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New Atik 490EX

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Gina, the connection on the back of the lodestar isn't THAT bad. A lot of the hot air about them is promulgated by individuals actively promoting an alternative. Not to say it couldn't be improved, but a simple cable tie or velcro strap makes it highly unlikely that the cable will pull and loosen the USB mini socket. I can send you a pic if you like? Knowing how capable you are, you could probably rustle up a genius solution anyway :)

Yes it is! (Stamps feet furiously!) It's a pain the rear. :eek: I'm not pushing anything else and would buy another Lodestar but those cable connections are bad. TS wouldn't have introduced that costly nylon widget if lots of moans hadn't come in. Some say fasten the two cables together. Yves did this and I had to unfasten them to get a connection. Then the ST4 cable just failed. It's so skimpy. I contacted a dealer for a new one. Out of stock. We get so many demands for replacements that we sometimes run out. Then you find that some standard USBs have too much plastic at the bottom and push the ST4 over at an angle. Sorry, I do have a bit of a thing about those cables since I've had a fair bit of bother, as have guests. We've had a few collective chunters down here.

I agree with Steve. Atik need a guide camera. The Lodestar is so near to perfect, though. Just those.... I can feel the word filter coming on! :grin:

Ollyt

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FLO

FLO

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I contacted a dealer for a new one. Out of stock. We get so many demands for replacements that we sometimes run out.

I think that dealer is pulling your leg Olly. We sell a lot of Lodestar cameras. I just searched our helpdesk for all 2013 emails containing both 'lodestar' and 'cable' but didn't find any complaints about the cable and connection. I then searched all of 2012 and found one definite and one possible (I don't know the outcome of the 'possibe' because Terry at SX offered to assist the customer on our behalf). Whilst I agree it would be nice to see an upgraded connection I don't think the 'problem' is anything like as bad as some will have you believe.

And I type this knowing many of our Lodestar customers post here on SGL so if I am wrong, someone will soon let me know :smiley:

HTH,

Steve

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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I think that dealer is pulling your leg Olly. We sell a lot of Lodestar cameras. I just searched our helpdesk for all 2013 emails containing both 'lodestar' and 'cable' but didn't find any complaints about the cable and connection. I then searched all of 2012 and found one definite and one possible (I don't know the outcome of the 'possibe' because Terry at SX offered to assist the customer on our behalf). Whilst I agree it would be nice to see an upgraded connection I don't think the 'problem' is anything like as bad as some will have you believe.

And I type this knowing many of our Lodestar customers post here on SGL so if I am wrong, someone will soon let me know :smiley:

HTH,

Steve

I know the dealer, Steve, and I don't think so. But whatever, I've got two Lodestars running here and have had one cable failure and occasional bother. None would be better! It is still a great guide camera and, as I said, I'd buy another.

I am going to get a 490EX some time later this year. What kind of filter wheel would I need? Is this a standard that fits all cameras of the same make?

The big thing to remember is that you don't have to fork out for an electric one. Most of my images have been done with a manual wheel. They are cheaper and (rather obviously) more reliable. They let light in if you're not careful and they let a bit of dust in. But they don't fall over, they don't suddenly declare themselves 'not recognized' and they don't crash your PC ever.

If you do go for electric then running the Atik wheel in the Atik software for the camera is nice. If the electric wheel meant compromising on the camera then I wouldn't do it, though. I'd spend on the camera.

Olly

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x6gas

x6gas

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I have an Atik EFW2 and it's very nice and all...

However, will you need to refocus with each filter? How can I put this: Even if filters claim to be parfocal you may need to, especially on fast systems...

Plus my field PC intermittently falls out with the filter wheel; they have some kind of row and the filter wheel storms off. I think this is mostly due to a conflict with the HID driver for my RS232-USB connector but sometimes it just decides it can't move the filter position. This happens moderately often. Usually if it will move the filter for the first sub, then it will be fine, but very occassionally it gives up at some point during the sequence and Artemis will then terminate the whole imaging sequence. That's quite annoying if you happen to have just gone to bed leaving the rig running...

So OK, all it really needs is to check that the wheel is indeed working before going to bed... and at least with an electronic wheel you have the option of going to bed AND capturing multiple filter images in one night...

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Ibbo!

Ibbo!

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mine are "parfocal" and yes I have to refocus

thats why I do maily mono and if I do rgb I do a set of subs with each filter usually over 3 nights and normally on 3 targets so I don't have to mess with flips and swapping the filters

Steve

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Tim

Tim

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So hard to say if you will need to refocus with filters, the only way to know for sure is to do a FWHM or Bahtinov pattern comparison in your particular telescope at a particular time, right after each other.

Which reminds me, I was going to do that for the Esprit 150ED I have on loan....

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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By the way, where do I sign up to get kit like a 150 Esprit on loan?! :shocked:

Dunno, but tell me if you find out... :grin:

I've found Baader filters to be parfocal to the limits of my ability to measure them, right down to F3.9. However, this has been in very good optics, Takahashi and TEC. I dare say that less than fully apochromatic telescopes will have slightly different focal lengths in different filters. (This being the case a perfectionist would want to use a programme like Registar to co-register the colour channels because they will have slightly different image scales not catered for by regular alignment procedures. In reality, well...)

Olly

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Gina

Gina

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I have a SW Evostar 80 ED DS Pro scope which I use with and without the matching SW 0.85x focal reducer and I find the Baader LRGB filters to be parfocal. You do need a decent apochromatic scope (APO) for the filters to be parfocal though. I do find a slight focussing difference between the Baader LRGB and Astrodon NB filters but being a different make, that's to be expected.

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  • 1 month later...
Martski

Martski

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Hi, Have the prices of the 460Ex and 490Ex increased lately? They seem to have gone up around £100 or so in the last week. Ian King is still showing £2049 for the 460Ex; FLO is £2165. For someone about to pu ll the trigger on a 460Ex, £116 is quite a difference!

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FLO

FLO

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Welcome to SGL :smiley:

The prices of all but one of our Atik cameras were increased yesterday. This was necessary because we passed on savings to the customer, lowering our prices, back when the €-£ rates were heavily in our favour (other UK retailers later did the same). We also acquired as much Atik stock as we could during that period. The €-£ has returned to normal (as normal as can be) and we have sold our stock purchased when the exchange-rate was in our favour, so we have returned our prices to around what they used to be.

However, if you are already a FLO customer or have an existing enquiry about Atik cameras at our helpdesk then we will provide a discount-code that will return the price to the pre-increase level. The offer is available until end of month.

Also, we have extended our EFW-2/filter package deals to include the 490EX, 460EX and 428EX models.

If you are reading this and are a customer of another Atik retailer then our advice is place your order ASAP because prices of Atik cameras here in the UK have been artificially low for a while now and us dealers have been watching each other, wondering who will be the first to blink. We just blinked...

HTH,

Steve

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kirkster501

kirkster501

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Welcome to SGL :smiley:

The prices of all but one of our Atik cameras were increased yesterday. This was necessary because we passed on savings to the customer, lowering our prices, back when the €-£ rates were heavily in our favour (other UK retailers later did the same). We also acquired as much Atik stock as we could during that period. The €-£ has returned to normal (as normal as can be) and we have sold our stock purchased when the exchange-rate was in our favour, so we have returned our prices to around what they used to be.

However, if you are already a FLO customer or have an existing enquiry about Atik cameras at our helpdesk then we will provide a discount-code that will return the price to the pre-increase level. The offer is available until end of month.

Also, we have extended our EFW-2/filter package deals to include the 490EX, 460EX and 428EX models.

If you are reading this and are a customer of another Atik retailer then our advice is place your order ASAP because prices of Atik cameras here in the UK have been artificially low for a while now and us dealers have been watching each other, wondering who will be the first to blink. We just blinked...

HTH,

Steve

Any chance you'll be able to "unblink" steve ? ;-)

BTW I sent you a follow up email yesterday after your email to me?

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FLO

FLO

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Any chance you'll be able to "unblink" steve ? ;-)

To be fair we were the first to pass on the savings and the beneficial exchange-rate ended around mid Jan so we have held our prices low for over four months :angel:

BTW I sent you a follow up email yesterday after your email to me?

I saw that this morning and will respond with a price today :smiley:

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