Excellent tips. Mine had pinched optics straight out of the box -- namely, bright stars with a dark notch on one side. So I loosened the locking ring retaining the objective lens and tightened it up again only a slight amount. This immediately fixed the problem and resulted in perfect circular star images.
Interesting. I just came in from setting up my new SVBony guide scope. The lens was so loose, it rattled! Had to tighten the retaining ring with a micro screw driver. Hope to see how it works tonight. Clear skies are predicted!
So I bought one of these after seeing this video, wanting to give the little guy a shot. I just disassembled it to paint the sides of the coupled element, and pleasantly, it seems my model featured some effort to darken the sides of the lenses. It looked like it was a weak coat of marker, so I still darkened it considerably, but I’d like to think somewhere, somebody, saw this video and said, “well shit.”
Great tips Ben I've got one of these recently but the stars look awful in mine no matter how long I take to focus it they look more like comets than stars but it seems to work ok. I did loosen the lens a little thinking it might be pinched optics causing the issue but it's not made any difference. Another extra I added was a Low Profile Female M42 / T Thread to Male C Thread Adapter from First Light Optics. So I can screw on a smaller guide camera like a Lodestar or what I have on mine a QHY5LII mono guide camera so it keeps everything tight & secure.
very handy mate, i have that guide scope for my dslr , i painted the lens like you showed , worked great , i have a couple of 3d printers so i already had a dew shield , they come in very handy for astrophotography as i have printed many dew shields , vixen dovetails and hot shoe brackets for guide scopes and a variety of rings and brackets for mounting red dot finders etc, saved myself a heap of money ,
Really happy that I found your channel. I just picked up this finder scope and was wondering if you ever decoded to supply the 3D printed hood? I’d be interested depending on shipping cost to Canada. Cheers.
A very useful and informative video. Ok, it's spending money but I used a M42 to C mount adapter for a more stable mounting for my old QHY 5-II camera on the SV-165. It also means you don't have to wind the focus so far. And the focus is then set for"life". A bit old school but, if you don't have access to a 3D printer, trim a black foam mouse mat down to act as a dewshield.
Another issue I have noticed , but not with this scope but another similar min i scope is the metal dew shield being black, but very shiny and not flat black. If you shine a flashlight on it, you gonna see how much light it bounces back. For a quick test, I taped it inside with a black-cloth based tape around inside. I had an indirect light coming from the side (neighbor floodlight) and any time I was imaging and even from a 90 degree angle, I could see how the light was effecting the images. With the tape, the problem was gone. This can also be a half or full moon, even if it's not in the FOV of the telescope. I don't recommend tape though, it comes off or gets in the view, but try to get like a flat-black spray paint and lightly coat it in the inside to take away the shine. Disassembled, with no lens in it, and not too much, just enough to take away the reflectivity , of course.
It would have been nice to see a before/after. We now have to take your word for it. I own this scope and it's pretty bad from scratch (image quality). Not an issue for guiding but then it make me think: why should we try to improve something bad but already good enough ? Not useful imho.
Nice! I have one of those svbony mini scopes for guiding. The marker painting step to stop scattering light was something new to me. I am not sure if I am that cold blooded to open that thing and remove the lens but eventually will do so. Now, for the F/R markings on the glass, if you already wrote F on one side or say just a dot (i.e., so you will remember that a dot means front side), why marking the other side?
Very cool! Glad you like this. So when I as taking this apart I did not know if the two pieces of glass would be easily distinguished. So to get them back in with the proper sides facing the right direction I did the F for front and B for back. By the way it was much easier than I thought it would be.
My guiding is a train wreck. I blame the Eq-35 for that. I’ll try this but I’m ordering the William Optics 50mm to replace it and put this on my DLSR setup in the skywatcher 2i.
Actually todays coatings you can. Only on older scopes that used dies. Those have not existed for 30 years now. So anything that has been made since at least the mid 90s you can use windex.
No such thing as dumb question if it is one you do not know the answer to. Glad though you could find an answer. There is a lot to learn in the hobby so do not be afraid to ask.
Using the threaded objective to focus moves the image around so much that I have to recenter it to focus all the time. Very annoying. Know if greasing the threads will help to remove the play?
Ben, is there an issue with the dew strap on top of the 3D printed dew shade? Wondering if the heater could get too hot. Is there a particular material that should be used?
A very good question since I melted a lens once. As long are you dew heater is not over 100f you should be fine. You could always select materials that have a higher temperature such as PETG you could probably let your dew heater strap hit 120f.
It should be able to handle that weight. I would though recommend that you get a wedge so you can polar align it. Then field rotation will not be an issue and the longer FL will do even better.
Useful video. Random question, my guidescope turned up so I practiced focusing with my ZWO asi224 in the day time no problem. Tried it with my DSLR out of curiostiy, could not focus no matter what! Is it not possible?
How is the quality of the image you get? Are the stars round? I once tried a 30mm ZWO mini guide scope and couldn't even recognize stars on the image. They were all of weird shapes.
Yes they are round stars. I have both the SVBONY and the ZWO. I would check your lens sell. The optics might be pinched. Another member here reported the he just loosened it and it fixed the issue.
With the revolution of the asiair, I'm certain there are a huge number of ZWO guidescope/cameras in use. Only after this purchase, did I become aware of the Svbony clone at half the price. Do you think these mods can be done on this scope as well?
@@TheNarrowbandChannel Sorry for any confusion. I haven't inspected my ZWO 120 mini guide scope, but if it too has reflective circumference of Lenses, can it be taken apart with a spanner wrench, and colored black? Maybe this is one perk for a scope costing more than double.
Please help me, y have the same guidescope and an ASI ZWO 178 MC, very similar to your configuration, but I cant manage to see a damn thing in PHD2, I only see noise and PHD2 is unable to find a star, ever happen to you?
@@TheNarrowbandChannel sorry for asking but I’m a newby, in this case in your experience, I should rotate the tube end and make it larger? How larger aprox?? Please I already did it but I may have done it wrong or something
@@francocordero32 Do you have the camera the screws on or inserts? You may want to focus it in the daytime to get a close approximation on something distant then try at night.
Thanks for helping, I have it the same way you mention itself screwed to the tube, I tried daytime screwing and unscrewing all the way up but I didn’t notice any change😱. I’m pointing to distant mountains but I will try to find a better target. I’m so frustrated because whenever I attach the small eyefish lens it works flawlessly but as soon as I change to the guide scope it’s impossible to see nothing but noise. I taught could be my configuration on the software but I’ve tested several, I feel so dumb 😖
Great Tips!! Thanks. One question: I went to the site for the .stl file. I went to a site that has no files that were obviously available. How do I get the file?
I have wanted to do this for a while now. Sorry I am just getting back to you. I see this comment is from a month ago. Let me see if I can get some printed today.
No idea. There are a host of Chinese companies that sell lens elements though. They are pretty affordable too. Has tempted me to buy a 154mm f6 lens sell to make into a scope.
Excellent tips. Mine had pinched optics straight out of the box -- namely, bright stars with a dark notch on one side. So I loosened the locking ring retaining the objective lens and tightened it up again only a slight amount. This immediately fixed the problem and resulted in perfect circular star images.
I have heard about pinched optics before. Thanks for the tip. If I see that issue I will know what to do.
Interesting. I just came in from setting up my new SVBony guide scope. The lens was so loose, it rattled! Had to tighten the retaining ring with a micro screw driver. Hope to see how it works tonight. Clear skies are predicted!
So I bought one of these after seeing this video, wanting to give the little guy a shot. I just disassembled it to paint the sides of the coupled element, and pleasantly, it seems my model featured some effort to darken the sides of the lenses. It looked like it was a weak coat of marker, so I still darkened it considerably, but I’d like to think somewhere, somebody, saw this video and said, “well shit.”
Great video as usual. I love your contribution to the community.
I appreciate that!
Some great tips, I have this SVBony and certainly like the idea of the hood and the blackened sides 👍
Glad you like it!
Great tips Ben I've got one of these recently but the stars look awful in mine no matter how long I take to focus it they look more like comets than stars but it seems to work ok. I did loosen the lens a little thinking it might be pinched optics causing the issue but it's not made any difference.
Another extra I added was a Low Profile Female M42 / T Thread to Male C Thread Adapter from First Light Optics. So I can screw on a smaller guide camera like a Lodestar or what I have on mine a QHY5LII mono guide camera so it keeps everything tight & secure.
Thanks, Ben! As usual, so practical und useful, mate.
Thank you.
This video was worth watching just to see the spanner wrench that I now need to buy. :)
Its a handy tool to have for sure.
very handy mate, i have that guide scope for my dslr , i painted the lens like you showed , worked great , i have a couple of 3d printers so i already had a dew shield , they come in very handy for astrophotography as i have printed many dew shields , vixen dovetails and hot shoe brackets for guide scopes and a variety of rings and brackets for mounting red dot finders etc, saved myself a heap of money ,
Glad it helped
Really happy that I found your channel. I just picked up this finder scope and was wondering if you ever decoded to supply the 3D printed hood? I’d be interested depending on shipping cost to Canada. Cheers.
lol i got the ASI120MM-S, and putted it always into the SV Bony. Now i watched this video, i am using the threads! Thanks man!
Such a common mistake. SVBONY should include a link to my video along with this guid scope. Glad this helped you!
A 3d printed Bahtinov mask cover would be fun for this too.
A very useful and informative video. Ok, it's spending money but I used a M42 to C mount adapter for a more stable mounting for my old QHY 5-II camera on the SV-165. It also means you don't have to wind the focus so far. And the focus is then set for"life". A bit old school but, if you don't have access to a 3D printer, trim a black foam mouse mat down to act as a dewshield.
Thanks for sharing, threading in is always best.
Another issue I have noticed , but not with this scope but another similar min i scope is the metal dew shield being black, but very shiny and not flat black. If you shine a flashlight on it, you gonna see how much light it bounces back. For a quick test, I taped it inside with a black-cloth based tape around inside. I had an indirect light coming from the side (neighbor floodlight) and any time I was imaging and even from a 90 degree angle, I could see how the light was effecting the images. With the tape, the problem was gone. This can also be a half or full moon, even if it's not in the FOV of the telescope. I don't recommend tape though, it comes off or gets in the view, but try to get like a flat-black spray paint and lightly coat it in the inside to take away the shine. Disassembled, with no lens in it, and not too much, just enough to take away the reflectivity , of course.
Ya I know with the 3D printed one I made I need to find a filament that is dull. This one is a tad shinny.
I'm also not a particularly sweaty handed guy, except when I'm holding my lens elements, blackening them.
Thank you very much. I have the same guidescope, and I am gonna follow all your tips, an start printing the shade. :)
Great video! You really contribute to the amateur astronomy community.
Thanks for making me buy another tool…
Our pleasure!
Thx, I have one of these , I knew a couple of things but will take on board the others..
Received mine free from Svbony for doing a review of the SV503 ED 80F/7 Refractor.. Haven't had the chance to try mine yet because of bad weather.
Written review I would assume right?
It would have been nice to see a before/after. We now have to take your word for it.
I own this scope and it's pretty bad from scratch (image quality). Not an issue for guiding but then it make me think: why should we try to improve something bad but already good enough ?
Not useful imho.
You do it to squeeze out that last bit of performance.
Good advice thx. Get well!
Nice! I have one of those svbony mini scopes for guiding. The marker painting step to stop scattering light was something new to me. I am not sure if I am that cold blooded to open that thing and remove the lens but eventually will do so. Now, for the F/R markings on the glass, if you already wrote F on one side or say just a dot (i.e., so you will remember that a dot means front side), why marking the other side?
Very cool! Glad you like this.
So when I as taking this apart I did not know if the two pieces of glass would be easily distinguished. So to get them back in with the proper sides facing the right direction I did the F for front and B for back.
By the way it was much easier than I thought it would be.
My guiding is a train wreck. I blame the Eq-35 for that. I’ll try this but I’m ordering the William Optics 50mm to replace it and put this on my DLSR setup in the skywatcher 2i.
Check for things like a loose guid scope or it could be calibration.
Great video, thank you!
Good tips, thanks
Does anyone know where you can purchase a dew cover something like in this video.
Cool video. Don’t clean with windex it will take your coating off. That’s a perm sharpie.
Actually todays coatings you can. Only on older scopes that used dies. Those have not existed for 30 years now. So anything that has been made since at least the mid 90s you can use windex.
The blue stopper for the camera? Enlighten me please? Cant find anything like it, or a 3D printer file.
It's a focus stopper. It came with the eyepiece I go on cloudy nights.
Great video, thank you! Thank you for providing the stl file to the dew shield. It looks quite long. Does it obstruct the field of view of the camera?
I could not see any difference in flat frames. The sensor of the 290mm that i use with this has a rather narrow field of view compared to my 178mm.
Some ways, I don't get why we still have cords when blue-tooth would eliminate them.
True really only power is what's needed.
I'm missing something, why put the camera on the finder scope and not the telescope. I'm new at all this. Thanks
Never mind, my question was dumb, I figured it out.
No such thing as dumb question if it is one you do not know the answer to. Glad though you could find an answer. There is a lot to learn in the hobby so do not be afraid to ask.
What your opinion of svbony camera for guiding vs the ASI220MM?
SV has smaller pixels so can be used with longer fl
Using the threaded objective to focus moves the image around so much that I have to recenter it to focus all the time. Very annoying. Know if greasing the threads will help to remove the play?
Would would just keep the lock wring half tight. Hold the body and lock wring with two fingers while rotating the rest.
Ben, is there an issue with the dew strap on top of the 3D printed dew shade? Wondering if the heater could get too hot. Is there a particular material that should be used?
A very good question since I melted a lens once. As long are you dew heater is not over 100f you should be fine. You could always select materials that have a higher temperature such as PETG you could probably let your dew heater strap hit 120f.
I have the Sky Watcher AZ-GTi mount in EQ mode. Can it track with a 400mm lens on a crop sensor without auto-guiding? I've had success at 300mm.
It should be able to handle that weight. I would though recommend that you get a wedge so you can polar align it. Then field rotation will not be an issue and the longer FL will do even better.
Hola, gracias por el video. ¿Es posible usar el mini svbony añadiendo un ocular plossl para visual? ¿Haría foco? Thanks!
Pienso que sí. ¿Quieres utilizar como un finder scope?
Useful video. Random question, my guidescope turned up so I practiced focusing with my ZWO asi224 in the day time no problem. Tried it with my DSLR out of curiostiy, could not focus no matter what! Is it not possible?
Its because the dslr has built in back-focus.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel Hmm I see, so is there a way around it?
How is the quality of the image you get? Are the stars round? I once tried a 30mm ZWO mini guide scope and couldn't even recognize stars on the image. They were all of weird shapes.
Yes they are round stars. I have both the SVBONY and the ZWO. I would check your lens sell. The optics might be pinched. Another member here reported the he just loosened it and it fixed the issue.
Lens migjt be installed backwards. Easy to flip over and test in daylight with an eyepiece
Hope you're doing well. Did you find a source to have the pre-printed Dew shields madeavailable?
I have a hand full printed. But business has been so fast I have not had time to even list them.
Where can i purchase them (dew s and cap for the svbony guide scope from you?
With the revolution of the asiair, I'm certain there are a huge number of ZWO guidescope/cameras in use. Only after this purchase, did I become aware of the Svbony clone at half the price. Do you think these mods can be done on this scope as well?
Are you talking about the ZWO in your last sentence of the SVBONY?
@@TheNarrowbandChannel Sorry for any confusion. I haven't inspected my ZWO 120 mini guide scope, but if it too has reflective circumference of Lenses, can it be taken apart with a spanner wrench, and colored black? Maybe this is one perk for a scope costing more than double.
Can anyone make one of these for me?
Please help me, y have the same guidescope and an ASI ZWO 178 MC, very similar to your configuration, but I cant manage to see a damn thing in PHD2, I only see noise and PHD2 is unable to find a star, ever happen to you?
Sounds like focus is way off. So far that it cannot find any stars.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel sorry for asking but I’m a newby, in this case in your experience, I should rotate the tube end and make it larger? How larger aprox?? Please I already did it but I may have done it wrong or something
@@francocordero32 Do you have the camera the screws on or inserts? You may want to focus it in the daytime to get a close approximation on something distant then try at night.
Thanks for helping, I have it the same way you mention itself screwed to the tube, I tried daytime screwing and unscrewing all the way up but I didn’t notice any change😱. I’m pointing to distant mountains but I will try to find a better target. I’m so frustrated because whenever I attach the small eyefish lens it works flawlessly but as soon as I change to the guide scope it’s impossible to see nothing but noise. I taught could be my configuration on the software but I’ve tested several, I feel so dumb 😖
Hi. Do you happen to know if this shade also fits the ZWO 30F4 mini?
It will now fit it. I did draw up a separate one for it.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel That's great. Can you please post the link to the files for the ZWO scope.
Great Tips!! Thanks. One question: I went to the site for the .stl file. I went to a site that has no files that were obviously available. How do I get the file?
You have to join grabcad to download them. It is free.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel I did that. I searched the library and "no item found" error. What do I do?
Got 'em. Thanks.
I don't have a 3D printer, could you sell a dew shield to me? Thanks. Great video BTW.
I have wanted to do this for a while now. Sorry I am just getting back to you. I see this comment is from a month ago. Let me see if I can get some printed today.
Hey can i have 1 printed as well !! Thank you so much for the great tips and contribution !!
Do you sell the 3D printed part?
No but it is on grabcad
do they sell the lens individually?
No idea. There are a host of Chinese companies that sell lens elements though. They are pretty affordable too. Has tempted me to buy a 154mm f6 lens sell to make into a scope.
👌👍👍🙏
👋🙋
Don't understand what you are saying? Too complicated. This is all new to me.
The first time I read Homers the Iliad and the Odyssey I did not understand it either. Practice makes perfect though.