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Gotta look for opportunities Jim

@maw lod qan - Wow look at that, it's sooo blue! Happy days You got to come back and tell us poor cloud dwellers what it was like Jim

If your longer term aim is to get serious about astrophotography then save the money for a longer term upgrade to your mount. Your mount is everything in astrophotography. Otherwise buy a SeeStar and have some fun and it may well keep the fire in your belly for you to save and go for some serious upgrades longer term. If you bought a See Star you would definitely have some fun with it and be sharing it with others. Once you are finished with it you can sell it to me to help fund the upgrade to a new mount Jim

We do like it though it's lovely and I want one Jim

I agree, that is a bit of nonsense. It is a bit of kit no more intimidating than say a camera tilt adapter. Ohh, well actually maybe poor choice there Jim

It also appeals hugely to those who do and have. When my hellishly expensive main rig is working away in the background I'd love to have access to one of these. Like I said, it's all about using the right tool for the right job. Jim

Never miss an opportunity to use engineering in astronomy; it is after all a technical discipline. Any bit of equipment can always be optimized and adapted else where is the fun Jim

Well you are now in the fortunate position to sell me one Jim

Wow, who would have thought such rivalry of philosophy exists within astronomy. Maybe it's the engineer in me but it's just a bit of kit, like any other tool it has a purpose. This one seems to do its job pretty well. I'd certainly give one a go, I'd use it to explore while my other permanently mounted kit is tied up with other tasks like, whisper it, photography! I don't feel threatened by it, it doesn't prompt any existential crisis of thought of what I'm doing with my other rig and cameras. It is just another tool giving a different opportunity to explore the night sky - there's no compulsion to buy one and it won't come and steal your babies from their beds at night! I hope to see more of these smart scopes being developed with the price dropping and capability improving. And as for that Smart Eyepiece by Pegasus, I'd give that a go too without feeling threatened by a lump of metal. Yep, definitely an engineers view Jim

Lovely report and really enjoyed your video. When I first saw M42 with a 16 inch Dob I felt like I was falling into the nebula, amazing experience with these large Dobs. Jim

I got a clear sky at the moment but the wind is picking up (Storm Kathleen) so unfortunately the observatory roof is staying closed tonight Jim

I'm not 100% sure but I think that the mirrorless Canon cameras use a different lens mount (EOS EF-M) compared to the DSLR EOS range. If you go with a Samyang 14 mm lens (which is a very good lens) then yes you will need to have an appropriate adapter for the EF/EF-S system lens mount. Best thing is to speak to the camera dealer and they will advise. Jim

I use PLA, PTEG and ABS depending on application, haven't had a need to use tpu or nylon. Since starting in 2019 I've never had any problem with bed adhesion and the magnetic bed plate works perfectly making easy release of the components. I don't use an enclosure, the printer is situated in my workshop so it does benefit from an extractor. When printing with ABS I stabilize the temperature around the build volume with kingspan insulation boards around the printer frame but these are not permanent. My bed levelling is done old school, manually with feeler gauges as it should be. I keep my filament in a conditioned environment and not sitting on the reel exposed when not in use. From experience in helping others and from running the 3 printers in school most problems arise from inaccurate bed levelling and filament issues. If an Ender 5 is setup properly and maintained well it will deliver without major upgrades. Jim

I bought an Ender 5 back in 2019 and have largely resisted going down the upgrade path; it's been a thoroughly reliable and capable printer. It just works so I've little cause to upgrade anything. What I have replaced are largely consumable items such as the bowden cable and one of the fans. The only thing i'm really considering is to give it wifi control via a raspberry pi controller. It's been used to pint a range of items from Paul Gehrlach's Low Spec Spectrometer, an adjustable rising bed for my laser cutter, various threaded adapters for astro use, and various models and items for use in class (DNA model, antibody and antigen model, aircraft projectile cradle). One item though puts a smile on my face each time I use it - it's an dial gauge adapter that makes adjusting the end float on my mgb stub axle a much simpler task. I use Fusion 360 for modelling and the standard Creality slicer which have both worked seamlessly for me. Jim

Looking good, major milestone coming up when you put the roof on. I'm sure you have already thought about it but it may be worthwhile putting a gentle incline on the roof rails to stop any rain water tracking inside. I forgot to do on mine and had to retro fit Jim

I enjoy the physical side of using Arduino and building the kit but I do not have a head for coding. I used to find it ok but now I just don't seem to be able to find enough motivation to learn the syntax and commands. ChatGPT, You Tube and Instructables are my Arduino project friends. I was quite chuffed with the digital setting circles we made for the school Dob, the coding was all the work of a very gifted pupil while I did the hardware side My next project is to try out an all sky camera but I may use a Raspberry Pi for that - lots of examples available for me to learn from JIm

You are going to have a mass of fun with that. Don't forget that you also get the likes of ChatGPT to write some scripts for you to help out with the learning process. Despite ending up buying a ZWO autofocuser I went down the road first of building one using the arduino - well worth it and great fun. Jim

Wow, what a fantastic set of images. I love the detail you have caught in those loops. The silhouetted disc image is extra special. Jim

Wow. Jim

Some related discussion here: Jim

StellaLyra 12 inch using carbon fibre tubes comes in at 24kg. That is reported as the tube weight, I wonder if it includes the mirror and mirror cell as well though? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/stellalyra-telescopes/stellalyra-12-f12-m-lrc-classical-cassegrain-carbon-truss-telescope-ota.html Jim

Well done, keep it up Here's my prediction for the hot topic of your 10,000 post " For Sale - My trusty ZWO Auto Polar Aligner - no longer needed" Jim

That is some accolade "a planet before Pluto was a planet and downgraded before Pluto was downgraded" Jim

There is something very civilised about astronomy during the day Jim

Permanent Observatories make you lazy - what's Polaris Jim