starting again - an AP platform?

[garethmob]

hello guys

iv been considering doing this for a very very long time and once i get everything together in one place selling it all and starting again but with a more focus on AP

iv roughly come to the figure £700

not including a scope (as i will keep the megrez 72) what do i need for a better AP platform

first would be the flattner for the megrez First Light Optics - William Optics 0.8x Reducer III (2011)

so takes £135 off the budget

id need a mount (obviously:P)

i'll be keeping the canon so no need for camera

i know iv gone into the astrotrac / fornax / other type of similar mount but portability is not strickly nesserary as long as its fairly easy to set up and has a decent polar finder:P

thanks for any help guys and suggestions too

gaz

[ollypenrice]

The obvious mount is the HEQ5 which doesn't really have any obvious rivals. The iOptron iEQ45 is very quick to polar align but vastly more expensive. I'd guide through an ST80 with something like a QHY5 and PHD. I wouldn't go for a standalone for various reasons. Great setup. No reason not to get excellent results.

Olly

Olly

[garethmob]

thanks olly i was thinkin of the heq5 but whats pushing me away is the eq3s set up and the fact it only worked "some of the time" wasnt even half

how good does the scope have to be to guide?

[RikM]

You won't beat the HEQ5 / ST80 / QHY5 for performance for money. The ST80 is the king of guide scopes. I use a QHY5 on a 9x50 finderguider and get good results, but at some point I will go ST80 for versatility.

[ollypenrice]

Ditto. I have two ST80s and once everything is tight they work perfectly and always find a guidestar. I don't have or need guide rings.

Olly

[garethmob]

so if i say my list currently

megrez reducer

HEQ5

qhy5

and work towards a st 80.....

how do you mount the st 80 olly?

shame they got rid of the heq5 syntrek

[ollypenrice]

so if i say my list currently

megrez reducer

HEQ5

qhy5

and work towards a st 80.....

how do you mount the st 80 olly?

shame they got rid of the heq5 syntrek

Good to go. Make sure your chip distance is correct for the reducer.

Because I have to keep my setups flexible (guests sometimes mix their own gear with mine) I like to have everything quickly detachable. My ST80 tube rings, the standard ones, are bolted to Vixen/Synta dovetales and these fit into those Baader clamps which are really like little disembodied saddle plates. I bolt these devices onto the tops of the tube rings of the imaging scope. I also have one of the Baader clamps on a Gibraltar so any scope with a Vixen rail can go on that for visual. And I have a Vixen-Synta dovetail on the solar scope so I can whip off a guide scope and do solar in the daytime with minimal messing around. The Baader clamps are these in tthe top of the image;

Schwalbenschwanzsystem Vixen, Celestron Typ V bei Baader Planetarium, Zubehoer - Sektion 03

Another plus for the Baaders for holding the guidescope is that you can slide it fore and aft to fine tune Dec balance. It would be cheaper just to bolt the guidescope's dovetail onto the main scope's tube rings but I like the advantages I describe above.

Olly

[dmahon]

You won't beat the HEQ5 / ST80 / QHY5 for performance for money. The ST80 is the king of guide scopes. I use a QHY5 on a 9x50 finderguider and get good results, but at some point I will go ST80 for versatility.

Other than pehaps being useful if you start imaging at over a metre focal length, when the HEQ5 will start to let you down anyway, what additional versatility do you think the ST80 will give on your setup?

[RikM]

As well as a more rigid guide scope, it will also give me a small holiday scope or grab and go for widefield views and with a Baader solar-film filter and the aperture mask / cap a 50mm f/8 white light solar scope that is quite a bit smaller than my current white light set up.

[dmahon]

Ah, OK.

Obviously as the original poster is going to use a Megrez 72 rather than a large Newtonian, the same factors won't come into play for him - he would save some weight and expense with a finder guider.

[RikM]

I see your point.

If you already have the finder (as I did) it is quite a cost saving, otherwise a 9x50 + adaptor is a whole £15 cheaper than an ST80. It is a fair bit lighter. With just the guiding in mind, I have no real complaints with the finderguider setup. I have a slight sequential drift which could be down to flexure in the bracket but I haven't exhausted all the possible remedies yet.

[ollypenrice]

How good is the finder guider at finding stars? I don't know the F ratio or focal length. However, I'll be tesiting one soon and am looking forward to it. It's a cute idea for small imaging refractors.

Olly

[rocketandroll]

Get a HEQ5.

100% of my imaging has been done with the HEQ5... and most of it with a HEQ5, Megrez72 and a Canon DSLR.

If you don't already have one, and unless you live in a trully dark location, set aside another hundred odd quid for an LP clip filter... it makes a HELL of a difference.

You will need to either make or buy a side-by-side rig, or buy some CNC rings or go the finder guider route to get a guide scope/finder guider mounted with the Megrez... but that's not a megga costly issue.

Seriously though, the HEQ5 is great... since going over to using the Lodestar, ST80 and PHD pulse guiding I have had no problems with the set up at all... 90% of subs show perfect guiding and I've easily had 10 minute subs from that set up.

with a £500 odd budget for the mount though it'll need to be a second hand HEQ5.

Ben

[RikM]

The 9x50 finder guider is roughly 200mm f/4. Nevery had a problem finding guide stars. The mounting is the only weak point.

[garethmob]

Thanks guys . Is there anythin I need to look out for in a heq5 and anythin to avoid?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk