get another Losmandy dovetail first.

In the meantime my husband may be replacing my elderly eq6, maybe with an Ioptron CEM60 as I'm getting rather close to the maximum imaging weight for an eq6 and my eq6 wasn't too keen on carrying the weight. It's all the mounting stuff, cameras and filterwheels weighing so much. Hopefully I can experiment again next winter. For the time being I'm going to have another try at getting autofocus working in Maxim. I've got the 70mm scope with Atik428 and ef2 filterwheel with a Pegasusastro focus cube. Maybe that'll play nicely, my Laksideastro setup won't!

Of course it's been cloudy and wet ever since I changed over....

2 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

Hi Anne

I modified the dovetail and mounting ring height on one scope. It’s not that pretty but if you have patience it works. 

 

Thanks, I've got a Skywatcher guidescope Mount, so I'll start with that. I discovered when I was piggybacking my two scopes that, because of rings etc not being exact, both scopes ended up pointing fairly close to the same point! I wasn't happy with how the eq6 was handling so I've shelved things pending my new mount.

I discovered the finder shoe with the finderguider was loose when I was dismantling everything, which probably accounted for my guiding issues! But I also had problems with the top scope not being usable too near the zenith because of the design of my dome so I was going to try a tandem setup like yours next time.

10 hours ago, tooth_dr said:

I’ve reworked my setup today. Since moving from DSLR to CCD I needed to overhaul wiring etc.  New Lindy USB cables from FLO, two SW motor focusers, shorter QHY power cable from Modern Astronomy, a second Baader Click-Lock from North Down Telescopes and 12v cabling from CPC.

  

 This means just 2 cables going to the kit - 1 x Power and 1 x USB (plus a third cable to power the mount).

 

Do you have something fitted to aim the two scopes? I can't see if you've anything fitted. I'm still working on the best way to mount mine and am considering using a side by side setup. I want to use both sets of data and the fovs are fairly similar.

I'm just in the process of setting up my dual imaging rig. Everything connects correctly. Now I just need to get the telescopes pointing the same way, I'm hoping I can use the moon once the cloud clears.

I could have done with this earlier in the year when I was using a Sx guidehead to guide with giving me a ridiculous image to guider scale! Now I use my new Superstar and I get 1:2.6, though I’m having to use a 0.8 reducer when it’s actually a Planostar 0.79.

Anne

The banana and walnut cake is cooling on a rack!

Do I need to book for the solar capture and processing session? This is the first time I’ve spotted it. 

Anne

4 hours ago, Jonk said:

For anyone worried about pitch sizes, here's a couple of photos I took last year before I left. This is Kingfisher, and the lonely motorhome is pitch 15

 

 

The motorhome does look lonely. We've booked the whole week this year. We'll be the lonely motorhome! The weather's so rubbish at home, I've not done any decent images since the nights started drawing in. I hope it will be better there.

Anne

My husband had an ETX105 and upgraded to an LX90 10inch. It was a bit heavy if you need to carry it in and out but it was very good especially with globular clusters and planetary. I had a Celestron 8SE which was also good and had the advantage that it broke down to 3 sections that were easy to handle.  Also you can use the mount for other short telescopes such as a solar scope. Though I liked my 8SE on a CG5 mount, it had fewer backlash issues and was more stable as well as enabling larger eyepieces to be used as the telescope tube can be balanced better.  You can also upgrade the scope to something else, I eventually switched to refractors for imaging.

If you're into visual, I don't think you could do much better with something like the above. And they work similarly to your ETX.

Anne

1 hour ago, skybadger said:

Anne, could you provide a picture of the internal s of the dome please - so I can compare with mine?

PM sent.

I also have an old style Pulsar dome, unfortunately I don't have the knowledge or skills to automate it!

Anne

Booked for the week. You have sorted out the weather for us?

Anne

3 hours ago, Jimmystargazer said:

Thanks Anne. I was literally just about to order the diagonal.... I'll wait off and wait till home after work to check the scope.. 

Appreciate your input.

So basically I need to check that the eye tube bit as a screw attachment and need to measure the tube bit too?

Thank you..

Just have a look at First Light Optics. They show the adapter required for a standard, push fit diagonal. At the back of your LX90 is a screw thread. You won't be able to insert a pushfit diagonal as they are designed to go into a crayford type focuser. You probably had am adapter fitted to allow you use he supplied 1 1/4 diagonal. You will need to replace this adapter to fit a 2 inch diagonal. FLO have standard, push fit diagonals but they also sell the adapter to convert it to a SCT type. Not a bad idea as you can use the diagonal in SCTs as well as refractors. 

Hope that clarifies things.

Anne

On 10/04/2017 at 23:32, Jimmystargazer said:

Hi Dave.. hmm.. but of a variation in costs out there... Would this do?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B007RTTLUW/ref=mp_s_a_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1491863412&sr=8-14&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=2"+star+diagonal

Or anything else you'd advise?

Cheers.

 

Jimmy

 Can't see that anyone has confirmed that you need either a SCT diagonal, that is one with a screw on attachment to attach to the LX90 or a screw on tube that allows a non SCT diagonal to be fitted. As I recall, the LX90 only comes with one that takes a1 1/4 pushfit diagonal. I think we used a William Optics tube, I had a Nexstar 8se and used the dedicated 2inch diagonal. Both solutions worked well. I preferred the dedicated diagonal because I was short of distance between the rear of the scope. There was a danger the diagonal would fit the mount, thus wrecking alignment.

Anne