Gear advice Celestron EdgeHD 9.25" · Renee · ... · 42 · 614 · 2

Hello, 

Please feel free to let me know if this topic is in the wrong area... but I have the 9.25" EdgeHD. I have been using it for a few months now, primarily for visual work and just learning the scope and mount. In the time that I have had the scope, I have been using my Sony A7RV for photos of the moon and trying to take videos of Saturn and Jupiter. 

I am wanting to get more into to planetary and solar photography, and maybe down the road when it is warmer outside, do DSO. I have done lunar photography with a mirrorless camera for years (since 2018), but I am always wanting to improve my moon photos.

When I ventured into this hobby, I was hoping to just be able to buy one camera for both planetary, solar, lunar, and DSO, but I have sorta gathered from Astronomy Tools, Cloudy Nights, Facebook and here, that is not exactly doable. As a result, I was leaning towards the ASI678 for planetary and solar photos, and getting the ASI174MM for my OAG. I had asked a similar question on a Celestron Facebook group, and someone suggested that I consider the ASI2600 DUO or the ASI2600-Air since I was just starting and did not have any equipment besides the optical tube. Their thought processes was, I would not have to buy an OAG separately with the ASI2600 DUO. Similarly, I would not have to buy both the ASIAir Plus/Mini and OAG if I purchased the ASI2600-Air. However, I am not sure that would really work in my case, given that I am wanting to start with planetary, solar, and lunar imaging... If I was starting with DSO, I think I would do either the ASI2600 DUO/AIR, as they recommended, but unfortunately, I am not.

I was looking at the Celestron .7x reducer or the Starizona SCT Corrector IV - 0.63X Reducer / Coma Corrector for my Sony camera to keep using in the meantime for lunar photography. I am aware there are issues with the Celestron reducer and the ZWO EAF. Buckeyestargazer does make a 3D printed bracket that works. I have run the Celestron .7x reducer and Hyperstar through Astronomy Tools, and they are different in focal lengths. The Celestron .7x reducer takes the focal length to 1645mm, whereas the Hyperstar takes it to 540mm. The Starizona SCT Corrector IV - 0.63X Reducer / Coma Corrector changes the focal length to 1525mm, and the focal ratio is f/6.5. 

On cameras, monochrome or color? If I did MM, I was leaning towards doing 2" filters straightaway to futureproof myself. 

So my questions are:
1) is there someway to use the ASI2600 DUO or ASI2600-AIR, which has the OAG built in or the OAG and Air built in, but still use the ASI678 at the same time for planets or solar photos so you don't have to buy a separate OAG?
2) Is there an advantage in using the Starizona Corrector over the Celestron one. I’ve been researching the Hyperstar, but I’m not sure if it’s worth investing in right now, especially if I’m primarily interested in planetary, solar, and lunar photography and plan to do DSO later. If anyone has any thoughts on whether I should change my mind, I’d love to hear them! 
3) Does anyone have an experience with flip mirrors? I want to on occasion let the family or neighbors look at what I am seeing on the telescope, but also be able to flip the mirror and take photos. I have not seen a lot of people using them, so I did not know if this was a good or bad idea. I think Meade use to make a very well rated one, but sadly, they are no longer in business. 
4) Can you recommend good 2" LRGB and SHO filters that won't break the bank but don't stink? I have seen poorer reviews on the ZWO LRGB filters, but the ZWO SHO filters seem to be rated ok...
5) I live in Bortle class 4, so light pollution is a bit of an issue, there are some bright street LED lights, but not super terrible. For the future, would the Optolong L-enhance be  good option for light pollution filter? Or do I really need one? Reddit, Cloudy Nights and FB seem to have conflicting info for B4 and LP filters. Maybe an IR/UV Cut filter would be a better choice...
6) Does anyone have any other suggestions for cameras or gear that either be better or work better? I was torn between the ASI678 and ASI676, but I think the ASI678 has no amp glow. 

Thank you for your time and any suggestions or ideas that you might have! The photo below was taken with my telescope and Sony camera on Saturday, December 7, 2024.

Hi, the EdgeHD 925 is a fantastic telescope and is one of the two I use frequently (the other being a short refractor). I use it for both planetary photography and deepsky but I have completely separate hardware for each of these. I am also not that good at planetary photography yet - I haven’t really put the time in. This is just my experiences and others may disagree or have other recommendations. For planetary (or visual) use I attach a Baader Clicklock visual back that I can then put a flip-mirror diagonal with eyepiece and camera. I have this pre-set up and just slot it into the Clicklock. For DSO photography I have a reducer / filterholder / camera setup that I screw on instead of the clicklock. 

1) is there someway to use the ASI2600 DUO or ASI2600-AIR, which has the OAG built in or the OAG and Air built in, but still use the ASI678 at the same time for planets or solar photos so you don't have to buy a separate OAG?

 I have an ASI2600 DUO which I use with the Celestron reducer and generally this works well. The image circle is just large enough to cover most of the off-axis sensor. When imaging galaxies, often away from the star-dense milkyway, it can struggle to find star to track so you have to adjust the centering or rotation to find some. You could switch to a guidescope in these situations but you probably want to try to get the field of view not to be massively wide - just a bit wider than the native focal length of the EdgeHD (you could use the planetary camera with something like a Skywatcher Evoguide - 242mm). But I haven’t tried this so don’t know how well this would work. For planets (which I assume is what you mean when you mention the ASI678) you don’t need guiding as you are doing very short exposures. I would recommend going for a separate ASIAIR as that gives you more flexibility (I use it to control the mount when I am doing planets). 

2) Is there an advantage in using the Starizona Corrector over the Celestron one. I’ve been researching the Hyperstar, but I’m not sure if it’s worth investing in right now, especially if I’m primarily interested in planetary, solar, and lunar photography and plan to do DSO later. If anyone has any thoughts on whether I should change my mind, I’d love to hear them!

 I only have experience of Celestron reducers and they are excellent - can’t compare to Starizona. They give you plenty of back focus to fit stuff in and the field is nice and flat - some vignetting but nothing that can’t be fixed with flats. I had a Hyperstar for my previous EdgeHD 8” and I never used it because installing it and collimating was tedious and then when you want to go back you had to collimate again. The EdgeHD are fantastic for photographing small DSOs and for the price of the Hyperstar you can get a small refractor for large objects. 

3) Does anyone have an experience with flip mirrors? I want to on occasion let the family or neighbors look at what I am seeing on the telescope, but also be able to flip the mirror and take photos. I have not seen a lot of people using them, so I did not know if this was a good or bad idea. I think Meade use to make a very well rated one, but sadly, they are no longer in business.

 I use a Baader flip mirror for this and it works well once you have got the eyepiece and camera to be (relatively) con-focal. A helical focus eyepiece holder (Baader make one) allow small independent adjustments to the eyepiece focus. I have a wide angle finder scope to get the target in view, use the flip mirror eyepiece to centre and then flip to get the camera. 

4) Can you recommend good 2" LRGB and SHO filters that won't break the bank but don't stink? I have seen poorer reviews on the ZWO LRGB filters, but the ZWO SHO filters seem to be rated ok...

 Can’t make recommendations here as I use the colour ASI2600 with some dual narrowband filters (or nothing for galaxies). 

5) I live in Bortle class 4, so light pollution is a bit of an issue, there are some bright street LED lights, but not super terrible. For the future, would the Optolong L-enhance be  good option for light pollution filter? Or do I really need one? Reddit, Cloudy Nights and FB seem to have conflicting info for B4 and LP filters. Maybe an IR/UV Cut filter would be a better choice...

 The ASI2600 has a UV/IR cut window on it so you generally won’t need a separate filter for that. I have tried various filters over the years but for broadband ones haven’t really liked how they distort the colours. I think everyone you ask will have a different opinion on this. Although - are you thinking of planetary imaging here - you were talking before about monochrome for DSOs? For planets you are probably getting other filters (although you can get cheaper 1.25” ones for these). You will probably want a neutral density filter for the moon. 

6) Does anyone have any other suggestions for cameras or gear that either be better or work better? I was torn between the ASI678 and ASI676, but I think the ASI678 has no amp glow.

 Amp glow is not an issue for planetary imaging as you are doing very short exposures. You want to look at pixel size and frame rate (you want to be taking 1000s of frames for lucky imaging). The pixel size will dictate your field of view (i.e., you will get more ‘magnification’ with small pixels but you may reach the limit of resolving power for your scope). Others will probably have better advice here. The other thing that took me a while to get right is focusing. I used to have a ZWO EAF on my primary focusing knob (using their adapter kit). It was fine for planets because you could use the hand controller to do hands free focusing. It was not ideal because of mirror-flop when doing DSO. I managed to find a Moonlite focuser (no longer made I think) and fitted to EAF to this. Then I can get rough focus, lock down the mirror and use the Moonlite for autofocusing. Planets/moon - I just manual focus (which I find really hard to do). I also tried, with some success to create a go-to setup for planets using my equatorial mount (ZWO AM5) so I didn’t need to convert to AZ mode. For this I use a guide scope and camera attached to the ASIAIR - I polar align with this and then plate solve so I can just go to the planet (good for things like Uranus and Neptune). But you need to get really good alignment between the guide scope and main telescope. I think this all goes to show how different planet and DSO photography are and they have nothing much in common other than the telescope itself. It is worth planning all this out as you can end up spending very large amounts stuff to do these two modes of photography. It may be cheaper to have a second telescope (i.e., a Newtonian or refractor) for DSO. Also easier because you can have both set up and tuned.

I am not sure the Starizona SCT reducer is compatible with Edge HD scopes, only the regular SCTs…

Bronco Oostermeyer:
I would stay away from the 2600 Air, because it ties you computer wise. If you want to do solar/planetary you may soon want to run software like firecapture, or NINA for DSO and then you have to buy another camera altogether.

Yes - I agree with this. ASIAIR is great for an untethered all-night DSO session, but with planets you just connect up a laptop directly. I really can't think of a reason to get the 2600 AIR other than cable management!

Mirko M:
I have the C9.25 scope; no doubt I feel that it’s  a great tube and I love that it’s so versatile.  Generally, for what you’re wanting to do, I would say you can just get a one shot color camera that has a apsc max sized chip.  Mono is great and offers better sensitivity but one shot color cameras really are doing well these days on sensitive especially those new Sony backlit sensors for cmos. I’m still using an old (8 years) asi071 that has worked well with Jupiter recently, 

 1) For planetary  targets , you generally don’t need off axis  guiding or any guiding really since you want to run short exposures and even video.  Not sure why you would need the smaller sensor chip camera to be used at the same time with the larger chip camera (unless you’re using the celestron large OAG).  Usually you change out the cameras of the main one imaging. But going with a 2600 I’m sure you can’t go wrong either way.  But if you’re going to do DSO imaging you’ll want to do off axis guiding, and the good thing is you can probably end up using the smaller planetary camera to guide.

2)I use the celestron reducer and it’s great. You can use it visually too.  I have zero complaints about it.  Works excellently with DSO and provides a flat corrected field across my entire apsc sensor. 

3)no experience with flip mirrors.  I just setup quickly with the imaging train if I want to run photos.  I’m either doing one or the other. 

4)for filters, I recommend Baader filters as they are optimized for F ratio down to F2. That optimization is good to have if you are using hyper star setup. 

5)I’ve seen pretty good photos with the L enhance though I’ve not personally used it.  I’ve seen better photos with the Antila quad band which I had purchased just need to find the time to use it on a decent target.  

6)the asi678 and 676 seem like nice cameras.  Wouldn’t mind hearing what others have to say on them. 

That’s  all I have to add hope something I said was helpful.  I think the main take away I want to add is that you don’t necessarily need two different cameras for planetary and deep sky.  I recently proved that wrong with my image I captured with an 8 year old one shot color (asi071) of jupiters opposition. And I use that camera for so many other targets at various focal lengths. 

Oh and very nice image of the moon by the way. 

Mirko

hi Mirko,

thank you for the super detailed and thorough reply. I’ve been super conflicted about doing mono or color. But some think mono cams are better. 🤷‍♀️ One thing is totally true, you definitely save a lot of money doing color.  Based on your reply and others, it sounds like it’s best to stick with the Celestron. I’ve seen some other folks recommend the Antila, so I’ll check those out. 

Again, thanks for your reply and assistance. The pic of the moon was the first or second one I’d tried with the scope+sony camera combo. 

Have a fantastic day!

Renee:
thank you for the super detailed and thorough reply. I’ve been super conflicted about doing mono or color. But some think mono cams are better. 🤷‍♀️ One thing is totally true, you definitely save a lot of money doing color.  Based on your reply and others, it sounds like it’s best to stick with the Celestron. I’ve seen some other folks recommend the Antila, so I’ll check those out.

Mono cameras give better resolution because all the pixels are used for all the colours (albeit in sequence with different filters). You can also use very tight narrowband filters for different frequencies. But I would recommend starting with colour (I haven't made the switch yet and I am not sure I will). The new generation of dual narrowband filters (Ha + OIII) also give great results for nebula in light polluted areas (combine with a short no-filter session to get better star colours).

My current rig is a Poseidon C Pro, Edge 9.25 with 0.7x and HyperStar v.4 on an EQ6R-Pro.

Personally, I stay away from the ASI Air as I don't want to ever be locked into one manufacturer for a camera (as well as I stay away from ZWO on principal).

I weighed OSC vs. mono, both in cost and quality.  While there is undoubtedly a quality advantage with mono over the OSC, I went with a OSC and never regret it, quality-wise.  If you look at the images I've posted so far (https://www.astrobin.com/users/dkokinda/), with the exception of the Mare Crisium image, they were all captured with a Poseidon C Pro, some with the 0.7x reducer and some with the HyperStar.  I can't oversell the HyperStar.  That thing is a light bucket!! and produces beautiful images.  I liked the Poseidon C Pro enough, I just ordered another one for a wider field rig I'm currently building.

My planetary cam is a Player One Neptune C II.  You don't need to worry about guiding when doing planetary, lunar, or solar, so don't worry about what cam to use with that.

Dan Kokinda:
Personally, I stay away from the ASI Air as I don't want to ever be locked into one manufacturer for a camera (as well as I stay away from ZWO on principal).

I agree with the general point (especially as there are lots of cameras that use the IMX571 sensor so are very similar to the 2600 and some a considerably cheaper). But the ASIAIR is an easy way to start out and not too much outlay compared to everything else. Setting up another mini-computer with Nina and remote desktop access would a fun project but may be frustrating to start off. Having a laptop that can be indoors with a cable to the scope is probably the ideal solution (and cheapest) but my garden is quite far from my house so I need a fully self-contained solution.

Larry CABLE:
worth highlighting that it is the ASIAir that locks into their line of cameras ... the cameras are supported by popular s/w such as NINA, ASCOM, Ekos etc

Agree - it locks you in but doesn't cost much to get out (and you can probably sell the ASIAIR for a good price). I think the ASI2600 Duo is a good product that isn't currently matched by others and works fine with other software. ASIAIR doesn't lock you into the mount (yet) so you can use it with just about thing there.

Andrew Rambaut:
But the ASIAIR is an easy way to start out and not too much outlay compared to everything else. Setting up another mini-computer with Nina and remote desktop access would a fun project but may be frustrating to start off.

As far as outlay, I'm pretty sure my Quieter 3C was cheaper than the ASI Air is available.

Regarding the ease of starting out - while I've never used an ASI Air, I understand they sound easy to use.  I agree with your "MAY" , but would posit that the ease of setting up a mini-PC has more to do with the level of comfort with technology than anything.  I personally had zero issues and found the mini-PC quite easy to set up (while following a tutorial, of course).  I feel if you are somewhat technologically challenged, you MAY have difficulty setting up a mini-PC.  If you are comfortable with tech, it will most likely go smoothly.

Do not buy 2" filters, it's too large for APS-C and too small for Full Frame. You need  50mm unmounted filters if you want to use a full frame sensor. I made this mistake and had to sell 5x 2" Chroma's and replace them with 50mm.

As we are talking about the EdgeHD 925, the image circle of this is 42mm so is already small for a full frame sensor. 2" filters will not restrict things further. Full frame will have significant vignetting on an SCT because of the image circle anyway.

Larry CABLE:

Dan Kokinda:

Andrew Rambaut:
But the ASIAIR is an easy way to start out and not too much outlay compared to everything else. Setting up another mini-computer with Nina and remote desktop access would a fun project but may be frustrating to start off.

As far as outlay, I'm pretty sure my Quieter 3C was cheaper than the ASI Air is available.

Regarding the ease of starting out - while I've never used an ASI Air, I understand they sound easy to use.  I agree with your "MAY" , but would posit that the ease of setting up a mini-PC has more to do with the level of comfort with technology than anything.  I personally had zero issues and found the mini-PC quite easy to set up (while following a tutorial, of course).  I feel if you are somewhat technologically challenged, you MAY have difficulty setting up a mini-PC.  If you are comfortable with tech, it will most likely go smoothly.

then go Raspberry Pi and Linux, avoid Windows, its a matter of when not if that cr*p will bite you ... YMMV.

I am a coder and use and Linux (or Mac OS X unix) all the time. I also build stuff with Raspberry Pis. But I do enjoy the simplicity of the ASIAIR and it just works. I spend most of my day coding and using Linux machines and I quite enjoy just being able to do everything touch screen in the rare clear evenings I have - the time to first imaging is short. But as I said, it costs 200 quid so when you want to move on it is not an issue. But I highly recommend it as a way of starting out (assuming you are OK with getting the ZWO camera - which will still work with other computers). 

I really like Nina, and it is a long term project to create a Nina powered remote solution - but I just don't recommend it along with all the other challenges to setting up an astrophotography set up. 

avoid Windows

Good advice in all aspects of life.

Larry CABLE:
40+ years as a professional s/w developer ...so I think I'm well qualified to make such..

30+ years, myself.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.