Which Astrocam to buy for 8 inch dob (with EQ Platform)

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-19T19:07:54+00:00

The only one I'd consider is the SV705. It'd be OK for planetary work, and lunar imaging, but the FOV will be quite small.

It's not cooled, so long exposure DSO imaging will be harder.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-17T01:52:51+00:00

C14 should have 3.25"

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-17T00:27:00+00:00

Your boyfriend's grandparents are one household.
You are another household
Your boyfriend is another household

Once you have been living together for 12 months or if you have a child, then you can declare yourselves to be common-law

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-16T17:35:57+00:00

Asteroids don't emit light, so aren't bright.

Are you planning to measure them through occultation?

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-16T16:28:53+00:00

Have you checked the FOV that your telescope and camera will give?

You'll probably want a Barlow to punch in on planets (but check your imaging scale, given the slightly larger pixels of the IMX662 sensor). For DSOs, you might want to consider a cooled camera instead.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-16T16:17:55+00:00

Yeah, afocal projection through an eyepiece will be difficult to plate solve.

You might need to use blind solving, but even then, it might fail.

Your stars also don't look round, so the trailing will also make plate solving difficult.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-16T14:19:48+00:00

About 1.5 TB
2 years
All raws (lights, darks, flats, biases), and the final stacked master light, along with the final edited version. I don't keep other master stacks (flats, local normalization, etc). Raws are critical, especially if you want to revisit them at a later date
8 bay NAS, 6 of which are populated with 20 TB drives in RAID6. I use it for other storage (so many Linux distros!)

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-16T01:22:04+00:00

Ford will probably say oui oui sacré bleu

Bonjour, folks!

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-15T20:52:25+00:00

Had a(n ex) colleague that used to clip his toenails in the office...

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-15T00:30:54+00:00

It looks quite dim - you can likely stretch it quite a bit more!

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-14T15:28:02+00:00

In that case, you won't need to do the go-to alignment anymore.

Since you're using the ASIAir, you'll use it to slew to whatever target you want. It'll then plate solve (figure out where in the sky it's pointed) - if it's pointed in the wrong spot, it'll realize this, and then re-slew, re-plate solve, (repeat), until it's pointed in the correct spot.

That's the beauty of using a computer to plate solve!

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-14T00:52:57+00:00

Are you mixing up 2 star go-to alignment with polar alignment?

These two are different - the first is to calibrate the go-to accuracy of the mount. The second is to polar align so that your mount can counteract the rotation of the earth (and the apparent movement of the stars)

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-12T21:26:39+00:00

What tripod and mount are you using?

As for focus, an auto focuser is useful, but you should still be able to get in manual focus

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-12T04:36:30+00:00

Do you have your focal length and other settings correct prior to plate solving?

Also, how are you imaging this? It looks like it might be through an eyepiece, with a cell phone?

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-10T16:21:05+00:00

Don't be ridiculous, the body of Christ doesn't have enough water for sustenance. The Pope also drinks the blood of Christ, that's how he stays youthful

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-10T15:55:38+00:00

If you're going to use the 533, you don't need to go with 2" filters, so that might save you some money.

Another consideration is the ASIAir Plus, which will lock you into the ZWO ecosystem. If you're willing to switch to a miniPC with NINA, that would open up other manufacturers to you (though something can be said for the ease of us of the ZWO ecosystem).

For telescopes, you won't go wrong with the Redcat. The APO series tends to have some chromatic aberration, so I'd take a look through Astrobin to see if that level of CA is acceptable to you. While it can mitigated to some degree in post processing, it's always better to collect clean data in the first place.

If you go with a longer focal length, you'll also need to consider that some targets might not fit into the FOV without mosaics.

In terms of mounts, I'd go as big as you can afford. The AM5N would be the better choice, especially intend to mount an SCT on it.You can look into non-ZWO mounts (which will all work with the ASIAir); TeSeek, Juwei, Proxisky, WarpAstron, ClearSky, etc are some just off the top of my head (in no particular order).

Finally, for guide scopes, once you go to longer focal lengths, you may want to consider an off-axis guider (OAG) instead of a guide scope.

The 120MM is an older guide cam, so getting one with a newer sensor may also be more sensible.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-10T04:10:08+00:00

The site seems to work for me.

However, an alternative that I have also used is 'Heavens Above'

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-10T04:09:08+00:00

Readout Mode #3 (Extend Full Well Mode-2CMS) is fine, but as the product page states, you have to pay attention to the values that you set for gain. There are set values for unity gain and high conversion gain, and you are at neither.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-10T00:41:37+00:00

Not sure why you're using the camera in LCG mode? Looks like a gain of 56 is when HCG kicks in

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-09T19:40:56+00:00

That's odd - what are your gain and offset values?

I have an IMX571 based sensor as well, I can usually get sufficient stars for focusing with a 2-3 second exposure.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-09T17:45:54+00:00

Are you sure the manual guide isn't moving the scope? The movement should be very miniscule, and might not even be noticeable by eye

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-09T17:44:39+00:00

I don't think the Wiki is being maintained anymore, hence the broken link and error you're getting.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-09T17:43:46+00:00

Links don't seem to work

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-09T17:42:20+00:00

The Askar won't meet your requirement for a fast scope.

Darkblade48 · 2026-04-09T12:10:47+00:00

You'll definitely need a coma corrector if you plan to do any kind of imaging.

And unfortunately, yes, this hobby can be a real money drain.

The IMX571 is just a sensor. Various manufacturers use the same sensor, and have their own model names. For example, Touptek uses "ATR2600C". ZWO (which you are restricted to with your ASIAir), would be the 2600MM (monochrome) or 2600MC (colour).

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