Starlight 1

15 minutes ago, Chris Lock said:

I can't be doing with trying to find third party upgrades so it's going back.

I do the same if something bug me I can not sleep  till its done and looking at what buging you it was made for toy r us.

Well I have a look at the weekend when I come over to pick one up from you.

24 minutes ago, John said:

So do I - minimal setup time. Point the RA axis north and switch on

Don't make any noise Use next to no power . So you get lot of time in with that scope.

Very nice John,  I like the old mounts over goto .

I pick up a 60mm f700 and after a little clean up and it show no CA at all when looking at the Moon, and I got new tube ring for £20 with p+p.

I have the 60mm with this camera , for me to work it out I put the filter on then the Nosepiece/Barrel (do not use the red filter)them put the camera out to the point were you can just see the Nosepiece/Barrel and  focus  all the way out as well , that give you about 20mm back. and it do hold ok . you be about 1 mm in or out .

First light optics had been very generous , I missed my email by nearly a month on  Christmas offer of a cable and still sent me one. I am so grateful for their generosity .

The cable is a perfect replacement for the Heq5 mount nice sweeping lines around the head making it less likely to come in contact with the adjustment bolts, lay lovely and flat on the ground make that much less chance of falling over it. Was my first time out today on a nice crisp frosty morning .

Les

 may not look nice Its only money 

Stars are not as little in olll is the seeing not as good ?.

The plug that go into the mount is positive tip so the out side just slides round on a very thin piece of metal so try just pushing a little bit of weight on one side of the plug and then switch on just to see if it makes better contact .

27 minutes ago, lux eterna said:

Hi Starlight1,

A dead motherboard makes sense, but what do you mean with the power lead interrupting the supply ? The HC display is bright and clear and so is the red led on the mount. You mean the power supply is interrupted internally, on the motherboard ?

The power lead plug that fit into the mount  is not making good contact on this plug.

No link to PC is a normal response on the hand controller if the motherboard died, it's another problem from your description it sounds more like the power lead interrupting the supply.

Well without looking at all the post, round this way I see thay use car tyres chiping in parks ,were do you get them from I past on that . I think it last well if not thay would not use it and it have to be safe .

4 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

You saw something. For most of us it was always going to be an event where we saw something (not the whole thing). That's good enough. I didnt plan to observe the whole 8 hrs anyway.

I can now tick Mercury of my list of observed planets. Ive seen it in the evening after sunset but only naked eye. OK.......today it was a black dot.. 

I'm happy with my transit day

 

Well put Paul,  As a lot of menbers on here have done so much in geting the right set up for to day and the weather was not nice for then , and to think some may not be around for the next 33 years is a long time and its not to say it be any better then , So for anyone that seen any of it today well done.

I was having a look every 15 mins , so I got 2.5 hours in , still sunny here but thin clouds rolling in with 16 mph winds .

Best I can do is to show you I was out there, Got a bit to windy around 2.30 and the filler was flaping abit so play safe and come back in .

 

Miraculous! Excellent seeing here today - and Mercury is on the disc! The spot is showing a nice surrounding dark zone too, even in live view.

Sorry folks with cloud.

Same here and looking good .

Looking clear here on Monday so I may have a little look , but its saying its 24c  and I am going to look like I just come out of a cooking pot .

42 minutes ago, samtheeagle said:

One thing that I did find when checking out the balance of things is that my DEC axis is very heavily out of whack... And I have no possibility to resolve it atm, I need to get an extra long dovetail so that I can shift the whole setup forward a bit.

This is why I allways have Trendines on so you see when balance is not right + your guiding will never work for more then 2 or 3 mins. just put this right and you all done.

The HEQ5 mounts do have about 1 or 2mm on head .

39 minutes ago, samtheeagle said:

Celestron 70mm TravelScope

How well is this scope lock down, is it pigy back or side by side.

39 minutes ago, samtheeagle said:

adjusting the balance

Keep this spot on in RA/DEC. and in PHD put the trendines on  so you can see how the red and blue is moving up or down.

PS have you put the right setting in PHD for the new scope and camera,

1 hour ago, Skipper Billy said:

Even with the screen gain slider over to the far right (darkest) there are still stars visible

This is only for your seeing and do not have any thing to do with Stars or how phd works.

7 minutes ago, Adam J said:

It has not done it with other peoples images with similarly over exposed stars.

 

Just looking at old post and yes it do look like spider vanes , try some were with out a big Star to see if it still show 6 if it do them it can only be the vanes doing this.

   I do not think its your spider vanes the rest of the Stars only have 4   Alnitak is a big Star doing this to your image.

I was hoping to go out side tonight , so I will ask do you have the Heq5 synscan upgrade kit before  i can take you thouth taking it apart.

R.A motor

DEC motor

control board & pcb

 power cable

there is 2 or 3 more bit in the kit

hand control

power cable

hand control cable

 new gears in the kit go go with the new motors

if you have all this I start the run down on Thursday.

Do not think I have put any in this post , so here I tak 106ed useing the ST80 focuser to dive the tak from a belt.