Brought my first scope!

[tony8690]

Hi All,

I finally purchased my first Scope yesterday from FLO.

 

I got the Skywatcher Explorer 130PDS and the EQ3 with SynScan Mount (wanted to EQ5 but couldn't in the end :(.. )

should be getting it in the post today! can't believe how fast the delivery is.

 

Taking the scope up to Northumberland week after next so hopefully there will be some clear nights and i can capture some nice photos

 

Any beginner advice on setting up, polar aligning etc

 

Very excited!!

T

[Uplooker]

Well done. Congratulations on the new acquisition. It's a slippery slope, you know. You will be be buying all manner of kit from now on - red light torch, sky atlas, EPs, EP cases, dew shields, collimators, eye patches, books, cleaning fluids blah, blah, blah.

only joking? That said, I would certainly get a Cheshire / laser collimator, red light head torch and  sky atlas. That should keep you going for a while and help you to find things once you have figured out how to setup and use the scope.

Good luck on your long journey in amateur astronomy ?

[Dave S]

Do plenty of daylight setting up practice.  It's amazing how invisible nuts/bolts/cable connectors are as soon as it gets dark.

As stated get a collimator.

What camera/software are you intendind to use?

Dave...

 

[tony8690]

13 minutes ago, Dave S said:

Do plenty of daylight setting up practice.  It's amazing how invisible nuts/bolts/cable connectors are as soon as it gets dark.

As stated get a collimator.

What camera/software are you intendind to use?

Dave...

 

I currently have an Unmodified Nikon D5300, not sure what a modified camera means?

To edit photos i have photoshop and lightroom. i have downloaded DSS but still learning to use it as I'm not familiar with Flats, Darks, Lights ect... to will need to do a bit of reading up on that.

 

T

 

[JOC]

Hope you have fun with it.

[Dave S]

8 minutes ago, tony8690 said:

I currently have an Unmodified Nikon D5300, not sure what a modified camera means?

To edit photos i have photoshop and lightroom. i have downloaded DSS but still learning to use it as I'm not familiar with Flats, Darks, Lights ect... to will need to do a bit of reading up on that.

 

T

 

 

A modified dslr has had the internal IR blocking filter removed so that it is more sensitive to the IR wavelengths that Hydrogen Alpha emissions produce.  Without the modification it is difficult to get results when imaging nebula such as the rosette nebula where all the nice detail is centred around the wavelengths of light that your unmodified camera is unable to see.  The downside is that it renders the camera unusable for daylight (terrestrial) photography unless you have a clip in IR blocking filter.  Without the filter (which is easy to add/remove as it just clips in) daylight pictures will appear overly red in hue as it will record the IR reflected by day to day objects and register it as red in your images.

Darks lights and flats are quite easy to get to grips with and become second nature as part of your imaging session.  As you use a Nikon I would highly recommend having a look at BackyardNikon which is a camera control/imaging piece of software that makes imaging an absolute joy.  I use BackyardEOS for my 550d and was well worth the £50 for the premium version.

https://www.otelescope.com/store/category/4-backyardnikon/

There's probably a primer on DSS somewhere on this forum.

Dave...

 

[tony8690]

I am now the Proud owner of this

Need to practice setting it up indoors to get use to it.

Going to see about collimating it aswell as i think its a bit out.

Looking forward to Northumberland in just over a weeks time even more now =oD

T

 

T

[Bagnaj97]

 

On 10/17/2017 at 08:48, Dave S said:

Do plenty of daylight setting up practice.  It's amazing how invisible nuts/bolts/cable connectors are as soon as it gets dark.

 

and get yourself a red headlamp so you can see without damaging your dark adaptation too much. This is the one I've got and contains an internal USB rechargeable li-ion battery - right button controls the red LEDs, left controls the white LEDs, unlike some where you have to cycle through white to get to red. This appears to be the same but runs on AAA batteries if you prefer.

You'll need a T-ring to attach your DSLR to the telescope, if you've got Amazon prime This is the cheapest non-ebay one I could find. Unscrew the 1.25" holder from the focuser and the T-ring should screw into place. Later I'm sure you'll want to add a coma corrector, but that'll get you started.

[tony8690]

I now have:

• x2 Celestron Barlow
• Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
• Red light torch keyring
• Laser collimator 
• Waiting on a 10mm Eye piece 
• Waiting on Bahtinov Focus Masks

 

Looking at guider scopes and guiding cameras but i think i will get used to what i have at the moment and maybe in the future look at these as they are quite expensive! 

Also, with the EQ3-2, the AP limit is around 5KG, is this all due to the mount legs? if i was to replace the legs would i be able to say.. raise the limit to 6KG? or is it because of the Motors in the mount head itself?

Thanks :)

T

[happy-kat]

Test your laser collimator it may actually need collimating itself.

[tony8690]

49 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Test your laser collimator it may actually need collimating itself.

How would i know if its out?? is that a silly question? 

 

T

[alacant]

3 hours ago, tony8690 said:

How would i know if its out?

Rotate it in the focuser and look at the beam hitting the main mirror. If It describes a circle, it needs adjusting. Best to get a Cheshire sight tube with crosshairs. HTH.

[ollypenrice]

4 hours ago, tony8690 said:

How would i know if its out?? is that a silly question? 

 

T

Take a flat block of wood and four six inch nails. Knock in two of the nails next to each other at an angle to each other so that, seen from in front, they make an X shape. The top half of the X makes a V. If the collimator body is about 6 cm long knock in a second 'x' shaped pair of nails a bit less than 6cm from the first pair. You have now made a perfectly workable pair of vee blocks. Place your collimator in the vee blocks and shine it at a distant wall, say in the longest room of your house. Rotate the collimator in the vee blocks and observe the point of laser light hitting the wall. As you rotate, does it remain a point or describe a circle? If it describes a circle it's out and needs collimating till it describes a point. The longer the room, the more accurate the test!

Olly

[Adam J]

8 hours ago, tony8690 said:

I now have:

• x2 Celestron Barlow
• Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
• Red light torch keyring
• Laser collimator 
• Waiting on a 10mm Eye piece 
• Waiting on Bahtinov Focus Masks

 

Looking at guider scopes and guiding cameras but i think i will get used to what i have at the moment and maybe in the future look at these as they are quite expensive! 

Also, with the EQ3-2, the AP limit is around 5KG, is this all due to the mount legs? if i was to replace the legs would i be able to say.. raise the limit to 6KG? or is it because of the Motors in the mount head itself?

Thanks

T

The weight limit is more to do with the ability of the mount to drive the scope without straining. But it is also to do with stability. Balance will be important to you but what will save you is short exposures. Balancing a 130PDS can be an issue as they are camera heavy.

I have seen people post incredible DSLR images with this scope / mount combination, the trick is take lots of sub frames at short exposures at high ish ISO.

The read noise on your D5300 is nice and low down to about 2e- @ISO1600 so actually comparable to the ASI1600mcc (~1.2e-), I would recommend ISO1600 - 3200 and a 30second exposure. When I say lots of frames I really really mean it.. so not 10 not 20 not 50 I am talking 100 or 200 frames stacked and calibrated with bias frames.

Good luck and have fun.

[elliot]

I've got the cheapy Seben laser collimator and ended up buying a Cheshire. I built the crossed-nailed collimator-collimator device mentioned above and spent ages trying to set it up but I was never confident it was right. The Cheshire is simple to use and Just Works. (I got the FLO Premium Cheshire so not only is it simple to use, it looks and feels lovely! Anodised aluminium loveliness)

[wimvb]

Since you have a barlow with your scope, you can use this method (link to pdf document):

http://www.micosmos.com/enlaces/collimation_with_a_Barlowed_Laser.pdf

I don't know how the result compares to other methods, bit it's very easy, and your laser doesn't have to be collimated. AfaIk, the primary mirror of your scope should have a center spot. To center the secondary, I use a simple collimation cap, which is the end cap of a 32 mm drain pipe with a small hole.

In star tests, the image I get for inside & outside defocus is always symmetrical and looks the same.

[Peco4321]

One of the best and cheapest things I got early on was a head torch from Wickes, about £3 and stuck a babybell cheese wrapper over it to make it red. Red light and 2 hands free. 

I have never regretted upgrading the finder scope to a 9x50 RACI (the correct image version) and would be lost without a star atlas:

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-right-angled-magnified-finderscopes.html

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1931559317/ref=mp_s_a_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1508655064&sr=8-8&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=star+atlas&dpPl=1&dpID=51NQdTifzmL&ref=plSrch

2 things I would not buy again are a set of lunar filters (I very rarely use them) and a long eye relief 6mm eyepiece (again rarely used). That would have saved about £60 for something else!!  

[ronin]

One thing I see absent is an Intervalometer - Remote Timer- for the DSLR.

You use this to set the DSLR up to take a series of exposures of the required length - say 20 exposures each of 60 seconds. You set it to a short delay (10 seconds) to allow you to put the unit somewhere, then you set the exposure length (lets use 60 seconds again), then you set a Wait time (try 30 seconds), then you set the number of exposures (try 20 as mentioned). Then you press the Go button and walk around nervously while it takes the 20 images for the next 30 minutes.

The Wait time is to allow the DSLR to write everything to the memory card and allow a bit of cooling for the sensor - do not decide to not bother with any or go very short as if the DSLR is doing one thing and the next cycle starts then it simply freezes and you have to start again. It may be useful to allow a Wait time equal to the exposure length.

Take binoculars to look around while the scope and DSLR are doing their thing. Decently warm coat also.

Collimator, not sure about one immediatly. One of those things where if it needs collimating then might be OK but do you know how to collimate and there are Cheshire collimators, laser collimators and a simple collimation cap. Not everyone gets on with a laser.

During the pre-trip time make sure you can get the DSLR to sit at the focal plane - Nose piece, T-ring and DSLR all attached.

Which bit of Notrthumberland are you off to ?

Oh yes - blank off the rear view finder also. Be amazed how much light gets in through that aperture. And generally nothing comes up on the Rear Live View to help in any way, just not enough light to really enable it to do what it should. I assume you can set everything to manual on the DSLR ? Practise setting it all up first. You will likely find the scope and mount fairly straightforward to set up but what about all the DSLR features ? Those you do not want to have to learn to do in the dark.