TheSkySearchers

Nice Christmas present if you have a money tree in your backyard.
Have a look at the video
https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/vao ... na/p,63162
I am afraid they overlooked one charasteristic of us amateurs: we want to do everything ourselves.

John Baars wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 11:37 am Nice Christmas present if you have a money tree in your backyard.
Have a look at the video
https://www.astroshop.eu/telescopes/vao ... na/p,63162
I am afraid they overlooked one charasteristic of us amateurs: we want to do everything ourselves.

Yup...
I will unabashedly say this looks like an item in one of those Christmas Catalogs that get send out to folks that just need that something else to put on the coffee table...
I know, I am an opinionated so-and-so...

Now if I can just figure out which button to push now that I have it in my cart so I can "check put"....

Just kidding...
It is interesting, John, but I am "committed to the struggle".

Thank you Sir.

Wow that's pretty neat. Now there's an option if I ever get too lazy.

LoL the uninformed masses will eat this thing up!

It looks like the aperture is maybe an inch and it's alt az to boot. So yea long term exposures are out.

Sorry I have to call BS on the image they show on the guys phone of M31. Pretty high expectations!

UlteriorModem wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 4:30 pm LoL the uninformed masses will eat this thing up!

It looks like the aperture is maybe an inch and it's alt az to boot. So yea long term exposures are out.

Sorry I have to call BS on the image they show on the guys phone of M31. Pretty high expectations!

It's an 80 mm aperture.

Of course we don't know how those images were actually obtained but IMHO Alt/Az is something that can be overcome by good alignment (continuous plate solving in the background, and filtering the corrections) and short exposures. So, with enough computer power despite the lack of an auto-guider I think it could work. And many of us have spent more money than that price tag.

So there should be a market for people with who like fancy Christmas present gadgets. For many of us the main problem is to drag the mount and gear outside and have to set it up. If that device works as advertised at least it makes it easier.

But John is right, we mostly want to do it all ourselves, heck my main mount does not even have goto, that's part of the fun.

Can it also account for field rotation?

If I ever get that lazy there's a medical directive to pull the plug.

UlteriorModem wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:05 pm Can it also account for field rotation?

Not mechanically, the only way to account for it is to take short exposures. Nowadays there are many cameras with little read noise so there is no penalty for short exposures. Just crank up the ISO until you're in the ISO-less range, then limit your exposures so as to not blow out the stars. I usually take 30 or 60 second subs at 6400 ISO, which is considered short, but it seems to work best.

I'm pretty sure Alt/Az at 30 seconds would make any field rotation negligible. So long as the scope rotates around the center of the image, which can be done if the tracking is good (keep plate solving in the background). The stacking is done incrementally so the pain of having to stack extra is on the machine not the user, as it is for us.

I don't have an Alt/Az so this is theory (though I looked at the math and it seems to support it) but I think one main problem of AP with Alt/Az in general is the lack of accurate tracking - just goto tracking, which we all know is not enough for AP, and the problem of auto-guiding. With an auto-guider for Alt/Az the problem is that the image rotates around the alignment star, which is usually randomly outside the image, causing much larger streaks than when the center of rotation is at the center of the image. But if you did continuous plate solving with a learning algorithm on top of it, you should be able to track very accurately IMHO. And the steppers would have to be micro-steppers to avoid zig zagging.

I checked some feedback on CN and the thing actually works. I am impressed.

notFritzArgelander wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:12 pm If I ever get that lazy there's a medical directive to pull the plug.

OPT give us a better account of its capabilities and description. I still think it's too expensive for an 80mm APO. Check this out.
https://optcorp.com/products/vaonis-ste ... -telescope

Cheers,
JT

There is a market for everything being sold or they would not have made it. Some people like and can afford such gadgets. Most buyers probably never owned a telescope before.

Bigzmey wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:29 pm I checked some feedback on CN and the thing actually works. I am impressed.

I checked it on CN too and it doesn't look too bad! From what I read it takes short exposures indeed, one mentioned 10 s. The stars seemed round and the objects dead center, in the links that worked. But, nah...

JayTee wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:49 pm OPT give us a better account of its capabilities and description. I still think it's too expensive for an 80mm APO. Check this out.
https://optcorp.com/products/vaonis-ste ... -telescope
Cheers,
JT

At OPT, it says "...Choose your next destination from a catalog of over a hundred celestial objects." Um... "over a hundred" ?
That immediately reminded me of:
http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/21 ... _sagan.gif

Sorry for all those who love it, but I think it is just plain ugly! Plus, it is an 80mm f5 ED: I am not sure that it would really be an Apo.

I reckon I could think of a few other things to spend something like $US4500 (including delivery to me) on. That is getting up towards Questar territory, and quite a bit more than the new AP Stowaway (not that you could ever get one...).

Definitely a "No!" from the finance department!

- Dean

Refractordude wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:55 pm There is a market for everything being sold or they would not have made it. Some people like and can afford such gadgets. Most buyers probably never owned a telescope before.

There are failed products though.... Lead balloons, Edsels, hydrogen filled dirigibles,.....

DeanD wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 4:18 am Sorry for all those who love it, but I think it is just plain ugly! Plus, it is an 80mm f5 ED: I am not sure that it would really be an Apo.

I reckon I could think of a few other things to spend something like $US4500 (including delivery to me) on. That is getting up towards Questar territory, and quite a bit more than the new AP Stowaway (not that you could ever get one...).

Definitely a "No!" from the finance department!

- Dean

My finance department's CEO happens to be yours truly and echoes yours but with expletives attached.....

Hi !

UlteriorModem wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 7:05 pm Can it also account for field rotation?

They say : "Auto-Focusing: High-end stepper motors keep the target inside the field of view despite the earth's rotation, focus automatically on the stars and rotate the camera sensor to offset the azimuthal field rotation. STELLINA never loses track of your observation target!"
I wonder if it makes also coffee ?
The next step will be : "Observing Heavens Without Any Observer" !
Clear skies.
Arsène

notFritzArgelander wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 4:25 am

Refractordude wrote: ↑Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:55 pm There is a market for everything being sold or they would not have made it. Some people like and can afford such gadgets. Most buyers probably never owned a telescope before.

There are failed products though.... Lead balloons, Edsels, hydrogen filled dirigibles,.....

Remember Pet Rocks, they sold like crazy. Yes it might fail, but it may be a hit also. Perhaps with the Jet Set crowd.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/pet-rock-capt ... d=30041318

To quote Wayne from Letterkenny:

"It's a hard life pickin' stones and pullin' teats..."

Wait, wrong quote.

Let's see...ah yes!

"Hard no."