I was sitting watching your first attempt at alignment and caught your issue straight away. You said you were in April (18th?) and yet you punched in "No" for daylight savings. That was the problem. It was brutal watching this video while entertaining because I'm sure, like me, we've all been there. I decided early on I needed a permanent set up so built an "observatory" (read 'small shed') and built a "Todmorden pier/pillar" using concrete blocks. Rarely need to do polar alignment or 3 star alignment now and as you demonstrated, that can take up 30 mins of your time. Now it's 5 mins and I'm capturing. No guiding and I still get great photos using a DSLR or an OSC (SVBony 705C). Lose very little subs unless weather gets in the way. I have an EQ5 Pro. I assume little difference except weight capacity. I swap between a 70mm SV505 ED refractor, 120mm StarTravel refractor and a Meade LX90 OTA.
thanks for the vid! great to see the process complete with frustrations and second attempts - well done. As a beginner looking to get a mount similar to this it was extremely useful to learn from your approach and techniques, and see that it will require a bit of trial and error and perseverance.
Just got a set up similar to this a couple months ago - and so happy I'm not the only one that has to try over and over to get the alignment to complete. Also, trees seem to be the bane of my astronomy existence :)
It can be a little troublesome but it's not only this telescope that can be difficult. Some are just downright "rude" to work with. Lol trees here do help with keeping some light pollution from hitting us a bit, so there is a small tradeoff.
If you have this balanced with an eyepiece then align the SynScan, can you switch the eyepiece for a camera and rebalance WITHOUT losing the alignment of the SynScan? Or would I need to do the three star align again with the camera in place?
Unfortunately this scope doesn't have encoders that track the systems movements in case of it moving without the computer. So if you rebalance and move the scope at all, you'll have to realign it. What you could do is balance it with the camera on, switch to the eyepiece and try the alignment, the change back. It should work as long as your camera is crazy heavy compared to the eyepiece.
Hello, do you think there is a chance to take some planet photos with this setup? I mean after adding main camera, guiding scope, guiding camera, will this mount handle it? Thanks for the video!
Oh, weight-wise, you should be fine as long as your other components arent too large. For planets, you shouldnt need a guiding camera as you wont need to do long exposures.
@@southphysicsobservatory6336 Right, i was also thinking about trying focal reducer for some DS. Thanks for you response. Asked because i need something portable and found your channel right on time :)
@@remigiuszstras2133 cool! Focal reducers work fine but make sure you get the spacing right and that your chip isnt too large. Otherwise you'll get extra distortion or bad vignetting.
You got it. The laser is for a rough alignment and looking through the polarscope gets you the rest of the way. There's one more fine adjustment that'll get you super close for astrophotography... Drift alignment. But if you can get within a few arcminutes with the polar scope, you're good. You can also try dojng a three star alignment which will tell you the pointing error, then you can adjust from that too.
No, I found it was adequate for my use. I'll put it on my list for upcoming videos. Sometimes it takes a few rounds to get things just right so give it a try again. You may want to use the method in the manual but instead of some far off thing to align it with, use a laser on a distant wall. That'll be an easier reference point for when you're moving things around.
Hi Tom, those definitely weren't take with a phone. They were taken with our 32" research scope. Good news is you can still take really good quality images with telescopes at this level. They just wont be as zoomed in. I do plan on some astrophotography videos with these scopes so people can have a good idea of what to expect through theirs.
@@southphysicsobservatory6336 That makes sense. You took a few pictures with your phone throughout the video, then at the end you showed the really nice pictures. I was like, there's no way in hell that came from a phone... :)
I was sitting watching your first attempt at alignment and caught your issue straight away. You said you were in April (18th?) and yet you punched in "No" for daylight savings. That was the problem. It was brutal watching this video while entertaining because I'm sure, like me, we've all been there. I decided early on I needed a permanent set up so built an "observatory" (read 'small shed') and built a "Todmorden pier/pillar" using concrete blocks. Rarely need to do polar alignment or 3 star alignment now and as you demonstrated, that can take up 30 mins of your time. Now it's 5 mins and I'm capturing. No guiding and I still get great photos using a DSLR or an OSC (SVBony 705C). Lose very little subs unless weather gets in the way. I have an EQ5 Pro. I assume little difference except weight capacity. I swap between a 70mm SV505 ED refractor, 120mm StarTravel refractor and a Meade LX90 OTA.
thanks for the vid! great to see the process complete with frustrations and second attempts - well done. As a beginner looking to get a mount similar to this it was extremely useful to learn from your approach and techniques, and see that it will require a bit of trial and error and perseverance.
Thank you, just got the EQM35, helps allot.
Just got a set up similar to this a couple months ago - and so happy I'm not the only one that has to try over and over to get the alignment to complete. Also, trees seem to be the bane of my astronomy existence :)
It can be a little troublesome but it's not only this telescope that can be difficult. Some are just downright "rude" to work with. Lol trees here do help with keeping some light pollution from hitting us a bit, so there is a small tradeoff.
If you have this balanced with an eyepiece then align the SynScan, can you switch the eyepiece for a camera and rebalance WITHOUT losing the alignment of the SynScan? Or would I need to do the three star align again with the camera in place?
Unfortunately this scope doesn't have encoders that track the systems movements in case of it moving without the computer. So if you rebalance and move the scope at all, you'll have to realign it. What you could do is balance it with the camera on, switch to the eyepiece and try the alignment, the change back. It should work as long as your camera is crazy heavy compared to the eyepiece.
Haha that intro music scared the living crap outta me. Nice!
You said time zone - 7 the first time you did setup I believe
Hello, do you think there is a chance to take some planet photos with this setup? I mean after adding main camera, guiding scope, guiding camera, will this mount handle it? Thanks for the video!
Yep! You may need a barlow for some extra focal length though.
Oh, weight-wise, you should be fine as long as your other components arent too large. For planets, you shouldnt need a guiding camera as you wont need to do long exposures.
@@southphysicsobservatory6336 Right, i was also thinking about trying focal reducer for some DS. Thanks for you response. Asked because i need something portable and found your channel right on time :)
@@remigiuszstras2133 cool! Focal reducers work fine but make sure you get the spacing right and that your chip isnt too large. Otherwise you'll get extra distortion or bad vignetting.
@@southphysicsobservatory6336 Ah, good point! Thanks! Looking forward to see more videos :)
Is that Venus at the center top of the video towards the end? It looks huge and bright.
I believe it is!
I've been lining up Polaris by moving the mount + laser to get close then the polarscope. Is this incorrect?
You got it. The laser is for a rough alignment and looking through the polarscope gets you the rest of the way. There's one more fine adjustment that'll get you super close for astrophotography... Drift alignment. But if you can get within a few arcminutes with the polar scope, you're good. You can also try dojng a three star alignment which will tell you the pointing error, then you can adjust from that too.
Did you need to calibrate your polar scope? If that needs to be done, could you do a video for it? I tried but I think made it worse.
No, I found it was adequate for my use. I'll put it on my list for upcoming videos. Sometimes it takes a few rounds to get things just right so give it a try again. You may want to use the method in the manual but instead of some far off thing to align it with, use a laser on a distant wall. That'll be an easier reference point for when you're moving things around.
Paul do you any plans to do a session with the 32 inch
That is definitely on the books!
How did you take the photos you showed at the end? They aren't just you holding your phone to the eyepiece. Right?
Hi Tom, those definitely weren't take with a phone. They were taken with our 32" research scope. Good news is you can still take really good quality images with telescopes at this level. They just wont be as zoomed in. I do plan on some astrophotography videos with these scopes so people can have a good idea of what to expect through theirs.
@@southphysicsobservatory6336 That makes sense. You took a few pictures with your phone throughout the video, then at the end you showed the really nice pictures. I was like, there's no way in hell that came from a phone... :)
@@TomDastrup Lol, yea, I threw those in so people could at least see what I was trying to find.
Just gave people your exact location 😂
Your neighbors are super annoying. Do they ever turn off their music? Nice video, BTW. 🙂
Dude…
A meade L x 85 goto .mount is away more easyer to setup and Aline
Good luck finding one. Meade is out of business. Also, the LX85 is more expensive.