Anthony's Astrophotography

Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Hi Everyone,

Well I had my first chance to have a play with the new EQ8 mount, this wasn’t under dark skies or anything flash but I did find a few interesting things and thought I would share. So where do I begin?

Set up of the mount is a bit more effort to that of the EQ6 but for someone that is reasonably built it is still a on person job (just), while it takes a bit longer it is worth the extra effort for the results (in my opinion anyway). The only thing I don’t like in the set up is that the Azimuth and Altitude knobs need to be removed prior to the mount being put back in its case, not a big issue but annoying nonetheless.

As one would expect the operation of the mount is smooth and quiet and the motors are very responsive and feel very powerful, there is absolutely no backlash in the RA Axis and the clutches are rigid enough to provide accurate movement when driven by the mount but not too rigid that when pushing the scope around as the EQ8 allows with the encoders. As a side note EQMod is updated when doing a scope push as the Encoders feed this detail back to the software, you possibly knew that already but I found it really cool when I saw it in action (no more resetting everything just because of a slip in a clutch etc.). The only fault so far that I can find (and it may not be a fault) is there is a little backlash in the Declination Axis, I will see how this performs on 10 minute exposures at the next dark sky outing but from testing did not cause any problems (up to 5 minute subs).

All in all I am quite happy with my purchase to date and think this mount will take my imaging efforts to the next level. I can see from initial testing that guiding is more accurate and tracking is far more precise and smooth. In relation to my first test with guiding using PHD (and after a very rough polar alignment) that the mount managed to perform with an average oscillation Index of 0.24 and an RMS of 0.09. By comparison to my EQ6 that averaged an oscillation index of about .45 and an RMS of about .35. This was using the same guide scope and camera by the way so it is fair to say the EQ8 is a whole magnitude increase in performance, in fact the evening I tested this was quite windy so I suspect the oscillation Index is a bit higher then it could be due to that. See graph here:

Most importantly to note is that Sky Watcher are listening to the community and making changes to the mount even this early on in the release, the mount I have purchased could almost be classed as a version 1.1 mount given some of the things that have been modified. So what are these changes I hear you ask? well they are:

• The Tripod Pier now has a travel limiting bolt mounted to prevent the collar from sliding up and hitting the mount head fastening knob. As pictured here:

•  The Declination clutch leaver has been shortened to prevent it from clashing with the Declination motor housing. This was definitely a modification that was needed and a major oversight in the original shipped product. See the old lever (Top) and the New lever (Bottom Two):

   

•  I also noticed that Sky Watcher have changed the cover plate on the Declination worm housing, this allows easier access to the adjustment screws for the Declination worm gear. The top image is the old plate the lower one is the new plate with the grub screws allowing access.

 

I haven’t seen anything else different that stands out but if I do you will be the first to know.

Lastly for those that are interested in the mechanic of the mounts, Gerard Dangl of www.dangl.at has plenty of images of the EQ8 with it’s covers off etc. showing the encoders and drive trains. Thanks Gerhard for the time and sharing the information.

Please let me know if you have any specific questions or things you would like tested?

Cheers

Anthony

 

 

Hi Everyone,

I got back from Astro Pete’s a short while ago after helping set up and play with the new SkyWatcher EQ8 mount. So where do I begin? As I mentioned earlier today I cannot comment on the “actual” performance of the mount yet as I have not been present with one running and imaging but I will share what I have found with today’s experience. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Everyone,

As I posted earlier I have purchased a Central DS CDS-600D camera, well this arrived on Friday so I could not wait to give it a test run. As always as soon as you buy a new toy the clouds roll in and ruin your fun. Instead I decided to do a dark frame comparison of two of the same model camera (one modded and one standard).

I have done two tests: one at ISO 1600 and the other at ISO 400 both for 10 minutes, the Central DS Camera had the cooler running naturally and the Standard 600D Camera was just that! running standard, the ambient temperature was the same for both tests as I had the Air Conditioning running at 23’C so the house could be considered a constant.

I have taken the images and blown them up to 200% and taken a copy and pasted them side by side for comparison and labelled accordingly (No stretching or manipulation at all of the image these are what came direct off the camera).

One thing not so obvious is the temp increase on the standard camera, I did the ISO1600 and then straight away the ISO 400 tests on a camera so the ISO 400 shot was after the camera had been running for 10 minutes already, the temp sensor in the Central DS Camera added only 1’C after 20 minutes continuous exposing, the EOS 600D added 7’C after the 20 minutes exposure time.

Anyway I think the images attached speak for themselves, I was very please to see the difference and cannot wait to get the camera under the sky and take some images. Cheers Anthony

As per my review of the EQ6 Pier from AstroShop I have been selling some of my equipment to start stepping up in the capabilities of the equipment I use, this included my Orion Awesome Auto Guider kit and GStar EX mono camera. I was simply carrying too much load on my mount and was also having issues balancing my set up with three scopes attached.

In replacement of the Orion Awesome Auto Guider and GStar was the Starlight Express LodeStar Guider. This camera is very similar to the GStar in sensitivity but a lot smaller and is compatible with many guiding software platforms such as PHD. This allowed me to remove one of the scopes from my mount and lighten the load a little.

It came packaged very well in a blue plastic case holding the Driver/Software CD, USB Cables, ST4 Cable and naturally the camera. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently I started to think about ways I could simplify my set up and make imaging from suburbia a little more successful. There are a few parts to this equation but the main issue was the set up time for all of my gear, this generally takes about 1.5 hours to set up the mount and tripod and fit/balance all the scopes and then hook up the computer and cables to run it all and then the time to drift align etc to make sure I am pointing to true south. By that time I need to start thinking about bed and really don’t achieve anything for my efforts.

This had to change if I was ever going to be able to get all my gear out and running during the week on a regular basis, so I started to think about what I needed and how I would get it. As a result I have sold off some of my gear like the GStar EX camera, the Orion Awesome Auto Guider Package, as well as my MAK127 Scope and Goto Mount, I will miss these things as I really enjoyed using them but had to raise the funds for my new ideas (on wards and upwards).

So what did I buy, well I still needed an auto guiding function so I purchased a Lodestar Guider Camera to replace the GStar and Orion Guider into one unit (this took some weight off my mount and made balancing far easier with just two scopes), but more importantly I purchased a Pier for my EQ6 mount.

Read the rest of this entry »