How difficult would it be

[brrttpaul]

I have the equinox ed80 Asi zwo 1600 cooled mono pier mounted small obsy. Lately though I have been thinking of getting a MAK (prob the 127). Now the big question is would the 1600 be ok with the MAK for planets or should I look at the smaller OSC cams, 2nd is it possible to fit the ED80 to the MAK on a HEQ5 mount or is the weight too much, 3rd I have no trouble ATM connecting my gear up to my comp, would adding another camera cause any conflicts?. and 4th if I do have to change scopes/cam because of the weight could it cause conflicts in eqmod

cheers guys

[Mr niall]

I think more or less all zwo allow 1x1 sensor cropping so should be fine if you get it 640x480

[brrttpaul]

Not sure i understand what you mean get it 640x480

[Mr niall]

Reducing the size of the area of interest on the sensor - effectively increasing the focal length of the scope.

[billyharris72]

I don' think the HEQ5 will struggle with that at all. Total OTA weight, sans accessories, is under 7kg I think. Even with the cameras I should think you'd be fine (though you might want to unmount the Mak for longer exposures).

Image scale will be fairly small with that setup (I use the 150mm and it' the same story - I also find the setup doesn't Barlow well for some reason, though that could be my Barlow) but it's certainly workable. I suspect a camera with smaller pixels would be better, but we can only work with what we have.

Billy.

[Geoff Lister]

 

12 hours ago, Mr niall said:

I think more or less all zwo allow 1x1 sensor cropping so should be fine if you get it 640x480

I use my GPCAM2, with a x0.5 focal reducer, on my 127mm Mak. I use Sharpcap to set the camera variables, capture the images, and set the recording window size (often 640x480) within the overall image. This means that a short video (perhaps 20 frames) each of 2 or 3 seconds, takes up less storage. By moving the window slightly, I can keep the object in the centre of the recorded view. For Jupiter, I use a much higher frame rate and more frames.

Geoff

[cjdawson]

I run a ZWO ASI290-MM and a starlight express SuperStar successfully together on the same computer.  The Superstar is the one that I use for guiding, the ASI is what I use for imaging, and I have the 5 point filter wheel for it.  I power the whole lot through a StarTech USB 3 powered hub (7 ports).   So far, I've not had any problems running my scope, both cameras the filter wheel a USB GPS all through the same USB 3 connection.    The ZWO camera is the only usb 3 device, the rest are USB 2, so I'm sure that helps.

As for software, I'm using ASCOM to control my scope (Meade LX-90) and use Sharpcap to capture images with the ZWO and PHD 2 for guiding with the SuperStar, in addition, I use Carte de Ceil for my star maps.    All works together with no problem, but then I'm using a dedicated HP laptop running an Inter I5 processor and 8GB Ram (more than needed really)

[brrttpaul]

cheers guys looks like I can get away with a mak plus a smaller ZWO, would that be piggybacked on the MAK or with a dual saddle? 

[brrttpaul]

13 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

I run a ZWO ASI290-MM and a starlight express SuperStar successfully together on the same computer.  The Superstar is the one that I use for guiding, the ASI is what I use for imaging, and I have the 5 point filter wheel for it.  I power the whole lot through a StarTech USB 3 powered hub (7 ports).   So far, I've not had any problems running my scope, both cameras the filter wheel a USB GPS all through the same USB 3 connection.    The ZWO camera is the only usb 3 device, the rest are USB 2, so I'm sure that helps.

As for software, I'm using ASCOM to control my scope (Meade LX-90) and use Sharpcap to capture images with the ZWO and PHD 2 for guiding with the SuperStar, in addition, I use Carte de Ceil for my star maps.    All works together with no problem, but then I'm using a dedicated HP laptop running an Inter I5 processor and 8GB Ram (more than needed really)

I am glad someone mentioned that, I dont think I have any problem with connecting or running as I have a dedicated desktop computer in the obsy and have mains power plus a leisure battery ( I normally run the mount on the battery using eqmod). I have sharpcap but dont use it much as I do find it hard to get my head around it so I use SGPRO and CCD (though I dont use CCD as much now just to slew to first star/object) I then copy the coordinates and paste them in sgpro and plate solve it). Just been looking at the MAK 127 now and the ASI 224MC 

[EWHB]

10 hours ago, brrttpaul said:

Not sure i understand what you mean get it 640x480

640x480 pixels.  The resolution of the image