New Set Up and Gear

[OXO]

Hello Everyone,

After owning the Helios Explorer 8" for 2 years just over i have deicided to part company with the old faithfull and experiance a differant scope/scope's(The helios 8" is a great scope!).

I now own a Celestron C6-R on CG5 Duel Axis Driven Mount(Drives coming tommorow). The telescope out perform's anything i have owned before be it planetry or deepsky esp with a fringe killer filter and contrast booster. Using this F/8 scope after the Helios F/5 does have a narrower Field of view although i can Mod this to get it down too F4.3(project soon) Jupiter looked massive in this scope and with amazing detail's. I will review the scope more indepth for the Equipment Reviews Section of this forum.

In the post soon i am getting a Star Travel 120 Refractor F/5, Toucam Pro SC1.5.

My camera's are Nikon coolpix 4500( second only to owning a Canon 300d IMHO) with all sorts of astro gear. A Meade DSI fantastic camera but i maybe selling when the Toucam Pro Sc1.5 come's mainly because i am so used to the Toucam Pro Sc(my old one blew up) lastly a Zenit Slr built like a Tank no use what so ever(currently making a Adapter for the Toucam out of it).

All sort's of Astro Bit's N bobs to much too list ie:books,binos etc etc.

James

PS:Dream setup would be a 255" scope in a Dome on the Far side of the Moon with Internet Connection(long cable)..

[russ]

Thats a nice sounding setup. The 6" f8 is the one Synta refractor i've not owned. I can imagine the planetary views are very nice. You should enjoy the 120 f5, one of my fav scopes. Strangely unliked by most but mine was a jem.

You don't fancy the new DSI Pro with it's 1/2" chip and built in RGB filters. Supposed to be very sensitive chip in there.

You had better run a side by side test with the DSI and SC1.5. The DSI is the equivilent of an SC3 Toucam.

Regards

Russ

[OXO]

You don't fancy the new DSI Pro with it's 1/2" chip and built in RGB filters. Supposed to be very sensitive chip in there.

You had better run a side by side test with the DSI and SC1.5. The DSI is the equivilent of an SC3 Toucam

.

The Dsi Pro look's very good russ but the one thing that puts me off is the software from meade it really isnt user friendly and is extremely slow on my laptop(P2 400 USB 2 165meg ram) when imaging planets with the Dsi you dont get a constant refresh rate like the Toucam also there is a scanline effect on the images(stacked to 500) one thing about planetry imaging with the dsi is that it is Really easy to get the moons on your image without over exposing the Planet unlike the toucam's. Deep Space imaging with the Dsi can be Very good but take's hell of a lot of processing afterwards and setting up combine this with the slow performance and it equals NO FUN! thus i cant be bothered unlike the Toucam Sc cam's.

In defence of the DSI K3CDTOOLS will let you use the Dsi in the future ver's of the programe untill then i shall not be bothering hence prob sell it or swap its soon.

Just IMHO other's would argue with this....

James

[OXO]

First Image with Toucam Pro sc and the Second with a Dsi taken 10mins apart roughly.

2

Just so you can see the differance i got using the cameras...

Scope C6-R

James

[OXO]

I now own a Celestron C6-R on CG5 Duel Axis Driven Mount(Drives coming tommorow).

The drives have just turned up took longer than expected...

JAMES

[AndyMac]

Good news James. How have skies turned out up there? Have you had a chance to try them out yet?

[OXO]

Thanks,

Of course we will have clouds for the next EON lol no chance yet andy hopefully tommorow or monday night! I really wanna go for imaging M13 and NGC7000(widefield) with the coolpix until i get my toucam sc1.5 back..

James

[AndyMac]

Whare's the Toucam at the mo & when are you expecting it back, James? Now would be ideal as the moon gets nearer to its 'new' phase.

[OXO]

The sc1.5 is on it's way back to me Andy should get it tommrow or thursday.

M27 is my next target with the camera's(fingers crossed i will pick it up with the cam's) plus i want to spend more time looking at the over shadowed nebula..

James

[AndyMac]

M27 is a good target to go after........nice & bright. I think you'll be impressed with the result.

[OXO]

I may try and use the ST102 for guideing i remember you mentioning there's a good guide star there so maybe worth a crack at that andy..

James

[AndyMac]

The focal length of your scope is somewhat shorter than my (almost 3000mm) SCT James - so you may need to jiggle things about to get the star in the ST102 & still keep M27 in the centre of the frame of the scope taking the picture.

Good luck!

[OXO]

Good Luck sounds like ill need it andy but i shall try my best..prob end up with an image of her at 42 in the shower AGAIN!

[AndyMac]

If you do, make sure you post it under the title of 'Heavenly Body' (old jokes are the best)! :oops:

[OXO]

you have seen her then :?:

[AndyMac]

'Course you'll need to create a new category for her on this forum (can't really go calling her 'deep sky' etc).......

[OXO]

lmao hehehhehehhe oppppsss my legs fell off............