Anybody using a Horizon II yet?

[Noah4x4]

I love my original Horizon and it's DSO capabilities. However, I have (perhaps understandably) had zero success with it for planets or lunar. But maybe that is because I use Hyperstar? Hence, I am intrigued by the new Horizon II's Planetary and Lunar capabilities.

I have used a DSLR and also a fast frame Celestron Nexstar Burst for planetary, albeit it neither have left their box for two years. The question is, whether I should buy a Horizon II and sell my original or keep my original and buy a dedicated planetary camera. It is a shame that there is no upgrade path for existing Horizon owners.

Has anybody got experience with the Horizon II and it's additional capabilities?  Whilst I am sure it will work great with Hyperstar for DSOs, might I need to rear OTA mount it for planetary. More information would be helpful.

[nitehawk]

Hyperstar is a bad match for planetary and lunar. I had it pointed at Venus the other day and even at the very minimum exposure speed it the planet was too bright to exposure properly.

On a C8, the .7x reducer makes the moon fit almost perfectly on the sensor of the Horizon. Even then, I have to use a filter to cut down the light from it. I see no reason to ever use ever Hyperstar on the moon.

[Noah4x4]

You don't indicate whether you are using Atik Horizon original or Atik Horizon II?

However, with either I doubted that anybody would want to use Hyperstar at f/2 on Lunar or Planetary.  That combination is too 'fast' for solar system objects.  But I asked the question, just in case somebody had succeeded with version II, albeit unlikely!

Hence, for planets, a Horizon II will need to be rear OTA mounted, which isn't easy if you have an Alt-Az (which is what provoked my question, which with hindsight was phrased a bit stupidly - I already knew the answer!) .

I have since decided to purchase a ZWO ASI224 exclusively for Lunar/Planetary and continue to use my original Horizon on Hyperstar for DSOs only. I suspect that the length of the new Horizon II will  therefore mean its new functionality will only benefit GEM  owners  as regard Solar system objects given back end clearance with T-Adapter, spacing and T-Ring-M42 will be too long for Alt-Az

[nitehawk]

I have a Horizon I, but it doesn't matter. I had pointed mine at Venus just to take a look at it while streaming from Sharpcap, and I could not even see the crescent shape at the minimum exposure. At only a few pixels wide and badly overexposed, there is not much to see.

[Noah4x4]

Drag your gain down to minimal using custom and drop exposures to their minimum. You might not see any detail on Venus, but you can avoid over exposure. I was stunned on Monday when I even managed to focus my Horizon on a distant chimney pot in daylight at f/6.3. But I did havr to reduce exposures to 0.001.

[portantblitzen]

Even though I own a Horizon I, it makes no difference. Just for kicks, I tried pointing mine towards Venus while streaming from Sharpcap, but even at the shortest exposure time, I couldn't make out the crescent form. This very overexposed, low-resolution image shows almost nothing.

phrazle