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New CEM60 now in the new observatory and combined with a William Optics ZS 73 APO + 73A flat. All the images are a combination of 6x300s subs @ 800 iso with a mono D5100, 7nm Ha Baader filter inside the 73A flat. Processing in PI + tweak in PS

Also which version of PI - I think it only works on later versions? Like Sara I did the download on the PI version, extracted the files, selected the files from the extracted folder and pulled them into the PI Bin folder. Opened PI, selected Modules/load modules - Starnet was shown so selected and hit install...

Meccano - wonderful stuff - hours spent in my youth with spanner, screwdriver, cogs, wheels, shafts... - memories 😀

Thanks Alan, The pet food tub is actually very convenient, being on wheels it easily moves around to where it's needed. Having had a couple of set-up sessions now I'm really liking the built in hub on the CEM60 - it means now I just have the one short USB lead from the mount to the lappy and one mains feed cable to the plastic tub. Much better than the long USB cables from the mount/camera etc back to the lappy before. Looking forward now to doing some imaging. It's not beyond bounds that I might produce a cabinet of sorts for the obs...

Broken cloud last evening but woke early to clear(ish) skies and spent a hour adjusting the PA with drift align. Down to sub 1 arc minute. Have another go hopefully Tuesday night which C.O. is telling me should be OK....

The replacement mount arrived earlier today so thankfully the weather has remained dry (though cloudy) and allowed me to try the different scopes and mark the dovetail bars, counterweight bar and saddle where the resective balance points are. Tried slewing around the sky using CdC as the pointer. Photos show the mount with the 115 EDT mounted plus the SX Trius 825. At it's coest to the walls the camera has about 50mm clearance with the 115 +SX Trius. The other scopes Edge HD 8 and the little William Optics ZS 73 are no problem. So need some clear skies now please 🙂

I only get the Stide or Star mask options when I open in PI or am I missing something?

+1 for Starnet++ - just playing with it at the moment - quite processor intensive.

Currently waiting for my CEM 60 to arrive but the best mount to date is an Avalon Linear Fast Reverse. Superb mount - still regret selling that.

Really impressed with an image I played with last night so I thought I'd have a look at the effects of the different Stride settings on an image containing nebulosity, brightish stars and small stars. Bellow is a sheet showing the original luminance stack and the 4 stride images. Plus the individual Stride images. Captured with SX Trius 825 through Altair 115 EDT-APO, processed in PI (aligned, stacked and STF).

I have the PI version. Tried it last night on a couple of old image files it really is superb. Star masks are much cleaner (and simpler) too.

Impressive. Are there any idiot starting guides for this. I've got it to load but not had a chance to play yet - just had a play - superb!

Oh yes I remember the Finchley road shop - bought an 9¾ inch mirror blank from Dud. Went back a while later trudged all the way out there only to find he'd moved to Farringdon Rd !

Hi Dave, The 800E is working now after changing the internal (printer style USB lead), it does need both leads - a 10 pin to the DSUSB and another USB 3.0 to the PC. It will give any length exposure via the 10 pin socket using an intervalometer (eg: Nikon MC-36). But the D5100 I've now tracked to the 8 pin DSUSB to camera lead being faulty. Again works with an intervalometer (I have a clone version from Amazon for the D5100). Ordered another 8 pin lead from Shoestring Astro for the D5100 so I can get control via the PC again.

For me it's my Altair 115 EDT-APO refractor. Great imaging scope and very useful for visual (so I'm told🤔)

Decided against a fixed wall shelf and made a little platform to sit on top of the trolley. That way I thought it would negate trailing leads across the obsy when I needed to move bits around...

@michael8554 My DSUSB unit I thought had packed up and I didn't want to spend a fortune on a replacement if there were other alternative in the market place right now. I've narrowed the problem down to one camera now and probably one lead. I opened the DSUSB and changed the usb lead (printer cable) for a better quality one and one camera (D800E) is now working so the DSUSB unit is actually OK. The D5100 still doesn't work so that led me to suspect that it's connection to the DSUSB unit was faulty. I've ordered a replacement lead from Shoestring so will see if that's the problem once it arrives...

Having some problems lately with my Shestring DSUSB trigger. Fine on exposures 30 seconds or less but will not fire when set to any length exposure if bulb is selected - this is using my Nikons D5100 or 800E via Backyard Nikon (BYN ver 2.09 or 2.10) or via frame and focus in SGPro ver 3.### Is there an alternative to this DSUSB unit out there? I've swapped cables, tried different usb ports on the lappy and desktop PC's.... Help please

Can this challenge be extended by a couple of weeks?

Two adjustable shelves added to take gear. The plastic bulk pet food container carries two Maplin 7Amp regulated PSU's with 12 VDC feed cables to various pieces of kit (4 available) - the PSU's sit on hanging shelves below the top plate. An anti-surge mains sockets for smaller adapters all housed in the moveable container. I was going to break this down and put the PSU's on shelving but with the small obsy space decided I would keep the mobile as they were when using the iEQ45 Pro outside on the patio. The Tosh laptop will sit on a shelf to the upper left of the photo.

Too hot today to do much on the obsy but I have fitted some stop bolts to the track so the roof now opens fully. I have also been laying out the scopes along the back wall so they're convenient when I swap them over. I've ordered some Spur shelving uprights and brackets and will make some timber shelves and covers to secure them to and keep the dust off.

My CEM60 standard is back with FLO after the long wait for iOptron to deliver. I had and sold a very nice quiet and smooth tracking iEQ45 Pro to get the CEM60. Although I've been hit by all I can think is poor quality control because iOptron had to get some CEM60's fast. I've not being tempted by either CEM40 or CEM60 EC or going down the SW route. After all the headaches with my NEQ6 Pro I won't go back to SW. I'm in Rob's capable hands now hoping he can do what iOptron should have done. If the mount is beyond repair I just pray the replacement doesn't have to go back... Time will tell.🙏

Floors down now - Tri-pier sat in position...

Tom - If your holes in the concrete are the right size then the angle of the legs lock the spikes in position. However the metal bands would lock the legs in place nicely. Trying to think back to my iEQ45 Pro's tripod the spikes I think were 8mm and I drilled 10mm holes in the patio slabs for the spikes to wedge into.

Well the hasp/staples are on the INSIDE of the build, they're screwed and GLUED to the roof framing. Access to the build is via a low door with two 5 level dead locks - no exterior handle to grab hold of. I have two dogs which will bark with strangers around.....