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ncjunk

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Everything posted by ncjunk

  1. ncjunk

    ngc6995 LRGB

    From the album: Deep Sky album

  2. ncjunk

    M27 Final LRGB

    From the album: Deep Sky album

  3. ncjunk

    M13

    From the album: Deep Sky album

  4. Now, in the general scheme of things i like to think i can regularly out shine a low watt bulb. I know my brother would provide evidence to the contrary but, as i keep telling my son, uncle Ian smells. So, having done a degree which had electronics in it somewhere I decided to bravely copy someone elses good work and make a parraalllllel (never could spell that) port controlled focuser. I ordered all the bits and waited..and waited, then phoned up the delivery company got them to deliver it to an address they could find and finally everything was in place to banish bluriness. i had the stepper motor, the opto isolators, the transistors, LEDs and the thing to wire it all to. I can´t remember what it is called so it shall hence be known as the "board with the copper tracks that doth permit the works of the devil to be done". A perfect example of why my fledgling marketing carreer veered off the road and burst into flames. aahh but we last left our hero, thats me in case you are confused, battling with the...board thing... and splashing lumps of solder like rabit droppings onto components. This work of...well the word "art" springs forth from the asylum of delusion that is my brain...grew into a shiny birds nest of brilliance. Once hooked up to my modern day Indifference machine (unlike its more famous sibling the little known indifference machine can be programmed with a problem but doesn´t give a rats **** if it solves it or not and would much rather be down the pub with a pint and a fag instead of trying to figure out what 11100011010011 is....thank you very much), sprang gazelle like to life with flashing lights and a lack of smoke which brought forth joy to my heart! It was at this point in the proceedings i decided to try the stepper motor i had bought and low a deep pit of foreboding opened in the shallows of my soul. You see, i had completely forgotten to check which stepper i had got, the 6 lead center tapped one or the four lead one which requires, remembered from a daze of uni drunkeness, an H bridge transister congfiguration. Unfortunately it was the one that requires an H bridge and I had built the circuit for the other better looking brother with the two extra flashy leads with go faster strips. And thus after a Journey of Giants, sword fights and really big lizards with bad breath...we find ourselves but a mere 2 steps away from the start point with 1 artistic board, a computer that has buggered off down the pub and the ford fiesta of stepper motors which only has 4 leads..... Ahhh I knew I should have bought the stepper motor driver chip but it seemed too good to be true...surely God would not allow the existence of such a useful chip? Back to day dreaming and planning for the next home-made botch job for me my lad...I´ll get you next time damn you.. Neil C
  5. Well little Xacobe was born on the 7th of May and kept us busy ever since. Sleepless nights used to be spent swearing at the fact I couldn´t find M81 again and the focus was slightly out. Now it appears to be whether the nappy is dirty, he is hungry or little johnny has broken his leg down the old abandoned well (I figure communicating to a child is much like the old black and white lassie episodes...I am pretty sure a lot of the communicating is telling me about some poor child has had an accident in a little used mine shaft or something). Well I am pretty sure little Johnny will be dead by now as I changed the nappy instead and went back to sleep. I am just not as caring as those people who owned lassie. Did Flipper communicate in the same way? or did he just bring back people who had got cramps whilst swimming? and could Flipper beat Lassie in a fight? :confused: Still, the roof is complete and I spent a very productive half hour doing a Homer simpson (roof goes open.....roof goes closed....roof goes open). I can hear my mum now..."if you don´t stop playing with it it will fall off". Hah! well shows how much mum knows...it is still working! Now....I am going to start hallucinating about sleeping. I think it would depend where the fight was held....Lassie woudn´t stand a chance in the sea...unless you could create a dog underwater super outfit..... .............
  6. Ahh a holiday weekend with visions of completing the roll off roof before the end and before the kid is born. Unfortunately the wood didn´t get delivered...well I knew it wouldn´t deep down inside, you don´t order wood in spain 3 days before you want it and expect to get it. Ordering anything in this country is very much a zen experience. You place the order and whilst waiting are able to contemplate the inner workings of the universe and reach an inner harmony very much like yoga. The wood will decide when it is ready not the other way around...oh to get the wood you must think wood...and live wood...to be wood is to understand... Think soil, water and sun...ahhh become the tree... I am willing to admit that a 3 day break and not having the wood to finish the roof may have affected me somewhat. Still, I need to waste some money as well but I don´t have much. So I have decided either a kayak or an E-book. I NEED the e-book because obviously paper isn´t good enough...although now I am thinking about it being stranded on a mountain in the cold you wouldn´t be able to light a fire with the e-book. The kayak I need because I am becoming unfit and old...[removed word] another ten seconds have gone by SEE I am ageing again..damn it aged again.. You see I could put all the books on the e-reader and take them where ever I want....or I could get fit in the Kayak and prolong the life somewhat. It is just too big a choice so I may have to spend 50 quid on the lottery friday instead. With 110 million I could buy a blumming huge telescope and all the wood I want when I want it! hahhahahhhahahah :icon_eek:. Ahh well back to bed ready for work tomorrow, I hope whoever reads this realises they have just wasted valuable seconds of their life! you fools! Neil C
  7. I had to rebuild the PC controlling the mount so decided to go for the Intel Desktop Board D945GCLF2 with Integrated Intel Atom Processor 1.6g dual core. It was a nightmare to install as I had a dodgy power lead (The black lead that plugs into the mains) and didn´t realise. This meant the motherboard worked but sometimes failed to start properly. I have never come across this problem before. Still, the motherboard is Micro ATX and is tiny! it cost me 95 euros and all I had to add was 1 stick of memory so for about 100 pounds you can have a fully working PC (assuming you have an old case). 1 point to note is there is only 1 memory stick slot but a 2gb card is more than enough for astronomy. The motherboard will fit in an ATX case but I purchased a Mini ATX as the micro ATX was not available. You get the full range of connectors on the back :- Six USB 2.0 ports Two SATA ports (3.0 GB/s) One parallel ATA IDE interface with UDMA 33, ATA-66/100 support One serial port One parallel port PS/2* keyboard and mouse ports 10/100 Ethernet All you would need for connection to a mount. I have tested it with the following configuration:- MaximDl Meade DSI ATIK 16 IC-S EQMOD FTDI lead PHD guide software ACP observatory control. The motherboard copes extremely well and has no problem running all of the above at the same time and a remote desktop (oh and a wireless card as i installed on the one PCI slot) I have been damn impressed with this and see no reason why you couldn´t mount it in a micro ATX box directly under the mount for a really small solution. If you are looking for a cheap replacement to a dead motherboard or you want to build your own cheap solution I can recommend this as an answer and the small form factor could be the ideal solution to a permanent observatory PC. I have added a link to the specs and if anyone has any questions feel free to ask. http://www.intel.com/Products/Desktop/Motherboards/D945GCLF/D945GCLF-overview.htm Neil C
  8. For me it meant I could save over 100 pounds on the mount as I bought the EQ6 with no goto, an FTDI lead for 10 pounds and am using EQMOD for all the control. If I already had a goto setup then I would agree with you that perhaps it is not required. I am hoping to also try out the alignment software at some point and that gamepad is very tempting. For me EQMOD is an excellent addition and the gamepad would be required for control near to the eyepiece something which I would have thought is not required for you with the hand controller! Neil C
  9. ncjunk

    Esk 0100208 RGB

    Thats another stunner Rob! the detail is amazing, I don´t know how much effort went into that but it was worth it.
  10. After watching QI and seeing them talk about the higgs boson I thought I would get a book on the subject and see what it was like. I did what I usually do and searched through the books on the ereader site and picked the one which seemed interesting to me and not too tedious. I went for "Natures Blueprint - Supersymmetry and the Search for a Unified Theory of Matter and Force" by Dan Hooper and I was pleasantly surprised as it is quite an enjoyable read. He narrates a tale, rather than going into the mathematics of it, and takes you from the 1900´s through to the present day. Although I am only half way through it I have found the evolution of particle physics damn interesting. As well as whom did what and the roles that were played in taking the science to the next level or discovery. His descriptions and analogies help to make a difficult subject seem easy to understand (and I do mean seem as quite evidently you cannot hope to understand the finer points without the deep mathematics involved) Those physicists need to learn a bit about naming things as calling something "strangeness" and defining quarks by colour just seems abnormal...although I am starting to like the colour definition..I must be succumbing to the dark side! On the whole I can highly recommend the book as an enjoyable read. Ahh the Shed, I now have two weeks off so it is with great trepidation that I plan to do version 3 of the roof. The roll off roof project. The last removable roof, version 2, turned into a 3 meter Kite during high wind so I have decided that pond liner doth not makeith the roof. I understand I have to make a frame, remove the roof, put it on wheels and chuck it all back together. It all seems too easy! Only problem is I have no idea were to get the materials in spain but I will post some pics as I go along. Add to that the inability I have to make anything, even those blue peter things were impossible for one as incompetent as me! Well 2 weeks so we shall see what happens. Neil C
  11. ncjunk

    M82

    From the album: Deep Sky album

  12. ncjunk

    M51Feb 0609 L HaRGB

    Thats a damn fine image Rob!
  13. Ahh yes the sky is clear ready for another night of stargazing but unfortunately I am too knackered...if only I could flog my good weather to someone else and then buy it back again when I am less tired. Imagine the possiblilities! Mother in law coming over? no problem buy in some rain and save the clear weather for another night. Unwelcome guest? thunderstorm and force nine gale should do the trick!...aaahhh stinking reality....my imaginary world functions so much better.
  14. Hah a 50% success rate so far then. Now why the hell didn´t ant fall asleep....red bull perhaps?
  15. I know that feeling...I have a holiday coming up in 2 weeks so I am hopeful it will be perfectly clear! Hell it is free to hope.
  16. ncjunk

    M 81 LRGB

    From the album: Deep Sky album

  17. ncjunk

    M 3 LRGB

    From the album: Deep Sky album

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