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Extent of the imaging capabilities of the Star Discovery 150p WI-FI alt-az goto telescope


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Hello, i am new in the astronomy and i would like to buy an average all around telescope with an inclination to imaging. I came across SD 150p which is good for observing and capturing lunar and planetary photos (for what i have found online). So the question is "what can it do for both lunar-planetary and DSO imaging (without modifying the focuser so prime focus is only achieved through a barlow lens)? Do you have any photos i could look to or any recommendations to telescopes with similar price? The plan is to start slow with an average telescope (and practise my skills in editing astrophotos :D) and then move on to more expensive and sturdy equatorial goto mounts so i dont have to worry for field rotation and stacking thousands of raw files. Tell me what you think!

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While alt-az is indeed more suited to short exposure lunar / planetary AP it is possible to do DSO AP.. Take a look at this thread where you will find examples of what is possible with an alt-az mount.

 

Edited by johninderby
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To specifically reply on the 150p star discovery. That flavour of telescope does not come to focus naturally with a dslr there is not enough inward focus travel (barlow probably required). There is a thread on here somewhere where someone was trying to source a super thin T ring in not sure if they where successful. Through many DSO are large so just use a camera with a camera lens if you already own one instead on the mount and work within the mounts limitations.

Or check out the az-gti which there is a different firmware available for it that turns it into EQ capable mount.

 

Edited by happy-kat
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It is surprising what can be done with an alt-azimuth GoTo mount.  With my SLT mount used in an EVA set up with a small telescope and a ASI224MC video camera I have been able to detect Pluto, image various globular and open clusters, various comets, a couple of novae, and the M1 nebula. Typical exposure 5 seconds.  This is often much more revealing than trying to see the objects visually, but  cannot be compared with long exposure deep sky imaging.  

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Thank you all for your answers! After reading about the prime focus problems on Star discovery I am thinking about buying separately an optical tube designed for astrophotography and a sturdy ALT-AZ GOTO mount. I am still not sure what these products will be so if you have any recommendations please inform me!

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16 hours ago, Charis said:

and a sturdy ALT-AZ GOTO mount.

Be careful what you wish for.  The cheaper alt-az GoTo mounts are usually sold bundled with a entry level scope, and are intended for visual use with scopes weighing less than 5 Kg or so.  Then there's a big gap to the heavy duty alt-az or alt-az/EQ mounts that you can buy separately, which cost serious amounts of money.

Have you a budget? A small ED refractor will cost several hundred pounds.  A 102mm Startravel achromat will let you do some basic imaging, and it's cheap, and you can screw on a helical focuser, but it won't be as good or as versatile as an ED scope. 

You can start wilh the cheap stuff, but if you are serious about deep-space imaging you will eventually want an ED refractor and a heavy-duty equatorial GoTO mount. (and keep your entry level kit as a grab'n go?)

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3 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

Be careful what you wish for.  The cheaper alt-az GoTo mounts are usually sold bundled with a entry level scope, and are intended for visual use with scopes weighing less than 5 Kg or so.  Then there's a big gap to the heavy duty alt-az or alt-az/EQ mounts that you can buy separately, which cost serious amounts of money.

Have you a budget? A small ED refractor will cost several hundred pounds.  A 102mm Startravel achromat will let you do some basic imaging, and it's cheap, and you can screw on a helical focuser, but it won't be as good or as versatile as an ED scope. 

You can start wilh the cheap stuff, but if you are serious about deep-space imaging you will eventually want an ED refractor and a heavy-duty equatorial GoTO mount. (and keep your entry level kit as a grab'n go?)

Thank you for your answer!
I was thinking the 130pds which weights ~4 kg with the mount "Skywatcher Mount Star Discovery AZ SynScan WiFi GoTo" (which holds up to 5 kg) or the mount suggested by happy cat. Both mounts can be sold separately. I have also found  a used Canon 550d relatively cheap. What do  you think about this entry level setup for AP? Is it viable?

 

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12 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Did you look at the Az-gti mount? It is alt-az goto by default but has the ptential to be EQ with firmware update.

Thank you for your answer!
I didnt know these mounts existed. I am seriously incline to buy one to hold the 130 pds and later turn it into an equatorial mount. Thank you!

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You will want to check very carefully as I think the 130PDS laden with camera is likely too big and heavy for the az-gti.

Take a look and see what other people are using telescope wise with that mount before deciding what you want to do.

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On 19/06/2021 at 14:09, happy-kat said:

You will want to check very carefully as I think the 130PDS laden with camera is likely too big and heavy for the az-gti.

Take a look and see what other people are using telescope wise with that mount before deciding what you want to do.

Thank you for advices. They are really helpful. After a lot of consideration i will start by buying the 130pds tube and a second hand star discovery mount. It should be stable based on what i found online. I will perform some basic lunar, planetary and short exposure DSO AP while i save enough for a EQ5-6 mount.

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Yes i did, that's why i decided to go with this build since i found this second hand mount in my area. Thanks again for introducing me to this topic. As i saw, a lot of great pictures can be achieved without an eq mount.

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  • 8 months later...

Hello there. I have the same scope Star Discovery 150p on an alt-az wifi mount.
I read about the problem of not achieving focus with a dslr for this scope. 
 

I am pretty new to all this and am wondering if the same problem exist if you use a dedicated astrophotography camera with this scope? 

What would be a good dedicated astro camera for this scope?

Thanks for all the answers.

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Hello, and welcome to SGL.

I'm visual only, but as I understand it, scopes like the 150p are not designed for imaging, so it may not be possible to achieve focus with a DSLR that is "deep" back to the sensor. It may be possible with DSLRs with a body that's less deep, and more so with a dedicated astro camera. Some people on here have performed surgery on their tubes to reduce the distance between primary and secondary, which helps, but is drastic. Scopes that are designed for imaging, like the 150PDS, already have these different dimensions.

The bigger question is, what do you plan to image? The Star Discovery is an altaz-only mount with comparatively low tolerances for imaging work; so the fainter, deep-sky stuff will be very difficult. Solar system is possible, but with a webcam. I suggest you put a post in the imaging beginners section and it will get some attention from people that know about these things.

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41 minutes ago, Zermelo said:

The bigger question is, what do you plan to image? The Star Discovery is an altaz-only mount with comparatively low tolerances for imaging work; so the fainter, deep-sky stuff will be very difficult. 

Basically I want to do EAA, for various reasons (health issues being one of them), but most appealing one is of course to see some details I just can't see with visual observations. 
The goal for me, is to have a setup, where I set the thing up in 15 minutest (setup alignment, slew to first target with plate solving) and then observe the targets on a laptop or a tablet for 15 minutes making short 15-30 second exposures and live stacking them. Then I want to move to the next target. Maybe I would want to share the "live stacked final image" with friends, but I definitely don't want to do any post image processing.

Since I already own a scope I first thought I would get a used dslr on ebay and attach it to the scope. Then I stumbled upon various post here of people saying focus can't be achieved with a dslr on that scope, I definitely don't want to perform a surgery on my scope :D, so I thought what about a dedicated astro cam. I don't want to buy something just to find out I can't focus. 

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Hi

Thought i would have a search around to see if any astro camera had been used and I found quite a few images on astrobin when searching for star discovery as the telescope and they appeared to be using an astro cam, though perhaps a mini flavour that has the nose mount for insertion further into the focuser tube, but the field of view is quite small with smaller chips used on the images I found. Sharpcap does live stacking might need the pro version but it is low cost windows app.  Asicap works on android though off top of head I can't recall if it does live stacking.

This thread is all tracking altaz imaging within the limitations presented by not being an equatorial mount, I see the thread has already been linked to further up

Edited by happy-kat
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2 hours ago, MarkoZnidar said:

Basically I want to do EAA, for various reasons (health issues being one of them), but most appealing one is of course to see some details I just can't see with visual observations. 
The goal for me, is to have a setup, where I set the thing up in 15 minutest (setup alignment, slew to first target with plate solving) and then observe the targets on a laptop or a tablet for 15 minutes making short 15-30 second exposures and live stacking them. Then I want to move to the next target. Maybe I would want to share the "live stacked final image" with friends, but I definitely don't want to do any post image processing.

Since I already own a scope I first thought I would get a used dslr on ebay and attach it to the scope. Then I stumbled upon various post here of people saying focus can't be achieved with a dslr on that scope, I definitely don't want to perform a surgery on my scope :D, so I thought what about a dedicated astro cam. I don't want to buy something just to find out I can't focus. 

Ah, OK.

EAA I know nothing about, but you will have looked here and here?

I presume the post you saw about achieving prime focus on the 150 was this one? A barlow is an option, but the focuser on the Star Discovery 150 model is really intended only for (lighter) eyepieces. I doubt that it would like a DSLR body hanging off a barlow. The 150PDS has a much more substantial focuser. But as I say, I'm visual only and out of my comfort zone, so I'll wish you luck and bow out. Others may have more ideas.

 

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I have done some EAA (EEVA) with an alt-azimuth mount.  I did not use a DSLR (and some DSLRs may prove entirely unsuitable for EEVA).  I use a ZWO ASI224MC for my EEVA (mainly because I already had one I bought for planetary imaging).  I use Sharpcap 4, which also supports plate-solving.

A check you could do is to put your 25mm Plossl kit eyepiece, that you probably got with the scope, in the focuser, focus it on a star, and then check that you can wind the focuser inwards by 5 to 6 mm.  If you can't, you may not be able to bring an ASI224MC to focus, and if you can't focus that, you may not be able to focus any other camera either.  

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