Ratlet

Check the camera still works:

Connect to a pc using a separate 12v power supply.

Connect to the asiair using a separate power supply.

Its possible that the power splitter you were using is a bit fancier than the one with asiair.  Might just need to put the powersplitter back in the circuit.

3 minutes ago, Neil_104 said:

😬 hope you weren't in the car at the time and not too much damage? 

I was in the car.  I was unhurt and I don't think there were any serious injuries to anyone else.  All good.

26 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I think I've had more use out of my scopes during this extended cold spell and the clear skies that came with it, than the rest of 2022 all together. The clouds are back now though😪.

I've missed a lot of the clear skies as I just started back at work on Tuesday.  Closest I've come was having a look at Pleiades and Orion from a dark site.  The only reason I was at the dark site when I should have been working was cause my car had been hit by a bus lol and I was waiting for them to clear the road.

What scope have you mounted that on?

You might want to consider vintage prime focus lenses.  There can be some terrific bargains to be had.  Unfortunately I use canon so can't comment on the quality of Nikon vintage glass for astrophotography.

You might be able to use older mounting type lenses (m42, Pentax, etc) which will open up even more lenses.  However you'll need to check the flange distance (basically the distance from the flange of the lens to the dSLR sensor).  The Nikon F mount is 46.5mm but m42 is 45.46mm.  this means you will not be able to get infinity focus (stars in focus) unless you alter it on the lens.  This can be easy enough on some, however there is always a chance you won't be able to alter it or alter it enough so it it's a bit of a risk.  That being said there are some vintage lenses that are REALLY good.

The below image was taken with a takumar SMC 200mm lens in a full moon on a canon mount.  I had to manually change the infinity stop to get focus.

The lens cost me about £40-£50.

Not OP, but I never thought of contacts.  I'm -7.5 in each eye but I don't think I've got astigmatism.  I do find it a pain to constantly take my glasses off and on but never thought about contacts.  I view with glasses off which given my prescription means a lot of faffing about if I want to do anything else whilst observing.

Do you use daily or reusable ones?  Are you wearing them normally through the day or just for observing?

1 hour ago, SCANS said:

Yes. I've done that several times when I just want to get going without bothering to align. Tracking isn't as accurate and using goto for subsequent objects seldom hits the mark, but that isn't a big deal, I just centre the new object, hit the 'point and track' button again and enjoy the view. It's really nice on unsettled nights when I get a break in the clouds and I've grabbed my scope, rushed outside, turned on the mount and started viewing within a minute or two. 

Hmmm.

I was afraid you were going to say that.  I'd best start saving!

Might it be ice?

I guess it could be but from the lenses I've seen with mold, it tends to be round-ish.  Those look perfectly circular.  I'd leave it till the morning and check again once it has had a good warm up.

My understanding is that the mold on glass takes a long time to grow or really really bad storage.  I can see that the way you've used it could amke it bloom.

Excellent be sure to post a picture of the finished assembly.

I guarantee someone is going to find this thread useful cause there are a lot of people transplanting the units to other scopes and knowing this one works will be a massive time saver.

Hope it works!  If it don't work you can usually tweak the position of the screw holes easily enough in fusion 360.  I've modified a few basic STL files to fit my needs.

Something funky going on with the star shapes.  They're all flaring towards the centre of the image.  Might be the backfocus is too close?

Just now, Yodaisgreen said:

OH BRILLIANT!

exactly that sort of thing. I was looking on thingiverse, how come I didn't spot it

Cheers Ratlet!

 

If you have a look on here I did a really basic finder to vixen 3D print.  STL should be there too.  That'll be 2 mountings

Completely unrelated to me buying a new tripod that just so happens to be compatible with this:

Do you think this would handle a 130pds okay?  Should be less than 6kg all told, just slightly concerned about the movement arm.

Also, can you still manually point this and enable tracking like you can with the gti?

Decided to try out a new tripod from Harrison Telescopes.  The carbon fibre is good, but a bit wobbly at high powers.  Also the lack of spreader was an unforeseen issue as I just leave the tripod up the shed!  Stainless, beefier and a spreader now.

Quick test with the 8mm on the setting sun and whilst there is still a bit of flex from the az5 mount, the vibration is much reduced I think.

Any rumours I got this tripod to kay the ground work for one of the fancy new az gti dual mounts is a liar.

(Please don't tell my wife)

They fixed the links 🥳

Thank you everyone.  My wife will be dwlight that all I'm wanting now is bits of wood rather than a new astronomy part.  Might even be able to smuggle it in as some bits to do up the kids bed room

53 minutes ago, Louis D said:

There are very short focal length Dobs made to be more ergonomic to observe with.  Here's a Webster 28" f/2.7:

Is this what you are suggesting?  The problem is that it is difficult to make short focal length scopes with the same optical quality as longer focal length telescopes.  As a result, they are more expensive aperture for aperture.

That was a fantastic read Louis.  Thanks for sharing it.  Would love to experience a scope like that.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4868065

This sort of thing?

56 minutes ago, chessboxing said:

Oh and I saw 3 of the geminid meteor shower tonight so all in all a cold but good week so far 

Cracking start!  I've got the 32mm plossl for my 130pds (basically the same views as your scope) and it's my most used eyepiece.  It also has the handy trait of turning the scope into its own finder because the FOV is quite large.  Can be a bit confusing due the the number of stars visible, but I long since stopped using my finder scope in favour of the plossl.

The 8mm BST does a great job on planetary.  I Barlow it up sometimes but more often than not the seeing won't support it.  Also the 8mm frames the moon's on Jupiter which is very satisfying.

I got 'turn left at orion' for finding suitable targets.  It's really good and had a nice mix of DSO and doubles.  You can pick it up second hand on Amazon sometimes.

When you go out to observe I'd suggest sketching some targets.  It's hugely satisfying and really helps you to see more of the target.  Pencil and paper works well and you can invert the image on your phone for the colours the correct way round.

To help stave of the cold I find that changing to fresh socks really helps keep my feet warm.

Oh and keep posting your observing reports.  Either in this thread or the what you saw to ight megathread.  Some of us poor blighters might be clouded out and we love reading other reports.

On 17/11/2022 at 14:40, 900SL said:

Gotcha

Is that an 88mm flak?  If you do manage to track anything with it (and get some ammo) it wouldn't surprise me if you could take out a star with it.  Have a go at M54 if you don't mind.  Could do with making it a bit easier to sketch.

Those both look like interesting wee scopes.

Cracking eyepieces as well.  Love a 32mm plossl.  Might have to order the 25mm.

That's a really nice Orion.  Very nice core region.

Bet the tracking of that would have been a bit easier than the ISS!  Cracking pic.  Do they contact you before or do you just find out when it is published?

Not really sure I get the negative vibes in either direction.  I personally run Nina on a mini pc.  I wouldn't say it's been a nightmare and the closest I've come to it having an issue was when I loaded the wrong profile when I changed my lenses and didn't realise astap used the profile for the focal length.  Oh and it is doesn't handle DSLRs very well, but I'm not sure if the issue is solely Nina or a combination of it and using a dummy battery.

I think the biggest barrier with Nina is that it looks a lot more complicated than it actually is.  It can just do a lot so it needs to display a lot. The second biggest is the documentation which isn't so much lacking, but rather lacking a quick start guide.

As to zwo, I'd absolutely consider using one, but I've got Altair for my imaging camera.  It's an elegant solution, especially getting started, that much is obvious.

But Nina isn't some overly complicated nightmare.

Going to the original question, the previous owner has supplied it with Nina so there is a good chance most of the stuff is already configured.  I'd have a look at patriot astro or cuiv the lazy geek.  They have some very good guides.

I highly recommend getting to grips with it indoors.  Just plug everything in and play about.  Obviously you can't test some things, but you can get familiar with a lot indoors.

Not sure if the orientation of the sensor relative to the dovetail, but the image looks to my untrained eye like it is in focus on the right and slowly drifts out of focus on the left.

I'd be inclined to say tilt is possibly your biggest issue.  It may even cause an apparent elongation of the stars due to it being defocused.

The bairn is ill and the wife has work to do so I'm stuck inside (Pro tip:. Children do not like cuddles from their dad if their dad is had hands about the same temperature as a Cornetto, no matter how upset the are).

Not a wasted evening though, because I have the gift of North facing velux windows and 2x42 widefield binos!

Mostly spent the evening familiarising myself with constellations and how they are laid out.  Pleiades is really nice at very low powers.  Looks like a mini big dipper.  Also a nice curve up from there to mirfak that traces out most the stars of one half of Perseus.  The area around Aldebaran is also nice.  It's like a cluster of clusters.  Also found most of Draco but Camelopardalis and lynx continue to evade.  Perhaps when the night isn't quite so bright.

It was quite fun (and warm).  I'd be tempted to try it on a night when the moon isn't out, but I am intensely reluctant to give those up from the scope!