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Astrophotography :Getting started with SPC900 and SW 127 Goto.

Sionoh

By Sionoh
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Sionoh

Sionoh

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Hi I'm a newbie to the forum.

I've done plenty of photography in the past and I have a mak 127, small dob and bins which I've used for a year or so now for general astronomy.

I would now like to progress to astrophotography....

I've been trying to set up my spc900 to work with the SW mak 127 without much luck.

Webcam works fine with lens fitted but focus seems impossible without lens through the mak.

So far I have the webcam adapter fitted, IR filter, x2 barlow. I've tried leaving the diagonal fitted and removing it but no joy.

I would be interested if anyone with the same set up could give me some pointers as to where the CCD needs to be in order to achieve focus?

Sion

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Helen

Helen

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Hi Sion and welcome to SGL :smiley:

I haven't got the SW Mak, but have used a Meade 125 Mak and a webcam. I'd start without the barlow - the field of view will be really small with it. Maks generally have a wide range of focus so I'd say you can do it with or without the diagonal. Turn the gain up and the exposure up too in the software and then turn the focus knob really slowly. I found its really easy to go through focus without noticing it if you move the focuser too quickly. Once you've got an out of focus bright blob you can focus to make that smaller and then adjust the shutter speed and gain downwards until you can focus to get detail. You might want to try it in daylight to get somewhere near focus and/or set up a parfocalising ring on an eyepiece so that you'll be able focus with the eyepiece and then swap in the camera and be pretty close to focus.

HTH

Helen

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JamesF

JamesF

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It does work fine, honestly. I use my 127 Mak and an SPC900 for planetary imaging with no problems at all. I can't think why it wouldn't reach focus. I take it you can see an out-of-focus image on the camera sensor?

James

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dephelis

dephelis

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Hi Sion,

I use the SPC900 with my Celestron 127 Mak (identical to SW) and haven't experienced any problems with focussing either with the diagonal or without.

You do need to make sure that your target is dead centre at high power before inserting the webcam as it is easy to miss otherwise. It also is handy to have the exposure/gain up so that you are definitely seeing the the out-of-focus object in the eyepiece.

I'd also recommend making a Bahtinov filter to help in focussing the Mak as the focuser can be a pain when wanting to get it spot on.

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Sionoh

Sionoh

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Hi

Just to let you know I've got it sorted now. :smiley:

I set up in daylight on the moon. Then went out this evening and tried on Jupiter and some of the moons- no problem!!

The issue seemed to be the software as much as the focus. By just a leaving it on auto and focussing then playing with the settings it worked fine.

Previously I had adjusted the settings before focussing - not realising I was making things more difficult.

Anyway thanks again for the tips.

Sion

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