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  1. Past hour
  2. Marvin Jenkins started following Andromeda
  3. Marvin Jenkins
    M31 is a big beast but not bright all. If you are in a location with light pollution then this will not help. Trying lowering the magnification of the eye piece and do not use the Barlow. Less magnification is the key as in my 150 newt a short photo clearly shows the galaxy filling the whole frame. Half the battle with these dim objects is finding them in the first place. Once you find it, it will become much easier because you will know what you are looking for. If light pollution is a problem then stick the scope in your car and go somewhere dark. You will find it much easier and it will then give you a frame of reference for when viewing from your garden. Word of warning! Once you have gone dark sky site your back garden will no longer be good enough. Marvin
  4. Marvin Jenkins
    Hi Bryan One piece of advice which is not actually related to your PA question is to keep an eye on the section on this site titled ‘Celestial Events Heads Up’. My first few months of astronomy meant I missed quite a few things at opportune times simply because I didn’t know they were happening or what I was looking at. A prime example is a non Astro friend called me a couple of weeks ago in a very exited state of mind begging me to go outside and look at “The amazing star that has appeared”. My first thought Super Nova! Then, calm down.... where in the sky? I asked. South West right now in the dusk. He was amazed he was looking at Venus. I told him to continue looking lower to the horizon below Venus and he saw a faint star in the last light before night time. He had just bagged his first look at Mercury. I would not have had my first look a week before if it had not been for info posted on here. Marvin
  5. Today
  6. Sunshine started following Katherine Johnson NASA mathematician dies.
  7. Sunshine
    R.I.P. KJ
  8. Thalestris24
    Ok. Hmm... I'd have to take the grating out to do that - or maybe I could just use a mirror. It's 2:30 am here now so I'm turning in for the night! Thanks Louise
  9. Merlin66
    for use with guide cameras which have no ST-4 port.......
  10. Merlin66
    Using a guide scope, prefocussed on infinity, positioned behind the collimator. The slit gap should be in focus and a clear narrow gap.
  11. johninderby
    3D printed steak?
  12. paul schofield
    Good evening fellow star gazers. A bit of a long shot here, but thought I'd ask anyway. I own a Bresser Messier nt 203 reflector on exos 2 startracker equipped mount. For some time now I have been looking for a GPS system to take the pain of set up away. As I never seem to be able to 1,2 or 3 star allign with any success or accuracy. I have contacted various dealers regarding this, no luck. There are systems for other makes, Skywatcher, Orion etc. Would these be compatible with Bresser / Explore Scientific. I understand that not many people own Bresser telescopes but thought this will be my final attempt at gaining information. Regards Paul.
  13. Davey-T
    Not sure why you'd need that maybe a glorified RS232 to USB converter, anyway it says it connects to an ST4 port on your guide camera, which guide camera do you have ? If your mount has a guider socket and your guide camera has an ST4 port you should have a cable that came with the camera to connect them then select the on camera option in PHD which hopefully will have a drop down list with your camera in it. Dave
  14. oymd started following Astro equipment for sale
  15. oymd
    PM sent
  16. barkingsteve barkingsteve changed their profile photo
  17. oymd
    Thanks, that’s good to know. Is the stock supplied 2” 28mm considered a good eyepiece, or just a very poor basic one? havent yet invested in high quality eyepieces, or even looked through any of the high end ones. all of my recent expenditure has been on the basics...OTAs mount etc...
  18. Thalestris24
    Um, I meant how best to adjust the collimation lens? When I try to get the best focus it's not been easy to get a sharp image so was wondering if that might be due to the position of the collimation lens? Maybe there's another reason... Thanks Louise
  19. Merlin66
    Louise, Collimation of the spectrograph optic is best checked using a laser collimator. Placed at the inlet port, adjust the grating angle until the beam is seen on a centre marked target (piece of paper etc.) at the camera port. If everything is properly aligned the laser dot should sit on the centre of the target. Focusing: the slit gap can be measure in pixel and compared with the gap setting, minimum width = best focus. Normally this is actually done by measuring the reference lines, close to the target wavelength. The FWHM should be a minimum to achieve maximum R value. HTH
  20. Thalestris24
    Hi Ken How are you? Um, not really. Having put the Lowspec back together after it fell off the scope, I've been struggling to get a clean calibration lamp spectrum. I changed the Atik over to a qhy183m which is much more sensitive and easier to use. But I've been getting a lot of 'ghosting' with the image. I've been trying to improve the calibration source by putting it in a holder with a slit. It doesn't seem to help if I diffuse the source. Not done anything with it today. I've been struggling with adjusting the focus also. Can you remind me how I check collimation? Is it by counting the number of pixels from the illuminated slit? Thanks Louise
  21. Space Hopper
    Over £4k ? I think i'd better pass thankyou......
  22. Magnum
    Wanted Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED Lee
  23. Merlin66
    Louise, Any updates??? Ken
  24. AdeKing started following Moving the telescope after polar alignment
  25. Adam J
    As discussed the CEM60 is not really an option due to price. In general so long as the AZ EQ6 GT is going to outperform my HEQ5 pro in terms of payload, tracking on heavier loads then I think Ill be going for it. Adam
  26. Adam J
    Looks like this is now available for pre-order form FLO! ATIK look to be pricing this quite aggressively also to compete with the ZWO version. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/atik-cameras/atik-cosmos-full-format-cmos-imaging-camera.html At only a couple of hundred more it would make sense to go with the UK supplier from my perspective. Adam
  27. Merlin66
    Hmmm OK If your guide camera has NO built-in ST4 port (this seems to be on 100% of all the guide cameras I've seen) then yes you need another method of connecting the guide camera to the mount. Shoestring do a similar adaptor GPUSB ( http://www.store.shoestringastronomy.com/products.htm ) Check your guide camera first - it should have the ST-4 connection. All you need is the ST-4 cable.
  28. Merlin66
    Hmmm the diagram seems to show Hour Angle ( the difference between the RA on the Meridian and the RA of the object) Ever wondered why the RA circle on the mount is movable and can be rotated and locked, whereas the Dec circle is permanently locked????? Ths is to allow you to set the RA at the Meridian to the local Sidereal time, lock the circle. then move the RA axis to the target RA. Then move the Dec axis to the target Dec. (This is how we did GOTO in the ol' days )
  29. Anthony1979
  30. Merlin66
    No images attached?????
  31. Anthony1979
    I thought you need one of these
  32. Merlin66 started following Lunt 50 mod on a TV 102 iis?
  33. Merlin66
    The issue of "burning lenses" has come up before. I prepared a spreadsheet of the "energy balance" across a modded PST ( and any other telescope used for solar). The "do not exceed" energy intensity, after much discussion, seems to be around 10 Kw/m^2. The Baader D-ERF is good at what it does, just passing 27% of the total solar energy....... Solar ignition.zip
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