Posts Made By: Don Joski

In case you don't know what I mean when I say "a bit of a trail", I submit exhibit B. 100% crop of M44.

And finally, this is to show that the 102ed is fine, it's the mount that is my problem. 100% crop of Saturn taken with eyepiece projection - 9.6 swa & xt.

It's beautiful.

The photo pretty much sums up astronomy for me.

I like it.

No, the Vixen 114SS ED f/5.3 apo. It is a few years old but never sold.

I am ordering the mount and ota. I plan to give some feedback concerning the mount's ability to take a 5 minute manually guided exposure. I will be tandem mounting the sphinx with the 114ed and an astro tech 66mm ed with little refractor as guide scope and using the ga-4 guiding adapter. The plan is just crazy enough to work. I'll post results in a few weeks. I've searched info about the sphinx and have found various opinions. The yahoo sphinx group seems to be all over the place regarding the mount whether it be software update issues or autoguider issues or issues in general. I have recieved an email from a guy who has used the mount for astrophoto work and he was very satisfied with the mount, in particular the periodic error. I'm sort of copying his idea of tandem mounting versus piggyback mounting the guide scope because of manual guiding and not wanting to bump the mount while observing. I just want to take one good astro image prior to my exiting this illusion, just one. That's not too much to ask. Maybe if I get real tired and stay up too late again I'll write a review, just kidding.

That is a very impressive photo indeed. I love the four point stars. What white balance setting do you prefer and the metering. I've started shooting a few 30 second images and find I jump around between settings. I generally shoot with the sunlight white balance and average metering with an XT. I do enjoy learning from others if you don't mind.