HyperStar - Does all this speed come at a price? Let's find out!

[@bluecelox]

FYI, I had a C11 EdgeHD with a V4 HyperStar and it has an image circle of 35 mm and worked with my full frame ZWO ASI6200MC sensor. I now have a C14 EdgeHD with a V4 HyperStar and the same sensor and it works great! Another note that Starizona just moved last month to a new larger location about 2 miles from my house. Dean, Steve, and Scott are all doing great now that they have much more space in their new building.

[@lukomatico]

That's wonderful to hear!! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information my friend, I'll likely buy an m54 adapter and try with my full frame cam at some point! :-)

[@steveweintraub1113]

Welcome to HyperStar! Dean, Scott, and the entire Starizona team are awesome, just like the HS for the 11”. Shooting with the HS is amazing.

[@lukomatico]

Awesome to hear that!! :-D so glad to have this thing!

[@delleps]

Welcome to the HyperStar Club! It's the best accessory I've ever bought for my circa 1995 C11.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much mate!! I can really see why people like them! 👍👍

[@paulholdsworth2502]

Amazing piece of kit Luke and looks so well built!! The dust it's picked on m42 is just incredible for the integration time. Stunning M42 image 👌

[@lukomatico]

Thanks a ton mate!! :-D

[@gabewrsewell]

pretty excited to see how tolerant to collimation they are! i’ve been looking into the hyperstar 11 v4 specifically actually, because we may be carrying them at my store soon, and we have a spare CPC 11” scope… we’ve been thinking about making the ultimate EAA rig for outreach events. but i’ve got a secret, tomorrow i’ll be picking up a metabones 0.64x speedbooster that i’ve measured and confirmed will adapt between the back of a hyperstar and a 533mc pro… live stacking on a cooled camera at 11” and f/1.2!! i can’t wait to try it out, thanks for adding even more fuel to that fire luke lmao

[@lukomatico]

That sounds like it'll be absolutely wild Gabe!! Interested to see how that turns out :-D clear skies!!

[@Astrolavista]

I really appreciate this video, Luke, and I’ll tell you why! I’m often asked about the best all-in-one telescope for capturing great planetary images while also being suitable for deep-sky photography. Of course, the answer depends on the budget. For those with tighter budgets, I usually recommend something like a 200PDS paired with a Barlow for planetary imaging. However, for those with a higher budget, my go-to suggestion is a Celestron SCT with HyperStar. The challenge is that many people shy away from this setup due to concerns about how difficult HyperStar might be to use. I’ve often linked Cuiv’s videos to reassure them, but now I have another fantastic resource to point them towards, so thank you! Keep up the great work. P.S. I hope you’re all doing well, and that Felix is settling in nicely!

[@lukomatico]

That's superb to hear Chris mate!! The hyperstar has been a breath of fresh air for sure, it's made my favourite scope even more versatile - love it! :-D Felix is doing great mate thank you! He's back above his birth weight now and feeding well, we're all just a bit sleep deprived though lol 😂😂 Hope you and yours are well!!

[@RandallKayfes]

First, congratulations on your HS purchase and highlighting your journey with it. When I bought mine I took my C9.25 into Starizona and had Dean (owner) culminate my corrector plate. From the factory we found the corrector plate loose and not centered. Dean got the corrector plate centered and tightened down. Now it was time to culminate my HS. So like you we bottomed out the push pull knobs. Well guess what with the corrector plate perfect putting the HS flat made for perfect culmination. If only everybody lived within travel distance to Starizona. BTW Dean did not charge me a dime to get the corrector plate perfect as well as the HS culmination! So in summary I would say if you can make sure your corrector plate is perfect the HS becomes infinitely easier to utilize. You might want to check that piece out and see it make a difference with your culmination and other corner aberrations. Dean, Scott, Steve and everyone at Starizona - I cannot thank you enough for make AP such a pleasure!!!! BTW I never seen anyone mention the Starizona endcap for the camera end of the HS works great for covering focuser side of the scope. No light leaks - made of metal and great storage so you don't loose it.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much mate!! Luckily I already did center my corrector plate so that will have made things easier for sure! :-) I really like the tip about the end cap by the way, nice one!!

[@Tony-Elliott]

Another great video Luke with really useful information

[@lukomatico]

Glad you enjoyed it Tony my friend!! Clear skies to you :-)

[@callumgreer9683]

Looks like an amazing piece of kit to have in your collection mate Can’t wait for you to get some more clear skies and see what you can get 🤩👍

[@randallpatrickc]

Brilliant review. Love my 9.25/HS4 - these things are just so fast.

[@minkey1972]

do you use any filters with yours? I'm going around in circles trying to find good ones

[@randallpatrickc]

@ yes, I just have a permanent nebula filter on during nebula season but that’s about all

[@lukomatico]

I've tried quite a few on my RASA scopes, but my favourite is just a UV/ir cut generally 👍

[@robandjo2001]

Excellent video Luke- really useful to see the practical steps of seeing it up. I was delighted when I went from f5 to f3.5; my bank account is now scared 🤣

[@lukomatico]

Thanks bud!! - I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it, it's always fun making videos like this! :-) clear skies!

[@Jcorban08]

Wow, congratulations on acquiring the HS! It’s encouraging to see such amazing results and the relative ease of collimation. Now you’ve got three scopes in one! Enjoy, and I look forward to seeing more, Luke. Clear skies, - John

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much John my friend!! I'm so happy with the hyperstar now, can't wait for the weather to clear up! :-)

[@RobertKarlBerta]

I have a long history (I am nearly 7 years old) with Hyperstats and its predecessor, the Fastar. My first version was on a 8" SCT Celestron with their Fastar setup and a mono ST237 which had a motorized filter wheel that was small so worked fine on the 8" aperture. Those chips were small but with the Fastar allowed a decent FOV at a good price considering the coast of CCD cameras those days. Celestron decided to drop that format but Dean Koenig of Starizona was able to take over the idea and improved it greatly with the Hyperstars. They went through versions allowing it to cover larger chip sizes, better images, and nicer features like beiong able to be easily colimated and internal filter drawer. Over the years I moved up size wise through each version. I had these on my 11" SCTs (have two of them... one on a folk mount and the other one on of the AP mounts). More recently I bought a 8" HD celestron and its match V4 Hperstar which gives amazng results. The 11" scopes are used on a couple of AP mounts... a 1100 and an older 900. The main reason for the 8" Hyperstar was for mounting on a ZWO AM5 for portable fast setup. I use an external guide scope and all ZWO gear with that one. My main imaging telescope is both a 6" APO refractor with full frame mono/filters for RGB Ha OIII SII and the 8" Hyperstar setup or a small 80mm APO refractor. The one scope I now recommend to others is te 8" SCT because it can be used at f10, f8, or f 1.9 with Hyperwstart. This makes a very versatile and easy to transport AND setup system for high magnication, regular magnifcation with around a 1 degree FOV , or wide field around 3 degrees FOV. I still use the 11" SCTs but less than the other gear for imaging. I also manage an observatory for Scouts and we have a 14" HD SCT also with Hyperstar but normally that is used visually. Some ask me about collimating Hyperstar. Franklyi it is very easy and they hold colimation quite well.

[@OlliesSpace]

Nice kit mate, wouldn't mind trying one of these one day. Enjoy pal.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks bud!! Hope you are doing well, as always 🙏

[@Miguel_Noppe]

I bought a RASA11 about a year ago and yes, it requires some work to adjust it to top performance/ But I did get a whole Baader UFC setup to replace the standard Celestron camera adaptor. The Baader UFC tilter was very helpful to get rid of my tilt. In the beginnen I also used a 3d printed arc for cable management, but I did not like the abbarations produced by it so I moved to a 4 vaned mask. Yes I have spikes on brighter stars now but I like them better then what was produced with the arc. Anyway, enjoy and CS.

[@deep_space_dave]

I am glad you got a HyperStar, you will really enjoy it. It is so easy to collimate and get good stars you won't miss the RASA 🙂 Enjoy mate!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you Dave mate!! That's great to hear :-D

[@DSOImager]

That's awesome Luke. Pretty impressed that it works better than the RASA.

[@lukomatico]

Thank you James my friend!! It's been really interesting to experience both sides of the coin 👍👍

[@nikaxstro]

That m42 image is a cracker, looks like you are on a good thing mate and the beauty of this system is you have 2 scopes in one!

[@lukomatico]

Thanks so much mate!! It was really surprising to see so much dust in so little time, great fun! :-) clear skies!!

[@AstroReyak]

Gosh that Orion Nebula is an APO, how beatifull and detailed is, is heart breaking. That makes me rethinks the option to get a Rasa for future equipemnt. Preciosa imagen si señor!!!

[@lukomatico]

Thank you my friend!! :-)

[@annikasoraya4322]

Hey mate, Congratulations on another extraordinary video presentation. How is little one and wife recovering from delivery? I hope both are thriving. Interestingly I cannot spot any dark circles under your eyes from sleep deprivation! Ha, ha, ha . . . . Many blessings and eternal light from Newcastle in Australia! Annika 🔮🔭🌎🍹🕯️

[@lukomatico]

Hey Annika! Hope you are well my friend :-D Felix is thriving, and Chloe is recovering well - she's had some 'baby blues' but they are fading now thankfully - We're getting there!! ❤️ Thanks for such a positive message as always, Best wishes Luke

[@annikasoraya4322]

@@lukomatico Cheers Luko, Enjoy your bundle of joy! Annika

[@HeavenlyBackyardAstronomy]

I have the HyperStarHD, too, and I love it. I have had no trouble with it. The only issue is the filters since it is so fast. I would need to buy dedicated ones, which would only be used in this setup, and I'm kind of cheap, Ha! Clear Skies, Luke

[@Arcteek]

Great video! I have a hyperstar V4 on my Edge 8 and my stars are not nearly as good as yours. I spent at least an hour centering the corrector plate and collimation is near perfect with my tri bahtinov mask. I'm not sure what to do more at this point. Fortunately BlurXT helps me still get quite perfect stars in post processing.

[@KingLoopie1]

Looks like something to save for!

[@chrisschur6736]

Id like to suggest a method to reduce or alleviate the linear color abberations. If you do a star alignment in PI using thin splines on the RGB channels then merge - you will re register them and get far better images in the corners. Give it a try!

[@lukomatico]

Very interesting suggestion mate, thank you!! :-)

[@sevenskiesastro]

Definitely a great addition that Luke. I've been working on my poor mans version and you Definitely get what you pay for though blurx is a god saver for my conversion. Clear skies my friend.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Rob my friend!! Clear skies to you :-D

[@KJRitch]

I have a non HD C8. I guess there is no advantage of the HD when using a Hyperstar compared to the C8? If you set up and tear down each session and have to install and remove the Hyperstar I guess you will need to check the collimating every time? I wonder how far off it would be from a collimated previous session? I’ll be visiting Starizona’s new location near Tucson in March. I should leave my wallet behind. Thank you.

[@KevinRudd-w8s]

Pretty awesome Luke. I would really like an Edge HD and hyperstar set up but my credit card has already taken a battering this year upgrading my existing set ups so I better leave it for a while. That image of the Orion Nebula was pretty spectacular for just twenty minutes worth of data.

[@lukomatico]

Thank you mate!! And I hear that, astro is such an expensive thing to be involved in haha

[@DeepSpaceAstro]

The HyperStar on my EdgeHD8 feels like a cheat code! ⬆⬆⬇⬇⬅➡⬅➡🅱🅰 Great overview bud!

[@lukomatico]

Love it mate hahaha!! The Konami code of astro :-D thank you for your own videos on hyperstar by the way!!! Great work as always buddy

[@JonnyBravo0311]

Back when I bought my 8" EdgeHD, I was very strongly considering picking up a Hyperstar as well. The biggest drawback was that I shoot mono. I would have to buy a completely new set of narrowband filters that are bandpass shifted to deal with the f/1.9 speed. That, and I'd have to adjust my data gathering workflow to a single filter per night, or figure out how to take flats on each filter swap. I then considered picking up a dedicated OSC and just using the scope for broadband targets. That option didn't really sit well with me, either. I like shooting emission targets, and I've never really liked the dual bandpass filter approach. Hindsight being twenty-twenty, I really wish I'd just gone the route of a HS and new pre-shifted filters. Instead, I ended up buying a SharpStar 15028HNT. Yup, I bought new filters, too. Though I did save some money picking up 36mm unmounted filters (instead of the 2" filters I would have needed with the HS) with a wider bandpass to accommodate the f/2.8 optics. Unfortunately, I've spent all my time doing nothing but trying to make that scope work to my satisfaction. I've had that scope for two years and have yet to produce an image from it. Every time I bring it out, I spend all my time under the stars making teeny-tiny adjustments to the tilt plate. It has been an exercise in futility to be honest. The sad thing is I've seen such fantastic images produced with it, so I _know_ it can be an exceptional instrument.

[@lukomatico]

Ah mate that sounds incredibly frustrating, is it worth cutting your losses and moving on from the scope if it's killing your enjoyment perhaps? Life is short!

[@astronotna]

Dang my friend that's insane but I am here for it!! LOL Let's Gooooooooooooo!

[@lukomatico]

Let's gooooo hahah :-D

[@DrunkferretKG]

Thanks for the video! I have been on the fence about their 6.3 reducer for my C8 SCT. Hopefully the quality you're seeing would be in the 6.3 reducer too!

[@PhilPassmore]

Having won a C8 in an online raffle (Clover), I asked the significant other if I could buy a Hyperstar, and being allowed, have not looked back. A few times I have reconfigured back to native f10, but have ended up so frustrated by the darkness that I have switched back to Hyperstar double quick! Have never regretted the purchase.

[@lukomatico]

Excellent to hear that and huge congratulations on the initial win too, that's brilliant! :-D enjoy!

[@wattswheelhouse]

I've been waiting with one of these in my cart for a while now.

[@lukomatico]

I'm very much a YOLO guy as long as it won't cause you any hardship to purchase! I'd say go for it, haha :-D

[@iamjessieray]

Very nice. I have thought about swapping my 130mm f/5 newt for a C6 and then getting a hyperstar later, but honestly the more I look at images taken with hyperstars the less I like the star shapes when I'm looking at something closely, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do. For that reason I think I am going to just get a nice coma corrector to fix my stars at the edges and then buy a larger newt later, mostly so that I can easily find upgrade parts since almost nobody makes upgrades for the 130mm newts. All that to say that I think for me a slower system (by comparison anyway) with tighter and cleaner stars is more pleasing to me, but I can see how getting sick images in only a couple of hours is appealing. On that note, have you tried out any coma correctors/reducers? I know Cuiv has but was curious to know what your thoughts on those are if you have any. EDIT: I stand corrected. Backyard Universe now makes parts for the 130p-ds. These were not available last time I looked.

[@Lord_Whiteley]

I’m glad the Hyperstar reached you OK. I should have included the Tri-Bahtinov mask I designed and. 3D printed for it in the eBay sale. But let me know if you would like me to send it to you ? ?

[@lukomatico]

Hey mate! It's awesome to see you here, I didn't realise you were a subscriber - that's brilliant! The tri-mask would be really cool to have, but please don't worry too much as I realise shipping stuff like that can be a pain! Only if it's easy 👍👍 (let me know how I can help with postage too) Really happy to have bought your hyperstar my friend, hopefully you'll enjoy seeing it in action on the channel too :-) Clear skies!

[@JoeGarrity-m1y]

Happy to see you have the HyperStar, Luke. I have the v4 for my EdgeHD 8". I'll be interested in your future videos related to your experience with the HyperStar. How much of a difference in exposure/integration time would you say f1.9 is to f3.9? I am considering a widefield refractor that's f3.9.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks my friend!! - I'd say f1.9 feels a few times faster than f4 (my newt) does in terms of SNR, but it's hard to say accurately yet without any side-by-side comparisons 👍👍

[@JoeGarrity-m1y]

Thanks. I got that impression from one of the other videos you recently published, where you figured that an F2 could capture four times the signal than an F7. I was guessing that f1.9/f3.9 might be 2.5 times "faster."

[@Mrpaulgs]

Great video. I also just picked up a used V4 Hyperstar so it's nice to see your favourable comments. What mount is it that you are using for your C11 rig?

[@lukomatico]

It's an eq8 mate! Great mount, very heavy and solid

[@CDigata]

Glad you went with the hyperstar, your going to have some fun.. one day and i mean one day ill have the funds to replace my edge 8 for an edge 11 when I can find the funds... look forward to see you compare it to the Rasa 11.. think you have replaced the Monster with a Beast ;)

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Chris mate!! In the end I had a lovely time with your old RASA for sure, I wish I'd had the money to just keep everything and not feel bad when such a scope was 'out of action' for a bit, but it's not realistic haha Hoping the hyperstar continues to behave as it's been honestly so painless thus far! :-) Best wishes and clearest of skies to you my friend, as always!

[@minkey1972]

What kind of filters did you use Luke? I've got one but not used it on my 9.25. Thanks

[@lukomatico]

Thanks mate! I just used UV/ir cut 👍👍

[@minkey1972]

@@lukomatico thats very impressive! I've been looking at special high speed filters, but maybe I'll just start with the IV/IR. thanks!

[@johnkasianowicz6536]

Is there a separate camera orthogonality adjustment (independent of the scope collimation adjustment)?

[@88cford]

Do you have ro do calibration frames with a hyperstar? If so how?

[@lukomatico]

You should use calibration frames yeah :-) I'm taking flats with a panel hung from the ceiling in front of the scope, works well!

[@RandallKayfes]

@@lukomatico I have an aluminum dew shield and place the light panel at the end of it and it works perfectly

[@keithhanssen7413]

Major time-saver. Now that you have a child to take care of, any time-saver is a good thing.

[@lukomatico]

Absolutely 100% true!! Time has never felt so valuable! Hope you are well mate 👍👍

[@seebbsss]

I love your work and I've been following you for a while. Question: Would you be willing to open a discord channel? There's tons of people who would benefit from it, be it you helping (whenever you have the time, we are all busy) or others drawn by you, it would be awesome if we can get a good community going. I've been doing astroP for about 3 years at this point and I finally bought my first astro dedicated camera, I'm so excited about it. Love your content.

[@lukomatico]

Thanks mate!! I've not really considered a discord much as Astrobiscuit already has a huge one, but I could perhaps ask if it was something people wanted still! Clear skies :-)

[@danbartlett7923]

Luke, I noticed in the video that you collimated the star and it looked perfect. But the star wasn't centered on the sensor. Any thoughts on what effect the lack of collimation when the star isn't centered might have on the average FWHM across the field of your images? Do take a look at your extreme off-axes unfocused stars with your HyperStar setup - it might be shocking . Thanks for educating us! Dan

[@lukomatico]

Thanks Dan! :-) good question! As I was using a very small region of interest to perform collimation it ensured that as long as the star was reasonably centered in the ROI, it was forced to ve very close to perfectly on-axis 👍👍 Hope that helps!

[@jamiesmithnc]

I am considering a RASA 11v2 for my observatory. It would be permanently mounted. If yours was permanently mounted do you feel you would have kept it?

[@lukomatico]

If I had somewhere to just leave it setup permanently then yes, I'd likely have kept it! That said, the hyperstar definitely takes the sting away

[@seemantadutta]

I love my Hyperstar v4 on my edge HD 8! But it surely needs readjustment and collimation.

[@dmcmahon999]

What guide scope and camera do you use please. Also what primary imaging camera model please.

[@bbasiaga]

I have the V3 for my C11. I need to break it out and use it again. Its been a long time. My C11 is quite old now, and the focuser is an issue with a lot of slop.

[@marklindsey1995]

Starizona makes a ZWO EAF adapter. I have it on mine and it works well.

[@bbasiaga]

@marklindsey1995 yes. I have the zwo eaf adapter as well. But the scope side of the focuser has a ton of backlash and usually drifts over the Nighy.

[@lukomatico]

It might be worth trying a huge backlash movement (CCW) if you're normally set reasonably conservatively - I use around 1500 steps on my eaf for the edge11! :-)

[@bbasiaga]

@lukomatico wow...I was using 150! That's 10x less. I guess I need to really test it some night. I came up.with that number visually. I may need to.find an optical method.

[@Darren_71]

You sold the RASA 11 😮😢 My favourite scope ever, I sold my HD11 (to you) & kept the RASA. I did toy with getting a Hyperstar before the RASA. The only thing they puts me off the RASA Is the sheer size & weight, I leave my RASA attached permanently.

[@lukomatico]

Hey Darren!! It's great to hear from you mate, I hope you are doing well! :-) If I had a third pier and suitable mount I'd probably have kept the RASA, but as you saw it's pretty tight in the obsy haha! Hope you're getting plenty of clear skies mate, it's good to see you on the channel! 👍👍

[@Darren_71]

@lukomatico clear skies are rare here 😂, but that RASA gets used well when they do 👍 Got rid of my much loved S50 & made a second little setup, a nice little Askar FMA180 on a SA-GTi, it's nice having a little lightweight setup to plop outside when you're too tired for the big rig. You soon get fed up of smart telescopes limitations of field rotation & 10s exposures. I'll buy another when they all do EQ mode (I may get a Dwarf3?) Congratulations again on the Baby 👶 👏 Clear Skies.

[@deltacx1059]

Yes the price is a few weeks pay just for the scope, then another few for a camera then a couple more for a mount that can handle it then probably another two weeks of pay if you dont have a laptop and thats not even counting the hyperstar.

[@lukomatico]

Astrophotography is certainly expensive mate, no doubt about it! 👍

[@dumpydalekobservatory]

Ah mate now its my turn to be jealous as you have my dream setup what I'd call the Swiss army knife of telescopes as you now you have three focal lengths in one package. Ok so some bits will need bolting on so to speak but very impressive bit of kit mate. I love the RASA I really do but Celestron do supply some pretty crappy parts to use with the camera I must say as for what they cost to buy. I were using the M48 adapter on mine & the vignetting with an APSC camera was pretty bad I'm sure they could do better. As for rotating the camera yeah I hear ya as its a right faff although I did get a rotator from Ali Express which made things a lot easier.

[@Wombatzone31]

awesome video!! See Dylans new scope?? Yours looks so tiny now lmao

[@lukomatico]

Haha, maybe I make it look smaller because I'm so large myself!! 😂

[@w8bya]

Oh no ! Now you really did it Luke. Do you by chance have a spare dog house in the backyard I can sleep in? (I think you know why) LOL

[@lukomatico]

Haha!!! I'm sure we can find some accommodation if needed mate 😂

[@markbergendahl2651]

Your images at the end of the video do the talking for the htperstar !

[@old_photons]

Just breaking in my C11 Edge at f10 still. First night of imaging last night. Need to tweak my Hocus Focus settings - finds focus with NINA but star detection settings are likely my issue w/ HF - any advice Luke? Hyperstar is in my future but probably not for a year or so.. Nice review.

[@lukomatico]

Thank you mate!! Re: focus settings, I'd probably change to trends and parabolic (rather than hyperbolic) - set your base focus exposure time to be 5 seconds or so, focuser settle time to 2 sec, bin2 mode, focus step size to 100 and have a counterclockwise (make a movement and double check which is which before setting) focuser backlash of around 1500 steps if using an eaf Hope that helps!

[@old_photons]

@@lukomatico Thanks. Having the TAIC session from a couple weeks ago helped in a huge way. Having saved the focusing runs I tweaked according to George's advice for SCTs and found a set of number that gave good results. Took some iterations but found it all in the daylight with saved images - what an awesome tool.

[@netanmaldoran4816]

I think my tax return is going to turn in to a C6 and a Hyperstar :o

[@lukomatico]

Haha!! Enjoy it my friend!

[@luboinchina3013]

I thought it was clockwise...🤔

[@lukomatico]

It's CCW for mirror up tube! :-)

[@johnkasianowicz6536]

Nice tool for EAA.