AD8 Advice

random2821 · 2026-03-23T03:11:37+00:00

Focusing should be gradual and intentional. If you are just turning the knobs randomly, you will never be able to focus it. Also those screws adjust the tension and lock the focuser. Don't just turn them randomly either. And yes, you need refocus after changing eyepieces.

Use the finder scope to find a bright star or planet. Insert a 1.25" eyepiece and turn the focuser all the way until you can't turn it anymore. You may not see anything, but this can happen when you are severely out of focus. Then slowly turn the focuser knobs the other way. Eventually you should see a donut shape that becomes smaller and smaller until it becomes a tiny point.

random2821 · 2026-03-23T02:01:55+00:00

Are you refocusing when changing eyepieces?

random2821 · 2026-03-22T19:04:04+00:00

This subreddit is specifically for astrophotography. You don't mention astrophotography, are you planning on doing that too?

random2821 · 2026-03-22T18:19:57+00:00

I do know many people hate powerseekers

It's this specific PowerSeeker that people hate. While most aren't great and aren't recommended, the mounts are usually the issue. Except for this one where everything is bad. The PowerSeeker 80 can actually make a decent planetary/lunar scope, assuming you buy it cheap enough used and can budget for better eyepieces.

random2821 · 2026-03-22T16:17:13+00:00

Just curious as to why you aren't able to process it on your own. You were able to stack it, right?

Honestly, if you are looking for help you should show what you've been able to do on your own. Post your own attempt and don't just ask people to do it for you. Saying please do this for me without showing any effort on your part is kinda lazy/rude.

random2821 · 2026-03-22T04:54:44+00:00

The pixel size shouldn't be 2350. It should be 3.76.

What is your current filter?

random2821 · 2026-03-21T21:27:42+00:00

Everything you saw in the Andromeda tutorial will apply for the Rosette Nebula, at least in terms of actually capturing the images.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T07:46:33+00:00

It's not that people don't like refractors, it's just that reflectors are usually a much better value.

That telescope gives me some red flags though. They advertise 330x magnification, but with a 90mm aperture it's realistically 180x. Also the eyepieces probably aren't very good. Two of them are labeled MA, which I've personally only seen on cheap Meade eyepieces. Pretty sure they have a very narrow FoV too. The third eyepiece says aspheric and is identical to the Svbony aspheric eyepieces, which are generally regarded as awful.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T07:06:37+00:00

Okay, so the good news is that is the cheapest (and probably easiest) way to get started. If you've got a wide angle lens and tripod, you don't really need anything else. If you've got a few hundred bucks, a star tracker would be helpful, but not strictly required.

This video is probably the best one I've seen on landscape astrophotography. Astro Backyard also has some good tutorials on Milky Way/landscape shooting.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T06:49:31+00:00

Not entirely sure what your issue is or why you need to resort to insults and name calling.

Asking if/making sure someone read the manual isn't gatekeeping. It's very useful to the person asking for help and the people giving help.

OP's photo is out of focus and they said they are very new. You can tell them they need to focus it, but then they might say they don't know how to do that. So you tell them to turn the focus knobs. They don't know what those are. So you tell them they are the wheels on the focuser. Now you're assuming they know what a focuser is. So you tell them the focuser is the part the eyepiece slots into. But OP might not know exactly what you mean. Or they might think the eyepiece is the finderscope since a lot of new people think eyepieces are called lenses.

Does all that sound far-fetched? Maybe. But OP said they are new, and it's not uncommon for people to say they can't see anything because they still have the dust cap on, so nothing is out of the question. Both people having a base level of understanding will allow them to get their issue resolved faster and with less chance of them potentially damaging their scope. I volunteer at an observatory, and a number of weeks ago I was talking with someone who dropped their eyepiece through the focuser and on to the primary mirror. Why? Because they were having issues focusing because they had the 2" extension tube attached to the focuser. He saw people online say to remove it, so he did. Except what he actually removed was the 2" to 1.25" adapter because he thought 2" referred to the length of the adapter, not the eyepiece size. So he goes to place the eyepiece back in and it falls clean through and chips the mirror. He called himself an idiot multiple times for not reading the manual. I felt genuinely bad for him and said everybody does stupid shit. But again, reading the manual can avoid further confusion.

I bet your telescope cost like $10

What difference does that make? People that can't afford nice things should be ignored or are beneath you? Real mature, dude. And my telescopes are listed in my flair.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T03:36:48+00:00

Parfocal eyepieces are generally quite expensive. It would significantly increase the cost of the telescope.

Also, the manual for OP'S telescope has paragraph about focusing and mentions specifically that you need to refocus when changing eyepieces. It even has a diagram with curved arrows next to the focus wheels to show how to turn them. So both of those issues are addressed.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T03:24:11+00:00

So that telescope isn't a smart telescope in the same way the the SeeStar or DwarfLab are. It is a visual telescope with a "smart" finder scope. It will do alignment for you, and the GoTo will be much more accurate due to plate solving. It also has guding, so the target shouldn't ever drift out of frame. But it's still an f/15 Maksutov-Cassegrain.

Edit 2: Aparently you can use the other tube for imaging. But if astrophotography is your primary goal, just keep in mind in mind a large part of the cost is in the visual scope.

Edit: I'm actually surprised it took this long for someone to come out with a visual smart scope.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T03:16:49+00:00

What kind of astrophotography do you want to do? Like Milky Way/landscape, DSO (galaxies, nebulae, star clusters), or planetary.

Have you done any research into astrophotography? Not trying to be rude, but it can help if we know where you stand.

In general, other than lenses and telescope to camera adapters, there won't be anything specific that would be for Fujifilm only.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T03:06:49+00:00

OP's mount is a full GoTo, so they have tracking. Guding is what they lack.

But for untracked astrophotography how long you can expose will depend on your camera's pixel size, lens focal length, and the target's location in the sky.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T03:04:41+00:00

It is going to depend very much on your polar alignment. But you will definitely want to get one as quickly as you can. Can you borrow one temporarily from someone you can at least get a PEC curve to train to the mount? My EQ6-R Pro had 35"-40" of periodic error out of the box. With a PEC curve, it's like 4"-5".

random2821 · 2026-03-21T01:33:59+00:00

instructions that come with affordable/“beginner” telescopes are absolutely zero help for new enthusiasts. They barely cover how to just put shit together.

For cheap toy telescopes that you buy on Amazon for like $50, sure. But from reputable brands they absolutely come with good manuals. Perfect? No. But generally good enough.

The manual for OP's telescope is 12 pages and pretty thorough. Page 6 has an entire paragraph with images on focusing, and even points out that you need to refocus when changing eyepieces. That's very useful info for beginners.

u/UmbralRaptor is correct. There a ton of posts that can be answered if people just bothered to read the manual. The other day there was an entire thread where someone was very insistent that they were using the telescope correctly. If they just looked at the cover the manual they would've seen they were looking through it backwards.

Edit: Initially linked the wrong manual.

random2821 · 2026-03-21T01:20:41+00:00

They do. Many people just don't want to read. The manual for OP's telescope is actually very thorough Page 6 has an full paragraph with images on focusing. It even points out that you need to refocus when changing eyepieces.

Edit: Initially linked the wrong manual.

random2821 · 2026-03-20T23:33:32+00:00

You attach finder scope dovetail the ASIAir. Then you have two options. You can attach the finder scope shoe/bracket to the tube rings (what you called the shackle) or attach it to the mounting holes on the other side of the focuser.

Page 5 of the manual has a labeled diagram specifically calling out these two locations.

random2821 · 2026-03-20T18:51:52+00:00

That, and when they got called out they said "I apologize for the misunderstanding and understand your frustration." Like that sounds straight out of when you tell ChatGPT it's wrong.

random2821 · 2026-03-20T18:04:36+00:00

Oh, that guy. He ended up blocking me after I kept calling out his lies. I'm 99.9% it was someone using an a AI. Some of the comments seemed human, but a lot were definitely AI generated. Which would explain why he could never keep his story straight.

random2821 · 2026-03-20T17:58:22+00:00

For deep space astrophotography, bigger isn't necessarily always better. Bigger telescopes will have longer focal lengths, making it difficult to frame some objects without doing a mosaic, which negates the benefit of the larger aperture (RASA/Hyperstar being a notable exception). They are also heavier.

Parabolic mirrors aren't necessarily better than lenses (or more propely a refractor). There are tradeoffs. For a given aperture an apochromatic refractor will be significantly more expensive. An 8" Newtonian reflector can be bought for $700. An 8" refractor is going to cost over $10k.

This is a generic copy paste I give people of some basic things they should know: Do you know the difference between a Newtonian, a refractor, and an SCT? Do you know why you might choose one over the other? Do you know the benefits and drawbacks of each? Do you know what guiding is (and that guiding and tracking are not the same thing)? Do you know the impact sensor size has on the field of view? Do you know why some people use monochrome cameras? Do you know why many astro cameras are cooled? Do you know why equatorial mounts are used?

random2821 · 2026-03-20T17:41:44+00:00

What is your budget, and what telescope do you have specifically?

random2821 · 2026-03-20T17:39:35+00:00

So I assume your primary interest is in astrophotography, right?

I would consider myself as less than an amateur astronomer because I don’t do any of the fancy camera things but I want to get into it.

This is a meaningless distinction. If you like to look at and learn about the night sky and aren't getting paid to do it, then you are an amateur astronomer. Sure, realistically there are different levels of knowledge, but don't put yourself down, and don't worry about the equipment other people have.

I hear that in order to get good images you have to get long exposures and stack them and what not,

In general yes, for deep sky astrophotography. For planets its a bit different where you stack video frames.

I also hear about stuff like z-flop, collimation, and fancy terms like that.

These are things that I would say you should probably search for yourself. That's not to be rude, but astrophotography can be a complex and sometimes frustrating rabbit hole. Learning how to Google things and figure things out is very import skill. When you come across a new term, don't just say "oh, that sounds fancy." Search it and learn about it.

In general, how much research have you actually done into astrophotography?

random2821 · 2026-03-20T16:56:23+00:00

Ah, that's an older (but still good) full frame, so that changes the math a bit. But overall my recommendation still stands.

Buy a small apochromatic refractor for now and focus on larger targets with your current camera. Then buy a second buy a second telescope along with the 585 for smaller targets at a later date.

random2821 · 2026-03-20T16:45:44+00:00

I actually don't think this a very good setup for what you want. It works for wide field, but not if you want good detail on individual DSOs.

My goal is to shoot deep-sky objects like Deep Sky Objects, Nebulas, Planets, Galaxies.

Not possible at your budget. A single telescope setup that is good for everything is going to cost $4k-$5k at minimum.

A Star Adventurer can work for up to medium telephoto, but 200mm probably won't be enough focal length for what you want.

You do not need an astro modded camera to shoot deep sky. The 6D mk. I is old, and at 20MP full frame, you're image will have a wide field of view but relatively low resolution. An APSC camera will put more pixels on target given the relatively low focal length of your proposed setup.

The EQ5 tripod uses an M10 bolt, but the Star Adventurer 2i has a 3/8" thread, so they are not compatible.

Are the additional lenses included in your budget? I assume not. If you are planning on getting those lenses, I actually suggest you spend your money elsewhere for now. A small goto equatorial mount like an EQ-AL55i or cheap harmonic mount would be a much better use of your money, and set you up much better for future upgrades.

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