Confused about what I need

[smr]

Hi,

I'm going to buy my first refractor having bought an heq5 a few months ago.

I am a bit confused as to what I need, and annoyingly I seem to have lost my Making every photon count book. Haven't seen it for months.

I won't be buying a guide cam or guidescope for the time being, the refractor I'm going to buy is a Z73. Do I need an RDF for star alignment? I don't understand how that works.

[souls33k3r]

Hi,

Well first of all you will need to tell us if you're looking for a scope for visual or imaging purposes.

Then you'll need to set yourself a budget and will help if you can share this information.

Thanks

[smr]

It will be purely for imaging, I'm going to buy a Z73 refractor. Thank you. I have a DSLR, and HEQ5 Pro. I just need to know what I need in order to carry out star alignment really. 

[souls33k3r]

There are two routes you can go down.

1) (Beginner) Buy a RDF for star alignment. Align your RDF with the scope by pointing your scope at a far away object (terrestrial is fine) and then make sure both your scope and your RDF are looking at the same object. Now the star alignment works is, from the handset you select "Star Alignment" and then choose your stars. The mount will automatically slew close enough to that star and then you gently nudge your scope. Keep looking through your RDF and make sure the star is on the "red dot". Then look through the scope and make sure it is in the scope. If it is then go to your next star and repeat this process at least on 3 stars. If not then bring the star in the center of the scope and then make sure your RDF's red dot is pointing at the same star.  Once this is done, select your target to image and it should be almost right in the middle.

2) (Advanced) Plate solving. Let's not go there for now because it might confuse the hell out of you if you're only starting

Word of advice, without a guidescope, you're limiting yourself to a few seconds exposure.

Hope this helps.

 

[smr]

Ah thanks for the good explanation. Plate solving sounds like a complexity I don't need to be learning right now so it sounds as though I must buy an RDF for star alignment. There's a William Optics RDF on for £79, but I have the feeling that I don't need to be spending anything like that for an RDF? 

[souls33k3r]

27 minutes ago, smr said:

Ah thanks for the good explanation. Plate solving sounds like a complexity I don't need to be learning right now so it sounds as though I must buy an RDF for star alignment. There's a William Optics RDF on for £79, but I have the feeling that I don't need to be spending anything like that for an RDF? 

You don't necessarily need to spend that much.

You can either opt for a RDF which will be lighter but people love telrads too (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/telrad-finder-astronomy.html) but they're tad heavier.

Alternatively you can buy a finder scope which will be equally good (personally i perfer finder scopes because it acts like a little scope as well) (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/skywatcher-9x50-finderscope.html)

both are cheaper than the £79 item you must be looking at.

Platesolving is a Godsend but you need a laptop and an imaging capture software for it to work.

[geordie85]

You could always just use the live view of your dslr for star alignment 

[david_taurus83]

^^^ This! As long as the star is bright enough. You can put the grid on the display to act as a crosshair ?

[smr]

Excellent! I'll see how I get on with that. I use my live view screen a lot for normal photography and have always used it for astro imaging on my SA mount so I should hopefully be ok with using that. Thanks!

[Danjc]

If you do get a finder scope they regularly pop up in the classifieds section. I just picked one up for £10 inc p&p. 

[spillage]

@smr are you going to be using a laptop or computer for taking photos or are you just going to use the dslr?

[smr]

37 minutes ago, spillage said:

@smr are you going to be using a laptop or computer for taking photos or are you just going to use the dslr?

Will be adding a guidecam and camera and also a laptop yes but not immediately. Know the basics of polar aligning etc. with my star adventurer mount but need to learn how the heq5 pro works before progressing onto guiding and using a laptop.

[Danjc]

There are several videos but the guy covers mount setup and PA throughout all the vids.

 

[spillage]

Sorry I seem to have lost the bookmark. Racking my brains about the content but finally found it here.

Hope this helps as this is where I started. I would really suggest a laptop and APT with platesolve. It is not that difficult to sort out and really is a game changer.