Instrumentation and Equipment

I finally have my Skywatcher EQ6-R PRO mount.

Talking to some imaging contacts, they seem to think this mount is not up to a Celestron C11 for astrophotography.

However PEP with Optec SSP3 (with its 30s integrations) is of course more forgiving than AP.

Is there anyone out there who is doing PEP on this or similar Skywatcher mounts with a C11.

The spec does claim up to 20kg load for AP. C11 OTA is 12.5kg and SSP3 adds another 1.5kg from memory so it seems well within limits to me.

This is a project for you Astro Makers out there: Astronomers who like to make things to improve their observing experience.

The WeatherBox project is a sensor package that you can deploy near your observatory site and that can report back to you the local weather conditions. This report can be used to generate programmatically a safety signal when it is urgent that you close your observatory because of inclement weather.

Hi All, 

I'm new here. 

I live in a ~ Bortle 6/7 zone. When it comes to exposing in regard to light pollution, just how important is it to reduce thermal noise with cooling? It would seem that the shorter exposures for light pollution would obviate the need for cooling. 

ZWO (and some other manufacturers) have these nifty cameras that are not cooled. I wonder why they would put them on the market and to whom they're marketing.

Any comments are appreciated. 

Thanks - 

Tony  

Hi,

I have a brandnew QHY600 mono cmos camera and it's not working.

https://www.qhyccd.com/download/

The Stable Ver. 20220817   All-In-One Pack （Driver, SDK and Software) for WINDOWS   is not working.

Also, after the last Beta Ver. 20230509

Hello All,

To calculate photometric errors, AstroImageJ requires you (in Aperture Photometry Settings) to give it certain values, these are:

- CCD gain [e-/count]

- CCD readout noise [e-]

- CCD dark current per sec [e-/pix/sec]

I can easily get the precise estimate of the first value from the FITS Header (EGAIN keyword). However, I have some questions about the second and the third one.

I just received an email ad from Ricoh - the maker of Pentax cameras. 
 

The new K3 mark 3 will feature an APS - C  sensor WITHOUT a Bayer filter array!

DSLR observers should find this interesting- I’d buy one immediately, if I had the dollars. This could potentially eliminate the effects of star color with DSLR observations. 

Hello All, 

I'm a new member here. I am looking to contribute to data collection. I also have an interest in spectroscopy. This isn't the same old CMOS v. CCD question; but more of a mentoring and workflow question. 

Hello everybody. I will monitor two stars in Lup in B, V, R and I and from what I can see the AAVSO tables are only giving the V magnitude and color index of the star. Do you suggest, or do you think it's worth using the values ​​of B, R and I from Simbad, or Vizier? Is there any method for these values ​​to appear in the photometry table?

Thank you so much.

Hello,

Risking being repetitive, let me ask you all a simple question, please:

If a group of amateurs assembling a minimalist setup for variable star photometry in general, from O-B stars to red giants, were to choose between V & B, and V & Ic J-C filters, which one would be a more sensible option? 

I see experienced people indicating either one but I never learned the rationale subjacent to this subject.

Thank you for any comments.

Ari

Hello everyone,

I have a budget of 10,000$ to purchase a telescope and accessories for training students at my institution (a local community college in Tacoma WA, USA). I've been researching here and there, but would love to hear some recommendations from y'all experienced observers. We have access to a professional observatory ~3 hrs from our location so this equipment would be for training in CCD data collection and processing; we need to be able to easily travel to nearby locations.