billhinge

Wow, thanks, thats a good cost saving plus probably easier to get hold of!

My new G2-8300 with 8 slot ext filter wheel + OAG has finally arrived (I believe it is the very last one manufactured, hence external filter wheel) I managed to pick up some second hand Astrodon Nb filters so I'm looking for LRGB to fill it Given its a KAF8300, what would you recommend, Astrodon E or Baader. I notice there is a lot of love for the Baader, is that due to the price quality ratio? In future what should go in the last hole?

Thanks all, I've ordered one and thanks for confirming they work

Cool , many thanks Julian I can plug it into an Eagle which is close by

I bought a Flir grasshopper imx252 a few weeks ago, unfortunately the usb3 cable is still on backorder Anyone recognise the fitting on the back to see if I can use another cable? there seems to be two sizes? The round connector is for the power etc which I have

On the 80 Wave EDT there is an obvious thumb screw, could it be missing? looking at the 2017 115 it doesn't look as chunky as the 1st model 80 dewshield

I also have Bob's knobs but a good idea I saw elsewhere was a good set of screws that you use allen keys with - forgot their name! By the way @X6gas wrote "I have seen it said that the orientation of the secondary is not important now that computerised manufacturing is so accurate. I am a bit sceptical of this in honesty as I can't see why Celestron would bother with an orientation pin in the secondary if it made no difference. I think the only option to be sure is gradually rotate the secondary to "tune it in" and then marking the position before tightening the secondary carrier." What orientation pin?

thank you and good luck collimating 🙂

Thanks, in my suburban/country area they turn the street lights off at about 11, its mainly the odd light from gardens, bedrooms and distant buildings on the southern horizon I did use one of the clip in eos filters previously for dslrs

Got a roll being delivered to touch up some more scopes and baffles. Had used Protostar before, card version, non sticky and that was very good Looked for Vanta black, ultra black from photographic supply shops (used in back drops) etc but the FLO stuff is cheap, easy to find and gets good reviews so decided to try it. I'm sure it will be OK

I have a Quadband filter which I purchased before ordering a mono CCD (still waiting so I can't test it) - I was looking for a QHY268 OSC earlier in the year but no stock Before I decide whether to sell it, would a Quadband filter be useful in LRGB since it would reduce light pollution elements? I'm thinking Quad + Red, Quad plus Blue, Quad plus Green together and Quad by itself for L RGB are 31mm in an 8 slot wheel and Quad is 2" so could go in focuser etc I have Ha, SII and OIII already from blurb Quad Band - combines Sii AND Ha into a red zone, and H-beta + Oiii into a green/blue zone. (Recommended for moderate light pollution). 1st band, CWL495nm FWHM35nm 2nd band, CWL 660nm FWHM 35nm 1mm thick optical glass with 30 arc sec parallelism. UVIR Block and Anti-Reflection Coating.

I took a flight of fancy with this version 😂

Here is my effort

Very interesting thread, I'm in the process of deciding whether to buy the Riccardi x1 or 0.75 flattener (or both). I have a personal view on this myth but the discussion on sampling got me thinking. My day job is IT , I've been involved in many subjects but currently back to deep learning and video. I had been wondering about super resolution and was wondering if anyone had applied it to astro imaging (I was considering doing it myself). Anyway, a quick google shows some clever folk already have a nifty £29 photo editing tool for mac. This is from the x2 bin, I could have lifted lifted the shadow a lot more but I prefer more contrast I applied super res plus machine learning denoise to a tiff exported from the fits, no PI or photoshop, just 30 mins of play with demo Could AI help with upscaling images captured by a reducer?

OK thanks, I was thinking I may hang a G2-8300 off the back of a M63 APM Riccardi with good quality 2" APM step down adapters to save replacing the 2" Feather Touch. Do you reckon that would work? There are dedicated step down APM adapters for the Riccardi, I assume since they make them for the Riccardi then they should work? I think a 3" focuser would require a custom adapter for my OTA

I have a mix of telescopes and focusers from 3" to 2" but eyepieces and camera fittings are approx 2" so why would you need a 3" or even 3.7" focuser? (yes I appreciate there are M63, M68, M82 gizmo's but why) In the old days is was simple 1.25" or screw thread 🙂 I'm trying to sort out ext tubes, focusers, flatteners, adapters is why I'm asking

I have an APM 115mm Apo but it seems to have a custom made Feather Touch with dual drawtubes, 2" and 6". The eyepiece holder is 2" I would like to use the dedicated LZOS flattener/reducer but it comes in M63 or M88 To replace the Feather Touch to a 2.5" or 3" would be expensive since it would need a custom adapter + 3" Feather Touch + Flattener and I like the existing extending focuser so hate to waste it I will be using it with a Kaf-8300 camera So I was wondering if the M63 to 2" nosepiece adapter would be a suitable workaround, at least short term https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/william-optics-m63-to-2-nosepiece-adapter-for-flat6a-iii-08x-reducer-flattener.html

Its easy to open up and remove the plate. There is a plastic retainer with some cardboard shims and the glass sits on a circular ledge. After removing the retainer just mark the edge of the glass and tube so you can put everything back in the right orientation. Make sure you use the correct size screwdriver to avoid tearing the screw heads You may read on cloudynights that there are celestron marks and serial numbers already on the glass, well my circa 2010 model didn't have any From the outside you may think it is wafer thin glass but its actually quite hefty There are loads of videos and methods on the internet, I tried using water alcohol and acetone to clean it in the past (you can see I flocked the tube some years ago). I use those microfibre cleaning cloths and paper tissue for dabbing off liquid (one of those pc blowers helps remove dust etc) Don't spray liquid on the glass but apply it to the cloth and clean small areas a bit at a time. Alcohol products seem to leave a slight purple residue or smear so I actually found distilled water and detergent the best. Applied water to the cleaning cloth and residue gently wiped away, dry with a second cloth and blower. In all plan for a weekend, its not a rush job, just needs patience. Acetone can work on small stubborn spots but I think you could get away with water if you take longer Check and double check before you screw everything back together, it may look clean and shiny in your hands but any marks really stand out when you have a black tube and mirror as a backdrop Putting the shims back under the plastic and then trying to find the screw holes is a nightmare as the shims will move respective to the plastic ring. Easier to add glue to to the ring & cardboard shims to keep them lined up before trying to replace, glued together its a simple job. After you put everything back you need to collimate everything - still need to do mine, I have one of the Hotech laser jobbies, done it before just haven't got around to it yet So the out take is it requires patience and methodical working

Mine was similar but it cleaned off eventually

Same here, I'm waiting over a month on a camera, extension tubes, focuser etc I bought several bits of good stuff second hand inc EQ6-R, TMB refractor and filters, but new stuff ordered from Germany arrived in a week (twice)

I kind of got the shape I wanted but not sure about the colour 😁 This is a mix of reflected blue from OIII and UV, the central pink Ha is also high in UV (Astrodon UV photometric), I wanted to map out UV areas so part pretty pic, part scientific

Thanks Olly, I'll give that a go later. I just discovered starnet so having a play with that and pixelmath at the moment 😉 (I'm into the whole python, deep-learning AI subject)

you have to add the dylib kexts and weight files manually on a mac and do a bit of security config afterwards

Cheers Mark, I'm using a macbook and just installed starnet++ for masks, seems quite nifty 😉

Thanks Mark By dark nebulosity do you mean dark structure enhance? I do use that sometime with default values When you say nebula mask, I assume you are talking generally about a PI mask rather than a 3rd party script download of that name (I'm using latest 1.8.8.6) Thanks for the clipping tip