My videos are from my Heavenly Backyard garden and mostly about astrophotography and astronomy but I do occasionally add videos concerning gardening and potential threatening weather. I like to show what you can see in the sky from the confines of a suburban location with city light pollution.
Great review Pat. Was wondering if u had trouble starting it up.Seen one review that had a problen getting it to sync. Found out he had to connect with a cell phone first to get it to read in US. After that it wass ok. Im thinking of getting one myself. Keep up the good vedios, Bill
The challenge for us veterans is selling our existing gear, no one wants to pay for a EQ6R pro when they can buy one of these new, for less or the same?
Hi Pat, glad everyone are safe! By the way if you remove the TC-40 rubber feet and use the ZWO spikes it will make the tripod more sturdy on those cement blocks! Try it..
Thanks, Simon. I took an RGB 6 hr image of the Pleiades the other night with the right. The pic came out beautiful. Grizabella thinks of herself more as the "Queen" and all need to genuflect and bow down to her needs. But then again, she's a cat, so what's new about that? Hmmm, it's looking like you will be getting brushed by the remnants of hurricane Kirk around Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thank you, Wido (I think I got your name right this time ... I turn spell checker off). I am very impressed with this mount. I just took an amazing picture of the Pleiades the other night with it. BTW, a new storm is brewing just to my south. Hopefully, it will skirt just south of me. Clear skies
Hi Logan. I am very impressed with this mount. However, for my heavier scopes, I am looking into the Sky-Watcher Wave 150i Strain Wave Mount to replace my Celestron CGX. The Wave 150i can handle 55 pounds (25kg) with counter wight, but more importantly, it does have a clutch in the declination and right ascension axes which is very useful for balancing the scope. It looks very impressive. Oh the toys that we love to have! Clear Skies, Logan
"Advanced Newbie" here, I have the AM3 as well, but my modest kit consists of scopes significantly lighter than what you have in this video. I am ZWO all the way right now. When properly polar aligned and leveled, I get really good guiding as well.
All is fine. I just set-up the Orion EON 130mm refractor on the Skywater EQ6R-Pro mount in the location that gets that better view of the SSE Sky. And as soon as it was set, the clouds rolled in, but it is ready when the sky clears.
@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy yes i know what you mean i was ar fort McMurray in alberta for the town fire after a mounth we whent back here in New Brunswick after freezing rain in winter we where out of électricity no wood stove just small generator and the gaz was hard to get all electrical wire was on the ground so yes it was fun but most important its your life and familly and to be safe take care
Question: I have a Celestron 8 SE on a Celestron Wedge.. just got the SSAG.. updated the firmware to all devices including the mount.. connected the 4x Dew controller .. connected the hand controller to my laptop.. I’m having trouble with the connection dropping.. any suggestions?
Hmmm, It could be faulty USB connections, not enough RAM in your computer, a processer to slow, or not enough amperage in your power supply. I am only guessing here. I hope you find the solution.
Can I buy your old board. I have accidently blown my hand controller port by plugging in the usb connector in it and I might be able to repair it with your old board..
I wish I still had it. I had to cut the connection port locks to remove the RA and Dec plugs. So I just tossed it. I would suggest to buy a new board. Sorry
For planetary, I use SharpCap Pro for capturing. For Deep Space, I use NINA. I have the Celestron focus motor attached to the scope. The driver for the focuser and for slewing are encased in the CPWI software. You would need to connect the focuser in CPWI. You can also use NINA to auto focus and plate solve.
Thank you for watching my video. I also noticed that the ports were getting a bit corroded due to my somewhat humid salt air environment, so that entered into my equation of getting the new board. All is well now. Clear Skies
Thank you for watching my video. I had good "Seeing" that night ... clear sky and not fast moving jet stream flowing overhead, so the atmosphere was quite still. CLear Skies
Ха, спасибо. Здесь гораздо больше науки, чем я думал, будет связано с выбором размера пикселя, фокусного расстояния и бэкфокуса. Я думаю, это обучение на практике.
When adding the Hyperstar and reducing from M54 to M42 does that obstruct the large camera sensor? Do you have to collimate the Hyperstar every time you install it. How does the Savannah heat and humidity affect your mount, OTA and accessories when you leave them out side for extended periods ever though they are covered? Thanks.
I do get some vignetting from M54 to M48, but taking flats greatly reduces that effect in post-processing. I find that you don't need to collimate every time you swap out from the Hyperstar to back to native state, but I do look to make sure all is fine before I start my session. The rig holds up well, however, I do bring in the mini-computer and camera. I live near the coast and there is a bit of salt in the air, and I have noticed some corrosion on the USB cables that are left outside, even under cover. The OTA seems fine. Plus, I don't need to worry about temperature adjustment since the OTA is already at equilibrium to the environment. I cover my OTA with a large beach towel first, then put the 365 insulated cover over it to protect it from the elements. The only time I dismantle the rig is during hurricane threats.
New subscriber. Great video! I am currently dipping my toe into astrophotography, specifically nebulas and galaxies. But one day, i hope to have the equipment to image the planets.
Hi Kevin, Great to hear. For the nebulae and galaxies, a scope of f/7 is a good start. For planetary, an f/10 focal ratio is desirable, but you could still shop for the planets using an f/7 scope. For a camera, I would start with something with a pixel size around 3.7 microns. Happy viewing
Hi Walter, They are both equally good for galaxies and star clusters. The quad is also good for objects with green/blue oxygen emission. I have a 5 position filter wheel and use them both along with the L-eNhance and L-Extreme. The fifth position has a UV/IR cut luminance filter in it. Clear Skies, and if you have any, please send them my way. I am getting moldy here with all these endless nights of clouds and rain!
If you spend $1,000s on your equipment, and hours and hours collecting data, then either waiting a couple of hours for the good stuff from WBPP and/or spending anther $1,000 on a nice computer and PI is a no brainer. Give your hard earned photons the best treatment they deserve!
The StarSense Auto Aling is not the same as the StarSense AutoGuider (SSAG). The "Aling" does just that, aligns the scope with the sky. The SSAG will align to the sky and then guide the scope. The SSAG will also plate solve in the "GoTo" function.
Hi David, Not really. I discovered, when I did have NINA set to "Direct Guider", it would dither, but in doing so, it would add spikes to the guiding hence causing the stars to shift in the same subframe, making that frame useless. So, for now, I just keep the dithering set to off. I wish Celestron would set it up with ASCOM so it would be controllable.
The main accessory it the minicomputer. It would be a windows base system that has Remote desktop enable. It would need to be a Windows Pro version. You can also use Google remote desktop if you don't have a Windows Pro version operating system. Then you would set up the minicomputer with all the software to run the rig, i.e., ASCOM platform, NINA, ASTAP and the star database, PHD2, the mount control software (CPWI, or EQMOD, etc.), focus software, etc. You would then plug all the USB lines into the USB ports on the minicomputer. I hope this helps. Clear Skies
Hi Brian, I never would have dreamed in capturing Pluto when I started astrophotography back in 2016, but thanks to today's intelligent software, it is now somewhat easier to get. I would like to see if I could resolve enough resolution to see its moon, Charon. Another night, another goal Clear Skies, and happy planet shopping.
Thank you for the excellent video, which made me confused, why does everyone who owns a hyperstar make it a simple installation!!!??? Why don't you provide a full explanation for it,,, You make this part easy and simple when it is completely different,,, It is extremely difficult, I hope I don't find anyone who says to contact the responsible company!! I didn't hear from them anything but (measuring the hyperstar) Correct!!!! Oh my God,,, I didn't find the answer to the focus, I didn't find the answer to the tilt of the hyperstar,,, I think and I may be somewhat certain that F2 is the core of the problem and not the focus or the telescope and so on,,, The hyperstar needs a solution to more than one problem, who can solve it??
You hit the nail on the head. I only presented what I know and have learned by using it. Fortunately for me, the HyperStarHD was pretty much at the correct back focal length for the cameras that I use and the tilt seems okay. Changing the back focus requires special spacers. As for tilt, I am happy with the way it is and am intimidated at trying to use the adjustment screws in thinking I would mess it up. It comes down to ... "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" ... for me. Clear Skies
Hello Sr. I have a question, according to celestron, to perform centre calibration after the alignment, we have to move the telescope-imagin camera with the arrows of the hand controllers, so I am confused at this point because doing so we move the whole system and the offset between the telescope and ssag stays the same. We should move the ssag bracket for centre calibration the same way an autoguider tube has to be move with the circles rings in a regular autoguide system, isn't it?
When calibrating the SSAG, the onboard computer inside the SSAG needs to have a good reference point. So to calibrate, it wants you to tell the mount to slew to a particular target ... it will give you several suggestions. Pick one that you are very familiar with and let the telescope slew to it. SSAG will slew to what it thinks is the right location. If it is not on the target, then what you need to do is either use the hand controller or CPWI slew controls to manually slew and center on the target. Once you have the target centered, then select the OK button. That should do it. You shouldn't have to move the SSAG scope at all. I hope this helps
@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Thanks, what I see here is that...moving ( slew) the telescope with the hand controller to complete de centre calibration, it moves the whole system, so telescope and ssag stay parallel to each other...unless there is an "electronic sensor calibration " inside the ssag... I am still waiting to receive my ssag, can't wait to start working on it....thanks again and clear skies!
Hi, thank for creating this video. I learnt some tips from your video. Last night I tried to image Saturn but all I see is a very bright disk with couple of dots for the moons either side. I adjusted the focus using the Bahtinov mask. I mostly do the DSO imaging and this is the first time I am imaging a planet. Below is my rig: Scope: AT80EDT Triplet APO with Flattner / reducer Filter: UV/IR cut Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro Software: Sharpcap Pro 4.1 Mount: SW Alt-AZ GTi My initial gain and exposure settings were based on the analysis of SC Brain. Do you have any suggestions what I am doing wrong? What must be the ideal settings for my setup? I don't see a contrast option as ZWO cameras don't have that. Any guidance is much appreciated. Thank you. Sami.
Hi Sam, As I mentioned in my most recent video on Saturn ... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ukjR72oi61k.html ... A long focal length is essential for planetary observation. The first thing I would do is take off the reducer. I assume your 80mm scope has a focal length of around 480-500mm but with the reducer on it, that would take it down to around 400mm. In contrast, the 11" EdgeHD scope that I used has a focal length of 2,800mm. However, even with your scope (minus the reducer) you sould be able to get a decent ... but quite small ... image of Saturn. Stay up a little longer and play with Jupiter as it is bigger and much brighter (but it still will be quite small). The camera is fine. You can adjust the gain in SharpCap. Once you get the planet in view, play with the exposure time and the gain setting in Sharpcap. You probaly would want to lower the camera exposure time to less than 75 msec. Once you set that, then play with the gain. If the planet is white, then the gain is too high. Drop it down until you see a yellow Saturn. The rings are nearly edge-on right now so they are not as spectacular as they were a few years ago or will be in a few years later from now. I hope this helps and thank you for watching my video(s)
I am still amaze that Pluto was able to br found back then. I think it was found by way of mathematics and then discovered using successive plate solving over several nights pointing the scope to where the math indicated it should be. Similar to what I did in this video, without the math. (Well, that's where I got the idea ... ha) Thank you for watching my video and for commenting.
Hello!! Very good video and good images, as a planetary photographer I recommend that you lower the exposure to 10-20ms and increase the gain, the atmosphere will affect you less and by being able to stack more frames (and better frames) the noise will decrease a lot. I'm going to Saturn at 100fps with a C11 at F20 and it's great. Greetings!!
@@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy Yes they'll cut the light down but that's okay with today's new sensors and you pick up detail. The 585 helps having a small sensor which naturally crops down the view while retaining use of all its pixels. New sensors are fast It likes focal ratios around f20. The 3x might be pushing the limit? Be cool to see, it should work great on the bright moon.
Thank you. I never thought I could capture Pluto. With these new software tools, particularly in NINA, I am able to instruct the telescope to slew to the exact location of the planet and then to plate solve to put the planet in the exact center of the view. Amazing. Clear Skies
Very interesting video Pat, I’ve not done any planetary imaging, not got the focal length or a planetary camera! Perhaps I should think about that🤔 Excellent image as always mate! Keep up the great work! I hope to have a video out in a week or so! Probably my best image so far!!! Clear skies
Thanks, Simon. I always look forward to your videos. I just bought the ZWO AM3 mount and am testing it out. It's tracking is amazing and no counter weight! What target are you working on?
