StarryEyed

Think I have said this elsewhere on the forum. The first time I looked through a TAK 6x30 finder I laughed out loud. The contrast and sharpness on the moon took me by surprise. Which only heightened the excitement and prospect of looking through my newly acquired FC100DF. Five/six years later its no less impressive but like so many other comments here wish it was right angled.

I love the CONNECT that I get with visual astronomy. For example looking at Mars the photons that hit my eye are photons that have touched and bounced of its surface. Thats a real physical connection and I literally sence this I am aware of it. Same as listening to a live orchestra theres feeling there. When I listen to a recording I still have the joy of the music but I dont feel the connection with the orchestra. Same reason some people go to a football match rather tham watch it on TV. Astrophotography is rewarding but not it the same way. Visual astronomy makes you a participant in the universe rather than a camera man in it. If you choose the right moment for each you can actually get more enjoyment overall by making the best use of each. One thing is for sure a bit of visual astronomy always cheers me up no end even on the worst of days.

If your primarily interested in planetary and lunar with the specific intent to share these views with the family then your much more likely to enjoy this experience with a tracking equatorial mount. I have both an equatorial anf alt azm mounts. High power on these targets can be tiresome and tricky to keep centered in an eyepiece and a tracking mount removes this requirement allowing whoever is at the eyepiece to relax and enjoy the view.

Show him the forum and this thread the pictures posted and the other astronomers on hete recommended the above and that hes free to ask questions.

Middle section first screen shot "The software was tested for compliance ... on a different version of windows and may not be compatible with this version" Which is what is to be expected Windows 11 and Windows 10 have the same driver requirements. When QHY say it should work we there can be all sorts of service packs and updates that might be required to get it to work. As you know it works on your other computer with windows 10 then as @PETECPC says upgrade this machine to windows 10.

Its takes three minutes to makes two trips to set up my 4". I had an WO 80FD ready to go in the past but typical after ten minutes viewing I wanted the bigger scope. If the extra min and a half matters Im better of with binoculars and save the three minutes. I appreciate not everyone has their scope in a garage back room four meters from where they observe so I'm lucky. I would still like a small light weight grab and go scope and often look on enviously but there's a difference between want and need. It just wouldn't get used.

shouldn't be a problem

I belive windows 10 drivers are not compatible with windows 8. When you uninstall the driver windows doesn't actually delete the file it remains on your drive. There is an option to remove it from the drive if you remove the device in the device manager by right clicking on the device. If you don't it will just sit there and get reused. All devices have a manafactures ID and a driver has the same ID in it. This is how they are associated. Things can go wrong with this or you can even manually pick the wrong driver. So best to make sure the actual driver file is wiped from the computer and reinstall. Also from the manual you might try QHY's UpdateCheck to look at the driver to see what's going on.

Their so similar in performance it's possibly not worth the cost. Depending on your eyepieces you might find better views by investing there. Have you tried viewing stright through without the diagonal this is a clear indication of how good/bad a diagonal can be.

Some advice. Change your member profile picture its to distracting I cant concentrate on your lunar image. Now I want to go off to the pub for a pint. Nice image. Your round..

There all good quality. Just keep coming here and playing around you'll work it out. Your three inch scope will find it tough on the planets as does my four inch scope. You really need an eight or ten inch scope for them. But dont let that put you off having a look. One of the best views I had of Jupiter was with an 80FD WO five in the morning before going to work its often about when the skies are at their best. Keep an eye out for when the jet stream is out of the way. On an average day the planets look pretty much the same in most scopes. Stick with it an keep checkung in with Mars from now and over the winter with the 7mm or the zoom and Barlow.

Yes plug it all into your router or better a switch (a switch just has LAN ports on it so things can communicate with each other less than a tenner) using LAN cables or just bring it in doors and set it all up before taking it outside. If you plug a monitor mouse and keyboard into the PC and get it all working nicely indoors you will save yourself a lot of time and once its outside you will know the only variable thing is the wifi.

Yes that looks right. If you can manage it try setting it all up over a lan connection first then swap to wifi. This way you can be sure it works. wifi is often the most troublesome point.

Didn't expect it to look as tight as it does for the pixel scale. Just got that Mars feeling running through my veins.

I haven't done any planetary imaging since 2003. Having seen Mars in the sky I couldn't resist it. Given its only 15" wide and Mars looked like an egg in boiling water in the video capture.... Tak FC100 Powermate 2.5 (same Powermate from 2003 which caused my eyebrow to rise) QHY5III (picked up last winter but never used it on a planet) 25% 5000 frames blah blah blah (it's just a lot of fun and I feel the urge for more)

I just bought a Lenovo X260 i7 16GB 256SD full HD screen. The X series are small 13.3" screens. £200 on ebay years warranty. Powerful little laptop. Actually in really good condition. I'm pretty happy. Replacement for an old Samsung laptop with a busted screen (removed) used remotely only. But for planetary manual focus having a screen locally is important. The ten year old Samsung has 4GB ram which just isn't enough but it still works so I cant bring myself to throw it out.

Interesting your tak blue looks tak green in a photo. Makes you wonder if Tak sent a photo of their Tak green to the paint supplier who saw it as Tak blue and sent two years supply of it.

I read that independently of this thread this morning. Whats interesting if you can find a spot with a lot of underground water ice you could just crash the odd van or tesla into it to makes it easy to get at. You know sending lumps of concrete to mars is boring. Crashing them into a spot of subsurface water ice is far more exciting. Not as tricky as hitting asteroids but certainly useful.

That looks like a lot of hard work. You must be very happy with the results.

Thats a really nice Jupiter from a C90.

Thats a fine image. I envy your clear skies.

Wanted to show them the partial eclipse but they were more interested in the nudist beach.

I like flying but life often doesn't turn out the way you hope so, with my luck probably throw up.

I remember my 5inch Mak being tricky to focus. I would often focus on a bright star nearby lowering the exposure so I could make the star appear and disappear on screen with a tweak of the focuser put the exposure back up and pan back to the planet. I would also spend hours learning how to collimate the scope. I got good at it so much so the hex bolts at the back of the scope looked well used. When I look back at my imaging with the Mak for every great night there might have been twenty not so good even poor ones. Keep working on your setup and capture and when Mars is high in the sky on a really still, cold minus 3 winter night later this year !!! The results will be fantastic. These images will fill you with joy because you got to a point when you knew you couldn't get much more out of your scope. I still look at my Saturn, Jupiter and Mars images from years ago and they still make me smile and every now and then I use one as a desktop image on my computer or phone.

Not cheap but has multiple uses. I just use a gazebo but wish it had a side panel like this. Mines also too big for one person these are pop up. kind of. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lumaland-Waterproof-Protection-additional-available/dp/B01N4GLYUW/ref=mp_s_a_1_56?keywords=pop+up+shelter&qid=1666471162&qu=eyJxc2MiOiI3LjIyIiwicXNhIjoiNi43NCIsInFzcCI6IjQuODQifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-56