Bobby1970

Just out of interest. Would you need any sort of building regs or planning permission for something like this? 

Thanks for the info guys. Hopefully FLO will be in touch shortly regarding the one I returned. Ideally I want a replacement that doesn't make a noise like the last one did. And also has much less play or backlash in both axis. The mount itself is ideal for my needs. 

Spurred on by my efforts last night I thought I would have another bash tonight.

This time with the addition of a 2x barlow.

127Mak, GPCam, Star Adventurer, 1500 frames, PIPP,AS,Registax, Gimp

Thanks for looking 🙂

Just now, CraigT82 said:

Noce work, got some clear banding on the globe 👍

Thanks Craig. Consisting the difficulty I have observing in this direction at the sort of altitude Saturn is nowadays I am quite happy with this. 

Wanted to try with a Barlow but the cloud stopped me. 😞

First time in around 7 years that I have had a go at capturing Saturn. 

I only had a small window of opportunity as it passes between buildings when viewed from my garden. 

127mak, Altair GP Cam, 1500 frames, pipp, AS and Registax. 

Thanks for looking. 🙂

So. It would seem as though this is something to do with the Azimuth area of the mount. When the clutch is locked down there is a certain amount of "play" in this axis. I assume this is what's known as backlash? 

When the clutch on the azimuth is slackened off the noise ceases. 

Anyway I've been on to FLO and they have said to send it back. Just waiting some postage labels and they can probably collect from my place of work. 

I've seen articles on Cloudy Nights about removing the backlash. But really don't want, and I don't think I should have to be doing this on a new item tbh. 

Had a very quick "first light" with my newly acquired mount last night. 

One thing I noticed is that after a goto command, when the mount starts tracking, there's an audible clicking/tapping sort of noise coming from the mount. 

Is this normal? Anyone experienced anything similar. 

Also, which type of alignment are most people using from the Synscan Pro App?

Many thanks. 

Today's delivery from FLO

And a clear night forecast for tonight. :-)))

And 2x 40mm Celestron Plossls from a member on here. Many thanks 🙂

I know it's old tech. 

But

I managed to get 2x Samsung SCB2000 cameras for £10. 

Going to have a play with them. Will get £10 worth of entertainment easily I suspect. 

I used to use the ST102 on a vixen porta II. Was a great combo in my opinion. 🙂

Really nice report. 

I have the 127, and in the past had a 90. Despite having a mount that can more than take the 127 I often find myself considering a 102. Perhaps this is the sweet spot in terms of portability and performance. I suspect I could also use a 102 on my star adventurer, which I feel the 127 will be stressing if I attempted it. Lol 

Regards

Bobby

14 minutes ago, bokchoy ninja said:

Hey that's fair enough, I wasn't trying to criticize your design   

In my case, lacking access to a 3D printer, my solution would certainly involve some jerry-rigging. Interesting that you've been able to use your 200mm lens without support. How heavy/long is it, out of curiosity?

I know you were not really criticising. Lol. My comment was all a bit tongue in cheek. ;-). 

My lens weighs in at around 700g. 

It's around 190mm long with the dew shield/hood extended. 

I have used the 200mm lens above on my canon Eos 450 on my SA with no extra support. Just the camera mounted to the SA. 

The above set up was to see if I could make use of my GPCam with the lens on the SA. It's certainly not "Jerry rigged". Lol. It's precision designed in CAD and printed out on my own printer ;-). I wouldn't risk my own stuff if it wasn't robust enough. Plus I am a design engineer. :-)) 

?

I made my own lens support for a 200mm M42 fit lens. 

10 minutes ago, serbiadarksky said:

So than I will need a lens collar for my 135mm samyang? Or it will be fine attached to the camera? It weights somewhere around 800g

I haven't used one on my 135mm. Just attached to camera

3 hours ago, bokchoy ninja said:

Thanks for the reply!

I'm considering a 180mm lens which is 5 inches long and weights 1.8 pounds. What I'm concerned about is: there's no tripod collar on it, and no obvious place to mount one. Do you think, with this weight and size, that a Nikon F-mount would be able to safely support it? It's so difficult to find capacity ratings for this.

Can you possibly buy/make/modify a tube ring or support for the lens. So that the lens is mounted to the SA and the camera then mounted to the lens??

20 minutes ago, fwm891 said:

Yes, just the polar scope. Used a phone app to locate where Polaris should be and set the mount accordingly.

I think you have done amazingly well with that focal length just by using the polar scope. Well done. I think it must be my eyes that are letting me down when just using the polar scope. I have had really good alignment when using sharpcap to polar align. But nothing like you have achieved at that focal length using just the polar scope. 

How did you polar align the Star Adventurer? Just using the polar scope?

3D Printer. 

46 minutes ago, leeseafish said:

Here's my Dob Mod - adjustable setting circle, 12v illumination, digital inclinometer.  It all works a charm and was well worth the modest effort.  http://seafoodacademy.org/pdfs/adding-a-setting-circle-to-my-dobs.pdf

Glad to see my old 200p still going strong Lee. ?

10 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

I use a red dot finder mounted in the hotshoe to find a bright star near the target this makes it easier to get the target in live view then take short exposures and adjust to frame it.

Dave

 

This is what I use. Works well. 

Quick question. Does anyone image with a Make mounted on their SA??

Received this today, really want to try guiding in the near future 

32 minutes ago, JemC said:

Where was this for sale?

Astroboot. Looks like it may have been sold now. 

1 minute ago, Thalestris24 said:

Hi

It doesn't allow control via laptop/planetarium software does lt? How do you find it? Is it quite portable i.e. easy to carry around?

Thanks

Louise

You are correct in saying it cant be linked to a laptop and controlled via something like stellarium for example. 

Personally I wouldn't really class it as portable. Lol. Maybe it's just me. Imho portability is where a bit Star Adventurer comes in. Just my 2p worth. :-)