JamesF

3 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

Is this a Haiku class, or something?.

Not a Haiku class
Only simple mnemonics
If I recall right

James

That's a good point.  For visual it may well be good enough to keep the target roughly central with a small amount of drift between steps.

James

8 minutes ago, Tiny Clanger said:

Which for some reason reminds me that I  once set a class of 8 year olds the task of writing their own mnemonic for the order of colours of the spectrum .

My favourite (it must be a good  mnemonic, 'cos I remember it after 30 years ) was :

'Rabbits of yesterday gave back inky vests.'

Not sure if that conceals a message about the illuminati though ...

Rainbows only yield gold bounty in visions :)

James

As Francis Urquhart once said: "You might very well think that; I couldn't possibly comment".

Please do not resist when the men in black helicopters arrive.  It will only make things worse.

James

Welcome.  And this isn't true, by the way

6 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Loads of advice on here some contradictory

:D

James

I really think it's best to avoid the entire topic of magnification when considering imaging.  I've struggled to convince myself that magnification is useful in any way as an absolute value whether imaging or visual.  As a means of comparing different optical configurations it might be handy, but if someone says they're viewing Mars at 100x magnification does the information actually have any useful meaning beyond that?

James

I suspect in that configuration you will find that you can't turn the RA axis sufficiently slowly and smoothly.  The EQ3-2 I pictured above has a 4:1 (if I recall correctly) step down in the belt gears to allow a reasonable stepping rate with the motor.  The EQ1 has far fewer teeth on the worm wheel, so needs to be turned more slowly.

James

10 hours ago, haitch said:

... but still it goes

Ah, well, as any Pratchett reader knows, the laws of Narrative Causality mean million-to-one shots come up nine times out of ten.

Rather pleasantly, whilst confirming my recollection of this, I came across a quote from "The Science of Discworld":

    "humans seem to need to project a kind of interior decoration on to the universe"

I believe the concept of the universe having an "interior decorator" may have been one that Pratchett borrowed from John Dobson, who often spoke of such.

James

Has the look of a Wordpress site to me, so perhaps it got broken as part of a recent Wordpress upgrade.  I believe there was one recently.  On the other hand it is hosted at OVH, who I wouldn't trust as far as I could comfortably spit a dead rat, so perhaps OVH broke it.  They don't exactly have a good reputation.

Anyhow, it appears to be working again for me now.

James

Can't help you there I'm afraid.  I'm not even sure I have Windows drivers for the SX camera I have.

James

Same for me.  Looks like it's a configuration issue at their end.

James

Apologies for the poor focus.  My phone clearly decided the background was more interesting than the EQ1.  This is how the aftermarket motor looks on my EQ1:

I don't really like that the motor mount is held in place by the alt axis bolt.  I suspect what I'd be tempted to do here is to get a couple of clamps (munsen rings, perhaps?) to fit around the RA body, above and below the bit that goes on the alt axis and fit a plate to them to hold the stepper motor, driving the RA worm using a belt.

Alternatively you could perhaps get away with using the alt axis bolt to hold a motor mounting plate by also using the mounting for the RA pointer to fix the plate and prevent it from rotating.

James

3 minutes ago, Ouroboros said:

3,500 milliwatts sounds more like it.  

Even so, I suspect that the chances of anything getting to Mars are a million to one.

James

Off the top of my head I can't recall what the area around the motor mounting looks like on an EQ1.  The aftermarket motors for my EQ3-2 only fit with a single screw to hold them in place, but there is a flat section on the side of the RA housing where the mounting bracket goes so when I wanted to fit a stepper instead I could use the shape of the housing to stop my new mounting bracket from moving about:

(Clearance over the RA clutch lever was fearsomely tight though.)

I wonder if you might have to make something that fits all the way around the RA housing for the EQ1?

James

41 minutes ago, Jonk said:

Hmmm...firstly, 3500W laser?! No chance. He'd be arrested.

Secondly, by the time it reaches Mars, the beam diameter would be huge, and the amount of radiation hitting Mars (even if he was aligned perfectly) would be lost in the sun's radiation.

Also, blue wavelength would not do anything to generate CO2.

My source? I work with laser experts!

I thought it all sounded rather implausible myself.

James

6 minutes ago, carastro said:

Speak to Dave S if you want the whole heart breaking story.

Oh dear :(  I take it he has had an upgrade fail in this way?

James

32 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Don't do it James, a lot of older MBP like ours have been bricked by the update leaving folk with a black screen and Apple has no interest in helping, they think you ought to bin it and buy a new one 😂

So I have just read.  I shall be keeping well away from that for the time being then.  I guess for the moment oacapture etc. development will just have to avoid Big Sur :(

James

We expect "to give you some more words"?  What a bizarre expression.

James

How bright does it need to be to burn through the permacloud?

James

Oh dear.  The interview with the president of JAXA was really not done well.  He really wasn't reading his answers off a sheet of paper in front of him, was he?

James

4 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I'm sure they just said they were all going for lunch.

Definitely.  They certainly just said they were going over to KFC.

James

I'm sure they just said they were all going for lunch.

James

It is fascinating to see all the prep work that goes on before the launch.

James

Smart idea.  I was just planning to use some screws with rounded-off ends that fitted into the groove on the Steeltrak.  It hadn't occurred to me to use some sort of clamp.

James

Think I might have to have a "leak check" myself in a moment.

James