Post by davy on Apr 9, 2017 11:31:15 GMT
The astronomy kit of a dopey astronomer and how I went about getting it and why.
First up,
I'm just a mechanic in a garage and didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth,, grew up with my dad claiming benefits and I'm the oldest of three children,so money was tight,, but my gran and uncles helped keep a roof over your head and food on the table.
Inspiration.. uncle john,, scopemobile
So 2011 i joined sgl after looking for a hobby that I could do from home and I could learn and master in a couple of years,, think astronomy fits the bill,,can study it a lifetime and still know nothing.
So I like technology and computers and being as green as grass , I thought can you get computer telescope. And found a cheap meade etx80,, £125 picked it up in Glasgow,, and when I got it working and the goto ect,, I was hooked,,
Sat looking at the moon for hours and like most tried to explain to Carol the views,, totally uninterested lol.
Next up can you put a camera on it,, bought one of rigs that attaches to a eyepiece and let's you do projection imaging.
Then found out about video astronomy due to the weather being crap and getting bad image,, so I found out in the sgl video section you could get a Philips webcam and take live video,, and thought this is more what I want.
So we have an etx80 and a Philips spc9000 but,, was getting bored looking at the moon view a month in,,
I needed more aperture,, aperture fever time,,
But I'm on skint budget,, hadn't long split up from x wife and she showed me the way to be humble and destitute,, and still have to pay money for my daughter so it just a case of save what I could and get the best you can afford,, AND IT'S STILL MY VIEW..
Found a knock off copy of a Skywatcher Newtonian 8" on a eq mount, guy wanted £150 but I hadn't heard of the scope make before so I got it for £90
Found it was an eq3 type mount, back to the drawing board,, great views of the moon and the webcam was working well,, but manual tracking was murder,,
Carol was into photography and we bought similar bridge cameras but I always craved a canon DSLR,,
S o I saved again and got a second hand 400d,, bought a t,ring and stuck it on the newt,, and got some nice moon images,, of course I had to try it on the etx80, lol far too heavy,,
So next up was look for a cheap tracking mount,,
The allview was an option but all the guru's said eq was the way to go,, finally got the cash together and bought one,, eq3 pro
Rigged up the newt to it and done all the stuff going by posts on sgl,, had to keep tripod legs down and add extra weight to balance the scope and to put load on drive gear.
All going great and loving it,,was enjoying astrophotography and was doing ok, the wee etx went to back of cupboard now lol,,
Getting a bit of cash flow back and decided that I wanted a refractor, I always liked the look of Skywatcher and decided on the star travel 102mm,, bought it and ,, it all went to pot could not focus with the DSLR and the webcam wasn't my first option,,
I was just a reader of post on sgl and it scared the bejesus out of me to post up a problem,,was scared I'd get techno babel or laughed out the forum,but I found references about a book that was regarded as the Bible,, and most folk were getting pointed in it's direction..so I bought it as Christmas present to myself,,two book's came,, I thought,, won a watch here,lol,, anyway gets an email from the author saying a mixup In delivery and if he sends up packaging ect could I post it on,, due to the mail being a disaster it never arrived but me and Steve got chatting and he helped me out with my problems and became friends,, so I was doing astrophotography now but long exposure stuff due to weather and my DSLR not having live view seriously hinders progress..
Time to explore video again.
The Samsung scb2000 was getting popular and after jumping in and buying a cheap CCTV watec camera with no sense up, that was useless, it was time to really research all info on this,,was looking at stuff on cloudy nights as well by now,, and did I research.. was looking at every camera available and grew a pair and started asking questions on sgl video section,, got a few answers but it wasa ghost site at the time..
Got the sammy cheap ,done the ir filter mod,looked into the cooling of them,, done my first mod , simple fan on casing and it worked but peltier was the in thing and I gave it a go and blew a few up,
Decided on fitting a fan on the back of sensor but nobody else had tried this..
My research ..
Found in my many experiments that blowing air on the sensor wasn't as effective as looking the hot air away from sensor,,this is how I ended up with the four fan scb2000 , so I now was ahead of the game and my constant search for better brought me to the Phil dyer camera double the integration of the Samsung going up to 1024 nearly 20 seconds in pal format,,
Now I reality I should have done a fan mod on this camera as it was very underated ,,the ln300 came out 1024 sense up and half the size of the pd1..
The birth of the revolution imager kit lol.
I never jumped on board with this camera,, I had not long set up VAF and was dedicated to get this up and running,, so as I built up this forum I had and have to keep up with as much as I can va wise,,
So I was an eBay sniper,, buying equipment that I could use to cross between va and astrophotography, I could see a lot of similarities in things and could see them getting very close and now , in my opinion it all comes under imaging but with sub groups.. never been a fan of eaa but that's a personal thing,,
So equipment wise ,, picked up a Samsung dome camera with same spec as the scb200, a Samsung scb2001, a watec 902h, still a top mono camera for it's age due to its very good sensor.
Flip mirror, off axis guider,more laptops,
Ed80 and about year later the matching focal reducer..
Heq5 and hitecastro usb cable for eqmod, Skywatcher electric focuser,and now the hitecastro dC controller,. Camera wise I bought the qhy5lii impulse buy,, wasn't worth the money 😂
So upgraded my dslr,, from a 400 to a a450 then to two 600d and now a modded 450d,,
Added a dual scope saddle to the heq5 and the pier extension,, and a Skywatcher explorer 200pds, using byeos and astrotoaster,, the more kit the more problems😂,, all too heavy to cart up four flights of stairs,, so the Skywatcher allview has done more this season..but as usual I have idea's to sort my problems
Camera wise DSLR is making a comeback due to software advancement but look at all the fit mods getting made to the likes of zwo,, can see fit coming back in again as manufacturers try and keep prices inflated on the latest cameras.
First up,
I'm just a mechanic in a garage and didn't grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth,, grew up with my dad claiming benefits and I'm the oldest of three children,so money was tight,, but my gran and uncles helped keep a roof over your head and food on the table.
Inspiration.. uncle john,, scopemobile
So 2011 i joined sgl after looking for a hobby that I could do from home and I could learn and master in a couple of years,, think astronomy fits the bill,,can study it a lifetime and still know nothing.
So I like technology and computers and being as green as grass , I thought can you get computer telescope. And found a cheap meade etx80,, £125 picked it up in Glasgow,, and when I got it working and the goto ect,, I was hooked,,
Sat looking at the moon for hours and like most tried to explain to Carol the views,, totally uninterested lol.
Next up can you put a camera on it,, bought one of rigs that attaches to a eyepiece and let's you do projection imaging.
Then found out about video astronomy due to the weather being crap and getting bad image,, so I found out in the sgl video section you could get a Philips webcam and take live video,, and thought this is more what I want.
So we have an etx80 and a Philips spc9000 but,, was getting bored looking at the moon view a month in,,
I needed more aperture,, aperture fever time,,
But I'm on skint budget,, hadn't long split up from x wife and she showed me the way to be humble and destitute,, and still have to pay money for my daughter so it just a case of save what I could and get the best you can afford,, AND IT'S STILL MY VIEW..
Found a knock off copy of a Skywatcher Newtonian 8" on a eq mount, guy wanted £150 but I hadn't heard of the scope make before so I got it for £90
Found it was an eq3 type mount, back to the drawing board,, great views of the moon and the webcam was working well,, but manual tracking was murder,,
Carol was into photography and we bought similar bridge cameras but I always craved a canon DSLR,,
S o I saved again and got a second hand 400d,, bought a t,ring and stuck it on the newt,, and got some nice moon images,, of course I had to try it on the etx80, lol far too heavy,,
So next up was look for a cheap tracking mount,,
The allview was an option but all the guru's said eq was the way to go,, finally got the cash together and bought one,, eq3 pro
Rigged up the newt to it and done all the stuff going by posts on sgl,, had to keep tripod legs down and add extra weight to balance the scope and to put load on drive gear.
All going great and loving it,,was enjoying astrophotography and was doing ok, the wee etx went to back of cupboard now lol,,
Getting a bit of cash flow back and decided that I wanted a refractor, I always liked the look of Skywatcher and decided on the star travel 102mm,, bought it and ,, it all went to pot could not focus with the DSLR and the webcam wasn't my first option,,
I was just a reader of post on sgl and it scared the bejesus out of me to post up a problem,,was scared I'd get techno babel or laughed out the forum,but I found references about a book that was regarded as the Bible,, and most folk were getting pointed in it's direction..so I bought it as Christmas present to myself,,two book's came,, I thought,, won a watch here,lol,, anyway gets an email from the author saying a mixup In delivery and if he sends up packaging ect could I post it on,, due to the mail being a disaster it never arrived but me and Steve got chatting and he helped me out with my problems and became friends,, so I was doing astrophotography now but long exposure stuff due to weather and my DSLR not having live view seriously hinders progress..
Time to explore video again.
The Samsung scb2000 was getting popular and after jumping in and buying a cheap CCTV watec camera with no sense up, that was useless, it was time to really research all info on this,,was looking at stuff on cloudy nights as well by now,, and did I research.. was looking at every camera available and grew a pair and started asking questions on sgl video section,, got a few answers but it wasa ghost site at the time..
Got the sammy cheap ,done the ir filter mod,looked into the cooling of them,, done my first mod , simple fan on casing and it worked but peltier was the in thing and I gave it a go and blew a few up,
Decided on fitting a fan on the back of sensor but nobody else had tried this..
My research ..
Found in my many experiments that blowing air on the sensor wasn't as effective as looking the hot air away from sensor,,this is how I ended up with the four fan scb2000 , so I now was ahead of the game and my constant search for better brought me to the Phil dyer camera double the integration of the Samsung going up to 1024 nearly 20 seconds in pal format,,
Now I reality I should have done a fan mod on this camera as it was very underated ,,the ln300 came out 1024 sense up and half the size of the pd1..
The birth of the revolution imager kit lol.
I never jumped on board with this camera,, I had not long set up VAF and was dedicated to get this up and running,, so as I built up this forum I had and have to keep up with as much as I can va wise,,
So I was an eBay sniper,, buying equipment that I could use to cross between va and astrophotography, I could see a lot of similarities in things and could see them getting very close and now , in my opinion it all comes under imaging but with sub groups.. never been a fan of eaa but that's a personal thing,,
So equipment wise ,, picked up a Samsung dome camera with same spec as the scb200, a Samsung scb2001, a watec 902h, still a top mono camera for it's age due to its very good sensor.
Flip mirror, off axis guider,more laptops,
Ed80 and about year later the matching focal reducer..
Heq5 and hitecastro usb cable for eqmod, Skywatcher electric focuser,and now the hitecastro dC controller,. Camera wise I bought the qhy5lii impulse buy,, wasn't worth the money 😂
So upgraded my dslr,, from a 400 to a a450 then to two 600d and now a modded 450d,,
Added a dual scope saddle to the heq5 and the pier extension,, and a Skywatcher explorer 200pds, using byeos and astrotoaster,, the more kit the more problems😂,, all too heavy to cart up four flights of stairs,, so the Skywatcher allview has done more this season..but as usual I have idea's to sort my problems
Camera wise DSLR is making a comeback due to software advancement but look at all the fit mods getting made to the likes of zwo,, can see fit coming back in again as manufacturers try and keep prices inflated on the latest cameras.