Leo S

Even inland (about as far as you can get here on the mainland) it fogged up as soon as it got dark here. No halos tonight but there was a nice lunar fog-corona which looked quite interesting through the branches of a tree. I wasn't sure if the camera would catch the effect, but it did. This was with a 90mm lens.

Last night's 22 degree lunar halo. It had faded significantly by the time I managed to get some images!

Making progress now. Slowly but surely. I've solved the sliding mechanism to move the camera back/forth problem - I think - so I've got together (or ordered) all the smaller pieces of the puzzle (nuts, bolts, etc), and have begun to make the small wooden supports that will go between the cameras and the case. Just waiting for the drill press I've ordered so I can finish them off properly. I couldn't think of another way to ensure I drilled them square on, and didn't want to have to re-do them as I probably would have to if I attempted to drill them by hand! It's only a cheap £100 press from Amazon, but looks like it should be able to do the job. Hopefully it'll get here soon as I cant progress further without it. I'll post another update once the wood parts are in place.

I've been monitoring the situation closely. It's absolutely horrendous, and my heart goes out to anyone who has lost loved ones or property. LA and Pacific Palisades in particular are very close to my heart. My sister grew up in the historic Riviera Country Club which has narrowly escaped the fires (so far at least), and I've also spent months living there (even observed a Perseid peak from there), so to see what is going on there now is heartbreaking. I hope they can get the fires under control.

Kudos if you can pull this off Jim. The only possible flaw in the plan I can think of is: Aren't the government planning to ban diesel/petrol vehicles in a few years?

I found some pics I had saved of someone else's peli case camera housing project. Seeing these gives me some ideas, but not sure I could incorporate them into a 2 camera design. I like the way the QR plate is turned 90 degrees, but for something like that to work the lens needs to stay square with the peli case surface, so it could not work with a 2 camera design.

A complete 22 degree lunar halo here tonight. Usually they are not complete!

Good advice. I've used Ffordes on many occasions for used gear and would recommend them to anybody. I've also bought from WEX and LCE without issue. I would not rule out eBay either - just make sure to check seller's feedback, read the auction details carefully, inspect images thoroughly, and ask questions if something is not clear. If you still manage to get a duff item after having gone through all of the above, then eBay will usually refund you (they almost always take the side of the seller in a dispute), even if the seller clearly stated "No returns". Recent example: I needed two 28mm Sigma Arts. Got the first from Ffordes for £460 total inc. postage. The other was £350 total from eBay. Both in excellent condition and work perfectly. You couldn't tell them apart apart from one is in Nikon mount and the other is Sony E-mount.

I can't think of any great 50mm lenses, but if you are willing to go to 35mm, check out the Tamron SP. Not sure if you'd call it budget, but it's much cheaper than some I've come across, and it's also usable wide open, so many potential uses with such a fast wide.

Thanks. Wasn't sure if that was an issue worth spending any time/money on, but as long as the software can adequately compensate for being a few degrees off I'm sure it's fine.

Domes have arrived! I've also been trying to work out how to attach everything in the case. I think I can make it work, but perhaps with some limitations. Here is a shot of the case set up with one of the two cameras in (temporarily) position. The second camera should fit beside it. Ignore the stone bowl and desiccant bag. I just used them to stop the camera slipping/falling over while I took the shot. This shot shows roughly how I want to position the cameras in the case, but they may need raising a bit. I'll have to see how it works out. One may need to be higher than the other so that the domes can fit on the front (actually the bottom) of the peli case. It's going to be a tight fit even with this quite large/deep case. The base where I intend to attach the ball head will have to jut out a bit, into the lid of the case, but there should be enough room. I will need to make the base mobile in one direction. The ball-head + QR clamp provide adjustments in other directions. In the image below I've used a couple of bits of wood to give an idea how it will work. The top bit of wood (or one like it - probably larger!) will be connected to the ball head, and needs to slide back/forth along the bottom bit of wood (which is connected to the case), so I can control how deep into the dome the lens goes. It only needs to provided a few cm of movement, so I can make adjustments and make sure both lenses point in the right direction. Once they are pointed the right way I could potentially "fix them down" I guess. Any suggestions how I might get them to slide, or how to do it a different way? I'm also struggling with another major issue. In order to get both cameras (in any one peli case) to cover different parts of the sky, I'll have to turn the cameras a bit, but I'm not sure if the domes will provide the necessary room needed to accommodate this - there might also be distortion issues too perhaps. The only solution I can envisage is a wedge with a hole in it, that can go between the peli case and the dome, which would give the dome a bit of an angle. It would need to be 3d printed. (any takers?😀 - I'd need EIGHT in total!) But I'm not sure how well even this would work - to work properly I'd need to drill an ellipse in the peli, and the wedge would also need to be elliptical, in an ideal world! But perhaps if the wedge is only a few degrees, I'm thinking a wedge still might be worth doing!?! To complicate matters, I wanted to have two different configurations using the cases: 1 - For covering the sky above 45 degrees I wanted to have the two camera FOV's stacked on top of each other. 2 - For covering below 45 degrees I wanted to have the camera FOV's next to each other. Unfortunately I'm not sure I'll be able to do "2" above because I'm using 28mm lenses which cover a horizontal FOV of 65 degrees, and I can't see how I could achieve the necessary angle between the two cameras in a case so that both cameras cover adjacent areas of sky, but I think "1" might just be possible because the vertical FOV is only 46 degrees. If I can't find a way to get the cameras pointing at different parts of the sky I may have to ditch the "2 cameras in a case" idea. Edit to add: I just measured the front diameter of the 28mm Art lens - pretty much exactly 3", and the domes are 5" so that should be enough wiggle room for 2 cameras in a case to at least be viable.

So now that I have moved somewhere where I can fairly easily setup a mount again, and I'm starting to get settled in, I've been thinking about setting up the mount in the near future, but in the mean time there are a few potential issues I have with my setup which could do with attention. It's been a long time - about 6 years - since I last had it set up. It was bought around 2002 if memory serves, but has only been setup/used a handful of times, so I'm wondering if after all that time it might need a re-grease or something perhaps before I try to use it again? Now this is how the setup looked when I last had it out. I used a Wimberley gimbal head so I could image with my old Nikkor 600mm F4 lens. I know it's not ideal so thinking about alternative solutions. I guess scope mounting rings that would fit the lens I want to use? I think I'll probably be using other lenses more than the 600mm - mostly shorter but also the Canon EF 800/5.6. I did have a set of plates made that fitted with a couple of my lenses including the 600mm, and the Leica 180/2.0, but I found this in-flexible, hence the Wimberley gimbal head. The other Issue I have is with my Polemaster. When I attach the adapter in which the Polemaster sits to the mount. It doesn't sit right: It's secured in place by 3 screws, but the cavity it sits in in the mount, comes to an end where at least one of the screws are that secure the adapter. So when I try to secure the adapter in place, the screws slip off the edge of the cavity, and the adapter ends up at an angle (perhaps 4 or 5 degrees - not sure - will have to check when I get the mount out) to the axis of rotation - it's not well designed! So if the adapter is already askew, how bad is that? I did manage to polar align with the adapter like this and image, but I wonder if things might have been better if this issue can be solved?

I'm not sure what NINA is/does. I'm also a bit of a newbie when it comes to deepsky/mounts so I'll let others with more experience answer. I guess that will depend on what FL you are using/what you are trying to image. Sometimes a rough polar alignment can be enough.

Have you looked at the Polemaster? It made life a lot simpler for me!

I know you are after more than just a recommendation for a place, but for what it's worth, I can recommend Gran Canaria (often overlooked), although it has been ~20 years since I was last there, but I imagine it's not much different now. If you drive up to the top, and when you get there, turn around and start to come back down, there is a turnoff/track on the left, not sure exactly where, but if you go down it (it's a bit rough) there is a hairpin bend, which leads to here after a few minutes: It was here I got these images. I've never been able to get such a good image of the milky way. This was a tracked exposure of a couple of minutes, Canon T70 + 50/1.2 using ISO 400 Provia film I believe. Here's another shot from that spot. The island has plenty of good locations. Here you can see Tenerif in the distance.