Anthony's Astrophotography

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would share another update on the EQ8 Mount. I was reviewing the latest manual release from Sky Watcher when I found on page 36 documented confirmation that Camera Controls are built into the AZ-EQ6 and the soon to be released EQ8, with any luck this means the EQ8 is not too far away from release to that actual market. The manual can be found here.

At this stage the only update (and this is from the supplier channels as well) March is still the tentative date for it’s arrival.

Here is an extract from the Sky Watcher Manual on page 36:

1. Using the SNAP port on the telescope mount:
   Several Sky-Watcher’s equatorial mounts (such as the AZ-EQ6 GT and the EQ8) are equipped with a SNAP port. Users can use a proper shutter release control cable to connect this port to the same port on the camera.
2. Using the multi-purpose port on the SynScan hand controller:
   The SynScan hand controller uses 2 pins (The SHUTTER and COMMON pins in the diagram of Appendix 3) of its multi-purpose port to control the shutter release of a DSLR camera. Users may use a proper shutter release cable to connect the SynScan hand controller and a camera.

Any way hopefully it’s release will be soon, if you find any further details please feel free to let me know.

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

I was very lucky over Christmas as my Family all chipped in to purchase me a new Camera for my astrophotography.  I really wanted a Central DS CDS-600D camera and while I haven’t received it yet (these are a custom built unit to order so they take about 4 weeks to be completed) I am very excited to have it on it’s way here. This will be my first dedicated Astro camera so I am very hopeful this will lift my image quality to the next level.

While I could write up a hole blurb on these cameras, there is already a great deal of info on the web so will point you to those locations rather than repeat their details: Central DS, Cloudy Nights Review and some images taken with these cameras at AstroBin.

In a nutshell Central DS have 4 goals in mind with their designs and I think they have achieved all of these with the CDS-600D.

1. Good User Interface
2. Good Image Quality
3. Good Price
4. Good Design

While I have not used one of these cameras, I based my decision on wanting one from information in those sites above, relying on investigations on the web and of course a friend at Astrofest that purchased the CDS-1100D camera (she is very happy with hers). What I can say about my experience is that the purchasing process has been smooth and trouble free, I made the transaction via Credit Card/ Pay Pal and was promptly notified of my order, additionally Yun Lee has always responded to my email queries so all in all a good experience.

One thing I will comment on however is that when Ralph Laplanche was writing the Review at Cloudy Nights he states the High ISO Expansion is set to off by default, I had emailed Yun at Central DS to ensure this was enabled, he kindly replied that this is now standard in their build process for all new cameras.

Anyway enough blurb from me and some pictures, as soon as I get this and have a chance to point it at the stars I will let you know what I think.

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

While there is still no official release of details for the EQ8 from Sky Watcher, I found an article from http://www.deltasky.pl/ referencing some new details about the EQ8 that I found very interesting and thought I would share. While Google translate does an OK job of converting Polish to English it still left for a bit of interpretation so I hope I have these details correct. The photos listed below show what the final product may look like and some more details about the mechanics of the mount head.

All the specs stated so far by most distributors appear to be true such as the Worm diameter and carrying capacity however it does look like some details appear to have been omitted or where unknown. As an example it looks like the Declination axis has a precision stepper motor tied direct to the Worm Shaft (or Direct Drive as stated in some circles), however it looks like the RA Axis is not as direct drive as we have been lead to believe with what looks like a 1:1 belt drive system between the Stepper motor and the Worm shaft. IMHO I don’t see this being a major issue but found it interesting nonetheless.

Of favourable note was the mention of the machining quality of the mount, as I mentioned in a previous post, I think Synta have really started to get their game on when it comes to the construction of their mounts, as always the proof is in the pudding but I think they have a good recipe to bring to the table.

Another detail I found was the presence of a SNAP port, this looks to be a 2.5 or 3.5 mm jack and was indicated as being for use with a Canon camera for shutter release control, who knows if this will be on the final product that ships? but either way I think this shows some degree of innovation by Synta on their mounts.

These images also show the sheer size of the mount in comparison to a HEQ5, this really is one heavy duty mount and I think is on the border of “portable”, also the polar scope arrangement is shown. I find this a little unsightly but that’s just my opinion and I suspect this arrangement was chosen to maintain structural rigidity in the mount base and RA Axis rather than a central mounted polar scope.

Lastly you can see the quality of the tripod, this does look to be “Heavy Duty” and I am sure will hold anything you throw at it.

I would like to thank Delta from www.deltasky.pl for sharing his findings on the EQ8, I hope this has shed a little light on the shrouds of secrecy over the EQ8 and it’s proclaimed release in March 2013.

       

I hope you enjoyed the article and please feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers

Anthony

Hi Everyone,

Just in case you hadn’t noticed I have had a change of domain name from thegrimshaws.id.au to astrophotography.id.au, I felt this was a better reflection of the purpose of my site and reflects me and my hobby to a tee. I hope you continue to enjoy my posts and pictures.

As an aside I have recently purchased an Astronomik CLS CCD filter for my set up to help me combat the light pollution in Brisbane suburban backyard, as soon as this arrives I will do some tests and let you know what I think. From what I have seen I am very excited to have this on the way.

As always please feel free to leave a comment.

Cheers

Anthony

When I get a chance to drag myself away from work I sometime take the opportunity to visit a good friend who lives in Taromeo in the Blackbutt ranges to do some imaging of the night sky.

Living in South East QLD the warmer months tend to spell the end of our opportunities to do any quality imaging. Luckily however, the evening of the 13^th Oct 2012 proved to be one of the best evenings I have had the pleasure of imaging in. Seeing conditions had to be 9/10 and stayed that way for the whole night.

While I managed to get some great data on M31, M33 and the Rosette Nebula I was most pleased with my redo of the Horse Head Nebula. In late 2011 I had the chance to image the Horse Head and found it to be a real challenge when using a standard DSLR camera as the Hydrogen Alpha emissions are mostly blocked by the factory filters.

Not to shy away from a challenge I pointed my 90mm William Optics Megrez refractor and DSLR back over to the East and learning from last year’s experiences snapped away for many an hour gathering those faint photons.

All up I took:

• 15 * 300 Second Frames at ISO 800.
• 15 * 300 Second Dark Frames.
• 15 * Flat files
• 15 * Bias Frames

I took all of the above data and loaded it into Deep Sky Stacker for a final compiled image that was further processed in Photoshop. To be completely honest there was not much adjustment required to get the final product. I was very happy with the image and it shows that despite the challenges and frustrations sometimes experienced when things don’t work as I want, I have managed to see a significant improvement on my last attempt.

It goes to show you how much of a journey Astrophotography is and considering you can always go back and revisit an imaging target you have done before, you will never run out of things to take photos of.

I hope you enjoy.

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 »

Hi Everyone,

Some very exciting times ahead for Astrophotographers, for those that don’t know it was Sky Watcher (or Synta to be more precise) that brought us affordable mass produced astrophotography mounts with the release of the EQ5 and EQ6 Pro, forever changing the understanding of value for money mounts.

Well it seems they are poised to do it again and even better than before with their new range of mounts, the EQ6 Alt/Az mount and the eagerly awaited EQ8 mount.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Everyone,

As you know I attended the QLD Astrofest 2012 this year and managed to get some images. I did have some challenges with my mount as it was sticking a bit when tracking, this lead to many an hour of frustraions fixing, but I did in the end over come the problem.

While there are some more images to come below are some of the better ones I took. M20, M16, M33 and M31. M33 and M31 are new images for me and I am quite happy withthe result, I have redone M20 and M16 as these were taken through a GSO RC8 Carbon Fibre Telescope (Leant to me while at Astrofest) this is a much higher focal length scope than my William Optic Megrez 90 mm one (it was however a bit out in collimation).

Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Everyone,

As mentioned in a previous post I was asked to do some presentations for the Astrofest, these were well received by those that attended and thought I would post here if anyone wanted to review them.

Autoguiding – Beginners Guide To

Autoguiding – Deep Dive Into

I hope these are of benefit to you and help with your guiding endeavours.

Cheers

Anthony