Mr_Cat

Designed myself a cup holder for the tripod leg on my EQ6. Holds coffee mugs, pint glasses or even a 12v splitter so I can power my mount and AsiAir from one power lead.. If it's your cup of Java download it from thingiverse https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6616711 Printed using anycubic ABS+ resin - first time I've used the ABS resin and it's nice, Less brittle and more flexible than the water wash - but it sticks to everything !!

Today is new dew shield day Thanks Mr Postie !!

That looks nice

My back is now happy - can't wait to use this polarscope adaptor

3d printer helping out with my tidiness / cable management

Out and cooling down - hoping the wind drops a bit. Moon looks great already through the 150

Many thanks to @Clavius D for this excellent dew heater for my 925 Just need to find a s/h alloy dew shield now

so - 48mm outside diameter, 42 mm internal diameter, down to 20mm outer, 10 mm internal, slices at 1 cm intervals of .5mm, .75mm, 1mm, 2mm, 4mm Once printed I can measure it, check the slices with feeler gauges etc. Weird way to have fun tbh !!

I'm just thinking something simple like a tube - 50mm ext diameter, 42mm internal, then on the Z axis slice down half the tube 1mm slice , 2mm, slice 4mm slice, 5mm slice so I can compare all the axis.

Thanks for the replies guys ! It's triggered some thoughts so some of my answers below are only as a result of your questions Answers 1st off, if you just print the original stl model file, does it fit ok ? >No, while the alloy male will fit, it just doesn't seem to sync into the thread properly. It's almost like if you looked at the thread from the front the X/Y are scaled fine but the Z is shrunk... 2nd what software are you using to 'form' the full model file > Just using tinkercad I used to 3d model a long time ago (early 90's) so I'm taking a gentle path back into a full CAD package 3rd what slicer are you using > using Anycubic photon workshop to slice it - the 3d printer I was given is an Anycubic Photon mono and I'm using AnyCubic resin. This was recommended to me by the previous owner as a good starter. I've been suggested to move onto Lychee. Also, you need to do some tests / calibration to figure out tolerances of your printer and then adjust the model for those. >I am making a bracket to slide over the vixen bar on my 925 to hold the ASIAIR and dew controller and was surprised how much the finished product was smaller than in the package. For a 43 mm dovetail I ended up printing 45mm / 45.5mm and 46 mm clamps to test the shrinkage (45mm shrunk by 1.75mm) I often use 0.12mm layer height for 0.75mm pitch, so you don't need to go very fine (and waste time) - 0.05mm will be more than sufficient. >That is great info thanks. I only got a litre of resin to start with - I blew through that real quickly and didn't have enough to print a cones of calibration to get the exposure right when I reduced the layer thickness - so I didn't go to "extreme". 2 litres or resin arriving tomorrow so I'll get some baselines for the resin / printer / layer thickness / exposure time and move over onto Lychee. As far as I know - there is difference between different types of resin in amount of detail they can pull off - so it's worth checking out what type of resin is best suited for this work. >thanks - yeah I spotted draft resin can only take a certain level of detail but the one I am using should be fine. I think what I'm seeing in your answers guys is that I need to sort out the shrinkage !

I'm looking to hook a ASI120mm mini camera onto my guide scope. The guidescope has a 42*.75 male thread but all the adaptors I have in my box end up also with a male thread.. so I need a female T2 to female T2. Easy enough I thought, someone is bound to have done that so I went looking and I've printed a few adaptors but none of them really thread properly, So then I thought make something specific - find a STL with a female T2 / slice the threaded section off / copy / rotate / join / export / slice / print. I started on a layer thickness of .050mm and ended dropping it to .030mm but no better (despite the print time going from 45 mins to 4 hours..) Any suggestions ?

For about 15 years I was a regular skydiver. I'd spend maybe £600/700 to get to a dropzone in the uk and sometimes spent the entire weekend looking at clouds. Or multiple days in Spain on tramunta wind holds, or Florida when hurricanes rolled in.. But so worth it for when it goes right and you get a window in the clouds. Astronomy is surprisingly similar. Worth the wait!!

I got given a 3d resin printer two days ago the resin and wash/cure cab arrived last night so I've been printing a bahtinov mask for my guide scope today

Big shout out to @Priestersfor this fantastic filter drawer!! Very pleased with them.

Thanks for the heads up - ordered

Realised that I'm not going to get Pons-Brook or even Jupiter for a while as they both drop behind my roof line just after sunset so I figure I'll be driving to a dark sky site. As such a practice pack / unload seemed like a good idea and as the rdf and the guide cam needed aligning I decided to head out to somewhere with a decent viewing distance - and there is a very handily placed lighthouse 9 miles away to line up on. Anyone who knows the Isle Of Man and the TT this is at Mountain Box

Thursday is now renamed ToyDay

On some levels last night was disappointing and frustrating but at the same time I did quite a bit of work on my process so I'm claiming it as a win. Scope out at 1330 to cool as it looked like the sky was going to be clear. 1900 I got out with the finderscope on a tripod and had a look at Jupiter - when the clouds cleared I could discern some banding and 4 moons. It always surprises me when I can see something through the scope and look up and see the target is covered in cloud - but there is enough light that the telescope can pick it up.. About 2015 the clouds had cleared enough so I move the C925 and mount onto the terrace - first outside session with the Asiair - and the issues started. It wouldn't plate solve with the camera in the OAG suggesting the issue was the focal length, then I remembered the Focal reducer was in place - so I calculated the new focal length and tried again - still no go.. I was tempted to go back in the house at that point but persevered, replaced my finder scope with one I could put the camera on - and it plate solved. Went through the all sky polar alignment - which took ages with the clouds. While I was waiting I took the OAG off and on went a diagonal and an eye piece. With the mount polar aligned I started slewing to targets and realised that the guidescope was out of line.. Thought about calling it quits there but persevered and aligned everything - swung to split Lyrae and as the mount slewed total cloud cover rolled in.. So not much seen but a good evenings work in poor conditions which should save me time when when do get a clear night !

Big shout out to @PaulE54 for a superbly packaged Finderscope and guidecam He was a pleasure to deal with.

2 gigs today so only had a short break between them but got out onto the terrace with the 925. It was pretty windy but between the gusts is seemed ok so I put some magnification into the moon (8/22 zoom) and realised the seeing wasn't great so swapped the eyepiece out, put the reducer and the camera on and headed over to M42. Nice little EEA session on that but no captures as the wind had picked up limiting exposure time to a couple of secs. slewed back to the and with the focal reducer in the view was much better so grabbed a short section of vid / quick stack while breaking down..

Quick update. Got everything out onto the terrace last night and decided to try the ASIAIR out. Told it to slew to the moon - it missed by a long way, pretty much 90 degrees out and once more the OTA nearly hit the mount... I decided to park the mount and start again. The mount parked pointing the OTA 90 degrees out on the RA. I powered the mount off, released the clutch, turned the OTA to the right position and powered the mount back on. Back in the ASIAIR, slewed the mount to the moon and it was only about half a moon out. Problem solved - it seems my process will be connect the mount, park it, rotate the OTA, power back on, enjoy my viewing

That is super nice !!

I chucked a SynScan Wi-Fi Adapter onto my EQ6 - no configuration needed, and I can drive the mount from my phone or my laptop. Came in very handy when I wanted to hook my mount up to a V1 ASIAIR as the ASIAIR didn't see my USB lead (as it's a V1) I put the wifi adaptor into station mode and connected it that way to the ASI air. Quite a flexible little device tbh.

Had checked the forecast and was expecting nothing so had settled down with my better half.. But about 2030 I noticed the moon / Jupiter and Sirius were visible albeit it through cloud. After mentally pacing around for 30 mins (and waiting for the program we were watching to end..) I took another look - not any better but figured it was worth taking a chance and getting out. 10 mins later the C925 was out, dew shield on and warming up.. There was no way I was going to get any star alignment so I just manually slewed over to the moon and even with a thin layer of cloud it was totally worth hauling everything out onto the terrace. With the poor seeing I used the time to line the RDF and finder scope up properly. Then started with a 22m eyepiece but stepped up to a 6.5mm. At that magnification not having tracking was a pain but I still enjoyed the view. Then swapped to a 22/8mm zoon and tried the .63 reducer out. It was nice to be able to frame the entire half moon in the eyepiece. Kept the session to an hour (inc setup / break down) but after 10 days of nothing it was nice to get a little time to test things. Loving the C925, even with the cloud layer it was still incredible