Debo

Great set of images 

Caught the big guy today, a pretty poor image due to bad seeing and lots of cloud dodging 🥴

TL doesn't seem to work for me 🤔

Caught it at about 1.30pm

31 minutes ago, Nigella Bryant said:

Was largest around 13.30ish

Yes, that's when I was observing 👍

A very impressive prom from this afternoon, maybe a flare just over the limb.

It didn't hang around for too long and faded significantly over the next half an hour.

150mm Acro+Quark+ERF

Brilliant 👍

Super image.

Interesting (if you zoom in) there seems to be a flurry of faint meteors/satellites in the thick end of the ZL 🤔

Fantastic 

2 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

Anyway glad it ,looks like it’s sorted

We'll see 🤞

Update latest.

I took the scopes and weights off the mount with the intention of getting to the motherboard and thought I'd give it one last go at powering up with the handset connected.

Low and behold, no buzzing from the mount and the handset was working, displaying the AUTO SLEW HOME message, I pressed 1 (yes) and it established the home postion, hooray.

Next it went through the usual stuff, Ver 04.39.05, Sun Warning, Set Longitude and was OK, then it got to Set Latitude and froze and wouldn't accept any inputs from the keypad except ESC

which then just restarted the whole start process again (with the same result) 🤪

It's got to be a handset problem, so new handset ordered  (hope this emoji isn't premature)

The orange backlight of the handset does flash on for an instant (showing no text) and then goes off.

I tried powering up the mount without the handset attached and that very worrying buzzing noise is still there 🤔

I think I'll get the mother board out and have a look and maybe replace it before getting a new handset.

1 hour ago, Stuart1971 said:

handset that has failed

Maybe because it doesn't power up and does seem to feel warm on the back (never noticed that before), although the mount makes a sort of buzzing noise immediately it's turned on 🤔

The handset is certainly looking it's age so  I'll get a new one,  just rule it out of the problem.

1 minute ago, Stuart1971 said:

BUT I know for a fact that this board requires a complete new black facia as the board is a different shape

Thanks for that

11 minutes ago, malc-c said:

If the board is PIC based, and it's one that I can program with the hardware I have here then I'm willing to take a look and try and repair it for you.

Thanks Malcolm,

I'll get the board out and have a look.

39 minutes ago, tomato said:

I would have thought a repair is a viable option.

Yes 👍

22 minutes ago, Stuart1971 said:

the older EQ8 without the USB port then this is what you may want…

https://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-replacement-motherboard-for-eq8.html

Thanks Stuart and Tomato,

Repair does seem to be the way to go.

It is the older Eq8 so that's certainly an option (if it really is that easy to swap) 🙂

The power supply I'm sure is good but I will double check.

Oh dear my EQ8 has  just decided to stop working 🥴, what shall I do?

The mount is 10yrs old and has always worked perfectly up until today, I powered it up and got no response from the handset and there was a humming/buzzing sound coming from

inside the head. I tried the old on/off technique several times but the problem remains.

I'm not confident enough to tinker and get the thing apart and would probably end up doing more harm than good.

Options:- 

A> Find someone to repair it if it's possible, do you know of any companies or individuals that could do this ???

B> Try and sell it. Obviously making it clear that it is broken and not working (spares or repair), if I do how much do you think it would be worth ???

Any thoughts 🤔

Thanks Den

I know what you mean 🥴

Caught just the one from last night at around 8.45.

I think you should get a longer rail and just move the ota forward to get the correct balance.

Hi Nikolai,

I've a couple of meteorites, I think your rock looks very similar to my first image (Iron Coarse Octahedrite) and also similar to the second (Brecciated Ordinary Chondrite).

Den

Used my telescope (6'' Achro) yesterday evening to get this very noisy image.

The comet was moving quickly so had to use iso6400 and a short 90s exposure to try and stop it looking like a cigar 🙂

I had a go last night but couldn't find it with the bins, very disappointing ☹️

Tried my camera with a wide angle lens (38mm) pointing in the general direction and found it (only just).

Cropped to 50%

8 hours ago, Albir phil said:

I think you have another meteor very faint

Well spotted Andrew 👍

I went through all the images again and found a couple more faint ones.