Well, it's arrived!!!

[Astro_gav]

Hi All.

Well this morning (10:30)DPD delivered my new telescope, the Celestron AVX Edge HD 8" with Auto Guider, .7x Reducer, DSLR adaptors, Red Dot Finder Scope (as the 1 that came in the box is being used as the guide scope), Heated Dew Shield and a DSLR Piggy Back Mount

He brought a box out of the van covered in the word 'Celestron' and I thought to myself 'great I can spend the rest of the morning setting everything up'. Oh how wrong was I. After the driver had made 2 more journeys to his van, coming back with ever increasing in size boxes, the penny suddenly dropped and damn, it took me ages. It took me up to around 15:00 to unpack everything and put it together. attach all of the additional pieces of kit I ordered as well.

I can honestly say that the Mrs. isn't going to be too impressed with me. I told her that I was just getting a small(ish) set up. and it's bigger than I was expecting and I'd done some homework before I took the Plunge as well!!!

Anyway, I've attached all cameras to it and balanced everything (a bit tube heavy so I think I'm going to need an additional weight and I've set the latitude for my location on the mount/scale thingy (I'm new and have no idea what everything's called yet).

The power pack is currently on charge (says to charge for 24 hours before first use on it) so I'm just trying to figure out the best way to run all of the wires and wrap them in a car wiring loom weave so that everything is neat and tidy (OCD).

Once I've done all of that, I'll more than likely spend the rest of the year trying to polar align the thing. That's if there's clear skies for me to do that. Typical, very VERY clear the last few nights, today, snow and total cloud cover.

 

Heres hoping

 

Gav

[iapa]

Very similar to my setup, although I bought mine over time. I have Celestron's Starsense and SkyQ along with the QHYCCD PoleMaster,

I did add a second 11b weight (I bought the mount and tube separately), but feel a third to get it just right is going to be necessary..... without the 50mm guidescope and CCD

Got this the other night M42; single image, unstacked, no port processing.

Prime focussed Canon 70D, ISO 1600, 30Sec through Skywatcher 200P-DS, 0.9 coma reducer. Unguided. Canon EOS Utility used to capture. Bahtinov mask to get focus.

AVX mount, QHYCCD PoleMaster, Celestron Starsense, Skywatcher 5 Pro (IOS), 

It is worth the vvvvvveeeeeerrryyyy llllloooonnnnnggggg wait.....

[JamesM]

Hi Gav and welcome to the forum. Looks like you have a great set up there and no doubt with it will come the need to ask questions at some point - remember were here to help so don't hesitate to post a question in the appropriate section!

Wishing you clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum.

[PhotoGav]

Congratulations from one Gav to another! Lovely kit that will frighten the hell out of you for a day or two. I remember taking delivery of my first serious mount and scope, setting it up in the sitting room and thinking how on earth was I ever going to get to grips with this research grade equipment, not that it was, but it looked terrifying to me! The learning curve is steep and treacherous, especially with astrophotography, but you are in the best place, SGL is an absolute mine of information and almost instant question answering!

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your images.

[swag72]

Hi Gav and welcome to SGL - You've come to the right place for help and guidance from great people, glad that you found us

Look forward to seeing you around

[Chris]

Hi Gav, welcome aboard  I really loved my C8 Edge when I had one, it's a lovely flat field optic and quite sharp for an SCT. The AVX is also a beautiful mount, well engineered for the price I thought.

Enjoy, and any questions just ask away

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :-) 

[laudropb]

Congratulations on your new kit. How did the wife take it when she saw it for the first time? I can well remember the look of total disbelief on my wife's face when she first saw my scope sitting in the middle of the living room.

[Astro_gav]

4 hours ago, iapa said:

Very similar to my setup, although I bought mine over time. I have Celestron's Starsense and SkyQ along with the QHYCCD PoleMaster,

I did add a second 11b weight (I bought the mount and tube separately), but feel a third to get it just right is going to be necessary..... without the 50mm guidescope and CCD

Got this the other night M42; single image, unstacked, no port processing.

Prime focussed Canon 70D, ISO 1600, 30Sec through Skywatcher 200P-DS, 0.9 coma reducer. Unguided. Canon EOS Utility used to capture. Bahtinov mask to get focus.

AVX mount, QHYCCD PoleMaster, Celestron Starsense, Skywatcher 5 Pro (IOS), 

It is worth the vvvvvveeeeeerrryyyy llllloooonnnnnggggg wait.....

Hi iapa

 

The only things I understood there was M42, single image and no stacking. The rest literally flew right over my head!!

Coma reducer?

Bahtinov Mask?

Totally lost. Cheers for that 

 

Gav

[Astro_gav]

4 hours ago, JamesM said:

Hi Gav and welcome to the forum. Looks like you have a great set up there and no doubt with it will come the need to ask questions at some point - remember were here to help so don't hesitate to post a question in the appropriate section!

Wishing you clear skies and hope you enjoy the forum.

Hi James

 

I'm pretty sure I'll have plenty of questions. I've been having a good look around this site and its just information overload!

 

Gav

[Astro_gav]

4 hours ago, PhotoGav said:

Congratulations from one Gav to another! Lovely kit that will frighten the hell out of you for a day or two. I remember taking delivery of my first serious mount and scope, setting it up in the sitting room and thinking how on earth was I ever going to get to grips with this research grade equipment, not that it was, but it looked terrifying to me! The learning curve is steep and treacherous, especially with astrophotography, but you are in the best place, SGL is an absolute mine of information and almost instant question answering!

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your images.

Cheers Gav

 

I'm just sat here staring at it set up, and I keep thinking to myself 'what am I supposed to do with that'?

Hopefully the skies will clear and I'll get some images posted

 

Gav

[Astro_gav]

4 hours ago, swag72 said:

Hi Gav and welcome to SGL - You've come to the right place for help and guidance from great people, glad that you found us

Look forward to seeing you around

Hi Sara

Cheers, I'm glad I found you. I've already had some great info given about a FOV calculator which is absolutely fantastic.

Gav

[Astro_gav]

3 hours ago, Chris Lock said:

Hi Gav, welcome aboard  I really loved my C8 Edge when I had one, it's a lovely flat field optic and quite sharp for an SCT. The AVX is also a beautiful mount, well engineered for the price I thought.

Enjoy, and any questions just ask away

Hi Chris

Trust me I'll be asking questions. very overwhelmed just reading the AVX instruction book!!

Not going to ask what you got to replace the Edge 8. I just know I'll probably want it and can't afford it!

 

Gav

 

[Astro_gav]

3 hours ago, bunnygod1 said:

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :-) 

Cheers Pete

 

Gav

[Astro_gav]

2 hours ago, laudropb said:

Congratulations on your new kit. How did the wife take it when she saw it for the first time? I can well remember the look of total disbelief on my wife's face when she first saw my scope sitting in the middle of the living room.

Hi laudrpb

 

Cheers, just no idea how to use it yet!!

I'm currently in a sleeping bag on the sofa with a dogs wet nose in my face. does that answer your question about the wife response?? 

 

Gav

[laudropb]

Don't worry, she will get over it. Anyway, never mind the sleeping bag. You should be out viewing Jupiter etc.

[Astro_gav]

I think she's just a bit P.O. at the fact that I've found myself ANOTHER expensive hobby. 

 

I would love to be out but I've got total cloud cover here 

 

Gav

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Gav!

 

Dana

[Stephen Green]

Hi Gav welcome to the SGL and enjoy

Stephen

[Charon]

Welcome aboard Gav.

[todd8137]

HI and welcome 

pat

[glowjet]

Hi Gav and welcome to SGL, enjoy your new scope and the forum, should you run into trouble, remember, we are only a few keyboard strokes distance away, just post your inquiry into the relevant section of the forum, and the members, in all probability, will help to extract you out of the hole you may have metaphorically dug for yourself. We have all been there at one time or another, enjoy the forum  

[Astro_gav]

Thanks for all of the welcomes.

 

Right, just as an update, I've just finished making my 'wiring loom' after the 3rd attempt. Had it all made up, attached everything to the scope, and....... I didn't give anything enough slack for any movement at all!!! Would have been perfect if all I ever wanted to look at was polaris!!!

So, after ripping it apart again and starting from scratch, twice, I have finally succeeded. And I think it looks great, OCD satisfied, and no cables hanging about or laying on the floor waiting to be snagged on something or tripped over. 

Will get some photos taken and posted in a short while.

 

Gav

[Chris]

On 2/24/2016 at 22:28, Astro_gav said:

Hi Chris

Trust me I'll be asking questions. very overwhelmed just reading the AVX instruction book!!

Not going to ask what you got to replace the Edge 8. I just know I'll probably want it and can't afford it!

 

Gav

 

Hi Gav, well in answer to your earlier questions: A Bahtinov mask is a focusing aid you place over the front of your telescope to help achieve the best focus (very important for imaging). And a coma corrector is a lens system placed in the focuser to help correct coma in the optics. This will flatten out the image you see so the stars remain round to the edge, not comet shaped towards the edge. You won't need one of these with the C8 Edge, it already has an internal coma corrector so the optics are already nice and flat

Oh and on the contrary, you would be able to affored my latest setup  I downgraded to a 6" Newtonian on an EQ3 for financial reasons

 

If you haven't already, get yourself a dew shield, SCT's are great but they are dew magnets.

[Astro_gav]

Hi Chris.

Ill have a look for a Bhatinov mask and get one before i start doing any imaging. are they easy to use?

Im looking at heater straps and controllers. I have a dew shield already. Will the dew shield work well on its own or would it be worth getting the heaters and controller of them. I've been told that one for the OTA and one for the guide scope. Plus the controller, I'm looking at around £145 from FLO. After spending a fair wedge of cash on the setup, I'm running a bit low on funds so I'm hoping the dew shield will do the job for now.

 

Cheers

Gav