haitch

That looks pretty decent to me (and my admittedly untrained eyes) if anything I'd say it was slightly over correcting at the edges - have you had a play about with the spacing?

PS - what size sensor is that?

Cheers

Amongst my arsenal is a W.O. FLT110 (just the TMB designed one) that came with the matched 1.0x Flattener however I'd like to bring it down from it's native f7 for a few snaps. As far as I can make out the suggested WO option is the PFlat 6 but I've struggled to find one and it looks like it was rather expensive when it was available new.

Anyway, whilst I've been waiting for the right combination of time, energy and clear skies I've picked up a few FF/FRs to try out. The latest is a TV TRF2008 which came at the right price even though it may not be a good match so I shouldn't lose much if/when I pass it on.

Now the TV says it is designed for scopes from 400-600 focal length but I was thinking surely its not the f/l of the scope that matters but f ratio? Surely any 2 scopes at, say, f7 would have the same shaped light cone? Or am I oversimplifying things?

Teach me about optics... 🤓

Ah ok - misunderstood what the OP was trying to achieve

If I'm right the Dec axis works on a tangential arc so you can only drive it with motors by a small distance and it really needs to be moved into the rough direction of an object by slewing manually so you will never really be able to make it goto.

On ‎26‎/‎05‎/‎2019 at 23:27, Scooot said:

Don’t know if this is justified but I’d be worried about a strong wind catching the telegizmo cover.

I've seen a Heq5 with a very sturdy WO refractor on it topple over at a star party when the wind caught the tarp covering it. I'd go for a permanent pier if I was doing that.

Seems like a good way to shift the excess wider bandpass filters - the chromosphere option is normally the recommended one so I guess this could up the number of prominence filters they can shift.

16 hours ago, FLO said:

Welcome to SGL ?

FLO has never stocked Altair cameras but we understand they are manufactured by a company called ToupTek in China. As far as we can tell their 183c model uses the same Sony sensor as the ZWO ASI 183MC, which is a good match for the RedCat. 

A while ago we added a calculator to our Astronomy Tools website that calculates a camera’s suitability for use with a telescope. 

We will know more about connecting cameras when the telescope has launched. 

HTH, 

Steve 

Regardless of pixel size they should probably switch to a ZWO to avoid clashing with the colour scheme ?

1 hour ago, Davey-T said:

Only a year ? go for it 

Dave

The LP in Coventry is atrocious.

I never thought I'd be drooling over a nearly £700 scope the size of my finder.

If you think about it... What is a correct upright image in astgronomy???

I used to have a WO prism diagonal but it wasn't as contrasty and anything bright gave a strong diffraction spike through it.

OMG, Love this idea.

When I can afford to dip my toes into the triplet market I will not have the experience to know whether I have bought a dud or not until I have lived with it probably too long to return it so the idea of the reassurance of an expert's examination/adjustment is very attractive!

4 hours ago, steve_bham said:

Shame about Cosford as that was a really good site. I'll have a look around see if there are any others in the area.

That would be good ?

Well to my mind the darkest spot in the Walsalll Borough is probably Pelsall North Common. Brownhills Common and the Chasewater Heaths that fall into Walsall used to be ok but the A5 & the M6Toll hemming it in coupled with floodlit public buildings (especially schools and sports facilities) have pretty much ruined that

Hi Steve

Not met up with anyone of the old gang for quite a while (since we lost the access at Cosford)

Neil, I think the urban areas are a bit far gone to worry about light pollution now unless there is some dramatic reversal in street lighting policy - even my "quiet" residential street is light up like daylight with high pressure sodium lights that have no shielding - when I complained to Walsall Council that the light outside my house was shining into my property they sent a guy out who stuck gaffer tape on the back edge of the light which did sod all good.

It's probably better to focus on areas a bit further out that still have a hope in hell of surviving the ignorance of the bureaucrats.

Regards

Paul

Thanks Steve

- yes, I'm in touch with John.

Cheers

Paul

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This thread has been nicely revived just when I'm trying to fit a stepper motor to a focuser. Email sent regarding adaptors for such - there seems to be a proliferation of people building their own motorised focuser controllers these days so could be a good area!

is there a bigger set

Giant Squid Has Biggest Eye In The World

That 50" looks just what I need. Only snag is it's bigger than my garden...

You know what that means... time for a bigger garden!

Such poor terminology... it's being in remission, not cured

Someone on this forum once said

"The best way to deal with a temptation is to yield to it"

The cure for aperture fever, is to buy a even bigger telescope.

There is a 20inch dob on ebay atm

Huge 20 Inch F4 Dobsonian Telescope - Deep Sky Watchers Delight!!! | eBay

Oh no you've started me off again. I thought I was cured.

No, don't even do that. Just quietly substitute one scope for another and nobody will notice

I did that but it got noticed... I went from a 6" newt to a 14" solid tube dob. Can't think how she spotted the difference

Brent,

Not what I would consider a "good" DSLR by today's standards but I picked up a Canon 10D body for £100 to experiment with.

And as Colin says...it does...perfectly! Took less than a minute and flashing is a thing of the past!

... I said that once but every time I walk past a park at dusk I get this overwhelming urge...

Yay, working on a Windows 7 PC WITHOUT FLASHING!!!

Thanks Colin, btw if anyone else gets the file off Colin you just need to install the 900 driver and copy Colin's file over its namesake in the driver folder before pointing to it manually.

it possible to use the spc880 with windows 7 by using a a modified driver file and selecting it manually. I did mine a while ago but can provide the file to anyone who wants it

Ahhh that's how it was done. I'll have that please... pm incoming Colin.