Photography with the skywatcher evostar 80ed

[Astroboy239]

Hello everyone, 

I'm curious about this OtA. Can you'll share your astroimages and ideas about this scope. 

Thankyou 

Varad 

 

 

[xtreemchaos]

hi Varad, ive owned one for over a year now,its a cracking little frac with optics punching far above its weight, its a has nice crayford focuser which is smooth and after adjustment holds my camera well, its good for moon, planets,sol, cluster, and just about every thing else and ive split the odd double with it, a good 2inch ed barlow  is a must,but i dont uses the field flaterner/reducer,i havnt found the need yet, theres loads of images on here taken with one, ive some in my gallary album mainly moons and sol if you want to look. goodluck and clear skys.charl.

[Marky1973]

Hi Varad, you might want to check this thread out as well. I'm still learning with mine but it does seem to be a great scope.

 

 

[Astroboy239]

Wow those images were really great!!! 

[Marky1973]

Yeah, none of them are mine.... ;-)

I'm a long way from the quality of some of those images, this hobby takes time, but they show the potential. Would be a great scope for anyone to start out with some AP!

[Astroboy239]

Yup the biggest problem is I don't want stars with pikes and I hate colimation and bad image quality. But the thing is now I got a good OTA under my budget. 

[Marky1973]

Keep an eye on the second hand market....I got mine from this very forum, in excellent condition, including the reducer for a very good price. Astro buy and sell is also worth checking from time to time.

[Ouroboros]

I think this is a great little scope. In some ways I enjoy using it more than my 200mm Newt. 

The only thing I might mention is that the ED80 when used fir imaging is difficult if not impossible to balance on many mounts.  The back end of the scope becomes very heavy with the DSLR attached and the focal reducer typically used for imaging with this scope.  Several people have described on SGL how they've solved this problem by weighting the scope at the front end in various ways.  Do a search for those threads. Personally I haven't yet done anything about it and so far my mount appears to have coped with the imbalance, but I can't say I'm happy about it. 

[Marky1973]

I've not had that problem. Swapped the dovetail out for a longer one which gives me a bit more room to adjust. This is on an NEQ6.

[Astroboy239]

Is it necessary to use a focal reducer? 

[Astroboy239]

To be honest I've never used refractor for photography so Im just dumb 

[Steve Ward]

I would say that the Focal reducer/Field flattener ( the dedicated SkyWatcher one ) is essential as far as photography is concerned . 

[Ouroboros]

11 hours ago, Marky1973 said:

I've not had that problem. Swapped the dovetail out for a longer one which gives me a bit more room to adjust. This is on an NEQ6.

I keep meaning to look into your solution.  It seems easier than adding weights at the front end of the scope. Which dovetail bar did you buy? 

[Astroboy239]

I think you get a dovetail with a heq5? 

[Marky1973]

Not sure if you get one, but double check as if may be a short one!

Ouroboros, I just got the long skywatcher dovetail that FLO stock. Then used the ED80 dovetail to fix my ST80 on top for guiding. Thinking about it, the ST80 probably helps a little will the balance.

It's a bit 'Heath Robinson's but seems to work!

It is set quite well forward though!

[Astroboy239]

Great setup Marky. Can I know what cameras and software do you use? 

[Marky1973]

Sure, Varad.

Guiding is undertaken via a ZWOASI120MM (mono) camera via the ST80 and I am currently using PHD2 to guide.

Imaging is now (mainly I am hoping - it's still new) via the Atik414EX on the ED80 - and I am currently using the ARTEMIS software that comes with the camera. Artemis is nice and easy (which I like) so can be set up and running very quickly.

Before that I was using APT (Astrophotography Tool) to control my modded DSLR. APT will also work with the Atik camera, but I just like the simplicity of the ARTEMIS Software. However, APT is cheap (very cheap compared to many others - certainly cheaper than a round of drinks these days) and also pretty simple to figure out, so I will probably hold onto that as I may well use it in future and dabble with DSLR widefield.

Processing has been mainly using (DSS) Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop, although I have been dabbling with Pixinisight - but that isn't cheap and I need to practice more with my equipment before i take the plunge and purchase that. GIMP is a PS-style free programme that I also used in the past.

I have thought about the ASCOM platform and going fully automated with EQMOD but, at the moment, I know what I am doing with what I have and can probably get away with the simplicity of the current set-up, until I win the lottery and get myself a bigger house, garden and observatory!

[Astroboy239]

At the moment I use the local observatories equipment. But they didn't have anything widefield. I also felt I couldn't always depend of the group so due to low funds I first thought of buying a Ota and using the groups neq6 but I'll soon get the heq5 ASAP. Marky how much did the atik and filters cost you? 

[Ouroboros]

3 hours ago, Marky1973 said:

Not sure if you get one, but double check as if may be a short one!

Ouroboros, I just got the long skywatcher dovetail that FLO stock. Then used the ED80 dovetail to fix my ST80 on top for guiding. Thinking about it, the ST80 probably helps a little will the balance.

It's a bit 'Heath Robinson's but seems to work!

It is set quite well forward though!

 Nice set up! Yes, I wondered whether it can still be balanced without the ST80 on top?  I just use a finder guider which also adds weight at the back end of the scope.  I guess if I bought a longer dovetail and it still wasn't enough I could fairly easily fix weights to underneath the front end of the dovetail bar.  

[Marky1973]

1 hour ago, Astroboy239 said:

At the moment I use the local observatories equipment. But they didn't have anything widefield. I also felt I couldn't always depend of the group so due to low funds I first thought of buying a Ota and using the groups neq6 but I'll soon get the heq5 ASAP. Marky how much did the atik and filters cost you? 

The ATIK is just over £1,000, but I managed to get the filters used off Astro Buy and Sell - new they are about £210 for the Baader Set - obviously you can pay a lot more.....not sure how much they would be over with you though, Varad?

[Marky1973]

20 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

 Nice set up! Yes, I wondered whether it can still be balanced without the ST80 on top?  I just use a finder guider which also adds weight at the back end of the scope.  I guess if I bought a longer dovetail and it still wasn't enough I could fairly easily fix weights to underneath the front end of the dovetail bar.  

I've thought about a finder/guider, but what i have works at the moment and, I suspect you are right - if I took the ST80 off, then balance would be more of an issue. Either way, if you have the longer dovetail, then you have a bit more room for adding some weight. What I would say though, is that the SW Dovetail I bought, is not of the flat variety, and my tube rings are upside down - I have learned that you need to be able to improvise in this game! 

[Astroboy239]

I'm gonna master the 80ed and a dslr first I'll buy the ccd once I have a good mount and a guider. And actually it's cheaper for people in EUROPE and US. When converted to my currency it becomes a lot. Anyway do you need a extension to reach focus on this OTA? 

[Marky1973]

Didn't need one with the DSLR. ED80 > REDUCER > T2 ADAPTER > DSLR - no problem. You will need an adapter to connected the reducer to the camera - not vastly expensive, but annoying if you get everything and THEN realise. You could get a T2 nosepiece for the camera and fit it without the reducer but, for Astrophotography, I think you really need the reducer to "speed-up" the scope

[Uranium235]

To sort out balance problems, just get a strap-on leg weight (0.5kg will do) and strap it to the front of the scope.

[Astroboy239]

I actually have an second hand QSI ccd but I don't tend to use it much due to bad skies I've just photographed the sunflower with it. I will be doing dslr until my stuff get well. And for the balancing, why don't u move the scope but loosing the Rings and moving the scope?