Should I buy this?!

[Baskevo]

I'm buying it!

[mention]Lady Fraktor[/mention] you seem pretty knowledgable with the Stellarvue scopes... Do you know if the ZWO EAF will work with this OTA?

[bladekeeper]

I'm buying it!

@Lady Fraktor you seem pretty knowledgable with the Stellarvue scopes... Do you know if the ZWO EAF will work with this OTA?

Lady Fraktor will slap you if you put a ZWO EAF on your Stellarvue.

The ZWO EAF with mount on the Stellarvue just fine. I had mine on my SV102T and it mounted right up easily enough.

I did eventually remove it. I like my SV for visual and lunar imaging, and the auto-focuser was a bit of a hobble for both of those pursuits. It is residing on my ED80 now.

[Baskevo]

I'm buying it!

@Lady Fraktor you seem pretty knowledgable with the Stellarvue scopes... Do you know if the ZWO EAF will work with this OTA?

Lady Fraktor will slap you if you put a ZWO EAF on your Stellarvue.

The ZWO EAF with mount on the Stellarvue just fine. I had mine on my SV102T and it mounted right up easily enough.

IMG_0089.jpgIMG_0088.jpg

I did eventually remove it. I like my SV for visual and lunar imaging, and the auto-focuser was a bit of a hobble for both of those pursuits. It is residing on my ED80 now.

The guy I'm buying from used his SV for visual as well... I don't see why someone would be a triplet APO just for visual. It will be good for AP too right?

Why not the EAF? lol it just seems so easy!

[bladekeeper]

The guy I'm buying from used his SV for visual as well... I don't see why someone would be a triplet APO just for visual. It will be good for AP too right?

Why not the EAF? lol it just seems so easy!

Some folks just don't like all that AP voodoo.

It will be an excellent scope for astrophotography, though.

The EAF, as you know, is wonderful for deep sky and for keeping focus as the temperature changes through the night.

However, for lunar or visual, at least in my case, I like the quick snap to focus that my Stellarvue offers. I'm a bit of a stickler for focus on my lunar images, and getting fine-tuned enough with the EAF was causing me to spend way too much time trying to dial it in. I can get it done better and faster by eyeball, on the Moon at least. And with visual, I'd stab myself in the face with a screwdriver trying to achieve focus electronically. Just faster to do it manually.

But that's just me, and my EAF hand controller doesn't work, so...

20190828 21_37_53 NGC 7000 Cygnus Wall by Bryan Gabbard, on Flickr

[Baskevo]

Ah I know what you mean... I thought that was just me! lol I sometimes have to spend like 10 or 20 min with my Rigelsys to try and get the perfect focus, and even then I'm not as confident in it as I would be with a bahtinov mask... but its a lot better than walking 20 steps ;P

[Lady Fraktor]

You guys sure like those strangely shaped focuser dust plugs
I am sure the refractor will do very well for that voodoo stuff.

[Baskevo]

The guy I'm buying from used his SV for visual as well... I don't see why someone would be a triplet APO just for visual. It will be good for AP too right?

Why not the EAF? lol it just seems so easy!

Some folks just don't like all that AP voodoo.

It will be an excellent scope for astrophotography, though.

The EAF, as you know, is wonderful for deep sky and for keeping focus as the temperature changes through the night.

However, for lunar or visual, at least in my case, I like the quick snap to focus that my Stellarvue offers. I'm a bit of a stickler for focus on my lunar images, and getting fine-tuned enough with the EAF was causing me to spend way too much time trying to dial it in. I can get it done better and faster by eyeball, on the Moon at least. And with visual, I'd stab myself in the face with a screwdriver trying to achieve focus electronically. Just faster to do it manually.

But that's just me, and my EAF hand controller doesn't work, so...

20190828 21_37_53 NGC 7000 Cygnus Wall by Bryan Gabbard, on Flickr

BTW That image is incredible!

I do not expect a major difference in colors or something between the ES 80mm FCD100 and the TV scopes, I am mostly interested in better guiding from less weight on the mount (I use a side-by-side with the ES), a more secure guide scope attached to the rings which hopefully means less flexure and better guiding and more pinpoint stars, and a field flattener that actually works!

It is going to be weird though... I haven't disassembled my ES in months! I'm scared to :twitch:

Do you guys think the Hotech SCA Field flattener might work? Otherwise, I'm going to have to spend at least another $500 in accessories alone... $200 for the EAF, $250 for the field flattener, and $150 for a better guide scope... Why is this hobby so expensive :veryconfused:

[Mac]

I'm buying it!

@Lady Fraktor you seem pretty knowledgable with the Stellarvue scopes... Do you know if the ZWO EAF will work with this OTA?

Lady Fraktor will slap you if you put a ZWO EAF on your Stellarvue.

The ZWO EAF with mount on the Stellarvue just fine. I had mine on my SV102T and it mounted right up easily enough.

IMG_0089.jpgIMG_0088.jpg

I did eventually remove it. I like my SV for visual and lunar imaging, and the auto-focuser was a bit of a hobble for both of those pursuits. It is residing on my ED80 now.

Bryan, did you have any mounting issues with the focuser on the ED80? Would it work on the ED102, I believe they have different focusers?

[bladekeeper]

Bryan, did you have any mounting issues with the focuser on the ED80? Would it work on the ED102, I believe they have different focusers?

Hi Steve! Not much trouble mounting on the ED80. I did have to get some longer screws for the bracket, but it went on easily enough.

That was back in January. I've not touched it since. Just no sky to work with.

[Mac]

Bryan, did you have any mounting issues with the focuser on the ED80? Would it work on the ED102, I believe they have different focusers?

Hi Steve! Not much trouble mounting on the ED80. I did have to get some longer screws for the bracket, but it went on easily enough.

That was back in January. I've not touched it since. Just no sky to work with.

I've read about the need for the longer screws but haven't seen it mounted on the 2" focuser of the ED102. I already have the screws so I can't procrastinate getting the focuser.

Thanks

[Lady Fraktor]

When does it arrive?

[Baskevo]

It is coming on Tuesday I'm trying to find a field flattener, but it does not seem there is a dedicated FF for that scope either, which kind of worries me :/

[JayTee]

James,

Don't you own like 4 field flatteners at this point? Certainly one of those would work.

Cheers,
JT

[Lady Fraktor]

It is coming on Tuesday I'm trying to find a field flattener, but it does not seem there is a dedicated FF for that scope either, which kind of worries me :/

I will check with a friend to see what he is using with his.

[Lady Fraktor]

This TeleVue will work, I would look at Astromart or CN for a used one. He also said that if you can find the Antares 0.75x it will work with the Stellarvue as well, they are just getting harder to find.
https://www.365astronomy.com/televue-tr ... ctors.html

[Baskevo]

James,

Don't you own like 4 field flatteners at this point? Certainly one of those would work.

Cheers,
JT

Yes I do, but I guarantee those won't work as well as a dedicated flattener would! I think that is the main issue with flatteners, other than incorrect back focus--mismatchnig between The OTA and FF.

I'm going to try out my Hotech FF, b/c I saw an astrobin image that looked good with that FF used. I posted on CN asking for a used FF, but nothing yet. The TV ones are expensive!

[Lady Fraktor]

The two I posted are the ones he uses with his Stellarvue, he feels the GSO 0.80x should work as well you would just have to play with the spacing a bit.

[Baskevo]

Thanks Lady Fraktor! I appreciate you checking that for me. I am going to try out my HoTech, and if that doesn't work, I will post an ad for that... I am also looking at the SFF6-25, that looks like the one that is designed for similar OTAs by SV... I do not think I want a reducer with it, or at least I would like the option to switch between a reducer/flattener and a stand-alone flattener.

[Baskevo]

I just had a guy on cloud nights.com tell me that my ZWO asi1600mm Pro and 480mm OTA combo is not a good combo, because of over-sampling in the worst conditions and under-sampling in the best conditions... He said that if I went to a dark site with really good seeing, my images would look like they were shot from my backyard still, and would see little improvement if any...

Is this guy right?

[STEVE333]

Don't think so. The advantage of a dark site is that it reduces the noise caused by the LP at your location. Since you have a cooled camera, the noise in your images is almost certainly dominated by your LP. So, going to a dark site would reduce the noise in your images. They will most assuredly look better.

Steve