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And up North! 😊

First impact over possibly, hoping for more please… peter

Unless you're blessed with great seeing most of the time the jump to the 12" will be a bit of a waste of film and effort unfortunately. I often jumped to the Mak180Pro from the Tal 100 when I thought the seeing was good enough only to be severely frustrated.

Nice one! I'd better finish up my gin in case we're all doomed. Would be a shame for it to go to waste.

I have tried the typical US based sites with no luck so here goes. This US based company (Jims Mobile) is history. New owner shows nothing too. I would like to learn how to hook up a / some Incremental Encoder to this 10 year old device? Not a digital expert here, mostly an analog amateur. Thanks from Connecticut/Bristol

Wow, that's fantastic. Manual tracking! Well done! I used to use drift just for low power on the sun with a 60 mm refractor. It's great to see someone using a dob and manually tracking! It makes me wonder about using a manual dob for lunar imaging.

The full resolution images are breathtaking. I love the inverted ones as it really highlights the details.

Excellent images and details.

Thanks Ian. Yes the Baader. My full one had some pinholes so for this capture I only used some film on the offset opening. I need to work out how to make one for the 12". I think you can buy a roll but I am not sure I need that much.

Thanks for you comment. The drawer slides are still working perfectly. I spray some lithium grease on them about once a year but not had any problems at all. Getting out when the roof is open is a a sqirm 😄 I have to croutch and shimmy low until I am out the way. Ideally I would have put the roof opening the other way but as the obsy is on the edge of my elevated section of the garden, the only way to open the roof was to pull it open. So had it been the other way, I would not have been able to open the roof from the lower section without a ladder etc. I have since automated the roof open / close with a WIFI switch and some high torque motor pulling on a chain. Now there is no manual opening of the roof. Even with driving rain, the inside is ok. The little overhang I have (maybe 0.5cm) or so is enough to keep the rain out in in the wildest of weather. So far, it still seems to be working fine. I have been keeping up with the external wood protection / stain once a year to keep it from fading in the sun.

Excellent! The 24 hour change is amazing.

It is strange if it's only been out in the wild for 30 days or less, it has sold now though. Mines got dust, bought used though, but my Z61 isn't dusty and I've had that years.

Thank you. Sadly I didn't create any written plans so all I have is what I posted. Happy to help / advise you as you get started,

Yeah - FLO told me. I just don't understand how dust could get inside the optics if it's been looked after. Do other people have dust in theirs?

Current forecast map ... 😀

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions. Gives me some food for thought. I did notice the loose films. How do people normally attach the cardboard holders to the scope/lens? @Budgie1 Are those "drop in"? I think 50 or 60mm would be too small/large perhaps? Ahh, OK... after another look I see they are for objectives, in which case they are all too small. The front lens needs 150+ mm to cover it. I'll have a look for alternatives. Thanks for the links. @Stu There's no thread, but there's a lip with a groove behind it to attach the hood. It looks like it needs something that will fit between ~153-155mm.

The aurora watch bar graph was around 300 when I reported it an hour ago and kept rising over the hour up to 500 nT. It's just dropped down to near 200.

The smallest tripod I've used successfully is my Leofoto LS253, can carry the azgti AP setup for my Z61 at 6.5Kg. I however wouldn't use my HD mounts on such a tripod as they would fall over due to the legs not splitting wide enough, might be okay for a camera setup, not a scope.

Good call 👍 it fell almost immediately and even worse when I stuck the counterweight on. Works fine on the heq5 tripod but not exactly the backpack arrangement I was after. I will give it a go on the larger tripod tonight, clouds willing, and if all is good I will have a mess around tomorrow to see if I can work out a plan C. Plan F involves a lump hammer 🤣 lets hope I don't get that far.

Looks to have had some initial impact just now, aurora energy levels rising, enough eruptions to hope this stays up and maybe gets even higher so there’s something to see when it gets dark…. Peter

Great - that's what I was ordering. Many thanks

Standard fitting it comes with. I think they were WO, but most should fit.

Designed myself a cup holder for the tripod leg on my EQ6. Holds coffee mugs, pint glasses or even a 12v splitter so I can power my mount and AsiAir from one power lead.. If it's your cup of Java download it from thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6616711 Printed using anycubic ABS+ resin - first time I've used the ABS resin and it's nice, Less brittle and more flexible than the water wash - but it sticks to everything !!

Phew, I can blame my gradients on borealis