19 years ago I purchased a TOA 130 and the following year purchased in FSQ106. I told my wife when I pass away sell the 130 to pay for the funeral. Just make sure I’m buried with the 106.. FSQ line, though expensive in my opinion is worth every penny.

Very cool thanks for this. Understanding the 3rd axis is not easy, and no mount companies even address this issue. I have an iOptron cem26 and a Skywatcher star adventurer 2i Ill be utilizing this on. Cheers!

One inch is 25.4mm so im sonfused why this is called a one inch sensor

Wow now orion makes you pay for the case ,

I purchased the Orion BT100 (45deg) and you can see all objects. On the 45 deg you might have to wait until the objects drops then the 45 deg will see it just fine. Or you may pick up the object on the rise. They do a very good job. Fix on the object and if you need photos, remove one eyepiece, drop in your ZWO camera and shoot away. You can peek at the object your shooting with the opposite eyepiece. Clear skys

I faced the same problem with the artifacts with L-Ultimate using with 294 MC Pro

For the focuser get the Primaluce one

Is this still a problem in 2024? Did the GEM45 have this issue? Did you ever try one of the red ZWO camera USB cables? Do you still use your CEM40EC?

First time user here... the way I connect ASIAIR and CEM26 (the cable/usb hub dont work): - Asiair Plus in Station Mode connected to HandBox Wifi - SmartPhone connected to Asiair Plus Wifi - SmartPhone Mobile Data Turned Off (I don´t know If it is necessary... just documenting... will test later) - On the Asiair Plus Smartphone APP - Mount Menu Option - Select iOptron CEM26, and enter the IP and Port that is show on Handbox Wifi Info

Thanks for the review on this scope. FWIW people put far too much concern on the glass type of only one of the three elements. That's what marketing hype does. Reality though is something else. What matters more is the accuracy of the lens figuring, the coatings on the other elements, the tube baffles and the accuracy of assembly. ES gets high marks for their coatings and figuring. I own the ED127CF FCD1 and won't trade it for the FCD100. If i lived in a Bortle 3 zone I might think differently, but living in a coastal and Bortle 7-8 area, the seeing is my limiting factor. Two things that ARE IMPORTANT. 1- Dont use the "rotator'" that is really the attachment of the focuser to the rear port. It is s horrible system. I had the focuser separate from the rear port and fall. Broke the focuser, and nearly my foot, which is what saved my astro modified DSLR. That connection is held on by 3 tiny grub screws and one small thumb screw holds it in place. The grub screws have to keep friction to prevent it from coming apart and have plastic nibs. With AP gear attached, the grub screws wear througb the plastic covers and start to dig into the metal of the focuser, wearing out the shallow groove their in. You might notice because it messes up collimation. You then collimate and tighten to the grubs and it digs more. Then, at one point a grub screw will work its way loose and boom, the back half hits the ground. The fix is to re-design the interface. I offered to do that fur then but ES would rather deny the issue is widespread 🙃. It's just us AP peeps who like everything threaded that suffer this. 🤣. So beware! Lock fish those screws and rotate the camera elsewhere. One other point. I've got the ES 1.0x flattener( might be discontinued) it actuality threads up and inside one of the 2" extension tubes, then you thread the extention on the focuser. No 53 to 48 mm reducer. Camera then threads onto the m48 threads of the adapter. Saves backfocus. Don't know if your .7x works the same way. It should.

I bought a Skywatcher Evolux 82ed APO. It'd be interesting to see what difference the sub-$600 scope has in term of detail in comparison to the binoculars. I also got a Meade LX90 8-inch years ago. The moon is incredible using the Meade, but it cost a bit more than the binoculars you've mentioned when bought in new condition. I don't think that binoviewers will give the same amount of brightness that binoculars will, given that for binoviewers, the light to each eye is only about fifty percent that of each eyepiece for the binoculars. The main benefit of using a long focal length is the ability to get high magnification while using an eyepiece of large field of view.

Thanks for the video. I just learned that Siril can easily align the images if you just stack the 2 files that you want to align. In the "process" folder the files will be in there perfectly aligned. Then you take those into photoshop to combine them. There is literally no work needed to align them if you do it this way.

This scope is 2K. It doesn’t come even close to Oberwerk 100XL-ED, which is 2,650 now.

Glad to see you back Dave! I can honestly say I've never seen some of the things you showed off in this vid, very interesting!!

Hopefully clear skies ahead!

nice video 👌

How do the results compare if you were to fully process each stack before combining them? I'm concerned that by combining them before processing that I will lose some of the detail from the narrow band. Thanks!

Great video! I have an earlier version of this (FDC1), also in carbon fiber, and have a question for you. I typically need to use 2 of the extension tubes - for the ASI1600 and the 2600. Otherwise, I can’t reach focus. Mine doesn’t have the hex focuser, but a really not up to par 2” rack-and-pinion that I’m constantly fighting with!

I visited this awesome phenomenon back when i played Elite Dangerous. Easily the most awesome expedition i took while playing that game

Can you just get a reducer for the Takahashi?? Love the videos

Curious on the camera clamp model : Amazon has it?

That sucks but that's par for the course for ioptron. I got the HAE43. guiding was off the charts. I sent them the log from PHD2 and a detailed account of the past attempts to use it. The opening line from the tech that replied was that he wasn't an expert on guiding. Then why are you replying to a guiding issue. Mount ended up going back. Thankfully I got it from Agena Astro and they worked it out with ioptron. Agena Astro is awesome.

Because William Optics patented the brilliant "lens-cap-which-is-also-a-Bhatinov-mask" idea... 🙄

Oh forgot to mention, yea I am going to get a ASI Air or simular to try and skip this damn Ipolar. Of course gambling on the rest of the mount is in working order. Again thanks for reminding me on that one. Sure hope it works:). Cheers

Hey it’s me again! Lol. On your intentions of not guiding, what’s been your experience in using the EC NON guided? I was planning on doing the same…. BUT……. the criminal cutthroats from the company , typical from that slice of the planet…:(. Yea they put a cold stop to that plan despite the 3k I gave them for a mount that never once…ever…. Operated due to not connecting to all elements of the mount…. Anyway curious on how your non guiding photo IQ is coming out for you. Cheers Brother, keep yup your channel.

jesus christ that single 3min exposure was amazing. what gain settings do you run on the 533?

Great video! Question for you, for some reason I thought only the RA motor had an encoder on it and not on the Dec motor. Do you know if that is true? I have had an absolute nightmare with mine and trying to makeup my mind on what I want to do moving forward. Thanks much!!

You can also go for a Vixen VSD90. Cheaper (not so much), field for 6x4 usable, 90mm aperture, 490mm, 5 lenses, 2 SD, 1ED, 1 Lanthanium element. Strehl Ratio 0,975.

HI, Congratulations, a question: the primalucelab spacer, is it the 20mm or the 30mm and the top bar, what size is it, I would appreciate it since I am putting together a very similar setup, thank you

Great video! I see you're still using 2 different cameras. Any updates on your preferences since your comparison 2 years ago? Are the image quality results the same?

What a beautiful mount. I'll be buying one very soon. Thanks for showing it.

Perfect video for my capacity

Great video... Can u share the name of the sound track u used ?

That sucks man, it’s no over reaction on your part. Your frustration is totally justified. For the amount of money we pay for items from these companies the customers satisfaction should be their #1 priority. Especially for something new. You got dogged. I’m in the market for a new mount and was seriously considering a CEM 120, and I would hate to have to go thru what you did. It gives me some more thinking to do. I’m glad your mount is working well and I hope you have great success with it for a very long time.

What was the filter you mentioned ?

Thoughts on using this scope for visual observations. Would a different Takahashi scope be better? Thanks. Great video.

Sod it... I'm getting one! Thanks!

When I originally purchase my CEM45EC in 2023 it connected just fine directly from USB of the iOptron to USB of the ASIAir. Then my mount's hand controller developed a fault. In the process of getting it back to operational I updated the firmware on the mount and HC, and then was supplied a refurbished HC under warranty. Now my mount will only connect to the ASIAir with a USB hub as per this video. So, something either updating the firmware or switching out the HC hardware has resulted in this problem, but certainly not the hardware of the mount or ASIAir neither of which have changed.

Why not an eight SCT? An C8 weights around 12.5 lbs, plus some equipments, stills in 60% of its capacity

Promo-SM 😌

18V ONE+ 120-WATT POWER SOURCE WITH 12V OUTPUT (RYI12VBG)

can you tell me what number your focuser is on for the sharpest focus. i am having trouble with this. i attach a sony a7r3 to it. thanks

awesome

Also what kinda cameras do you use

Is that a edgeHD 14 or 11

ZWO website says they recommend 12V and 5amps for ASI air. But GEM DEC Has 12V 3 amps..! How is that working? Aont it affect either the devices? And please help me with ine nore thing- what if i try to use a mini PC instead of ASI air. Can the 2 power outputs on dec power up the MINI PC like they are powering ASI AIR ?

Even with the few subtractions (thanks for the ED102 btw), that is still a collection to be envious of. My theory is that you downsized so you can justify a new purchase.... maybe mono and filters???? Great vid as usual.

Love your equipment reviews!

Funny, I sold my RedCat yesterday because I haven't used it for more than a year and regretted it the moment I saw the money in my hand... Get larger sensor for your Takahashi and you will fit Andromeda easily =P Clear skies!

Nice collection. 👌 I am using a 70/420 APO (with 1.0 flattner, a reducer still planned for ~340mm), a 150/750 Newton and an RC8 with 1625mm focal length. For the RC8 I am also planning a reducer to cover the about 1200mm focal length. I think with these three telescopes I will can cover everything except the super wide field. To do wide field I am also thinking about the Askar 135 or 180mm. With the RC8 using an Off-Axis Guider is a must. You should think about it for your Celestron too. I also was successful guiding with a190mm guide scope but using the full focal length for guiding is really awesome. It is so precise that I don't even need to polar align exactly. Having markers on the ground and put the tripod somewhat there is really enough to achive below 0.5 RMS. Going with the OAG on the 1625mm with a very good polar aligned mount gives me ~0.15 RMS. This feels to be too much being a pro. After 1.5 years into the hobby I don't want to be considered being perfect in it.