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So, with £1500 to spend - I open it up to you guys!

swag72

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
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You'll regret the manual filter wheel - the automatic ones always put the filter in exactly the same place so you don't need to redo flats every night.

The Starlight Xpress wheel is much cheaper than the Atik one, and also draws (a tiny amount of) its power over the USB cable so no need for a power cable.

In my experience quite the reverse is true on two counts.

1) I regret buying the electric wheel, not the manual.

2) It is electric wheels which have been the subject of a number of threads on here bemoaning the fact that they have not gone to the correct position. This is not discovered until it is too late and it is no longer possible to redo flats, the equipment having been dismantled. Nightmare. The number of times I have had a misplaced manual wheel is precisely zero. You can tell with mine exactly where it is. (Cheap Scopetecnix.)

Other known issues are filterwheels not working when it gets very cold and not working because they are USB devices and didn't feel like working so there!! To reboot you have to warm up your CCD camera, park the mount, switch off the guide camera, re-align the mount, re-cool the camera, re-frame the image and re-start the autoguiding session. The second time that happened to me was the last time I used my electric wheel.

If they always worked I'd love them. (By which I mean, If all of them worked all of the time...) since I realize that some owners never have an issue. But I read the forums...

Olly

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RobH

RobH

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I'm in complete agreement with Olly on this....with both my SX and Trutek wheels, I've had issues with the flats not matching due to the wheel not returning to exactly the same place.

I had to ditch over 12Gb of what would have been a high res mosaic of M31 becuase of this issue.

With my cheap and battered Atik manual wheel, I've never had a problem.

Rob

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swag72

swag72

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It was this type of problems and the fact that I am already heavily reliant on technology that I just wanted to try to keep it as simple as possible. I know that nothing about imaging is simple, but one less thing to worry about working with the PC has got to be good in my book!!

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angusb1

angusb1

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Hi Sara, you say you have several Canon lenses. If you are considering a CCD camera, you could look at the Geoptik EF lens adaptor which would allow you to use your lenses with a CCD. This would broaden the range of focal lengths you have at your disposal. Although you are looking at a small chip CCD your lenses could provide the ability to frame some objects nicely without over or under sampling.

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angusb1

angusb1

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I'm planning to use something similar with my 16hr and canon lenses, the only problem with the geoptik adaptor is that you can't use a filter wheel due to the amount of space between lens and CCD sensor once the adaptor is in place. It shouldn't be a massive issue for me as I'll only be using one filter per night anyway so I'll just take a load of flats at the end of the session, but worth considering.

Good luck with whichever path you take.

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AndyUK

AndyUK

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Hi Angus - I think there's a few of us with these 285 chip camera's looking at the Geoptik adapter (I have a tab open on the AA page as I write - It's been open for nearly 3 weeks, just waiting for me to press the button!).

You're right about not being able to use a filterwheel (and having to use one filter at a time), and Olly has noted that whilst these are particularly good for OSC's with lenses, changing the filter is a bit of a fiddle, so performing it in the dark / cold probably isn't something you'd want to make a habit of...

But that aside, the increased FOV it will offer will save an awful lot of mosaics!

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I rather agree with Martin. The camera lens adapter works for me because I have the luxury of an OSC and a mono camera. All my camera lens images have used both. Widefield targets tend to be very Ha dependent so HaRGB is the combination of choice. It isn't too onerous to change cameras because Ha is always going to need at least a night of its own anyway, but RGB by filter wouldn't appeal to me too much. Of course, standalone Ha images can be wonderful too.

Unfortunately the TS mini quad turned out to be a lemon but I wonder what the very short FL options are in terms of small refractors?

I can't see why a filterwheel CCD adapter isn't available, or one using a slide drawer.

Olly

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