1st Stack of Orion's Nebula

DannyLewis · Dec 24, 2012

You have the right idea. How many people have an observatory on top of their house!

Patrice · Dec 24, 2012

A home observatory is in the cards for me next year. For the purposes of deep sky astrophotography it is best to isolate the mount from the rest of the structure. At high magnification even someone opening the fridge door will induce movement which will smear your image. My observatory is planned as a roll off roof structure on top of a detached garage. My mount, an EQ-6 Pro and auto-guider, will be isolated from the structure on a chimney block pier rising up from the bedrock under the garage.

Although the catadioptric scopes are nice their long focal length means that extra careful attention must be paid to your mount's tracking abilities and the stability of its support. I use an 80 mm f5 refractor, a 152 mm f6.5 refractor, a 150 mm f10 SCT and a 180 mm f15 MCT. Different tools for different jobs.

Below is one of my scopes cooling prior to an evening of splitting close doubles.

Patrice · Dec 24, 2012

TheFantasticG said:
The astronomy hobby isn't mine. I bought the C8-SGT for my wife. Star gazing is her hobby.

She would absolutely adore you if you got her a 5 inch apochromatic triplet for her birthday. Her mount would handle it no problem.

TheFantasticG · Dec 24, 2012

That's a pretty sweet setup. I've run into the problem with the tracking. My wife is stubborn. I've read plenty of places and been told by people who use the same gear she has for astrophotography (main use) that the alignments (polar, polaris, drift, balance) are critical. All them have to be precise (in the full meaning of the word). Well, my wife is arguing that she is doing everything right... which if she was I could get a 30" exposure with no trails... but I'm not. She refuses to acknowledge she might not be doing something exactly right. So much so she has convinced herself that the gears or tracking motor is messed up [insert facepalm here]. I even proved it when I made her take an additional hour aligning the tripod and balancing the scope. Bam. I was able to get 20-25" exposures with very very little trails (almost barely noticeable). Even when she called Celestron they kept telling her that her polar alignment is off, that it isn't precise enough.

When you say 5"APO Trpilet you mean this? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/830051-REG ?? She would kill me if I spent that much. She just about had a heart attack I bought the C8-SGT as it was a surprise.

Edsport · Dec 25, 2012

My polar alignment is so precise i can get about 5 mins of exposure without tracking. What i did to polar align was point my camera to a star (2 stars, 1 at a time. google polar alignment and it'll explain) and watch it on my computer screen and see if it drifts from a point i have marked on my screen, if it drifted then i adjusted the polar alignment, i kept doing this until the star didn't move from the mark for about 5 mins. Took me several nights to get it dead on. I have a permanent pier so now i don't have to align it everytime i use my scope, it's ready to go... Precision Polar Alignment

TheFantasticG · Dec 25, 2012

Wow. Thanks for the link. Just emailed it to her.

Aloicious · Dec 25, 2012

beautiful! DSO's are HARD to shoot. I've had tracking issues with my setup for a little while too, I've just been working too much to get out and fix the issues.

Patrice · Dec 25, 2012

That link you posted to the Mead APO at B&H shows the scope and mount combined. The bulk of that $10k is for the mount and not the scope. She already has a mount, all she needs is a scope. Putting away about $200 a month would get her this:

Explore Scientific - 127mm f/7.5 Air-Spaced Triplet ED Apochromatic Refractor: TED0806-00

Certainly not in the class of Takahashi or Astro Physics but in terms of optics it does not play second fiddle to anybody. Skywatcher also has a similar product as does Mead and maybe Celestron.

The jump to 6 inch triplets though is a big one from $2k!

TheFantasticG · Dec 25, 2012

She's pretty heart set on SCTs. Be different if I was buying it for me... In which case we would need two mounts because if its clear enough for pics, its clear enough for her.

Edsport · Dec 27, 2012

SCTs need a wedge or permanent pier to do long exposure, not sure if you know this. A tripod is only good for short exposures...

TheFantasticG · Dec 27, 2012

I assume you mean this?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/726918-REG

As I understand it that's for a non-GEM mount or am I mistaken? The CG-5 (which is a GEM) that the C8-SGT is on has those adjustments you can make with the wedge. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Edit: after some more googling the pages I'm finding are people using them with celestron cpc telescopes.

Edsport · Dec 29, 2012

If the scope don't have an equatorial mount then it needs a wedge if you want to do very long exposures...

TheFantasticG · Dec 29, 2012

CG-5 Motorized Equatorial Telescope Mount with Tripod

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/285506-REG

That's the mount my Wife has for her scope so we are in the clear.

Edsport · Dec 30, 2012

She don't need a wedge with that mount. Here's a video that shows how to do a quick polar alignment...

TheFantasticG · Jan 2, 2013

Thanks for the link, but she'll not watch it. She just needs to do a lot more precise alignment on All Star Alignment feature that the Celestron GoTo offers. Turns out that has a drift alignment built into it.