Jupiter attempt # 3

[Zander]

verry frustrating night tonight :P, although it is my best pic yet of jup, that's only because i got the 5x powermate. it was terrible tryna capture footage between clouds and hard enough as it is tryna get jup into the FOV. i really need to do sumthin about teh swivel in my dob:doh:. meh neways, here's jupiter.

Any comments or advice would be much appreciated :)

[Zander]

prob should attatch the image eh. oops:rofl:

[iceman]

Are you doing this without tracking?

[Zander]

yes without tracking. just a plain ol' 12" dob with 5x powermate

[iceman]

omg no wonder it's frustrating for you. I never went to a 5x without tracking, it was just too painful.

[Zander]

tracking eh? would the only way to go with a dob my size be one of those boards like you used to have?
where did you get them? and roughly how much do you reckon one would cost?

[iceman]

If you're serious about astrophotography, you need to get an EQ platform. I got mine from www.roundtableplatforms.com. It would cost between $600-$900 I guess, to land one here.

Contact Brian, he's a great guy and easy to deal with.

That will allow you to do solar system imaging, but not deep space.

[netwolf]

Zander, I tried what your doing but with the 5x its just to difficult. Give Matt from T&A a call about EQ platforms, he had something in the works not sure if its finished. Brian is your only other choice, unless you want to go the more expensive EQplatforms. Else there is a few up on Astromart at the moment, however you need to ensure the match your latitude. Bintel also had The Johnsonian Nightrider platform but Johnsonian is out of the business, so not sure you can get one. Finally if you have some wood working skills and access to some tools you can make it yourself. Join the eqplatforms yahoo groups, lots of good guides and friendly people to help you along.

Regards
Fahim

[rmcpb]

Zander,

The equatorial platform is the way to go.

Mike said it all, his old round table platform is still loved and used extensively here, its a bit different now and worn but its magnificent.

If you were to get a GEM to handle the same scope it would cost you lots more and you would have to try to use the eyepiece in all the odd positions.

Cheers
Rob.

[Zander]

why doesn't the EQplatfrom allow you to do deep space imagery?

[iceman]

It's just not accurate enough for the focal length of your newt. For deep-space stuff, you literally need no movement for many seconds at a time. The EQ platform has good tracking, but there is still slight movements during that time due to imperfections in the tracking run.

Also, EQ platforms track only in RA and most just have speed adjustment (faster/slower) and don't have any adjustment in DEC. So there's no chance to do any guiding, either manual or auto.

If you want to do deep-space photography, you need to get a big, solid EQ mount - a very large one if you want to put your 12" newt on it for astrophotography.

I have my 12" newt on an EQ6 but I only use it for planetary/lunar - not for deep-space stuff.