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Thanks Piero for the piccies of scopes on wheels. I'm going to have a think if I can do something with wheels. I had been thinking that they won't work for me at the mo, but perhaps I can figure something out. The shed, which is where we store our 10 inch dob, has an awkward lip and might be too shallow for a ramp to get over it, and anyway, it's then onto a slate chippings path, which I think the wheels are not going to like. And if we store the big dob indoors, it's got to go in the cupboard under the stairs, so it has to be not a solid tube. And currently I don't think a ramp works too well through the back door either. I'll have a ponder whether we can make either storage option more wheel-friendly. I did see someone post a piccy of their new 12 inch dob just with castor wheels screwed directly into the dob base, which looked pretty neat. John, I like your ambitious thinking outside the (mirror) box, I had a crazy idea too. I like my RC cars, and I must admit, I wondered if I could get something like this to tow the telescope if I can get it on wheels:

My Edge8 with reducer platesolves at 1456mm. That's at the specified 105mm back focus and I could do to put a 1mm spacer in I reckon. Depends on the mirror position and no two are ever the same. My guiding is anywhere from 0.6 -1.0 (CGEM DX). I've just updated the OAG guidecam to a 174MM Mini, a massive gamechanger for me as I could hardly use my QHY5L-II with it. Was lucky to get one decent guide star even then the SNR was poor despite binning and noise reduction, so I resorted to using a standard 50\200 guidescope. It guided ok with decent figures but I was throwing a lot of subs due to mirror flop\flexture\you name it. Now I'm able to multi-star guide through the OAG with a nice field of stars, although obviously some targets are OAG unfriendly. It's a challenge using an SCT but when everything clicks into place it makes it worthwhile.

Nice haul Wookie! I really need to go through Bootes doubles again to get reacquainted. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

On the main screen of the controller web page there is a button (red/green) to switch motors on/off - no big deal at all and useful during alignment. There is also a screen joystick to use, instead of the manual slow motions, if you prefer for small alignment moves. (The logic behind the warning is that the motors will be tracking already and you would be fighting against them by using manual slow motions, which the motors are already driving through a belt. However since the mount also has friction clutches and encoders you can always 'nudge' or push the scope in any direction any time you like even when it is tracking/motors running and it wont lose it's sky position. This is not like a conventional geared goto mount)

Thanks for the info. Yes, I can see that plane lights could be an issue. The ASICap software from ZWO that I use has a meteor capture mode but I haven't tried it yet because I've missed all the well known meteor showers due to cloud. Maybe I should just point it at the sky the next clear night and see what it makes of aircraft or satellite trails.

There are a few ingenious and well made carriages in this thread but I'm slightly surprised that nobody's laid down any rail tracks yet and moved the telescope in and out of the shed that way. I'm thinking of this sort of thing: Bonus points if it's hauled by a steam locomotive

One Celestron Starsense Explorer 130mm Smart Phone Enabled Table Top Dobsonian. Ex Demo Open box / ex demo. Excellent condition, complete. Scruffy outer boxes. Full manufacturers warranty. £379.00 £322.15 (saving £56.85)

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Thanks for watching! Hope the script helps out too! TBH I didn't know how the community would even react to any of my videos. I was expecting a lot of people just saying "you're doing it all wrong!" hahaha! Glad it is helping!! I think I got my digital signatures for my repository all squared away with this latest CPD update from PixInsight as well! This should take care of not having to say "yes install anyways" and should ensure the script will be available in the future with the next core updates to PixInsight.

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Gonna have to read/research this a lot more, but it sounds like very good advice. When I keep my sky too dark it does look odd/oily as you say.

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I'll check those links. My scope is already in storage because I want to avoid birch pollen. Regarding orientation, if you rotate the mask such that the inner grid aligns with the collimation screws, the diffraction spikes are aligned with the screws. In the end, you'll probably need to test which is which anyway.

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Everything with two surfaces can have tilt. In theory you'd first make sure that the camera itself doesn't have tilt. The link in @almcl's latest post is a thread here on sgl about a cheap rig and laser for that. ZWO cameras have a tilt adjutment plate. Second is tilt in the focuser. Then misalignment in the optical system. If you think about this too much, your brain will hurt.

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That is probably the best solution, I agree.

I need center to center, daily I got the same thing on the last link in my initial post, but center to center. What i need is center to center (no specific location on Earth surface), daily . I have a data set with with 5424 eqs > 4 in Greece since 1940 (yes it is a very important seismic area, probably most active in Europe). I cannot possibly go in there to fill that data manually and on the given link there's only apogees and perigees. The only way to do it is a formula derived from Moons ecliptic which i think i have figured as i said in my first reply. Things would be much more interesting with location, but it is not part of the same equation. The Earth surface acceleration component follows a law of Earth rotation against self, it varies on a 24 hours cycle and it cold be biggest around the time Moon is at zenith and would vary with latitude, Moon plane inclination, etc.. Much more complicated. I was looking yesterday for John Walker's email and found out he was dead. But this can't be done in a spreadsheet LOL. This is where the big boys with supercomputers with AI and vocal interface should step in. Hard to believe they didn't figure it yet.

One Astro Essentials v2 2" Dual-Speed Crayford Focuser for SCT Telescopes. Open Box Open box. Good condition, complete. Full manufacturers warranty. £189.00 £170.00 (saving £19.00)

Can't you get a different focus motor that works with the feathertouch focuser? I think you'll find that any other solution, including the original Celestron focus knob, won't be as good as the feathertouch.

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Snap! A real favourite of mine. Was taking a look at rather large Kite sitting at the top of a tree when I took this pic. Recently picked up the 13mm too but not used much yet. I fear the need to complete sets may also grab me now I have two.

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