The Astro-Physics 305 mm f/3.8 Riccardi-Honders Astrograph Telescope - The Ultimate Deep Sky Imager!
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- * Note: The telescope is f/3.8, not f/3.85 as stated.
$22,420 optical tube only. The new version of the Paramount MEII mount is now $16,595.
Read about the scope on AP’s web page at: astro-physics....
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One of my all-time favorite things! A Fresh hot cup of coffee and a Sunday morning video with Ed Ting!
I get as excited when I see a new Ed Ting vod is available as I do when a big show has it's season premiere. Keep it up, you're a star.
Maybe PHD2 was autoguiding on a hot pixel.
Or dust somewhere in the autoguider's imaging train.
It's always nice seeing astrophotography videos like this. You feel like the frustrasion part of this hobby is something all of us in it shares. I had a similar night where I thought everything went to waste and was plesenty surprised the next morning. I absolutely love this hobby.
Sounds like a typical night of imaging to me! LOL. Man that entire setup is amazingly huge! And even with the connection and tracking issues, the images still came out pretty dang good, if you ask me. Another great video!!
Amazing rig! I've heard of these AP Honders in the past and have seen pics of them (and through them). I've never seen one in person though. Your images are really good considering the issues you had. Of course, as a 100% visual observer, my AP dream scope is the 10" Maksutov, but I'd probably have to take up astrophotography if one of these astrographs fell into my hands.
Wonderful story and trip you took us to. ❤️🎉
When I saw a 9 year old, uncooled DSLR mounted to a us$50k astro-rig a "you gotta be kidding me" slipped me. 😂🙈 Still the processed images looked great, regardless the slight banding (thx Canon...) that seemed visible here and there...
Yes, it's time for a dedicated astro cam that will match your level of Astro-experience 👍💪
That was super interesting to watch! Sorry to hear about Murphy's law, but those pics look great. The price though, ouch 😵
Been following you for a while. After a lifetime of department store telescopes. I bought an Orion short tube 80. After a year I up graded to an Orion short tube 120. Two night ago I saw Saturn and the ring for the first time. At 60 years old I am hook again. Next is an 8 inch dobsonian. Thanks for the videos.
Good to hear about your journey!
Hello, ""edcar61";
I'm 66, a year or 2 back I setup in the front yard w/ my Orion 150 StarBlast.
I got some very nice views of Saturn & my wife was very impressed.
If I ever 'come into some money' I hope to get a nice 'scope.
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
@@jons2447 good for you. It’s the same experience I had . Keep searching. Good luck searching and have fun.
lol ed it cracks me up you guys using a $40k rig in a dedicated observatory and you duct tape a canon mark 3 to it.
Super cool Ed. The wife recently gave me the go-ahead for building a shed observatory. I think its mainly so I stop stashing my astronomy equipment all over the house. Good pointers on the depth of the concrete anchor and isolating it from the rest of the shed.
Oooh, a rolloff shed! I'm jealous!
Always a good day when Mr Ed uploads a video!
May I make a suggestion Mr Ed? if you are comfortable with the idea, maybe you can start a patreon or some other fund for us your fans to buy you a dedicated astro camera. I myself would pledge 20$ to this idea because I really like your content.....i'm pretty sure some other people are of the same opinion
You should make a video of some of the craziest telescopes you can find on the internet or in person
It isn't "duct tape".....it is Aerospace Grade Reinforced Composite Matrix with Pressure Sensitive Adhesive.....and it is indispensible.
Interesting? Yes sir! That was great. NGC 891 was a challenging object for my 3” f/15 doublet. I was able to see it twice IIRC. What a thrilling hobby! Thanks for the inspiration.
I just recently bought a Risingcam IMX571 and it's extraordinarily good for £1022
Way better than I am at pointing it at things.
I don't have a telescope yet, but I absolutely love your channel. Thanks for all you do!
Looking at an 8300 based CCD now??? Definitely go for a modern CMOS, they are dramatically better in just about every area. With optics like that, a full frame cooled CMOS is the best pairing to realize the scopes potential.
I'm hoping you can help, but I too have a AP Honders and have been researching narrow band filters. My question for you (or perhaps the honders owner in this video) is what specific brand of filters and what is the bandpass (3nm, 5nm...) are they using. I saw you used a Canon 5DmkIII so using a filter wheel setup was not possible but perhaps it was discussed. I ask this due to reading a warning from Chroma filters that states NOT to use 3nm filters as the fast f3.8 ratio of this scope will cause bandpass problems. (Perhaps 5nm or wider will work.) Thanks!
By the way.... I too had the exact same problem with the Canon adapter that you had. I only wish I had seen this video beforehand so I could have saved the night by using your duct tape solution.
Mmmhh, apart from the price, how about collimation with a large field. It's always interesting to see optical configurations like this, but it's important to see how tolerant is the collimation. If it's like some similar configuration (basically corrected cassegrains and the like) you can spend night after night getting a good collimation. So it's a very important consideration. If on the paper you have a fantastic optical configuration, sharp stars, flat field, etc... and then in practice as soon as one element is slightly off you never get there, it's just a nice optical configuration and a big paperweight. That's why I always recommend telescopes which are easy to collimate, like the Celestron Edge, the planewaves CdK, etc... Other than that a way cheaper newtonian with a wynne corrector will be better because much smaller central obstruction.
how to make thousands of dollars worth of equipment totally ignored by thieves? . make the outside of the building look like a decrepid shed :)... works wonders :)
Great images regardless of tracking. Love the small star background that bigger fast aperture allows!
Will you be observing asteroid 7482 (1994 PC1) this month?
garage door opener has all the limiters you need for both travel and resistance.
I'm very interested in the OTA, but feel like a DSLR is an underwhelming choice for an imager on that level of OTA. IMO.
I personally couldn't imagine using this thing as being enjoyable. To each their own.
Ed reviews are well produced that's for sure 👌🇺🇸
$22,000 dollars on a telescope? That's almost a deposit on a house LOL!
I’m surprised all that equipment and using a DSLR not a dedicated cooled camera.
Can you compare this with planewave delta rho 350 astrograph.
Astro imaging is so frustrating, I'd rather go ice fishing if I want to freeze my butt off. I'd rather go out with my little scope and find Messier objects. You have to have a real desire to sit there for hours on a cold night and hope you get something. Amazing scope and setup for sure. Thanks for the review Ed.
One observatory has 4 ricardi honders on one mount. Another has 12 RC in a straight line. Why do some observatory buy so many of the same model? What are the benefits?
Oh no...not an unofficial road...... (fricking city people)
Some beautiful images there. The duct tape worked really well!
I'm just dipping my toes into this hobby after thinking about it on and off for 40+ years. With telescopes like this Honders and all of the other beautiful products out there that will technically exceed anything I could possibly do on my budget, I had to stop and think why exactly I wanted to endure the frustration and expense. I came to the conclusion that I just want to get to know the night sky better. It's been a constant companion through my life and largely still a stranger.
I've quickly come to look forward to your videos Ed and this was another great one. I really just enjoy your practical approach and the vast amount of information you share.
I’ve been thinking about it for the past 2 years occasionally and I finally bought a 8 inch dobsonian and waiting for it to get here feels like forever
I'm reminded of the times before digital cameras when I was making emulsions and spreading them onto glass plates.
Dear Ed, thank you for another great video! - I was afraid that Edward A. Murphy would want to spend more time with me in the future. So it's nice to hear that he's back with you in the States ;-)
I follow you on everything you said… Murphy law! 😂
I had a roll off observatory built this past summer. It is 8x10. I ended up using a gate opener to roll off the roof.
A comparison with the Celestron RASA might make an interesting episode
The lesser alternative to this would be a Celestron RASA which is also essentially a high-speed astro lens.
Sir please please tell . I am a beginner can I see deep sky nebula and galaxies clear and good from 8 inch gso dobsonian.
Given good, dark skies, yes - larger nebulas like the Orion Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and others should be no problem. 8" is plenty to get things done.
Thanks
Wow. That's some instrument. 12" aperture at F/3.8. I like your point about everything gets expensive when matching components to take full advantage of the optical system.
I'd be surprised that guiding would be needed for 30 second exposures at 1100 mm with that mount. The issues you saw were more likely related to flexure in the optical imaging path that you were having. Personally, I'm always running into problems at the bayonet adapter for my EOS camera. It's not the camera as lenses are fine. It's those adapters that keep becoming lose. Not sure why, but it is frustration.
Thanks for the video.
Err, I think I’ll have to pass on this one Ed. I can’t afford all the plastic bags.
Hi Ed, I am one of the people that has one of those Honders. I see the link on the AP site is no longer functional.
Note to self: if I ever get a mount big enough for a small mammal to nest in, close up the big hole in the back.
That's fun! I would like to see a real life review of the 10" AP Mak! Your pics were far better than those on 103a film of the 48" Schmidt at Palomar with which the famous Sky Surveys were made!
Hi Ed! Thank you for the great content!!1 Amazing rig! When Imaging that fast, I don't think you'll necessary need autoguiding because it's so fast. It sounded very similar to the Hyperstar system (makes your SCT image at f/2) that Starizona sells! Best of luck!
Interesting you got large halos around bright stars like that. Most RHA shots look pretty clear of halos, but anything is possible I suppose. These are large, heavy telescopes to mount and work with, so yes, telescope mount, camera, perpherials are going to add up $$$. Sadly, you don't see many postings from those who own them. I wonder why? Some additional notes: The OTA comes with internal fans on the rear cell, and AP provides a neoprine jacket (seen in the video), for both the tube and dewsheld for thermal stability. You can also remove a pair of coverplates on the rear cell that exposes the back of the mirror for better cooling. It may be that Roland completed the last production on these over a year ago.
Wow! I need to up my game! (or even just getting started with all of the old second hand stuff I own... would do for now...) 👍
I'm impressed. I literally just started astroimaging a few weeks ago and I am getting not bad results. Already had such experiences. I have never seen negative scores on images in Deep Sky Stacker before. Actually gotten what I think are decent images of M33, M31, M13, M36 and even got the Horsehead on my first try. Still learning to process. I'd be thrilled with a fixed pier observatory. On my list for my retirement house.
I did violate the Ed Ting rule and waited 7 months instead of a year before starting to image but this is not my first time in amateur astronomy. Actually quite enjoying it thanks to the advice of you and Trevor Jones.
In Russia, you don’t go to telescope, telescope comes to you!
Hi Ed, I had the same problem with my cheep cannon mounting adapter on my Celestron it was so loose I didn't know what to do so instead of duct I used rubber bands to fill the gaps. I will try the duct tape next or painters tape.
Clear skies, I hope you fix the auto guider.
Hello Ed this is my first comment I suppose I have to tell you that every evening I climb on my exercise bike and pedal away but first make sure I open up your RUclips series can I find most fascinating. I had my first telescope at age 12 atasco 2.4 I discovered Saturn but apparently someone had already
Adding to the comment just want to say that I took that survey about how many points one score their level of obsession and I scored well over 100. in fact I do sleep with a telescope... A small one in a distinctive brown leather container which you probably can identify but then the rest of my one-bedroom apartment is decorated by a forest of some 16 diverse scopes ...vintage cats refract newton.. I've tried my hand at astrophotography and I've seen a few unusual things to say the least but time and gravity are taking their toll so I don't get farther afield than my balcony as of late but I'm hoping my son will cart me out to the high desert with some of my Scopes and I can see what beautiful views are available via truly dark skies.. your presentations always fill the void in the meantime and I find myself both laughing and learning...thank you Ed
still makes my brain tweak when you see someone spend tens of thousands of dollars on a scope and a mount, then bolt a dslr onto the back of it. lol. great vid ed! incredible what you can do in a single night with a fast scope and a dark site!
I had one guy tell me years ago that the hobby of astronomy was like a black hole... if you get too close to it it will suck all the money out of your wallet! How true that is! For the price of just this OTA I can get 2 C-14 Edge's and make them into a huge 14" binocular!! lol
🔥
Really nice set up! So glad to hear that duct tape can solve even astronomy-based perplexities.
Hello Mr. Ting, you're interested in upgrading to the ZWO camera with a bigger sensor? Let me know, I can share some of my user experience with you.
You are the boss! Incredibly knowledgeable, precise--yet clear, down-to-earth, and humble. Awesome. Thanks!
And Ed, this is why you are the master 🙏
Riccardi-Honders = A telescope that creates more problems than it solves!!! I'll stick with my Epsilon and RC450 telescopes thank you. However, I do love the obsy and mount. Wish I had such a location for my telescopes.
Officiana Stellare version is arguably the most all around scope. F3.8 and FL 1200mm; and it can be turned into F3 and F5.3. Good for any type of DSO even from backyard. Moreover, new version could be considered portable (20kg) and can be handled by Mach2. Add to that superb optic and focuser.
Definitely the best all rounder!
Did he maybe disable the 'Enable mount guide output' in PHD2 ? - FROM the HANDBOOK: this is normally checked because it tells PHD2 to send guide commands to the mount. But there are some circumstances where you might want to disable this, usually because you want to observe the uncorrected behavior of the mount. For example, you can disable guider output in order to see the general shape and amplitude of your mount's periodic error or to check the amount of drift from polar mis-alignment. In most cases, you will be better off running the Guiding Assistant for these purposes, which automatically handles this setting for you.
It is under Advanced Settings
I've viewed several of these videos, and always catch the part where you explain your club "tricks out" a telescope you donate to libraries. I work for the city of Santa Fe in NM, and would love for our libraries to be considered for that donation. We have beautiful skies devoid of light pollution, and I know we would spark so much interest with a donation like that. Please let me know what I can do!!! Please feel free to contact me for my personal contact information!
Amazing stuff!
With radio telescopes, two or more dishes can be set a distance apart and that becomes their relative aperture, not that of their individual dishes. Is that true with visual telescopes as well? An array of telescopes slewed together yielding a larger image or deeper/better resolution than one? Or, can a fixed-binocular pair of telescopes offer better imaging than one? If so, is $20k better spent on one bigger scope or several smaller slewed scopes?
Similarly, would a scaled-down James Webb multi-mirror telescope be useful for backyard astronomers such that several smaller mirrors are aimed at a central reflector down to the eye piece? It would be a heck of a thing to calibrate, but if combined with a laser could also compensate some for air-turbulence by flickering the mirror (add a z-axis for even more image clarity). This new arduino stuff and ever-cheaper components like actuators bring top-grade observatory work possible for commoners with know-how (and cash to burn. Not a cheap hobby.).
Hi Ed, I notice you dont do many vids on EP's. I am particulary interested in the Baader Zoom Mark IV. Do you have one? Ive heard many ppl, incl a RUclipsr (AVT Astro) say that this single EP is all you need and he reaches for this more often than his Televues and other high end eps. Would you agree with this statement? Like to hear your opinion.
I've got one of the first run of the Astro-Physics 305RHA astrograph, and it is just a joy to use. I have mine on an Astro-Physics 900GTO mount, which pretty much maxes out that mount. But it's what I had, and not a lot of spare change to upgrade the mount after getting the Honders! Even so, I can take 10 minute long images with active guiding, using a QSI KAF-8300-based camera. WIth that sensor on the Honders, that turns into a bit less than an arc-second per pixel of resolution which is a pretty good match for 2-3 arcsecond seeing conditions that I usually "enjoy" at my location. Of course, larger sensors would be nice to have.. But as you mentioned, the scope is still out ahead of my abilities so equipment upgrades are not the limitations to overcome. Ideally, I'd get more proficient with PixInsight..
I'm also in a roll-off roof observatory, about 200 yards from my house. My observatory is built on-grade with a concrete floor, which isn't ideal from a thermal perspective, but on the other hand, I don't have a family of skunks or racoons or other woodland creatures living under it, either. As compared to a similar sized dome, the roll-off cools down faster, and doesn't suffer degraded seeing that you can get from air current exiting out through the slit of the dome as things equalize. It's also a bit cheaper to construct. And it was easy to do a small warm-room to huddle in while imaging and the scope is doing its thing out in the cold. Though when I do spend time out in the "telescope room", it sure is nice to be able to see the whole sky. A couple of times, when I want to make sure to call in the clouds, I'll set up a DSLR on a tripod to try to capture a meteor shower and I can do that at the same time the Honders is doing its thing.
Thanks for doing the video; thi wi'll make a great reference to point people to when they ask about my scope.
thats a really nice rig, but ofc an 8" dobsonian is always better ;D. Jokes aside, those are some good images, if only you had like a 6200MC cooled camera, the results wouldve looked insane, awesome video ed !
Im 38 I've always been into astronomy i just have to get a telescope 🔭. And learn other things but even if just for viewing. Im ok with that.
Same situation. I just turned 40, but I've had my head in the sky all my life. This summer, I finally took the plunge and started buying gear. I'll tell ya, the first time I saw the Orion Nebula with my own eyes...I was completely hooked. It does get expensive though. The imaging rig I'm currently building by pieces is gonna come close to $3000 by the time I'm all done.
@@RazorChrist yeah man its like really conflicting with my hobbies which are horror conventions, guns, and general bills... but one day I'll have a telescope in the future
@@ALSuspiria-sh1ss What I did is got a second hand Celestron NexStar C5 GoTo scope and mount and have been using that just to get a handle on how the software all works. I've got a Canon DSLR coming by Xmas, and then I'm gonna start saving for a Skywatcher HEQ5 mount. From everything I've watched and read, the best starting point is the mount. Start with a decent star tracker or CGEM mount and build from there.
@@RazorChrist im writing this all down. Big thanks man im just clueless but gotta save $ and start
Ah Murphy's law I'm sure anyone who's imaged deep sky images can relate to that but in saying that the images came out quite well in the end Ed, I've managed to image a bit using the RASA 11 with variable outcomes but I've gone back to using my ED80 for now as it's more manageable & the targets are getting bigger but the RASA will return sometime in the new year.
Love the channel look forward to your next video clear skies 👍
Any my wife thinks my Lunt and Dob are expensive! I should have started by buying this one, then a complete TV eyepiece set would seem cheaper!
congratulations Ed, beautiful images!...if this is an example of what it is like when you "mess-up", you must be a very difficult person to live with...jo'c
Reminds me of voyager 1's image of earth taken from billion miles away. A tiny blue speck in the vastness of space. That's how I felt with my equipment compared to that monster.
Hi Ed, still love your channel. A heads up my wooden refractor is featured in Sky n Telescope, Feb edition. I hope it brings some woodworkers into Astronomy!
Great story and very informative. I'm going to run out and buy a few of those suckers lol. NOT!
Thanks so much for sharing.
Cheers!
hey you should turn up your mic, i have to blast my headphones to even hear you. and then if i get an ad its super loud. (not to be rude)
Ngc891 has become one of my favorite targets lately.. good stuff..
this will be dream scope for many....before the RASA was made
Thank you for your dedication, very enjoyable video, thank you.
Boom Nice!
Someone in australia managed to made their own small riccardi honders using surplus military lenses. Also on top of RASA, you can also stack focal reducers to make cass really fast. That being said honders wins in sharpness, wide fov, and flatness.
You inspire me to try the hobby.l and I have watched about every video there is on youtube! Just struggling to find an affordable budget telescope that is available. One day soon I hope!
Did no one mention the math error?
It’s not 50% occluded since half a radius doesn’t equal half the area… it’s less than 25%
In most cases, the central obstruction figure is quoted as a linear figure, as opposed to the area, because of the effect it has on the airy disc and the diffraction rings.
@@edting I had no idea! Thanks Ed. I’ve been binging your channel the last few days!
Wow
All those problems and you still end up smelling like roses. Some days it's better to be lucky than good. Well done!
I don't know about anyone else, but those images were astounding. I would be very happy with this.
Obviously im missing something, but why slap a dslr onto this monster?
Because he had a modified full frame DSLR camera. Not many people have a full frame CMOS Imaging Camera for astrophotography.
@@MrSummitville ty makes sense
Well
Ed ting sir
It appears like a lot of hard work you put in the process
But the images are really worth it
Congratulations for your patience and hard work sir
Pretty good for duct tape and no autoguiding. Good equipment and good operator, I mean astronomer.
Another great video. The astrophotography woes are relatable.
"He runs the autoguider from the house" maybe because it's warm there?
(Cue Spock Voice) Fascinating.
I had the good fortune to use one of these telescopes for about a year at a dark site in West Virginia. It was a great experience and one I'm glad to have had!
With friends like yours, who needs telescopes?
Great images. It’s pretty easy to see the quality of that scope.
The timing between pushing the button and the beeps was delightful
That is one ultra cool man cave!
I am a piker compared to some of my astro buddies!
Those images are amazing! Thanks for sharing your adventure.
Haha ... Talk about SNAFU ... Had a similar experience with my rig as soon as my new scope arrived - I got a TS 115/800 as I saw you recommend it in one of your videos. So first was the balance, then the PA got out of whack, then phd2 won't guide then the platesolving wouldn't work ... Reset the lot, realign the mount, start all over ... The guiding got from 4 up and down to 3 ... Then to 2 and finally after some tweaks at or under 1 ... I was taking 45 secs then 90 and finally 120 secs exposure s ... And got the best results of my life :)
I guess perseverance pays off!
Oh, thank you very much for helping me choose the best scope I ever had ! It's awesome!!!!!
I showed my kids the result of M42 capture, the stack, the two processed files ... They were blown away and could hardly believe that I got those pictures. They kept on asking questions and got really into deep conversation about our universe. To me that is worth more than anything in the world!
Nice story, thanks!