fwm891

Been playing as it's raining....

It's a start....

Hell, spent ages forgetting feet & Inches for the much better metric stuff (I still have ten digits which helps 🤔) The outside dims of the obs are: 2000 mm x 1750 mm That's: 78¾" x 69" with a wall height of 1220 mm (48"). Walls are 100mm thick (4") Total height 2100 mm (82¾"). The height may change slightly depending on how I suspend the floor. At present my aim is to dig out inside the foundations to give me an air gap under the floor. However I may just raise the wall plates which will increase the overall height by about 100 mm (4"). Time will tell. Yesterday I began lifting turf and breaking a channel through paving slabs in preps for digging the foundations: Dry postcrete layer under concrete blocks bringing foundations to ground level, then a 200 x 100 (8" x 4") treated sleeper on a mortar bed to remove any inconsistencies in my block laying 🤫. The postcrete will cure by absorbing moisture from the ground and rain - easier to get levels sorted with the mix dry as there's no time constraints.

Are we going to get a nice piccy of the load being dispatched?

I have an old Mintron low light video cam that makes a super live finder - fitted with an old f2.8 135mm (Tamron?) lens - lots of fuzzies!

Thanks Steve, I'm not knocking FLO but I can't understand how iOptron have screwed this up. They must be loosing sales as people get tired of waiting. I've been tempted to.

Any updates on the CEM60's please

Picking up on Sara's point about WO's I have just got a ZS 73 with the Flat 73A 1x field flattener. It's a 430mm fl at f5.9 and I've just been 'playing' with it on a star adventurer with my Nikon 800E I've attached a 180s sub, 1250 iso with a 300% inset from the top left corner. I know it's on a star Adventurer mount so not the best. This is at it's standard back focus position and I'm just playing with the adjusted to see what difference small changes make...

Try not to take your background so dark as your loosing a lot of fine detail - great start

Hi Rusted, Firstly the roof will be running parallel to the fence line (no other option) due to lack of space. The obs will be 300mm from the fence and with the wall height when the obs is open at 1220mm (4ft) it will be easy enough to brush leaves etc away to keep the gap free of debris. Also at only 2000mm long I will be able to push a broom through the gap from outside. The fence is 6ft high the obs will be about 6ft 6" to 6ft 9" at the top of the ridge (the eves will actually be below the fence. As to positioning and horizons - take a look at the photo (taken at approx. mount height): I have no north view until I get near the zenith. To the east I have trees that top out at about 50°, to the south I have a small dip in the tree line and to the west my own property is in the way. Believe me I have positioned the obs in the only place I can to get any benefit from the restricted panorama I have. There is a gap between my neighbour and my house which gives me an area of sky to the north west. If I move east to open the western sky up a little I loose my southern 'dip', If I go west any further I won't be able to go past the meridian when exposing at lower latitudes. My skies are Bortle 4 and although I have a few street lights around none thankfully shine into the obs position and all are on short posts and well shielded. As to noise my neighbour is a classical guitarist and practices well into the early hours...

Still waiting for the CEM60 at the mo to finalise measurements but finally able to start placement of pegs to locate the corners of the build. Also shown is a section through the proposed wall/floor/foundation area. I built the model with a square (2000mm) base, that has now changed and will be 2000mm (L) x 1700mm (W). Fixed wall height circa 1220mm, sitting on treated wooden sleepers which in turn sit on blockwork foundations. Another change I'm looking at is to make the roof run-off rails detachable so they don't encroach on a paved seating area when not in use. I did this once before and the rails will slot into metal brackets at the end of the building. Francis

Graham, Perhaps I've miss read this but surely you'll use your main optics to do your alignment with SharpCap (or any other software). If your guidescope isn't perfectly aligned with the main scope then although its adequate for guiding it will introduce errors when calibrating your PA?

Hi, I've just installed one on my Edge HD8. I down loaded and installed the software from the links on the FLO product page (I used the newest dated option of the ascom driver). After installing the software I re-booted my laptop (Win 10) Then connected the focuser to the laptop and opened the Celestron software. Clicked on connect, and then calibrate - the software took the focuser through it's paces running the full focus travel in and out, then returned the focuser to the position it started in. I then checked and connected to the focuser via SG Pro to make sure - worked fine. I connected a 12VDC - 1 Amp supply to the focuser and a USB 2.0 lead to the laptop. Links from FLO product page: Celestron Focuser Utility Program (.exe file) Focuser ASCOM driver (Directory)

First a big thanks to FLO (ordered yesterday, arrived this morning - fitted👍 ). Simple. For once I followed the instructions and everything went well. From removing the old rubber focuser adjustment knob and flange to fitting the motorised focuser. All required tools were in the box although I found the cross head screwdriver a bit short so used one of my own. I was expecting the shaft grub/locking screw (socket headed) to tighten sooner than it did but that really was the only bit giving me any concerns. I downloaded and installed the software from FLO's product page before connecting the focuser and re-booted the laptop. I'll be using this with a non-Celestron mount so opted for the Ascom driver (newest dated). Plugged in a 12VDC supply and USB lead to the laptop, opened the Celestron software, connected and hit calibrate. Calibration took a few minutes as the focuser drove from one extreme to the other and back to it's original position. I then played sending it to different numbered positions. More seriously I looked a the backlash settings and ended up with a '5' setting. The white indicator on the focuser makes watching for instant motion very easy. So need to try this in anger at some stage... I'll update once I have a chance.

Your RA trace is 'reasonable' but to me needs some adjustments to your scope's balance, PA etc. Can't tell from your post images what guider settings your using so any comments are guesswork.

Keith - have you updated the handset (firmware) so it show the balance...? Go2Nova 8407+ hand controller firmware (V170322) iEQ Pro main control board (V161101) iEQ Pro RA motor control board (V170505) iEQ Pro DEC motor control board (V161101) iEQ Pro Firmware Upgrade History (Updated 10/10/2017) iEQ Pro firmware upgrade instruction Upgrade Utility 1.22

Mak and SCT correctors are completely different. A Mak plate is normally quite thick and highly curved with a concave face to the sky. An SCT corrector as Stu says is a complex curve have effectively a convex central area and concave outer area with a neutral zone at circa 70% of it's radius. Your acrylic sheet whilst visually transparent to the unaided eye is not homogeneous enough and effectively creates bad seeing. If you look through the Amateur Telescope Making books (3?) there's an article on a 'Wright Telescope' which is basically a Newtonian (Ellipsoidal primary) with a weak corrector plate at the end of the tube, just in front of the diagonal mirror... Link: https://www.telescope-optics.net/Wright.htm

Personally I'd drill the holes for your bolts then a little bag of ready mixed fine sand and cement - spread the sand/cement mix, drop your bolts through and align everything then when the cement dries just snug the bolts up a little. You could use tile grout instead, again let it dry and then tighten things down.

I've had an Avalon Linear and regretted selling it ever since. There was a lot of hype early on about the linear in wind - I can say that even with long focal length tubes I had no wind related problems when imaging and found the belt driven mount really accurate when guiding. #1 for Avalon Linear

Steve, Do you know what the component(s) is/are with the CEM60's. Is it a modification?

Well that's two of us on the wait list anyway

Seal the floor - YES

Should be easy to find one then....

? Pleased for those waiting for EC mounts but...

I've been watching the iOptron CEM60 ad on the TS site. Yesterday it started by saying they were 6 days from a delivery, but the end of the day it said 23 days...