Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

I like (liked) my Nightscpe...it's still being repaired. Keep,in find that I have it on a f2.2 astrograph, so I have not had the need for long exposures. The software works really well, allows you to take, all calibrations and then will stack and stretch. All features in AstroFX are optional, so if you like doing you processing somewhere else, you still can. Although, I was just learning and was not tracking, you have seen a few examples from me.

I think you will be happy, especially with the price.

Craig, let me know if you have any questions, that i MAY be able to answer. Enjoy, and when do you receive it, hopefully you didn't summon the rain gods.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

If he does, I hope they stay North of us... :lol:
Craig and JimH can deal with it. :hunf:

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Thank you everyone for all the great information.
Darn it Europa, I take delivery on Tues and the rains are going to start Thur.
Sorry Sonny, Jim H. Look-out Jim and all points East
Craig

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

No worries Craig.
We do need the rain.
Without it, how are we going to have Brush Fire Season? :lol:

I didn't mention my two month futile sojourn with two different Off-Axis Guiders in an attempt to use them with my refractor.
Once I gave in to what everybody else uses, two different telescopes mounted together, Autoguiding became a reality for me.
SCT's are a different animal, and Off-Axis was made for them.
Still, I would implore you try your current guiding system first mounted to where the eyepiece guide scope is hung.

And try your alignment with PHD when you are satisfied that the two scopes are aimed relatively close to each other.
I was warned that keeping the guide scope, and the MOT, aimed together would be near impossible.
And I can fully understand the warning, IF I was to unclamp the guide scope. But I don't.
So, so far, it has been working amazingly well to do my Alignments and my Polar Alignments, with the PHD image on-screen. Which to me makes remote operation very plausible.
All through WiFi between the two computers. "Look Ma, no wires!" ;) :thumbup:

Europa Loc: West Hills, CA

BUT...will your wifi from your house work when your setup is out camping?

nikonshooter Loc: Spartanburg, South Carolina

I did get the Baader MPCC Mark III....I think you suggested it and I am very pleased. The THIN OAG is awesome by Orion and together with the CC...there is plenty of focus room with a DSLR and I assume so with my CCD camera though I have't tried it yet. Orion told me i would not have an issue.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Orion supplied you with two adapters for 2" lens. One is very short and I use this with my DSLR and with the Atik Infinity. The other is longer and I use it with eyepieces.

I do have to keep a stool nearby to stand on when I align so I can see into that eyepiece when the scope it pointed in certain directions.

I am using a 48mm T adapter on the camera and a 48mm diameter spacer to the 2" Baader coma corrector. (I have the exact same model). There is a recommended distance from camera sensor to the coma corrector lens which I worked to maintain. And I did see vignetting using the 42mm T-adapter.

I am wondering about getting the Hyperstar adapter for my 9 1/4" SCT scope. Takes that 2350mm f10 and turns it into 540mm f2.3. Perhaps my last splurge before retiring! When I do the math, the 9.25" scope delivers about 1.4x more light. And f2.3 to f3.9 is close to 1.5 stops. And it is with a bit wider FOV (540mm vs 800mm). Would be good for nebula. Not so good for galaxies.

One last point on the Orion Astrograph. I got tired of that piece that mounts under the dovetail bar. It has slots to accept the tightening screws, but doesn't give you freedom to slide the scope forward or backward for balancing. I took it off recently. Now I can balance the scope.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

No, because WiFi is limited in distance.

BUT, think about this...
If I allowed you access through the web to my computers, and WiFi, you could control my equipment. ;)
Just like I control it from my home office via WiFi.
You would access my home office computer (Log on), then have access to my laptop via my WiFi.

The same as folks buy time on remote access observatories....

I'm not interested in folks operating my equipment for hire. But, I would be interested in experimenting with granting access to some close friends to see if I could make it work, someday.

I came to a Peace about the Internet long, long ago. That it is a place to freely give and take knowledge from.
So I published my writing on, at one time, 6 web service providers (free ones). I had my own little web sites I authored and published, and I had my little meters that shown me they were being accessed, and from where.
That was in the early 1990's, the Internet was very new. And it was before Al Gore claimed it. :roll:

But the point is, and remains so, that I can remotely operate, align, and check my polar alignment, of my little personal Sleepy Dog Observatory ( :lol: ) And if I can, so can anybody else. ;)
You could set up, then retire to the comfort of being inside out of the cold, nearer the hot chocolate, and image your night away. (I do)
Or even do like I did one night on the Comet Catalina, leave the equipment run, collecting images, and gone to bed. :shock:
Then the next day I processed them into a video with Stellarium, and made a web video with Microsoft Movie Maker that Jim in Albaturkey told me about.

Out at a remote site, I just set up like in the back yard here, but no office computer. Either braving the cold, or retreating to the truck cab with the engine idling for the heater. :lol:
For the Perseid Meteor Showers I just set my DSLR up and let the Intervalometer run it from nightfall to after the dawn.
I said a little prayer that no Bears, Coyotes, or two legged varmints would find it while I snored the night away.
And while we (my dog alerted to a Coyote passing the tent) listened to a coyote about 4 AM walking by, nothing disturbed the camera rhythmically ticking away outside.

I'm all about EAA. I really like dabbling with my computers and digital toys. And while the Dob Boyz yak about how many targets they observed, us imager's bring home the proof of our travels. ;)

CraigFair Loc: Santa Maria, CA.

Hey Jim H, I too am looking seriously at the HyperStar setup for the Wide FOV objects like Andromeda, Orion and the Pleiades.
Reducing the f/stop from f/10 to f/2.3 is very appealing for picking up some of the really faint DSO's too.
It should cut way down on the Noise issue as well.
Craig

Albuqshutterbug Loc: Albuquerque NM

And this is the only reason I don't have a Dob.
I am an imager not a watcher. I want the image that I work so hard to see and place to save it in other than my poorly organized mind.

Amen Sonny.
:thumbup: :thumbup:

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Amen to that Jim. And you are a great imager at that, I will add.
A lot of what I want to see requires me to image it.
If I stared at it for 30 minutes, I'd have to go see the eye doctor for dry eyes..... :-o
http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/archive/2010/04/1_123125_2249553_2249558_2249559_4_eyestrain.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg

May be another part of why I got banned from a predominantly Dob forum. I don't do well with BS. Anybody could post a list of things and say they saw them... ;)