Iceman , you have seen my 12.5"on one , and it kinda handles it.
Skywather have a package with a 10"on the EQ6 as a standard item .
As I had stated in the forums it is the length that is the restricting factor , 10" f6 ok f7>?????
Found a CND and US price for the EQ6 and EQ6SS , it appears to be about $400-500US-CND more than the standard .
So you can get an idea.
Thats going to be around or over the $2000 OZ http://www.heavensandearth.com/MountsP.htm
Nice looking mount, think I will stick with the fork mount though, hated polar aligning all the time when I had a german equatorial before. It can be a real pain. But horses for course. Still nice mount though..........
Iceman had a look at your wide field shots , there not that bad .
Is this your first attempt?
What you do need to do is remove the noise in the images and this can be done by doing a dark frame subtraction other wise good effort there.
I have a Minolta D7 digital camera with a 28-200mm lens that I have done some wide fiels shots with and am lucky because in bulb mode it does a dark frame subtraction as standard.
There are free ware programs around that will do this after you take a pic with the lens cover on.
You could buy a cheap eq1 , 2 , 3 mount with a motor and use this as a traking platform.
Wide field shots are quite spectacular I think , and a good and cheap stating point in imagery , although I am no expert , it is fairly easy to do.
Mark
Use registax2 and stack and align lots of short frames to get a better result.
Mark or anyone, how do you use registax2 to stack Jpeg images? I've seen a few tutorials using .avi video files. When I try using Jpeg I can't seem to select anymore than one image at a time.
No problems Mick.. Registax is fairly simple to start with, but it can get more complex when you want to take advantage of more of the features, eg: wavelet processing. When it comes to that area, I just fiddle.
Quote:
Iceman had a look at your wide field shots , there not that bad .
Is this your first attempt?
What you do need to do is remove the noise in the images and this can be done by doing a dark frame subtraction other wise good effort there.
I have a Minolta D7 digital camera with a 28-200mm lens that I have done some wide fiels shots with and am lucky because in bulb mode it does a dark frame subtraction as standard.
There are free ware programs around that will do this after you take a pic with the lens cover on.
You could buy a cheap eq1 , 2 , 3 mount with a motor and use this as a traking platform.
Wide field shots are quite spectacular I think , and a good and cheap stating point in imagery , although I am no expert , it is fairly easy to do.
Thanks Mark, the widefield shots in that section are my first attempt, just using the camera on a tripod. The camera has inbuilt NR for long exposures, but I usually remove even more noise by trying to stack several images, as well as running the final result through NeatImage.
I've definitely considered getting a cheap tracking mount for widefield stuff.. the alternative I was looking at also was to build a barn-door tracker, either manual with turning the knob, or get a stepper motor or something to do it for me.
I love widefield shots, I wish I could take better ones but atm i'm limited to 15s exposures because of the star trails.
Originally posted by mhodson Found a CND and US price for the EQ6 and EQ6SS , it appears to be about $400-500US-CND more than the standard .
So you can get an idea.
Thats going to be around or over the $2000 OZ http://www.heavensandearth.com/MountsP.htm
Get a load of the price here in Australia for the EQ6 Skyscan.
I won't name the firm but I live close to Brisbane where the shop is located. There on the web.
$3340.00inc GST
Thursday, December 2, 2004
1,580 Canadian Dollar = 1,719.18 Australian Dollar
1,580 Australian Dollar (AUD) = 1,452.08 Canadian Dollar (CAD
+ gst + a fair mark up.
Again we seam to be getting the raw end with Astronomically inflated prices when it comes to imported gear .
I for one am not bending over and taking it up the @!%#!@#
Î have imported most of my gear due to this very reason.
I am in business for my self and realize you need to make a profit but Telescope equipment prices here in Australia are ridiculous .
There are a few shops trying to offer more realistic prices so it pays to do your home work , or import your self.
I have thought about getting the upgrade for my mount, guess where I will be getting it from?
P.S. Graeme I think he is trying to recoup for the faulty mirror of yours .
I know what you mean Mark.. I think it just comes down to economies of scale.. the US just has a bigger population with more people into astronomy, and more shops to supply you with equipment.. more shops = more competition = lower prices.
The postage costs are pretty huge from the US to Australia for astro gear, but it's certainly not $1000!
It's a nice looking mount, one i'd like myself in the future if I don't ever end up doing an EQ platform.
The problem is, people get scared of importing big gear like that, wondering if it would get here in 1 piece in the first place, and then worrying about import taxes, GST, postage costs and any other hidden costs.. plus, if you need to claim on warranty, you have to send it back. It's tough.
We really need some more shops in Australia to bring more competition, there's a few that are trying but to buy the premium gear it's still premium prices.
Where talking Canadian $ hear .
Telescope equipment has only GST on items over $500 no duties.
(for personnal stuff any way , not sure on reselling)
I only recently imported all my newtonian components from the States and yes freight and insurance is a cost to concider but when you see the price for the Standard mount already being sold here by the likes of Andrews for a resonable price and the price of that over seas and then compare it to the new mount >>>it just does not add up.
One other thing as far as warrenty goes , it can be just as hard to get warrenty here in Australia if you don't know your rights.
(Right Graeme!)
As far as for an item like the EQ6 the main thing that is going to go wrong is the hand pad or motors both of which are simple and light weight enough to be returned. I realize this does not apply to all scope gear but you have to weigh it up do your sums for the what ifs and research the company selling the gear .
Cheap items are not going to be worth it when it comes to importing as the savings won't be justifyable.
