Post your Images with an AVX mount!

[Herzy]

I just recently made a forum asking what equatorial mount I should get to get good astrophotograpy results on a budget. The overall answer was an Advanced VX mount, but Im curious what the results will look like! I've looked all over for some AVX mount pictures but I cant seem to find many.

PS: Please post the settings and exposure details that were used!

PPS: If there is already a thread about this link me and I'll delete this one!

[Daniel-K]

What scope are you planning on imaging with?

[Herzy]

The Celestron 127eq Powerseeker, but Im going to upgrade soon.

[Daniel-K]

2 hours ago, Herzy said:

The Celestron 127eq Powerseeker, but Im going to upgrade soon.

Too what?

I'm not trying to put you off but you should sit down and really decide on which direction you want to go with AP. Planets,DSO,Luna,solar,widefield nebulae,up close PN,galaxy's.

Where here to help you get going in the right direction.

have you considered a HEQ5? 

 

 

 

[SonnyE]

Well, I can offer you a bit of a smorgasbord of what I have done with my AVX.

Some is time lapse, which gives a good representation of tracking capabilities I manage to eek out of mine to date.

Please bare in mind that there are a LOT of variables you might encounter, due to a LOT of different scenarios and even atmospheric conditions. But if you want to see what a mount can do, you need to watch the background, the stars, and points of light, rather than watch the image. And look over and over, or rerun, what you are seeing.

How about my AVX, mount guided only, on Orion's Nebula? That is, the mount is programmed to got-to Orion's Nebula with the hand control. Unless I am totally wrong, I believe what you are seeing is periodic error IN THIS. (A short 7 seconds of time lapse) A sort of rhythmic stepping of the mechanical drive of the mount. I use this to demonstrate the need for having guiding (a Guide Scope/Camera) to make the mount track a desired point so the telescope and camera chosen can image on a steady spot. Kinda jumpy Huh? And is why trying to rely on the mount alone can be very frustrating.

Now, how about something made with multiple exposures? I lean on time lapse again as it gives you a compilation of many images put into a video format so you can see how the mount, now guided, helps the camera collect a series. Again, you want to try and view the background, how the stars move about, and another reference to consider is the hot pixels (the blue, red, green, or yellow-ish dots). It is the same camera, the same AVX mount, now guided with a Orion SSAG and 50 mm guide scope. My idea here is to try and give you a comparison of the Mount using it's own brain, verses the Mount having the addition of an eye on the sky and stars.

Now other than that, everything I post is done basically with an AVX mount, except wide field. That is just a DSLR with a 10-24 mm lens. Like when I happened to catch the ISS flying over one night.

Just remember to feed your new AVX battery power ONLY...

[PeterCPC]

Not sure what you want to see but if you go to Astrobin and run a search for PeterCPC you will find lots of images taken with my AVX.

Peter

[rubecula]

"Just remember to feed your new AVX battery power ONLY... "

Why? please,

[Herzy]

16 hours ago, Daniel-K said:

Too what?

I'm not trying to put you off but you should sit down and really decide on which direction you want to go with AP. Planets,DSO,Luna,solar,widefield nebulae,up close PN,galaxy's.

Where here to help you get going in the right direction.

have you considered a HEQ5? 

 

 

 

You don't have to warn me, I know what Im going for. (DSOs) I have considered the HEQ5 and Its quite a bit out of my price range, but its certainly an option to save up. I didn't mention it, but i also have a 90mm Maksutov Cassegrain scope. I think I wont be using it however because It has a high focal length.

[Herzy]

14 hours ago, SonnyE said:

Well, I can offer you a bit of a smorgasbord of what I have done with my AVX.

Some is time lapse, which gives a good representation of tracking capabilities I manage to eek out of mine to date.

Please bare in mind that there are a LOT of variables you might encounter, due to a LOT of different scenarios and even atmospheric conditions. But if you want to see what a mount can do, you need to watch the background, the stars, and points of light, rather than watch the image. And look over and over, or rerun, what you are seeing.

How about my AVX, mount guided only, on Orion's Nebula? That is, the mount is programmed to got-to Orion's Nebula with the hand control. Unless I am totally wrong, I believe what you are seeing is periodic error IN THIS. (A short 7 seconds of time lapse) A sort of rhythmic stepping of the mechanical drive of the mount. I use this to demonstrate the need for having guiding (a Guide Scope/Camera) to make the mount track a desired point so the telescope and camera chosen can image on a steady spot. Kinda jumpy Huh? And is why trying to rely on the mount alone can be very frustrating.

Now, how about something made with multiple exposures? I lean on time lapse again as it gives you a compilation of many images put into a video format so you can see how the mount, now guided, helps the camera collect a series. Again, you want to try and view the background, how the stars move about, and another reference to consider is the hot pixels (the blue, red, green, or yellow-ish dots). It is the same camera, the same AVX mount, now guided with a Orion SSAG and 50 mm guide scope. My idea here is to try and give you a comparison of the Mount using it's own brain, verses the Mount having the addition of an eye on the sky and stars.

Now other than that, everything I post is done basically with an AVX mount, except wide field. That is just a DSLR with a 10-24 mm lens. Like when I happened to catch the ISS flying over one night.

Just remember to feed your new AVX battery power ONLY...

Im still confused what that timelapse is... is it to show what the mounts faults are without an autoguider? If so, I will be getting an auto-guider soon after getting the mount. I've heard in so many places that if you do a 2 star align plus 4 calibration stars, follow that with an ASPA, you should be able to reliably get 2 minute exposures. With an auto-guider the number raises to around 5-6 minutes.

[Pompey Monkey]

12 minutes ago, Herzy said:

You don't have to warn me, I know what Im going for. (DSOs) I have considered the HEQ5 and Its quite a bit out of my price range, but its certainly an option to save up. I didn't mention it, but i also have a 90mm Maksutov Cassegrain scope. I think I wont be using it however because It has a high focal length.

Don't exclude second hand mounts from your options. Just make sure that you see some RAW images taken with it. You can even post them here for our opinions!

[Herzy]

1 minute ago, Pompey Monkey said:

Don't exclude second hand mounts from your options. Just make sure that you see some RAW images taken with it. You can even post them here for our opinions!

Like on ebay? It scares me getting stuff like that... especially if Im paying 600-800$

[Pompey Monkey]

2 minutes ago, Herzy said:

Like on ebay? It scares me getting stuff like that... especially if Im paying 600-800$

In Canada there is http://www.astrobuysell.com/ - much more "user friendly" - Can you get stuff from Canada without painful taxation?

[Pompey Monkey]

1 minute ago, Pompey Monkey said:

In Canada there is http://www.astrobuysell.com/ - much more "user friendly" - Can you get stuff from Canada without painful taxation?

Or site like it, anyway - That one seems pretty quiet!

[SonnyE]

2 hours ago, rubecula said:

"Just remember to feed your new AVX battery power ONLY... "

Why? please,

I started off with a Celestron AC adapter, twice I had motor drive failures.

Since the last motor drive board replacement, Battery only. No failures, no odd actions by the mount.

A battery is pure DC power. AC power has noise, harmonics, and other stray electrical abnormalities.

Or not... You can choose.

[Herzy]

So assuming I do get the AVX mount, I shouldn't use the Celestron AC adapter that I have right now? Are you using one of the car battery things or actual batteries in the scope? Sorry I probably sound stupid about this part, but I have no experience with not using an AC adapter.

[SonnyE]

48 minutes ago, Herzy said:

Im still confused what that timelapse is... is it to show what the mounts faults are without an autoguider? If so, I will be getting an auto-guider soon after getting the mount. I've heard in so many places that if you do a 2 star align plus 4 calibration stars, follow that with an ASPA, you should be able to reliably get 2 minute exposures. With an auto-guider the number raises to around 5-6 minutes.

A time lapse is a lot (thousands) of images taken seconds apart, and in the case of astrophotography seconds long. Some of my runs are 15 second image with a 5 second storage time between them. That works out to 20 seconds, or 3 per minute. Others have 30 second intervals of imaging.

Then, these images can be assembled into a video running at a selected frame per second rate (like 14 FPS or more). When it runs, your eyes can see how the stars move, or don't, as the mount adjusts and tracks.

I don't worry about 2 minute exposures. I go for up to an hour on one single image. I've done a 5400 second (1 1/2 hour long, 90 minutes) recently. Your mount and guiding has to be very accurate to do that. If not, you get star trails, oblong stars, and blurred images.

 

 

[SonnyE]

42 minutes ago, Herzy said:

Like on ebay? It scares me getting stuff like that... especially if Im paying 600-800$

If you don't get a 2 year warranty, it won't be a good gamble.

[Pompey Monkey]

54 minutes ago, SonnyE said:

If you don't get a 2 year warranty, it won't be a good gamble.

Astro stuff is a good "gamble" because it tends to be looked after. Second hand (ex-demo) mount (not avx, sorry), $200 scope, second hand ccd and filter wheel:

 

[Herzy]

Wonderful images. As for SonneyE is this tracking really a problem? Like if your trying to stack images wont that drifting be a big problem? And if it is a problem, is auto-guiding the solution?

[SonnyE]

Well, tracking and accuracy is a matter of how accurate one wants to be. Giving the mount a guiding camera increases that accuracy. For visual, Guiding is probably not that important because our eyes track what our mind wants them to. And while today's cameras are a lot smarter, they do not track one their own. Not in our price ranges anyway.

I have 6 friends who have AVX mounts, I was #6 to buy one. I was the first to get guiding on mine. But it took me a while to figure everything out, and to get everything working finally. I'm in the final stages of fine tuning my mount, guiding, and remote controlling of my mount. Last night I actually did my entire alignment remotely. I'm having a lot of fun, and successes with it. My 5 friends have also gotten forms of Autoguiding for their mounts.

I have also been the one with the most troubles with my AVX. But 3 of us have had to return ours for repairs to Celestron. Of the other 3, one is a fairly regular user and has ~50 years of astronomy experience, and the other two are very occasional users. I'm what you could call a "power user" of my equipment, if I can see the sky, I usually want to be observing. And I get a LOT of clear nights here.

One of the things that appealed to me was that Celestron offers a 2 year warranty here in the U.S.A. to the original purchaser. And only if their items are purchased through authorized dealers. So one needs to be cognizant of those little legalities. Both times my mounts have failed they wanted evidence I had purchased a Celestron product to power the mount. (Either a power tank, or a Celestron branded AC Power supply.) Since I'm a backyard sort of observer, the AC way was what I chose. So I emailed them a copy of my order for the Celestron power supply. It made me feel like they were looking for a loophole to void the warranty. And since my mount was returned the last time, it ONLY gets power from a large, Absorbed Gas Mat (AGM) deep cycle battery.

Such a battery is way overkill for my astronomy needs. But it sure does not drop voltage much, even during an entire night run. Lead-acid batteries like the Celestron power tank, or my AGM produce pure DC power and it's a clean source. I do not trust the electronic components being used in China to make the boards used in manufacture of these mounts. That is based on 42 years of professional experience in the electrical and electronics field. And from my recent experience specifically with an AVX mount, the warranty has proven to be a great thing to have.

So those are the things I would advise to you, Buy new with a warranty, Plan on Guiding for Astrophotography, And feed your mount Battery Power. And that would be sound advice for whatever mount you might choose. Guiding is a good idea even if you are a visual observer.

[SonnyE]

2 hours ago, Pompey Monkey said:

Astro stuff is a good "gamble" because it tends to be looked after. Second hand (ex-demo) mount (not avx, sorry), $200 scope, second hand ccd and filter wheel:

 

That is a gorgeous Photograph, Paul.

Which scope did you take it with?

[Joel Shepherd]

These were all taken on an AVX: http://www.astrobin.com/users/JoelShepherd/  A fair number of those were unguided. I think Triangulum (8th image from the top) was the first guided one.

I've also heard people say you can go for 2 minutes unguided on an AVX. Personally, I wouldn't bet on it. If you can reliably get 60-second lights, I'd declare victory and move on to autoguiding.

[Pompey Monkey]

5 hours ago, SonnyE said:

That is a gorgeous Photograph, Paul.

Which scope did you take it with?

Thanks. That was with my  Skywatcher 150P-DS, which I got "new" (an undamaged customer return) for £115 about a year ago. I spent rather more on the mount and camera...

2 hours ago, Joel Shepherd said:

These were all taken on an AVX: http://www.astrobin.com/users/JoelShepherd/  A fair number of those were unguided. I think Triangulum (8th image from the top) was the first guided one.

I've also heard people say you can go for 2 minutes unguided on an AVX. Personally, I wouldn't bet on it. If you can reliably get 60-second lights, I'd declare victory and move on to autoguiding.

Nice pictures and also a very good set of images demonstrating why guiding is important, particularly on "budget" mounts! 

5 hours ago, SonnyE said:

Well, tracking and accuracy is a matter of how accurate one wants to be. Giving the mount a guiding camera increases that accuracy. For visual, Guiding is probably not that important because our eyes track what our mind wants them to. And while today's cameras are a lot smarter, they do not track one their own. Not in our price ranges anyway.

I have 6 friends who have AVX mounts, I was #6 to buy one. I was the first to get guiding on mine. But it took me a while to figure everything out, and to get everything working finally. I'm in the final stages of fine tuning my mount, guiding, and remote controlling of my mount. Last night I actually did my entire alignment remotely. I'm having a lot of fun, and successes with it. My 5 friends have also gotten forms of Autoguiding for their mounts.

I have also been the one with the most troubles with my AVX. But 3 of us have had to return ours for repairs to Celestron. Of the other 3, one is a fairly regular user and has ~50 years of astronomy experience, and the other two are very occasional users. I'm what you could call a "power user" of my equipment, if I can see the sky, I usually want to be observing. And I get a LOT of clear nights here.

One of the things that appealed to me was that Celestron offers a 2 year warranty here in the U.S.A. to the original purchaser. And only if their items are purchased through authorized dealers. So one needs to be cognizant of those little legalities. Both times my mounts have failed they wanted evidence I had purchased a Celestron product to power the mount. (Either a power tank, or a Celestron branded AC Power supply.) Since I'm a backyard sort of observer, the AC way was what I chose. So I emailed them a copy of my order for the Celestron power supply. It made me feel like they were looking for a loophole to void the warranty. And since my mount was returned the last time, it ONLY gets power from a large, Absorbed Gas Mat (AGM) deep cycle battery.

Such a battery is way overkill for my astronomy needs. But it sure does not drop voltage much, even during an entire night run. Lead-acid batteries like the Celestron power tank, or my AGM produce pure DC power and it's a clean source. I do not trust the electronic components being used in China to make the boards used in manufacture of these mounts. That is based on 42 years of professional experience in the electrical and electronics field. And from my recent experience specifically with an AVX mount, the warranty has proven to be a great thing to have.

So those are the things I would advise to you, Buy new with a warranty, Plan on Guiding for Astrophotography, And feed your mount Battery Power. And that would be sound advice for whatever mount you might choose. Guiding is a good idea even if you are a visual observer.

That is a compelling argument for buying new - I just don't have the budget, so I do my research and keep an eye open for bargains. There is a lot of churn in this hobby as it is currently very popular, but difficult. This also means that there are some bargains to be had as stuff gets used a couple of times and then gets put in the corner... I suspect that as the current popularity eventually peaks (and everything has fashions), the number of newcomers will drop and it will become even more of a buyers market  

[PeterCPC]

9 hours ago, Herzy said:

So assuming I do get the AVX mount, I shouldn't use the Celestron AC adapter that I have right now? Are you using one of the car battery things or actual batteries in the scope? Sorry I probably sound stupid about this part, but I have no experience with not using an AC adapter.

I have used an AC adapter for years with no problems at all.

Peter

[Daniel-K]

if your dead set on getting one, there is one here