Ratlet

1 minute ago, Mike Q said:

Ok.... Where did you find that?  I need that in my life. 

If you do get one and take it on the road, it (and you) might not be in your life for long 🤣

13 minutes ago, Dave scutt said:

@Roog has the best idea.

Ditch the bike and get a ride on dob 

I can only imagine you riding that like the dude on the bomb in Doctor Strangelove

Just got a perusa mini and have had a good time printing some bits and pieces so far.

I would like to print some tube rings for my takumar 200mm lens as I'm moving to a dedicated astro camera.  I've found a reasonable STL to work from but the design mentions that it cracked as he printed it flat rather than vertical (makes sense, you want the layers to be perpendicular to the stress). 

This I can handle, but wanted to check the best choice for filament.  It's never going to get hot enough for pla to melt but perhaps petg might be a better choice.

I do plan to modify the design slightly by including imbeded nuts for clamping and attaching to the vixen dovetail.

STL attached below:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4918789

7 hours ago, The Lazy Astronomer said:

I see you've already made your purchase so this is a largely pointless addition to the conversation 😀

Visible light goes from about 400 - 700nm, so the UVIR cover window only cuts a tiny section at the extreme end of red, and all the major nebulae emission lines (Oiii/Ha/Sii) will pass through to the sensor. 

Thanks for that.  It's nice to get confirmation.  They also sell a clear glass window too if it presents any problems.  I suspect that it will work out well as I'm using vintage lenses at the moment so bloat and chromatic aberation will likely remain an issue.

4 minutes ago, jjohnson3803 said:

Interesting.  My AZ5 has performed as expected for the past couple of years.  

 

I also have a ScopeTech Zero and I'm not sure it was worth the price.  It's good, but seems to have some idosyncracies like many mounts.  But it could just be my Manfrotto 475B tripod.  Might try an Innorel RT90C just to see...  😉

I've got a baby brother version of the RT90C with an az5 and 130pds.  Hang a bang of engineering bricks of the bottom for stability and it's pretty darn stable.

Ah well, panic set in and I just got the hypercam.  Need to pick up a couple of adaptors and I should be cooking.

First observation of the double cluster.  I'm starting to realise that you can see some of this stuff naked eye, including this.  Which is a good thing because I'm awful at star hopping.  Andromeda.  Very faint, but a definite cloudyness there about the size of the moon.

A very pleasing sight.  I would love to have attempted to sketch this, but I've lost my head torch.

Also M31 and Albireo because honestly I don't think I can get bored of them.

I'm quite enjoying naked eye stuff.  Hopefully get my 2x42 binos built shortly if I can find another tc-e2 cheap.

I think my only concern with the hypercam is the optical window which it says "Colour UVIR filter 400-690nm AR coated" not sure if that will impact on nebulas

7 minutes ago, Dark Raven said:

Player One has Active Cooling System (ACS) for uncooled cameras

Active Cooling System (ACS) for uncooled cameras – Player One Astronomy (player-one-astronomy.com)

 

 

Alternatively you can use smartphone coolers. They will never be as good as dedicated AP camera cooling but they can help somewhat and do not cost much.

 

Cheers.  I di see that, but the hypercam is £25 more than the saturn at that point so it seems a better option just to buy an all in one unit which is designed from the ground up for active cooling

I believe that the hypercam should allow a configurable set point on the temperature tho, and I'm not sure if that would work on the Saturn.

With the crash of the £ and what's likely coming up I've decided I would like to pull the trigger on a dedicated astro cam before prices rise.

I was thinking about the palyer one Saturn or Uranus, but the Altair hypercam is not much more than the Saturn so will probably get that as it features active cooling.

Mostly my imaging will be 200 to 300mm through prime focus lenses but I will eventually rope my 130pds into service down the line.  Using astronomy tools I see that this will be undersampled on the shorter focal lengths most likely.

I've seen the thread on the Uranus but was wondering if anyone has experience of the hypercam?  I think the larger sensor size and larger pixels will be better all in all.  Any thoughts.

37 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

I used a Concentre for collimating my secondary, and a Cheshire for making sure my laser was aligned properly. This you need to do in daylight.

I'd like someone to demonstrate how you use a Cheshire, in the dark, from the bottom of 12" Newt...  

 

 

How do you use a Cheshire to align a laster collimator?

After months of badgering me from the wife I've decided to buy a 3D printer.  She wants it for her boardgames and make small toys and stuff for my daughter.

I'm looking to get a Saturn c camera so I'm hoping to print so parts to help fasten it to a vixen.  And bahtinov masks, and an extension so I can mount my guidescope to my gem 28 and....

2 hours ago, Dark Raven said:

Oh look, some bloke made a video about the same exact thing. What are the odds? 😂

Joke aside, great video Chris. 👍

Like the idea for the background.  Looks really good.

I've got the SVBONY one.  It's built like a brick proverbial.  Except the screws that clamp it which are pants.  But for the price it's a great bargain.  Focus takes an age the first time but I leave my camera in and haven't moved it in months.

Got mine of AliExpress where the prices can be very up and down.  I got mine for £42 in June 

Was there any indication as to the problem?

36 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

Mounting a binocular instead of hand holding is worth half a magnitude IMO.      🙂

I always wondered how it would do with a monopod.  My dad bought some 5*10 binos off a ghillie and that was his top tip (well, 'mount' them on a walking stick) to stabilise them

Up at 0230 for some observing today.  Didn't really expect it to be clear so didn't have a plan.

This is definitely a night of mediocrity.

I did a star test using an 8mm BST in a 2*Barlow and I'm sure it is off slightly.  I had a look at mars but it was very wavy so I think the seeing wasn't that great either.

Also had this weird flare coming off all the stars, a single spike.  Seemed to be pointing roughly north in the eyepiece.  Not sure on that.  I still had the wonky m54 extension screwed in so might be related to that.

Fortunately you don't everything to be perfect to look at M42 and I just enjoyed that for a while and just admired the sky in general with my tc-e2.  The Pleiades were particularly nice.

There's a guide here on building your own.  It looks relatively simple.

I'm not sure if you would need to modify your current setup, but I can see it working.

I was humming and hawing about getting a 10" dob but the DIY equatorial base has given me a firm push towards aperture fever.

It's wild but I don't think I really looked at the stars properly or rather I don't think I've thought about what I was looking at.

M42.  Just a quick bino peek before going to work.  It's still there.  Also you can see nebulosity naked eye.  Or at least fuzzyness.

I also saw a noctilucent jet.  Off to the east in the very rough Orion area heading north.   Just a faint white line of chemtrail across the dark sky.  I was driving at the moment and very nearly stopped (involuntary) so I had to wait for the car to face the right way lol.

First observation of noctilucent anything.

1 hour ago, josefk said:

sigh... yeah. 🤣.

I personally have a strategy for that urge - when i've completed "the lists" for 4" and 8" i will "deserve" a bigger scope...

You are vastly outclassing my levels of self control.  I'm like the seagul in finding nemo

52 minutes ago, josefk said:

Like @Simon128DI also super recommend having both. These are books you can enjoy on a Sunday afternoon planning and scheming. I transfer the 4" and 8" targets [in the Deep Sky Guide] to SkySafari Pro lists so the books don't need to go to the scope and risk getting damaged/damp. Cheers

i should add the Deep Sky Guide is so aesthetically pleasing it is a decent armchair "fix" when nights are cloudy.

I'm having doubts now about getting the sky guide.  Until I got the sky atlas I was happy with my 130pds.  Happy as a clam.

Now I'm looking at a second hand 250 dob and thinking "hmmmmmmmm". 🤣

On 14/09/2022 at 19:53, Ratlet said:

My latest haul from AliExpress.

SVbony UHC filter to start my foray into that side of visual

Some M4 knurled screws which I hope will fit the secondary if my 130pds

And an m54 extension which doesn't fit.  Grabs like the first 3 turns and then jams.  Suspect that will either be scrap.  Might work as it grips well with the few turns it does get.  First lemon I boughton AliExpress.

 

 

 

I small update on the adaptor.  I submitted a refund request through AliExpress.  I originally sent pictures but then a video (making sure it was small enough to upload) showing the issue.  Refund issued within 24hours of the video being submitted.

59 minutes ago, Pixies said:

I use Skysafari on a phone. At a really dark site, I use it on a tablet with red film covering the screen. 

@Ratlet - do you have a RACI finder? A telrad/quikfinder along with a RACI make star-hopping so easy.

I don't have a raci, but so far I've found that the quickfinder and a 32mm Plossl is just about perfect for me.

Ilonce I find something I want to see I've been printing star charts from cart du ceil using a laser jet so the ink won't run.

An advantage of this is that once the dew sets in I can just stick the chart to the body of my Newtonian.

Still dialing in on the sweet spot for FOV

I was going to say, I suspect the issue isn't the picture, it's the processing.

If you share the stacked image someone will probably be able to help.

What do you use to process?

1 hour ago, Simon128D said:

My favourity atlas of all time. Planning a nights list of objects is always easy with this and gets me pumped up with excitment but if you do not have the Deep Sky Guide to go with it I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you do. Once you see it and use it you will never be able to use the maps or imagine using the maps any other way. 

 

EDIT: Here's a peek at mine. 

 

 

 

I'm currently slightly obsessed with sketching so this is defo in the cards.  Next month.