Epsilon E180ED and ASI533MM

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
Wed, 07/24/2024 - 11:37

Greetings quick question for the community, I have an E180ED with a 533mm camera and was curious if this was a good setup to start with?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sam

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
E180

Hi Sam,

I think that is a good match.  It gives about a 1.3x1.3 degree FOV with 1.5arcsec pixels, and the 533 camera can use 1.25" filters (with some corner vignetting), which are cheaper and you can get more slots in the filter wheel.  We currently use the ASI183 camera on the AAVSOnet telescopes, but will be testing a 533 as an upgrade this coming week.

Arne

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
targets

There are 2.3 million variable stars listed in VSX as of today.  It is hard to suggest just one of them.  I'm assuming you are pretty much a beginner.  I'd certainly read through the CCD Observing Manual, and consider taking some of the CHOICE courses.

The E180 and its 1.3x1.3 degree field of view is ideally configured for brighter stars, as the wide field of view gives you a good opportunity to find a suitable comparison star for such targets.  A good example right now is monitoring T CrB, predicted to go into outburst sometime soon.  However, anything from about 5th magnitude to 13th magnitude is fair game, and perhaps fainter, depending on the crowding in the field, the tracking ability of your mount, etc.  There is a whole set of bright stars that form the SNEWS project, monitoring them for years or decades, as these stars are the ones potentially able to become a nova or supernova in the future.  Some dozens of times a year, the AAVSO posts an "Alert Notice" of a campaign to monitor some object for a researcher.  These are also good choices.

So look around a bit.  I'm sure that you will find something interesting to follow!

Arne

Affiliation
American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO)
One good source of…

One good source of suggestions is the Young Stellar Object Section newsletter published monthly by Michael Poxon. Register in that forum! or go to back issues here:  http://www.starman.co.uk/ysosection/newsletters/backissues.html

 

Peter

BPEC

 

 

Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
ODK scope

Apparently your ODK scope questions disappeared from the forum.

I have an ODK16 inch from Orion Optics UK since 2010. I use it remotely from Chile. The scope is OK for photometry but not good for astrophotografy as it does not hold collimation.I use it solely for photometry and since Aug. 1, 2011 it is generating tons of photometric images from the remote site.

Regards,

Josch

 

 

Affiliation
Vereniging Voor Sterrenkunde, Werkgroep Veranderlijke Sterren (Belgium) (VVS)
QHY600M CMOS camera on ODK16

Hi,

I use an QHY600M CMOS camera on the ODK16 since May 2023.

Its true 16 bit and has an chip of size 24x36mm^2.

I use it in 4x4 binning which gives about 16 micron pixel size.and 7.5 MB file size.

Josch