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Showing content with the highest reputation on 14/01/19 in all areas

  1. I've not posted on here for over a year now ... here is the reason why. In October 2017 I sold all of my astro-equipment ... scopes, books, filters ... power packs ... the lot. I decided to sell my gear for two reasons. The first was that I was becoming more involved in other things ... also I needed the money to fund car repairs ... and I had lost all of my motivation for all things astro (oh, hang on, that's three reasons). At the time I was struggling to do the basic stiff like focusing my scope on stars and planets. I was wearing glasses at the time, and had been since primary school. Without my glasses, I just could not focus on anything ... with my glasses it was a major struggle. In short, it was just no fun any more. Forward to April 2018 ... a regular 6 month visit to the opticians. The optician was concerned about my deteriorating eye sight. My right eye was significantly worse than it was 6 months previous. I could have gone along and splashed out several hundred quid on new specs with stronger prescriptions .... but luckily he referred me to a specialist. So off I went. Less than two minutes into the examination the specialist diagnosed a particularly bad cataract in my right eye and also one in my left eye. The diagnosis explained a lot ... and I began to wonder what might have caused the deterioration (according to the optician I'm a bit on the young side to get a bad cataract). Forward to October 2018 ... cataract operation on my right eye. The difference was ... and still is ... utterly amazing, totally breath taking. From not being able to see anything long distance before the operation to seeing pin points of light that are stars in the heavens a day or so after the operation I won't bore you with the details of the operation (as some may be squeamish) ... needless to say it is a bit of an eye opener. November 2018 ... operation on my left eye. To be honest, not as dramatic a change compared to the right eye (that's actually a known physiological response ... doing the worse one first dramatically increases the positive response). I can see long distance in focus but still have a few issues with the left eye. Now when I look into the dark sky without glasses, I see stars as they are meant to be seen ... pin pricks of light. The down side (if there is one) ... having clear implants has increased my light sensitivity. Seeing stars is fantastic but car head lights at night, especially when coming straight towards you, can be a bit awkward. Do I miss not having my gear anymore ... TBH, yes ... Am I going to buy some new gear ... probably not as the lack-of-cash situation has not improved. I still have my trusty Canon D1000, a descent tripod and a nifty-fifty lens. I've a faint hankering to do some more wide field shots in the future. Pete
    15 points
  2. You are be too late I'm afraid chaps, just paid for it! Now need to plan a trip to get it!! I've wanted one of these for ages, I missed out on one with an OO dob mount for £350 a few years ago which was similar. I'm getting an AZEQ6 soon so might try it on that, but I'll probably get an OO dob mount and stick it on my EQ platform. Should be tasty on the moon too.
    6 points
  3. Reduced cost copies, says it all.... The one thing I take issue with is the statement "crimp is bad", as a properly crimped connector is better than soldered (which can go 'dry' and higher resistance over time), as it will force\bond the wire(s) together producing the least resistance. This was tested in the early to mid 60's, by the BBC Research\Design departments, when, with advent of more complex equipment using multipole connectors, a more reliable method, of secure inter-connection, was required to ensure continuity of operation.
    4 points
  4. Here it is, quick process of 25x300s subs taken with the QHY168C and the Optolong L-Pro filter at 30km south from Madrid downtown.
    3 points
  5. I've got both GP and GP-DX (for some reason!), both lovely mounts, but the GP in particular has been beautifully fettled and is very smooth. Totally agree that the tripod is a big part of the equation, if that wobbles, it doesn't matter how good your mount is.
    2 points
  6. The GP is a massively under rated mount in my not so humble opinion. It may be a little out of fashion but it suits me fine! A GP carried my Tak FS128 without issue on many occasions, but it was attached to one of Peter Drews excellent tripods. And that's where its weakness lies just as with many other mounts. The Tripod is every bit as important as the mount, as if there's even fractional movement it will show many times over in the eyepiece. At the end of the day, this new apo is only F11. Back in the 80's that would be considered a rich field comet seeker! If I remember rightly the full length of the FS128 was around 1178mm, not too much different to the 102mm F11.
    2 points
  7. Well that's the 10mm Delos away... I've had some interest in the skytee2 if I want to split it down.. although I am now tempted to part with the tal and the starwave achro and keep the skytee if I go large frac in the future... someone said Evo150ED.. I notice the AT 100f7 has been panned and also short apo manufactured by kunming or long perng as not good on the old colour correction. They haven't even stopped their, they've also gone after the vixen GP and GPDx as being not suitable as a mount due to focus vibration.. What a place CN is eh! In all serious now, I've not had any issues with my set up.. what do we think mount wise, surly a GP is more than enough for this scope a under 5kg A little bit closer to the ED now.. Ta Fozzie
    2 points
  8. Buy an original E3D (https://e3d-online.com/), yes it will cost more, but they work & keep on working for a long time.... I've never had a cartridge failure, just failures in the wiring to them.
    2 points
  9. An Orion Smartphone adaptor for me. The Televue Fonemate works really well, but it only fits my 24mm Panoptic. Hopefully this will give a good fit on my BGOs for some higher power images. I've got a few different sorts now so at some point will try to do a review on them for the Smartphone section.
    2 points
  10. Hi all, Thought I'd share the clip I designed to fit a Right Angle Finder to the polar scope on my Star Adventurer mount. I designed it to work on my Neewer RA Finder but it could possibly work with similar ones (that have the removable adaptor plates for various camera types). My finder came with a few different adaptor plates and I chose the metal screw-together type which was labeled for use with the older Nikon F series cameras. As you can see from the photos, this just screws into the printed clip allowing you to leave it in place on the Polar Scope but remove the RA Finder easily. It is best oriented with the clips at the top and bottom (rather than on the side). I've made it available for download from Thingiverse, there's a printable version of the adaptor plate on there too (along with instructions and pics) should you need it. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2762334
    1 point
  11. Hi Folks Have just noticed a OOUK 8” F8 OTA with PV10 mirrors on ABS for only £200! Buyer collects. Anyone near Wigan wanting a bargain? Too far for me. Paul
    1 point
  12. It wasn't my topic but I guess I'm the noisiest owner of 3D printers on here! ?
    1 point
  13. My partner was diagnosed with cataracts by this hobby. She was complaining our microscope lens was dirty, then the next week she said the same about ALL my eyepieces. So I suggested a visit to the doctor...
    1 point
  14. Sorry gone a little of topic I do apologise Gina Sorry ...
    1 point
  15. I have every respect to you good on you(visons of back to the future come to mind at 88mph) I think
    1 point
  16. I am well experienced and qualified in handling mains voltage equipment as well as higher voltages and power. I am very careful and aware of safety. The bed heater is controlled by a Solid State Relay rated at several times the current and controlled by the printer control board (Duet WiFi). All the PSU mains connections and the SSR are covered by protective covers and the printer normally never plugged in without these covers in place. This doesn't mean that care isn't still need though - a screwdriver dropped onto a circuit board could easily short out a high current supply and cause a fire. Except for specific testing or faultfinding the controller board and all other electrical connections are covered. All wiring interconnections are insulated with heat-shrink sleeving. Also, all metal parts are specifically earthed to the mains earth so any leakage should trip the ELB (or whatever you want to call it) and no metal parts can become live.
    1 point
  17. Productive hour this afternoon. Put up all the barge boards and gave them a couple of coats of paint. I then measured up and cut the EPDM to go along the north side of the rolling roof to form a seal with the warm room roof when it's closed. Ran out of light so didn't manage to attach it, so this is my next job. I'll post a couple of pics tomorrow.
    1 point
  18. I just had the connector melt / almost catch fire on the headbed for my Tevo Black Widow - even factory connectors shouldn't be trusted as being up for the job. Thing is I knew this was going to happen - its a known fault - but still annoying - pretty sure its taken the board out too when it fried. But, this is why i NEVER leave the printers alone - ever. And why I have fire extinguishers next to them. ...... So what are everyones recommendations for cheap printer controllers? - I cant stretch to a duet, so thinking of a MKS sbase, or a ledgre (but that is closed source/not marlin) I would like 32bit though.
    1 point
  19. I seem to be collecting crimping tools. I have one for RJ11/12/45, one for 1/4" spade type, one for duponts and recently bought one for JST connectors.
    1 point
  20. A well hit six can do a lot of damage to security lighting ?
    1 point
  21. Great to hear. I was told a good 2 years ago that I was developing cataracts. My recent appointment said they had got worse though I am totally unaware of them, but I will need operations in the future and like the last poster was told that my astronomy hobby would get them done sooner than normal. I am however going to wait until I start to notice the problem myself. Meanwhile I have been told it can affect my colour perception, so I rely on my astro friends to tell me if my images are too saturated. Carole
    1 point
  22. I was diagnosed with a cataract in my right eye last May, I had suspected something was wrong for some months previously, as my vision through an eyepiece was starting to get cloudy, and I was getting increasingly short sighted in this eye. I was however informed by the optician at the time that it was not suffiently bad for a cataract operation to be funded by the NHS. In December I was aware that it was getting worse and arranged another eye test, I explained to the optician that it was causing me problems when viewing through my telescope, and was then informed that this would probably be sufficient reason to justify the NHS funding the operation, and I am currently awaiting an appointment at the treatment centre. Having read other reports of the positive outcomes, I am therefore hoping that my astronomical vision will be much improved following the operation. John
    1 point
  23. This is why I still afraid to leave my 3D printer alone to print
    1 point
  24. 9 1/2 minutes to say cheap connectors are poor quality? 40W is way more than you need to solder those unless you have very poor technique! And agreed crimp is good. I bet that CNC holder coast ££££, the sort of thing only used by reviewers... any 3D printer with a bit of nous will print their own! I prefer the 30A power pole connectors after being recommended them on here!
    1 point
  25. Hi Jem, you will not have any problems, the sky is huge and in past years any random fireworks have been miles away and do not last for any length of time, looking forward to meeting you if you can make it,you will not be dissapointed, Regards Mike
    1 point
  26. I had a revisit of this suggestion over the weekend. There is certainly a suggestion on the lensfun lens calibration mailing list that non-constant gap between the diffuser and the surface of the front element can distort the vignette calibration, so I did some tests. I varied the diffuser-element spacing from 0cm to 9cm. The front element curvature is about 5mm deep, so that should have made a discernible difference. Result: No difference above the noise floor. So I went back to plans A (piecewise data by rotating the camera with a fixed light source) and B (using Hugin to estimate the vignetting correction polynomial from a series of overlapping-shifting images. I consider the piecewise data to be the 'gold standard' in terms of vignetting since it is by definition free from the angular dispersion problems - although obviously too sparse and noisy to be anything other than test data. For comparison I also took a series of calibration images (flats) using (a) the method recommend by lensfun (a translucent diffuser pointing up at an evenly lit ceiling), (b) the with same diffuser backlit by a tablet and (c) just the tablet. The result are shown below (16b luminance value plotted against pixels-from-left-edge). 1. The 'poly' line is Hugin's estimated polynomial from the piecewise data plotted to give a synthetic flat. Not bad, low noise obviously, but deviates from the data in the centre of the image. 2. The noisy red 'd0so' and blue 'd9cmso' lines are from the lensfun lightbox method (0-9cm lens-diffuser separation). They are clearly the right shape *BUT* in order to get them to fit I had to offset the black point significantly (+2500 for d0so and +4200 for d9cmso). 3. The smooth green line is from the tablet-plus-diffuser with some wavelet noise reduction applied. Very similar to the lensfun method and a good fit to the data (with black point adjustment again). 4. The mauve 'tabso' line is from using the tablet without a diffuser. It is pretty clear that there is no way that this curve can fit the piecewise data (linearly). The diffuser in the above cases was a nice find (I think): multiple sheets of premium photo paper (Canon Platinum Pro) - no logos and very internal little texture. I used 2 sheets - 1 didn't provide quite enough diffusion, perhaps more would be better but then noise becomes more of an issue (but I can always stack my way round that). So I think I have a good method of producing a wide-field (>90 degree) flat. I'm not sure I understand the source of the 'black point offset' required when using the diffuser - I'll have to think about that a bit more - but empirically I have a method that works. Hopefully this might be useful to someone else one day too!
    1 point
  27. I had the same problem with my 150pds and like you traced it to light leak around the primary. My solution was to use a bungy loop to hold a piece of black polythene over the back of the scope, this can easily be taken on/off for collimation and star tests etc. Martin
    1 point
  28. Well done mate. Removes temptation which is no bad thing LOL I am only an hour from Wigan if you wanted a stop over. Then again you were maybe planning a Peak District trip?
    1 point
  29. Very nice Stu. I have met Tom really nice guy. I thought about buying this OTA and using binoviewers - hopefully I will see it one day when we meet up again.
    1 point
  30. Same here. Been using them for years plus their excellent Titan extruder after trying others including my own make. I use a V6 hotend on my Mini printer and the E3D Volcano hot end on my Titan printer (I had the name first!!) and the new Concorde. My Giant printer uses my own design and make of hotend.
    1 point
  31. I just did some tests with the tracking mount. After getting perfect polar alignment using the drift technique, I achieved a tracking accuracy ratio of 9000/FL (compared to the general rule of 500/FL for untracked astrophotography). In other words I was able to shoot 45 second exposures at 200mm and 30 second exposures at 300mm with no streaking. This was pointing at Sirius (almost at the zenith) where tracking times will be the worst.
    1 point
  32. It's funny, since being here in Oz and used to their huge distances a 5 hour drive from southern England to Wigan is just up the road, lol. we wouldn't hesitate to get it.
    1 point
  33. Bit of a mixed day today. Busy doing other things this morning (but can't remember what exactly). Eventually made it outside mid afternoon. The plan was to paint the barge boards and then fix a length of EPDM along the inside face of the rolling roof north side. The hope is that this will form an effective barrier to stop wind blowing under the roof and into the scope room when the ROR is closed. So, painting the barge boards went to plan (only the inside face, I'll paint the outer faces once they're up). Then I rolled back the roof to get access to the north side so I could attach some EPDM. This is when things went off-piste, and I was greeted with a loud crunch and the roof came to an abrupt halt. Inspection soon revealed the problem. The guttering I'd installed a few days ago was sticking out too far at both ends (see picture a couple of posts above). The wrap-around sides of the roof clearly didn't like this! Why I didn't test this after installing the guttering escapes me - what's that phrase about measuring twice and cutting once? With hindsight it was blindingly obvious. Fortunately, no great damage was done, but it took me the rest of the daylight hours to remove, modify the re-attach the guttering. This time I tested it and can report that the roof rolls back all the way without problem. Phew. By this time it was too dark to play with the EPDM so that was the end of the observatory build for today. So, instead of a nice pic of the new wind seal on the roof, here's another pic of some paint drying...
    1 point
  34. Well.... Once we have the holiday cottage conversion done and have water and electrickery somewhere near the "upstairs field", there's a whole acre of relatively flat grass that would serve for tent pitching (indeed has done, in the past), though I might need to "have a word" about the cricket club insecurity lights first. James
    1 point
  35. Comet 46P/Wirtanen photographed early morning on January 6th 2019. Its coma has angular diameter half degree in this image with elongated shape to southwest toward seems there are some tail. Between constellations Lynx and Ursa Major on a field of faint galaxies, the comet has near magnitude 6. Telescope GSO 8" N f/3.8. Camera Atik 383L+. 37 min. total exposure. From Vallés, Valencia (Spain). http://cometografia.es/46p-wirtanen-20190106/
    1 point
  36. Nah, a cue tip is what you use for playing snooker or pool! Louise
    1 point
  37. I already have one, if only there were some planets to "kill" at the moment. Needs a good mount to cope with the high magnification it is capable of. Have a look at the price of the mirrors new. ?
    1 point
  38. The CN crowd will have this scope analysed and pigeonholed without the need to actually look through one
    1 point
  39. People are falling out and no ones even looked through it yet ?
    1 point
  40. Well I finally got my 130PDS out again after not being able to use it since the middle of the summer as it got badly out of collimation and I just couldn't fix it. 3 people tried to help at an Astro camp in October, but it still wasn't right. Continued to try myself, but ended up taking it to RolandKol who kindly managed to sort it out for me. This was the test image a few nights ago. and a 2nd version with RGB stars added.
    1 point
  41. Thanks Alan. Me thinks that I may have been sussed! ? Thanks Mike, you know me so well
    1 point
  42. I've delivered an article 50 to the wife and commenced tentative exploratory negotiations, hopefully she wont want to discuss the divorce bill first.. If it comes to it, I'll take a Tak FC100 as a back stop.
    1 point
  43. Thank you, Olly In fact the other shed is my brewery, so probably best if the two are kept well apart really. James
    1 point
  44. And does the shed at right angles on the right contain a conveyor belt of instruments ready to feed into the observatory in the event of a target needing a small change in resolution, aperture, field of view, etc??? How splendid! Or, more seriously, this really does look great. Olly
    1 point
  45. The sun is the the source of all life. At least on this planet.
    1 point
  46. The Astronomy Centre will be doing "Stargazing Live" as usual this year. ?
    1 point
  47. Love it! After my left retina decided it didn't fancy remaining attached to the back of my peeper, the surgery to laser it back on will lead to an inevitable cataract. A scleral band has also left me massively short sighted that is barely corrected with a mega prescription. My right eye is the polar opposite and borderline 6/3 which means without glasses bino vision is laughable. Catching anything thrown at me is pure guesswork ?
    0 points
  48. I want to share this video for everyone who has an ender 3, or wants to buy one, to check out if their printer have the same problem:
    0 points
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