Posts Made By: Walter Wozniak

Greetings all. I am currently getting started with CCD Astrophotography. I am awaiting the arrival of my Meade Pro Monochrome and filters. I currently have a Nexstar 8i that I am trying to get a wedge for. Wouldn't you know it, I sold my C8 Deluxe here on Astromart about 6 months ago before deciding this. So I am looking again for a similar scope as I am sure that my 8i will not be adequate for deep sky imaging. I know a Deluxe would be nice. What about a Ultima 8 or Ultima 2000 or the Powerstar 8 PEC? I am not familiar with the Meade line. Is the LX200 series good for astrophotography? Are there any I should avoid? Thank you.
Walter

Hello all,

Well, I just received an Orion 80mm f/7.5 ED Refractor (#9895 optical tube assembly). Everything I read about it online referred to it as an apochromatic. However, the instruction manual for it refers to it as an achromatic. Which is it? I went back a reread most of the articles looking to see if perhaps they said "APO-like", which I've seen elsewhere, but they say APO. Of course the skies are overcast and it is snowing, supposedly all night. Can anyone ease my mind as I can't see for myself right at the moment Walter

The focal length of your new C8 is 2032 mm. The math is the same as your TV 102.

Walter

Hello Mike,

I have an 8i so I do not have the Sky Align. I do the 2-star alignment and it works fairly well. I generally can get the objects into a 25 mm eyepiece. Here are some things I found elsewhere on the 2-star alignment and have been practicing with good success.


First, in the Setup menu on the controller, set the final GOTO approach directions as positive for both Alt and Az. I believe these are the factory pre-sets.

Next, leveling the tripod with a bubble level made a large difference. I use a small level on top of the base. fairly accurate north helps too. I use a compass and have used Polaris with the hand controller.

Then, When finding index position for level, be sure that the final approach direction is UP.

When sighting the alignment stars, I set the focus way off so star is a large disk with a blacked out center. This makes centering easy.

Also, and VERY important, at least on my 8i, is the that final approach direction to the alignment star is with the DOWN and RIGHT buttons. My Meade ETX has backlash adjustment in the software, but my 8i does not.

Before I started doing these things during alignment, I too had trouble. Good luck.

Hello all,

I really appreciate the time everyone is taking to reply. It is fantastic to have all this knowledge and experience available and great people willing to share it.

I missed an opportunity on eBay on a complete setup with Orion ED80 on a ASGT mount (The setup I have been looking into) Went for a grand. I also almost bought a Celestron CN-8 on the same mount from another source. As I mentioned in another post in this thread, I've seen some very nice shots with the CN-8 setup on someones astrophotgraphy website. Maybe it is a good thing these fell through.

What about spending the money on something like a G-11 and mounting the OTA from my C8i and then saving up later for a better scope? I know there is mirror flop, but I've seen micro focusers that can be attached to the base of the SCT to help avoid this.

What about the exposure times required for a 80mm f/7 APO vs those for an 8" f/5 newt? Wouldn't they be significantly less allowing for much shorter exposures and thus not requiring such a stout mount? I know coma is problem with newts, but those shots look pretty nice.

There sure are a lot of variables and combinations, aren't there?!!

Thanks again for some great discussion.

Walter

I wonder if Bush will exceed Clinton's 30,000 pages of executive orders that he passed in his last 90 days. He is the record holder so far.