JamesF

Ah, well, if it's a common fault then my recommendation is to completely unscrew the back of the handset, fit the battery and then refit the back and battery cover before replacing the screws that hold the back on. Doing it that way allows you to fiddle with the wiring so it all fits neatly and to get the cover in place easily.

James

Yes, it's a standard PP9 battery. Mine was an absolute pig to get into the case, but I think I just got unlucky there.

James

I can't recall either. I *ahem* modded mine to use mains power anyhow:

http://www.tanstaafl.co.uk/2012/02/mains-power-for-skywatcher-motor-focuser/

James

I've always thought of it as RJ10 or 4P4C, but I'm not sure how RJ9 differs from RJ10.

James

Very nice. I am unlikely to be a dob imager, but it is a nicely put together guide and perhaps I might just give it a go one day for kicks

And it worked out a much smaller file than you thought

James

I'd start with levels rather than curves. Load in the image and pop up the levels dialog, then move the middle triangular marker under the histogram to the left to bring it close to the main body of the histogram. See how that looks.

James

Hydrocarbons I've got sorted now I think, resistors however are a different story!! I don't really understand these things at all I need some educating on electrical components x

I did AO level electronics nearly thirty years ago, mostly as a bit of light relief during the first year of my A levels. For my liking there was far too little about designing circuits and to much about the theory (at the end of the course I'd have had no trouble explaining how semiconductors worked, but I'd have struggled to design a circuit that used more than a couple). Now I'd really like to have a better understanding of the practical side, both to able to design circuits and to look at other people's work and understand what they've done, but I've struggled to find many resources to help teach myself. I can't help wondering if these days there just aren't that many people learning about electronics outside an academic or work environment.

James

I was trying to think of one to remember the first 5 hydrocarbons for chemistry class, we came

Up with Most Earthlings Prefer Big Pizzas.

I could do with a hand with resistors. Mrs is an electrical engineer and is always testing me, I'm only just getting into electronics though so keep it simple

The mnemonic I know for resistors almost certainly wouldn't be allowed here, but I have just googled and found:

Big Boys Race Our Young Girls, But Violet Generally Wins

for

Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Grey White

where the associated numbers start at zero (so black is zero, brown one and so on). Google also suggests that a teacher has been dismissed for teaching a boy the version I know. Schools were different thirty years ago

You only really need to remember the first four hydrocarbon prefixes; after that they follow the same pattern as polygon names, so you have methane, ethane, propane, butane and then pentane, hexane, heptane and octane (and similarly methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, pentanol, hexanol, heptanol, octanol for the alcohols) following the same pattern as pentagon, hexagon, heptagon and octagon as you add one more carbon atom each time.

James

I never knew any mnemonics for such things. I either remember them. Or not

The only one I know is for resistor colour codes.

James

I think the problem with seeing it early after the collapse would be the inability to resolve detail through our atmosphere. Perhaps for a couple of months it would just appear as a bright point?

James

Well, if we said that M1 has expanded by about one arcsecond per year, then perhaps our new remnant might expand by ten arcseconds year year, being ten times closer than M1. Perhaps it would take a while before you could see much.

James

976 times brighter is, if my maths is correct, about 7.5 magnitudes. Based on the Wikipedia details for SN1604 that would make it around -10. Not quite full Moon, but not astonishingly far off.

James

i honestly do not believe that it will bright enough to light up the sky..

Depends how you define "light up the sky", I guess? AFAIR the estimates are that the apparent magnitude will be as bright as the full Moon and that lights up pretty much the entire sky by some definitions. That it would be "like daylight" seems a bit of a stretch unless it gets a fair bit brighter than that.

James

Since it's believed to be inevitable, I'd rather it went in my lifetime than I didn't get to see it. I can't see that it will detract from the constellation at all. That part of the sky is so much more than the stars that make up the Orion asterism.

That said, seeing any star in our galaxy go supernova would be amazing as long as it wasn't pointing a massive burst of high energy radiation right at us.

James

Sad news indeed

James

Is this the kind of thing you're after?

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p5223_TS-Adapter--M42x1-female-to-T2-male-for-russian-objectives.html

James

I'm sure there was a link posted for one the other day, but I can't find it now. I'll keep looking.

James

I went for APT, but I'd recommend trying both and seeing how you get on.

James

Never mind your coat, I think you should be looking for your flame retardant underwear

James

No SHE did not :-)

I did wonder about that, but decided that perhaps starfox knew better than me and that Agnes might be a non gender-specific name in Dutch or something

James

It was an accident - honest gov

"It just came off in my hand"

James

I've been trying to work out what is achieved by doing this to a webcam because there's no way (generally) to get at the raw data. Would you just end up with a monochrome camera with increased sensitivity that gave you what was effectively a 2x2 binned image?

I believe the SPC firmware can be altered to give the raw image data, but wouldn't having to transfer all that data over USB 1.1 cripple the frame rate?

James

Does it still work?

I have no idea what that glue must be, but it clearly forms a very strong bond between the glass and the backing. it's almost like it's welded rather than glued.

James

I guess I could - I have some grinding tools - good idea

I think it must be worth a go too, though I can't help wondering if you won't end up with something that's impossible to replace.

James

Got a hammer - got a sensor...

I'm not sure I want to know

James