elpajare
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Post by elpajare on Nov 14, 2019 10:49:00 GMT
The apochromatic 80 mm ED Doublet optical element from Lanthanum glass competes with professional telescopes. In contrast to other optical builds it doesn't require regular collimation.
The high-sensitivity Sony Exmor Starvis IMX178 sensor with 6 megapixel resolution (3096 x 2080) is the sensor of choice for many established manufacturers of astronomy cameras.
An integrated light pollution filter (CLS) enables the observation even from a city!
Sensors for temperature and humidity are in control of an anti-dew heating element that keeps your optics free from mist
It is still the combination between an apo refractor and an IMX178 C chip of fairly low sensitivity.
The miracle of his final images is the work of the post-production software he carries. It's just great, a wonder that transforms a gray photography without details into another full of color and detail !!
We will see what the "astronomical consumer" thinks of this
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Post by davy on Nov 14, 2019 21:20:03 GMT
Mixed emotions with this telescope system...do I like or hate it lol.
Do I like the concept,, yes definitely,, glass and camera.combo is good,, been a fan of the starvis sensor since it's launch,,no negative comments on this,, very sensitive ,so good choice from the development team.. 80mm scope and going by the approximate focal length it looks to be a fast scope.. Design shape practical,, but looks very light and a bit of a sail in any type of wind,, an r2d2 star wars droid shape would have been my desired shape if I designed it,, look like a mini observatory. Price wise,, way out of my league and many other astronomer's,, it is perhaps pointed towards a younger type who wants to show of his latest toy.. the initial start up costs to the company in design and development most likely made it too expensive for the more serious astronomer's who would prefer more adaptable kit. And I would be one of those,,but I like the concept and the software side ,, I would like to see how it would look if it gets to a mk2 or MK3 version,, Good on the developer for giving it a go,, deffo somebody I could talk to for hours 😁
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Post by Dragon Man on Nov 21, 2019 6:01:40 GMT
An excellent review video.
I'm impressed in the simplicity!
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elpajare
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Post by elpajare on Nov 21, 2019 8:11:11 GMT
A great software job that stacks photos and re-touches them to present a nice final product.
Automatic station setting, anti-pollution filter, system to prevent moisture, observable list of objects with descriptions, operation from cellphone, etc ...
But with its limitations of 80 mm lens diameter.
What has surprised me negatively is the stacking time needed to obtain a relatively acceptable image on objects such as Cocoon.
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Post by Dragon Man on Nov 21, 2019 13:04:00 GMT
A great software job that stacks photos and re-touches them to present a nice final product. Automatic station setting, anti-pollution filter, system to prevent moisture, observable list of objects with descriptions, operation from cellphone, etc ... But with its limitations of 80 mm lens diameter. What has surprised me negatively is the stacking time needed to obtain a relatively acceptable image on objects such as Cocoon. I also wonder if the Light Pollution filter is removable. I don't see how it could be. Not everyone observes in light pollution so those people in the dark will lose a percentage of light because of the filter.
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elpajare
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Post by elpajare on Nov 21, 2019 17:42:59 GMT
OK. Pollution filters (and all narrow multiband filters in general) remove light from the object we are photographing and as a result details are lost because we have an inability to increase the exposures to compensate for this defect since we would quickly exceed the maximum exposures we can do without guided.
The smaller and weaker the object the more details we will lose.
Stellina, with this kind of filter and with this small size of its lens, will serve only for large and bright objects, this will be its main limitation in my opinion.
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Post by howie1 on Nov 22, 2019 6:15:27 GMT
A great software job that stacks photos and re-touches them to present a nice final product. Automatic station setting, anti-pollution filter, system to prevent moisture, observable list of objects with descriptions, operation from cellphone, etc ... But with its limitations of 80 mm lens diameter. What has surprised me negatively is the stacking time needed to obtain a relatively acceptable image on objects such as Cocoon. Agree elpajare ... software done and able to be run by everyday smart-device users. Very well designed. Also the ease of use of the setup and how it is used is great too. But yes, only the bright stuff seems to be what it will get a good result with ... so all in all a lot of money (nearly $4,000 US dollars) for something which will only get you shots of a small number of objects ... and does not appear to be ungradeable to enable it to get more objects. But, it is a step in the right direction for the masses to get into. Hopefully others like ZWO will see the market and make it cheaper.
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Post by davy on Nov 22, 2019 17:53:29 GMT
Software side it sounds good,,. would be nice to see if an eq mount style could be done,, or get a asiair lol,
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elpajare
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Post by elpajare on Nov 22, 2019 18:45:49 GMT
There is a very interesting discussion in Cloudy Nights about the limits of what they call EAA.
They try to prohibit the post-processing, in fact they have done it, of any photograph published there.
It is fun to see how some users argue that all the images obtained with modern CMOS chips are more or less processed, capture programs such as Sharpcap have numerous options to modify them and Stellina goes a little further and gives processed images without doing almost anything. More Stellinas will come, and celestial object photography will become popular, I'm sure.
The future of astronomy is in the electronic.
And that seems to dislike old gurus of Astrophotography.
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Post by davy on Nov 22, 2019 21:10:40 GMT
As a follower of astronomy I think we have to use every piece of equipment that can enhance what we know and can capture,, years ago we used analogue cameras like the Samsung SCB series,, we removed the factory IR filter and either fitted in an astronomy one or not dependent on preference,, we wanted longer integration and we got it with the ln300,, did we feel special back then lol,, Along came the digital age and we still pushed for better,, first it was software for the new digital cameras ,, then it was cooling the cameras,, better pixels,, better QE,, the list will never end,, guys who have been about a while in the video astronomy realm know this.. This is a big reason why we at VAF let folk express themselves,, one person may have dark skies and inexpensive kit and produce great results,, others may have great set ups but poor skies and rely on software to pull out great images,, then a few who stay in Scotland with no luck 😂. We aren't here to put folk in pigeon holes and give them a label,, it's all about fun and building friendship on here and as long as you guys want it that way,, that's the way it will be.. Other forums can charge in and do what they want,, they have massive membership's compared to VAF ,, but each to there own,, great talented members on there forums,,give them that 😁
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elpajare
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Post by elpajare on Nov 22, 2019 23:00:06 GMT
I agree, everyone should think like that. This is a hobby and the good thing is to share experiences without putting draconian conditions.
Everyone has their system and it's nice to know different ways of doing things
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Post by howie1 on Nov 23, 2019 1:41:40 GMT
... They try to prohibit the post-processing, in fact they have done it, of any photograph published there. ... The future of astronomy is in the electronic. And that seems to dislike old gurus of Astrophotography. Yes, I posted on there how I got both DSS and Adobe Lightroom operating fully automatically together. So I was able to have the exact same experience doing VA as using Astrotoaster - automatically monitor for frames from the camera, stack them, and display them all automatically. But while they accepted posts and images about Astrotoaster, they said my fully automated DSS-Lightroom was post processing. I argued so hard that both my thread was taken down and I was also barred for a month. Yup there's some on there who really are limiting the progress of VA. It's why I love our forum here. Cheers to all
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Post by Deleted on Nov 23, 2019 9:34:44 GMT
There are astrophotographers and videoastronomers. There are no rules for astrophotography.There are no rules for videoastronomy but we all know who we are. There are a lot of enthusiastic imagers out there who are not EAA because they do some post processing but are clearly not astrophotographers.They are videoastronomers. EAA has become a subgroup of videoastronomy with strict rules .The growing numbers of videoastronomers who stack for more than 5 minutes and do some post processing dont appear to have anywhere to post on some forums. That is becoming a big problem for those forums. I feel very comfortable on this forum. cheers Paul
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Post by davy on Nov 23, 2019 13:40:02 GMT
Thanks guys it's good to get feedback and knowing we are being sensible about the way the forum operates,, shame other groups are clamping down on and trying to define ,, what is video astronomy,, what is eaa,, Years ago I reached out to a few forums and tried to get some uniformity for the video astronomy hobby,, but nobody was interested,, which was a shame,, a bit of stability and structure between forums would have been good for the hobby,, Gave up in that,, not enough folk willing to put the hobby before there forum,, so we do what we like however we like to do it,, always a place for like minded astronomer's here.
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Post by howie1 on Nov 24, 2019 22:40:18 GMT
Re Stellina and it's high price and apparent limitations in upgrading "bits", I went out with one of my astro clubs on the weekend. Tony, mate of mine whose AZ GTe with the Star Adventurer Alt polar wedge I posted long time ago, got great AP shot of Andromeda. But .... have a look at his comment ..... "Able to scavenge one image from last night at Watts Bridge. RC8 refused to cooperate with me so we're not on speaking terms at the moment. My portable ED72 + AZ GTe on the other hand is fantastic and I love it to bits." LOL ... So davy, once again those AZ GTe's are great bits of kit. And unlike Stellina, cheap and can be upgraded and able to hold lots of stuff. Everytime I see Tony's AZ GTe I think about selling kit and getting one. There's about three blokes I know who use them and love them.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2019 4:06:29 GMT
My portable ED72 + AZ GTe on the other hand is fantastic and I love it to bits." LOL ... So davy, once again those AZ GTe's are great bits of kit. And unlike Stellina, cheap and can be upgraded and able to hold lots of stuff. Everytime I see Tony's AZ GTe I think about selling kit and getting one. There's about three blokes I know who use them and love them. Howie, I havent got around to using the AZ-GTi much yet. I notice Tony used 30 sec exposures. Do you think I would need it to be in AZ-GTe mode to stack 30 secs or would alt/az mode be sufficient for this size scope ? cheers Paul
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Post by howie1 on Nov 25, 2019 7:54:34 GMT
Sorry Paul. I'm getting old-timers! Thought it was davy who had the AZ GTe. Kim does nothing but AP, so he is always in EQ mode. 30 secs in alt az would be quite possible with it in Alt Az mode in many areas of the sky. Not all areas as some areas of the sky you can barely go 2 secs before field rotation leaves streaks in the image. Other areas up to 50 seconds. But .... it all depends on the sensor size and pixel size and focal length and number of pixels acceptable to have streakiness in before you notice it. Sound too complex? Just use the tables below. The colored one is my DSLR with 600mm FL at lat 30 (close to my lat). NOTE that the blue areas are really only 50 secs max before field rotation. You cannot actually get 100+ secs is it indicates. It's just the maths yields that result. I put the table for 40 degrees for you to likewise color in like I did my table. Becomes easier to spot the sweet parts of the sky where you can get decent exp times. BUT, it is going to be starting points ONLY for you. IE Point your camera at some target where the table might say you can go 30 seconds and try 30 seconds in that area. If it looks streaky then cut exposure time back until it isn't. If you found 15 seconds is nice and sharp, then as its 50% of the value in the table, then cut all the seconds in the table by 50%. Away you go ... you have a working alt az max exp time for that scope and camera combination. Put a different camera and/or different OTA on and you will have to redo the table due to the different sensor, pixel size, FL, etc ... but still pretty easy to produce your own based on that test in a 30 sec area of the sky. And of course, if you find 30 secs is sharp, then go longer and maybe your combination of ED72 and whichever camera can get to 45 seconds. IE a 50% increase in exp time! Then your table would have every value increase by 50% and you'd have heaps of options to shoot alt az. My colored table - use just to see the colors to more easily pick where you can shoot longer - you dont have to do this it is just how i use it. Here's your starting exp times for latitude 40 (think thats close enough for your site)
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elpajare
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Post by elpajare on Nov 25, 2019 8:21:31 GMT
Thanks for these tables, they are very interesting
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2019 10:27:11 GMT
Thanks Howie. You have provided that table to me a few times before. I had it in my mind that smaller scopes somehow increased the allowed exposure times, but it is related to FL .Anyway, I need to try out both the EQ and the alt/az with this little system. I will add that to the list of things I have to do. cheers Paul
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Post by davy on Nov 25, 2019 10:49:26 GMT
Sorry Paul. I'm getting old-timers! Thought it was davy who had the AZ GTe. Kim does nothing but AP, so he is always in EQ mode. 30 secs in alt az would be quite possible with it in Alt Az mode in many areas of the sky. Not all areas as some areas of the sky you can barely go 2 secs before field rotation leaves streaks in the image. Other areas up to 50 seconds. But .... it all depends on the sensor size and pixel size and focal length and number of pixels acceptable to have streakiness in before you notice it. Sound too complex? Just use the tables below. The colored one is my DSLR with 600mm FL at lat 30 (close to my lat). NOTE that the blue areas are really only 50 secs max before field rotation. You cannot actually get 100+ secs is it indicates. It's just the maths yields that result. I put the table for 40 degrees for you to likewise color in like I did my table. Becomes easier to spot the sweet parts of the sky where you can get decent exp times. BUT, it is going to be starting points ONLY for you. IE Point your camera at some target where the table might say you can go 30 seconds and try 30 seconds in that area. If it looks streaky then cut exposure time back until it isn't. If you found 15 seconds is nice and sharp, then as its 50% of the value in the table, then cut all the seconds in the table by 50%. Away you go ... you have a working alt az max exp time for that scope and camera combination. Put a different camera and/or different OTA on and you will have to redo the table due to the different sensor, pixel size, FL, etc ... but still pretty easy to produce your own based on that test in a 30 sec area of the sky. And of course, if you find 30 secs is sharp, then go longer and maybe your combination of ED72 and whichever camera can get to 45 seconds. IE a 50% increase in exp time! Then your table would have every value increase by 50% and you'd have heaps of options to shoot alt az. My colored table - use just to see the colors to more easily pick where you can shoot longer - you dont have to do this it is just how i use it. Here's your starting exp times for latitude 40 (think thats close enough for your site) Yip I have the az-gti and star adventurer
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