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  #21  
Old 30-03-2012, 10:24 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
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Originally Posted by cventer View Post

4. Price. I got mine from an american guy who owned more cameras than he could use and had never even put his STX on a telescope yet. Saved me a LOT compared to Proline or new STX
Nice work, I am sure it will be a great camera Chris
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  #22  
Old 30-03-2012, 11:02 PM
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Originally Posted by cventer View Post

2. Remote guide head (if they ever enable it on STX)
They are now available. I have one sitting in my observatory.

Differenital guiding and AO-X is sadly dragging the chain...but is in the pipeline
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  #23  
Old 30-03-2012, 11:43 PM
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I have never used one but on paper it would seem the STX is a strong competitor to Proline.

FLI cameras are awesome but they lack any guiding solutions. FLI does not appear to be planning any autoguiding products, development and relies on other manufacturers products.

STX has several including self guide. Self guide is still a viable guiding solution that handles flexures which Proline users tend to have to deal with usually by MMOAG otherwise the sheer weight is a problem unless you are using CDK, AP scopes that are proven to handle that weight.

Autoguiding has not advanced much for a long time and its overdue for some technical improvements. SBIG has done more work here with the various autoguiding techniques - perhaps their worth is to be proven, but at least they are leading the development.

Until you get round stars with 10 minute exposures you haven't even left the station yet on almost any setup (AG12 excepted).

How to achieve that requires more than just a good mount.

Greg.
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  #24  
Old 31-03-2012, 08:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post
I have never used one but on paper it would seem the STX is a strong competitor to Proline.

FLI cameras are awesome but they lack any guiding solutions. FLI does not appear to be planning any autoguiding products, development and relies on other manufacturers products.

STX has several including self guide. Self guide is still a viable guiding solution that handles flexures which Proline users tend to have to deal with usually by MMOAG otherwise the sheer weight is a problem unless you are using CDK, AP scopes that are proven to handle that weight.

Autoguiding has not advanced much for a long time and its overdue for some technical improvements. SBIG has done more work here with the various autoguiding techniques - perhaps their worth is to be proven, but at least they are leading the development.

Until you get round stars with 10 minute exposures you haven't even left the station yet on almost any setup (AG12 excepted).

How to achieve that requires more than just a good mount.

Greg.
A refreshing, clear, reasoned analysis. Well put
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  #25  
Old 03-04-2012, 11:22 AM
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Father XMAS arrived today for a 2nd time in 2 days. (STF-8300 arrived yesterday)

Peter you were not wrong. This thing is a beast.

Some pics attached of STX16803 and of FLI 50mm filter wheel shown next to SBIG 65mm filter wheel.

Now to try figure out what adaptors I need to connect this to my scopes.

Need to order some 65mm filters now. Might see if I can get FLI wheel working with this while I wait.
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  #26  
Old 03-04-2012, 05:01 PM
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strongmanmike (Michael)
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Geeez Chris, since your return to the imaging game it's been more than Christmas at your place..it's been Saaaale of the Century and you're the carry over champion



Mike
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  #27  
Old 03-04-2012, 05:31 PM
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Bassnut (Fred)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley View Post

Autoguiding has not advanced much for a long time and its overdue for some technical improvements.

Greg.
yes, thats for sure, SBIG has been mucking around with dual guiding development for ages and it's still not available. Mike Berthon-jones knocked up multiple star, dual guiding (with an OAG and external guide scope) for his SBIG/20" CDK in a matter of days. I sat in front of the OBS PC while it was guiding and it was stunning. 2sec subs from the guide scope, and longer from the OAG for fast, no flex guideing for 1hr subs way over 2m FL. And with 10 or more stars . If an amature can do this, are SBIG and FLI asleep , sheesh, makes you wonder.
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  #28  
Old 03-04-2012, 06:42 PM
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Originally Posted by Bassnut View Post
yes, thats for sure, SBIG has been mucking around with dual guiding development for ages and it's still not available. Mike Berthon-jones knocked up multiple star, dual guiding (with an OAG and external guide scope) for his SBIG/20" CDK in a matter of days. I sat in front of the OBS PC while it was guiding and it was stunning. 2sec subs from the guide scope, and longer from the OAG for fast, no flex guideing for 1hr subs way over 2m FL. And with 10 or more stars . If an amature can do this, are SBIG and FLI asleep , sheesh, makes you wonder.

Wow.
How did do multiple stars Fred? Was that using the Maxim plug in? I thought that was for only 2 stars though.

I was wanting to do the same and plan to do that fairly soon. MMOAG and a guide scope.

I was thinking also perhaps a guide camera with multiple CCDs in it to get multiple stars each one indepently setup or even out of phase with each other over several seconds to avoid seeing effects. Say 6 CCDs (small ones like little Sony ones) each imaging at say 6 - 12 second exposures and 1 second apart always getting a bright guide star (5 second exposures should capture a decent guide star in most images) and 1 second apart for rapid corrections.

Perhaps even an averaging of the 6 ccds in times of bad seeing to more closely extract the actual PE from the seeing effects.

Want to build one Fred? Imagine how many we could sell if it set a new standard of excellence.

Greg.
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  #29  
Old 03-04-2012, 06:42 PM
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Sounds fascinating Fred.
I must try that Maxim multi-star plug-in again, should be great in theory but I've never been able to get it to play properly.
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  #30  
Old 03-04-2012, 07:20 PM
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Bassnut (Fred)
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Mike designed everything for his rig for astro imaging, everything . Mount drive (and software), PEC, image capture, guiding, planetarium software, image processing. Not anything to do with DL plugins, or DL at all . Vastly superior to that rubbish
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  #31  
Old 03-04-2012, 07:39 PM
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He clicked some thing, and bingo, a box appeared on every avaiable star in view for guiding (external guide cam). A star viewed on the OAG cam then shifted the boxes on the external cam images to cause a flex correction when required, pure poetry, I was moved.
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  #32  
Old 03-04-2012, 07:43 PM
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Originally Posted by strongmanmike View Post
Geeez Chris, since your return to the imaging game it's been more than Christmas at your place..it's been Saaaale of the Century and you're the carry over champion



Mike
Tell me about it. I dont even want to think what I have spent this year. But at least its decent gear that will serve me well for a while now.

Last expense is filters and adaptors

Adaptors drive me nuts. Be great if there was an industry standard developed for all focusers. Just choose opening size and adaptor length for say 3 sizes. 48mm, 54 and 65 that would cover most peoples needs and simplify things a whole lot in terms of cost and time. You then just buy different extension lengths for the opening size you have...nice to dream anyway
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  #33  
Old 03-04-2012, 08:03 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassnut View Post
Mike designed everything for his rig for astro imaging, everything . Mount drive (and software), PEC, image capture, guiding, planetarium software, image processing. Not anything to do with DL plugins, or DL at all . Vastly superior to that rubbish
He clicked some thing, and bingo, a box appeared on every avaiable star in view for guiding (external guide cam). A star viewed on the OAG cam then shifted the boxes on the external cam images to cause a flex correction when required, pure poetry, I was moved.
Sounds like a dream system, any way he can tell us more about it ?
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