SW 200pds imaging

[ninjageezer]

Anyone had any experience imaging with the SW 200pds at its native FL .

good points and bad and also best coma corrector for this scope rated at F5.

[Varavall]

1 hour ago, ninjageezer said:

Anyone had any experience imaging with the SW 200pds at its native FL .

Hi

Yes, it is the scope I have used for the past 2 years for mono imaging with a ZWO ASI1600MM and ZWO EAF. I use the skywatcher coma corrector and I don't have coma problems,. You will need to put a "shower cap" affair over the mirror end to prevent ingress of light; I made a cover out of an old tractor inner tube and some velcro. You may need to flock or blacken things on the inside of the tube, but suck it and see what is needed. I don't know what mount you wil be using, but I get good results with my overloaded Rowan belt modded SW HEQ5 Pro. 

For the price I am happy with the results, but every image improves on the last as experience with processing inproves. 

Hope that helps

Adrian

[Aramcheck]

I've used it for about 3+ years with a Baader MKIII coma corrector, initialy with a Canon 600D (astromodified) and more recently with a ZWO 2600 MC-PRO.
(Many images taken with it here: https://www.astronomyleeds.org.uk/gal/gallery.html )

I'm happy with it, though I've done various mods - flocked the OTA; replaced the focuser with a Baader Steeltrack; fitted a primary aperture mask; replaced the primary clips/springs as suggested on the SGL; and painted the secondary rear/sides matt black.

The only other scope I've used is a 130pds, but I prefer to use the 200pds unless it's too windy.

Cheers
Ivor

[ninjageezer]

17 minutes ago, Aramcheck said:

I've used it for about 3+ years with a Baader MKIII coma corrector, initialy with a Canon 600D (astromodified) and more recently with a ZWO 2600 MC-PRO.
(Many images taken with it here: https://www.astronomyleeds.org.uk/gal/gallery.html )

I'm happy with it, though I've done various mods - flocked the OTA; replaced the focuser with a Baader Steeltrack; fitted a primary aperture mask; replaced the primary clips/springs as suggested on the SGL; and painted the secondary rear/sides matt black.

The only other scope I've used is a 130pds, but I prefer to use the 200pds unless it's too windy.

Cheers
Ivor

wow some very nice images. are all these taken with the 200pds .your juper and saturn are superb.

can i ask why you replaced the focuser ,i plan to use the ZWO EAF and player one Poseidon c pro .APS-C plus a ZWO filter.

[Varavall]

PS the Leo triplet fom a few nights ago

[ninjageezer]

26 minutes ago, Varavall said:

PS the Leo triplet fom a few nights ago

Lovely

[malc-c]

My 200P is now effectively a PDS as I replaced the original secondary with a 1/10th wave length Orion Optics secondary the same size as the secondary in a PDS.  Other mods include flocking the inside of the tube and I use a Baadder coma corrector.  Camera is a modified D400 canon dSLR.

 

Full details of mount etc in my signature 

[Aramcheck]

On 15/03/2023 at 19:42, ninjageezer said:

wow some very nice images. are all these taken with the 200pds .your juper and saturn are superb.

can i ask why you replaced the focuser ,i plan to use the ZWO EAF and player one Poseidon c pro .APS-C plus a ZWO filter.

Not all of the pictures are mine - you have to look at the "Notes" for the acquisition details. The planetary images are all by other LAS members / different kit.

About 9 months ago I changed the focuser because I suspected I was getting some tilt. With an OAG & the ZWO 2600 MC-PRO the camera setup is just over 1kg, so swaping the focuser was more for peace of mind than anything else. Another option would have been to remove the rubber spacers in the Crayford (as mentioned in some SGL threads), but I didn't feel confident doing that... Fitting & aligning the Baader steeltrack wasn't easy and required some added foam/sticky tape to reduce light leaks (again as per SGL threads).

If sticking with the Crayford I'd recommend fitting a compression ring adapter to hold the camera more securely!

At first I didn't have a guidescope & then started using a converted SW 9x50 finderscope with an adapter to fit a ZWO120MM... More recently I've swapped to an OAG to help eliminate any problems with differential flexure.

I've also started using a ZWO filter drawer, which seems to work ok, although I've found that swapping between a IDAS LPS-P3 and an Optolong L-eXtreme requires refocusing. (I found out the hard way that with the L-eXtreme positioned in front of the OAG I couldn't get sufficiently bright stars to guide with, so using a filter drawer next to the camera means I don't have to dissasemble the optical train (camera/filter/spacer/oag/coma corrector) when changing the filter...)

The Player One camera looks good!

Cheers
Ivor

 

[Aramcheck]

Something I'd forgot about, which I think is worth mentioning, is that (at least in my experience) when with the camera at focus the crayford drawtube protudes into the OTA. It's nowhere near as bad as the 130pds, and you'll find examples on the SGL of people shortening it.

(BTW the Baader Steeltrack doesn't exhibit this problem)

Cheers
Ivor

[alacant]

On 15/03/2023 at 17:34, ninjageezer said:

SW 200pds at its native FL

Hi

Assuming you have an adequate mount and seeing to support 1000mm, here is our list of modifications needed to bring a low end f5 to astrograph standard. None are particularly difficult or expensive and will save you hours of frustration down the line.

On 15/03/2023 at 17:34, ninjageezer said:

best coma corrector for this scope

The original 4 element gpu such as this one where you set the backfocus depending upon FL is by far the best of the affordable ones we tried. 

Cheers and HTH

Edited March 20, 2023 by alacant