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I'm working with Atik now. Intake ports are clear. The cables are good. The power supply is within spec. Using Artemis I get a Tdelta of 7C and the same with the ASCOM driver. It is only drawing .34 amps. That is what Atik asked me to check. It should draw near 1 amp at 100% power. The camera works, it connects, is takes images, downloads the data, etc. It just isn't cooling more that about 7-8C. So now I wait for the response. I'll let you know. I haven't read about any cooler behaving like this. Usually its all or nothing with solid state equipment.
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Help please....
Dave In Vermont replied to ddefoe's topic in Getting Started General Help and Advice
Yeah, Reggie. The F.6.3's are about the maximum for even considering visual use. An amusing anecdote: Meade stopped making their F.3.3 when people started complaining and demanding their $$$ back because they gave them such terrible, distorted views. Visually! So Meade took them off the market rather than add a disclaimer that these were only for imaging puposes. While I haven't checked into the market for awhile, last I did - the now much sought-after and quite rare F.3.3 Meade FR's command a very good price! Ain't marketting grand? Dave -
Welcome aboard, Ian, it's nice to have you join us! Please feel free to ask questions, and give answers, here in these many forums. This is your home now, too. Starry Skies - Dave
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Does Nexstar SE mount work right handed?
Flyingpig replied to Flyingpig's topic in Discussions - Mounts
Thanks guys I appreciate your thoughts; there seems to be a single post over on Cloudy Nights where a chap claims to have spoken to Celestron and been told that you can mount an ota on either arm and then follow an alignment and the Goto should work... the post does not say if there is any specific mode for that to work but personally I would have been surprised if it just worked as easy as that. Likewise I wouldn't imagine it would be a complicated setting in the software to get it to work. I might just give it a go tomorrow (if it's sunny) but I assume that Ian and Knighty above are correct. I've emailed Celestron for comments so I'll see what they have to say too. -
Televue, Williams Optics and Takahashi have all said their instruments (including triplets) were 100% OK for solar with the Herschel Wedge. I'd say you're OK to go....
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Excellent seeing so I brought out the 11 inch mirror. Lots to look at right now. C11, ASI 174mm, astrozap solar film. Each 200 frame stacks of 3500 in AS3. ML
- Today
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The Helix Nebula, also known as NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. The estimated distance is about 700 light years and spanning 2.5 light years. The Helix Nebula is formed by an intermediate to low-mass star, which sheds its outer layers near the end of its evolution. The remnant central stellar core, known as a planetary nebula nucleus, is destined to become a white dwarf star. Currently, the age is estimated to be 10,600 years. GSO 6" RC ZWO ASI 071 HEQ5 Pro 20x 5min
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I'll be happy to let you know Ken One question that has been in my mind recently is whether the Lunt 1.25" HW would be safe to use with my 130mm F/9 triplet refractor ?. The objective is air spaced. What do you think ?
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Many years ago I set up my 12" f5 on a "polar disk" mount - 25mm steel plate disk and 3" HD pipe arms. I made the top of the tube rotate to bring the eyepiece to a more comfortable position. Worked very well for me.
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John, I'd love the hear your feedback......
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I have an O-III but not a Solar Continum - I'll have to try the O-III with the Lunt HW now
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Hi everyone, I am new here, I am recently retired and I live in Seattle WA. Looking forward to getting to know you guys. My knowledge of astronomy is not expert ... but it is a passion.
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i have 10" dobsonian mount. on the telescope 50mm finder scope, laser finder and ez finder. i want attach a camera webcam of canon eos 40d. i have been looking different types of mount that would be easy to build and use. the horse shoe mount fits the bill i am located at 40 degree north.i have been working up plans to build a horse shoe mount for my osbservatory. i like how it is easy to set up its always aligned with polaris and use only one motor for tracking. i have notice if i do visual observation that eyepiece will be in awkward position. lets i out the star finder and eyepiece on bottom toward the floor well ill be on one knee looking polaris. when the telescope is point at -10 declination eyepiece will be point at the roof but point toward the east or west eyepiece will be hard to get to. how do i work out this problem and is there any thing else i did not think of.
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That is a very neat and precise start to a obsy build... Can't wait to see it finished and in action.
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The Herschel wedge is 100% safe to use on refractors ( I exclude the oil-spaced objective due to lack of accurate data) . Al Nagler and all the other manufactures of Petzval type refractors have put in in writing that their scopes are 100% OK to use. The "sweet spot" seems to be around 120mm aperture, for good seeing conditions. I'm testing out a comparison between the Baader Continuum (excellent!) and a narrow band OIII filter - I've seen some great images where the OIII actually appears to give even better contrast....
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PHD2 settings heq5 + 50mm guidescpe
michael8554 replied to Michael1971's topic in Imaging - Discussion
Hi Mike If you have poor guiding (you haven't mentioned in what respect it's bad) with the standard settings, then you probably have problems with your mount or setup. So someone else's settings for their good mount and setup will only be a guide. You may have: Poor Polar Alignment Periodic Error on your RA drive Dec Backlash Poor balance Stiction on an axis etc etc Run the Guiding Assistant for a couple of minutes and it will quantify some of these errors. Michael -
Can't comment on the AP scopes, but I can say I also acquired a Genesis (s/n 1007) back in the 80's ..... and still love it. I've measured up my box - when I go, it goes with me!!!!
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A long shot, but should anyone be up/down sizing, retiring or on the move please pm me.
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Single 30s subs of Oban skys..
Craney replied to Fozzie's topic in Imaging - Widefield, Special Events and Comets
That last shot is very interesting. Looks like you may have got some auroral glow on the horizon, were you aiming North-ish ?? I am trying to remember the last time I took a picture of a horizon which did not have a house or steet-light of some kind in it !! That looks great. Is there a reason for the UV filter ?? I might be wrong, but I would have guessed it would filter out some of the starlight and dim the overall effect ?? Do you use the Wi-fi capability of the 750D ?? I was thinking about buying one of these to make my imaging a bit more automated and remote controlled. .... and the whiskey .... good call. Sean. - Yesterday
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Samyang 135mm f2.0 Canon fit - Get it while you can! *SALE PENDING*
geordie85 replied to Uranium235's topic in For Sale / Swap
That would be me. Shame i didn't check this site more often. I'd have snapped it up. If the sale falls through can I have first dibs please. -
When visiting the States this year, the skies were just too good to miss long exposures of the Milky Way...... but when you are camping in Yellowstone..... a few other issues cross ones mind when you turn the head-torch off and settle down for 30 seconds of 'peaceful' contemplation. BEARS !!! One night I was fiddling with the camera in the pitch dark when a local cheeky squirrel decided to randomly shoot up a small bush right beside me....... <fill in expletives>...... just to say I almost recorded a brown nebula. From that moment on I just could not settle down and decided against the forest trail walk to the Lakeside to get the stars reflecting over the water.... shame it would have been a 'once in a lifetime' shot...... hmmm ....exactly
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TOA 130 @ F7.7, STT-8300 and Astrodon 3nm Ha and OIII filters. 15 30 min subs in Ha and 15 30 min subs in OIII. All Ha and OIII subs were integrated into a synthetic lum, which was inserted as a luminance channel. Hopefully I will be able to collect the OIII for the tail end of the Eastern Veil. I am still trying to decide if I should include SII in the image. @ orientations. One is better for full resolution mode.
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So what was it?. Not many (if any) species of animal, in this part of the world that pose a threat of life (apart from a 2 ton bull). Ive been observing in a field with 30 sheep and a couple of donkey........and got on famously with them, i always bring them treats and feed them. They hang around for a while but then wander off. Foxes,hedgehogs,deer,cows,horses,badgers,mice,rats.............seen them all.
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Just don't tell them you are an astronomer. Just say that it is destroying your sleep pattern, (that normally works). That's what I told my local authority and they said they would change the light diffuser unit on top... and I'm still waiting... yawn!
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I bought a 0.5x focal reducer for my 127 Mak a few years ago. This one: http://agenaastro.com/antares-1-25-0-5x-focal-reducer.html Definitely doubled the field but there was some noticeable field curvature near the edges when I tried to image with it, but not so much with visual. Maybe 0.5x was stretching it a bit (excuse the pun ) for the Mak. I haven't tried the 0.63x reducer; maybe that would be a safer bet. . Reggie
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