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M101 with SN2023ixf. 44min @ ISO800 F/5 Canon 600D
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
M101 Pinwheel Galaxy with Supernova SN 2023ixf. Taken on Friday night 27th May around midnight. Setup: skywatcher 150p with Canon 600d at prime focus. Mix of lights - 24x45s subs, 3x60s and 35x40s. 20 flats. EQ3-2 with RA clock drive. Dithering by hand! I experimented with most performing random dithering in RA and Dec using the slow motion control for Dec and the hand controller for RA with eyeball via finderscope. Worked out pretty well as the noise seems significantly improved compared to my previous attempts.© Kevin Hurley, 2023
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
Andromeda Galaxy. Canon 600D (astromodded, no filters) at primefocus of my skywatcher 150P on EQ3-2 with RA clockdrive - no guiding. 30 x 25s lights, 10 darks, 5 flats. Processed in SiriL and startools.© Kevin Hurley, 2022
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
What a great night last night. Found my first Virgo cluster galaxies! Located without seeing anything in my finderscope - figured I must be in the right place as there were almost no stars. Had to take a quick shot at high ISO to confirm there were galaxies there. Really pleased to see 3 Messier galaxies and a whole bunch more pop out after 20 min. If I hadn't spent a hour messing about with polar alignment and collimation I would have grabbed more integration time. Oh well - lesson learned. While this was imaging I got out my binoculars and found M104 too. Will try to image if there's another good night like last night.© Kevin Hurley, 2021
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M37 and M36 widefield - 105mm F6.3. Nikon D3200 with Nikon 55-200mm lens. EQ3-2 unguided.
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
© Kevin Hurley, 2021
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Perseus double cluster widefield. 55mm at F/6.3, ISO 100 - 30 x 1 min
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
Widefield shot of Perseus double cluster NGC 869 and NGC 884 and surrounding starfield. The heart and soul nebulas are in there somewhere too but not particularly obvious in this 30min total exposure. Nikon D3200 with kit lens 18-55mm at 55mm F/6.3. Tracking on EQ 3-2 (Skywatcher 150P).© Kevin Hurley, 2021
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
First attempt at imaging Andromeda galaxy. It doesn't fit fully in the frame. Captured 40x 30s subs of lights plus 10 darks and 7 flats. Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker for total of 14min 45s. Processed in Startools but struggled to get the colour looking right.-
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
M51. Skywatcher 150P with Nikon D3200 at prime focus. EQ3-2 mount with RA motor. Unguided. 10 x 30s subs - aligned and stacked with DSS into a 2min 30s exposure at ISO 800. Post-processed with Startools - binned, cropped, stretched and colour balanced. This is an updated processing of previous image posted here.-
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M27 Dumbbell Nebula. 5mn 2s, ISO 100. Skywatcher 150p with Nikon D3200
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. Using Nikon D3200 at prime focus of my 150mm aperture F/5 Skywatcher 150P on EQ3-2 with RA drive and no guiding. 5min exposure from best 10 of 20 30s subs, aligned and stacked in DSS. Post processing using Startools - stretched, binned, cropped and colour balanced. -
Leo Triplet - M65, M66 and NGC 3628. 4min 30s at ISO 800. 150mm reflector F/5.
KevinPSJ posted a gallery image in Member's Album
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
M65, M66 and NGC 3628 - The Leo Triplet. Photographed on May 14. Skywatcher 150P with a Nikon D3200 at prime focus. EQ3-2 mount with RA motor drive (no guiding). 19 subs at ISO 800 - 30s each. Aligned and stacked in Deep Sky Stacker to give resulting 4min 30s exposure. Processed in Startools to crop, bin, stretch and colour balance. This was my second time around to process this image - starting to get the hang of Startools now. -
From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
M13 taken with Nikon D3200 at prime focus of my Skywatcher 150p mounted on EQ3-2 with RA motor drive (no guiding). 12 subs (30s each) aligned and stacked in DSS for total of 180s. Processed in startools - binned, cropped and stretched.-
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From the album: Kevin Hurleys Deep Space Objects
Longest imaging session on one target so far. In total 1 hour of lights with 20 min of darks - one set of darks at the start of the session and one at the end. Still struggling with noise in the image though so can't push the nebulosity as much as I'd like. I think I can try with longer subs to see if that reduces the noise issues. The stars in the center are nice and round with 30s subs so I suspect I could go to 45s or even a minute and still have usable stars.-
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I recently got the eq3-2 synscan mount to start with astrophotography. I first wanted to get the eq5 goto mount, but it is way out of my budget, and I could not find any good used ones that would fit my budget. Furthermore, I hear a lot of people talking about how eq3-2 is not that good for astrophotography, but what are some things I can do to improve the mount. Cheers guys.
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Hi guys, I am a newbie on this forum, this is my first topic here but I would like to show you my recent planetary imaging results. I started to catch the planets with a dedicated planetary camera last month but never thought that a small 4" Maksutov can show such small details. The equpment I used: SW 102/1300 Maksutov 2.25x Q-turret Barlow lens QHY5L-II color camera EQ-3 GOTO mount All the images were taken on differend countrysides in Hungary. I hope you will like it Also, please share your images taken with similar OTA, I'd like to learn some tricks from others as well Jupiter's 15 minutes of rotation. Captured with Firecapture, processed in AS!3, Registax and WinJUPOS (2020.08.21) Saturn, 1 hours stacked with AS!3, processed in Registax (2020.09.05) Mars, 3 hours of rotation. Captured with Firecapture, stacked with AS!3, processed in Registax. (2020.08.22) Mars again, 5 minutes stacked in AS!3, processed in Registax. You can see also Olympus Mons and Arsia Mons next to the terminator (2020.09.05) Finally, a result of a Hungarian star party where I learned how to use properly my equipment This time I borrowed an ADC for Saturn.
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Hi, do you think it's a good idea to swap my EQ3-2 GoTo Alu for iEXOS-100? Will there be some kind of improvement? Thanks!
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I've been getting started with an EQ3-2 GOTO / Skymax 127 combo, and had a couple of queries / concerns about the mount; advice would be greatly appreciated. With the clutch released, rotating on the RA axis the mount meets resistance when the counterweight bar approaches horizontal. It's enough that sometimes the motor drive can get stuck; there's no clicking from gears skipping, but movement stops. If I undo the RA setting circle screw the resistance is gone so I thought that was my error as the manual says to unscrew when locating, but as tracking is on the RA axis and the screw would normally be tightened at that point, is this an issue with the mount? I'm not expecting to use the circle so I can leave the screw loose and it seems that it'll be fine, but I'm wondering what the issue is. I've looked at badger's teardown, but I really don't want to take it apart yet as it's new and there isn't much backlash and no slop (if I understand the term correctly). I'm also wondering whether the DEC circle is set incorrectly at the factory and needs adjusting, or is this a misunderstanding on my part. After polar aligning, I assumed that having the arrow on the side of the mount head point to 90 on the DEC circle would have the telescope pointing correctly home positioned, however with a 1 star alignment my home position was clearly incorrect, and after doing a 3 star alignment (and getting good tracking after that) and returning home the DEC circle was around 78. Using a spirit level on the head, if the edge of the mount head that's parallel to the scope mounting plate when it's tightened and horizontal , the DEC circle is around 12 (or 78 if vertical), however if the edge of the head that has the two screws that secure the plate is horizontal, the DEC circle is 0. So it seems as if the DEC circle was set based on the orientation of the side of the head that has the screws, which doesn't lie parallel to the scope mounting plate, rather than the edge that lies snug against the mounting plate. Does that sound plausible or should the DEC circle be at 12/78 when the scope is horizontal or vertical? -
Hello, I am currently setting up my EQDrive unitrack with my EQ 3-2 mount and upon opening the EQDrive config, I press read and stare into the abyss as I realize that I know nothing about the motor parameters and gear ratios. I'd be greatly thankful if somebody could put me on the right track. -
I have a Helios 200p (identical to the Skywatcher) mounted on an EQ3-2. I know it is overloaded but I find it OK for visual provided I give it a couple of seconds to settle down at high powers. I intend to motorise the mount using stepper motors & an Arduino. It will be tracking for visual only with a possible upgrade path to GoTo. Since I dont need fantastic precision and having read the relevant threads on this forum, I propose to drive the RA worm directly & the DEC with a simple belt drive. By avoiding a step-down gear set I will still be able to use the manual slo-mo controls without disconnecting the motors. I think that centering the target with the slo-mo's & then switching on the tracking will be nicer than using fast-forward & fast-reverse controls. But no step-down means no torque amplification. So how much torque do you need to drive an overloaded EQ3-2. I decided to do some quick & dirty tests. Apparatus 200p with 25mm Plossl & 9 X 50 Finder, payload about 9kg. EQ3-2 with 10kg of counterweights Improvised wooden pulley, effective radius 0.375 inch 2 X 1kg barbell weights piece of string Method For each axis ,with the clutches locked, a 1kg & then 2kg load was hung from the pulley & released. This was repeated for the opposite direction of rotation. Results DEC 1kg Torque 13.5 oz.inch Rotated smoothly at about 90 degree/minute DEC 2kg Torque 27 oz.inch Rotated quickly at about 300 degree/minute + RA 1kg Torque 13.5 oz.inch Did not rotate RA 2kg Torque 27 oz.inch Rotated smoothly at about 90 degree/minute Conclusion The required torque for RA would be on the limit for a (cheap, ungeared) NEMA 14 stepper but a NEMA 17 motor with a torque of 84 oz.inch should be up to it. So now all I have to do is order the bits & learn how to use an Arduino.
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Good evening all. I was on holidays in the south west of Ireland for 10 days and was clouded out for most of it. Last Friday i was lucky and a small break in the clouds allowed me to grab this. The big blue star on the left is Altair and the orange one near it is Tarazed. This is 220 30 second subs with the Sony A7s and Samyang 135mm. Eq3-2 Pro. Stacked in PI, Processed in PS. Hope you like it. Richard.
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Hi again, I've started on DSLR AP recently and I am doing it on an EQ3-2 mount with the RA+DEC motor upgrade and the enhanced handset with an ST-4 port. Im capturing using Backyard Nikon on my laptop and I would like to dither between light frames, but I am doing it unguided. Reading up on the Backyard... forums it seems BYN does indeed support unguided Dithering, so that should be possible. What is unclear to me is if I can do it with the handset: enhanced-dual-axis-dc-motor-drive-for-eq3-2 My next question is, how would i connect my laptop to the ST-4 guider port? Using something like this: zwo-usb-to-st4-guider-adapter ?? Hope you can help me out, been searching forums for a good while now, and no clear answer to be found.. Clear skies! -
Hey SGL, I have been wanting to get into imaging and have recently purchased a used converted webcam to use with the scope, at the moment i don't have GoTo but i am going to look at getting the upgrade kit for around £300 but naturally i am a little hesitant as i don't think I have taken everything into account! Currently i have: Current Kit - SW 150p w/ EQ3-2 - 2x Barlow - Various EP's - Webcam (arriving soon) Looking to Purchase - EQ3-2 GoTo Upgrade Kit - Some sort of power supply to work with the GoTo Other than a laptop are there any other bits of kit i will need for a basic imaging rig that i haven't thought of? Thanks
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Hey SGL, I have an SW EQ3-2 Mount with the manual controls, whilst i was observing on Saturday evening whenever i was moving the 'scope a little i would have to wait a few seconds in order for the 'scope to stop shaking so i could then take a look through the EP. I was being extremely delicate with the adjustments handles and it wasn't really making any difference! If i was to put something heavy on the shelf between the legs of the Tripod do you think this will help? Or if you have any other ideas of what it could be and some prevention methods that would be great! I think i will eventually upgrade to the GoTo version (fitting the motors myself) but for the time being i am stuck with the manual adjustments Thanks in advance
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My apologies for the noise on this image, my excuse is that this is 80% only 31 frames (120 secs, 800iso, 130P-DS) taken with the moon up and haze increasing before a complete white-out of cloud this evening. My first session for exactly two months! Rotten shame about the noise along the bottom (I think my mirror is the cause and has to go now!) as otherwise it would be almost passable.
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I've just about got used to operating my EQ3-2 by its flexible manual control knobs but I'm increasingly aware of the wobble I introduce each time I adjust them them. So I would seem to be a natural candidate for a set of SW motors. However I don't want to spend £90+ for some 6 volt motors which have a reputation for blowing up hand controls and eating up batteries. I have read the AstroEQ (excellent piece of work by Tom Carpenter!) thread in this DIY section which offers a very attractive pathway towards full control and go-to tracking of the mount. I am therefore particularly interested in avoiding the SW motor drives and making use of some stepper motors with home constructed brackets as a first stage modification. But is there any way I could do this and control the motors in a semi-manual way without needing always to use a laptop running EQMOD etc? In other words, for instance, could a version of AstroEQ be interfaced with a manual control box (especially IR linked) driving stepper motors and offering simple object tracking? I started this as a new topic because I have some difficulty navigating within the AstroEQ 20+ page thread and don't want to distract.
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Couldn't really find the right topic title. You may or may not about http://code.google.c...olar-alignment/ but that what Themos and I use to do a very accurate polar alignment of our mounts (EQ1 and EQ3-2 for me). Because I didn't want to buy something special to fit my GF1 to the mount, I came up with this: it might not pretty, but it will work.
