michael8554

1. Yes that's the Clock Drive. Centuries ago mounts were driven by clockwork systems called Clock Drives. 3. As John recalled, early TAL 1M's came with a non-standard diameter focuser, larger than the 1.25" standard. The eyepieces that came with the mount were good quality though. A TAL 1M was my first scope, and I struggled with star hopping using the Setting Circles. Until I discovered the setting circles were for the Southern Hemisphere, meaning they were "backwards" for the northern hemisphere ! Michael

I'm going to break this down into sections. 1) AFAIK StarSense automatically Star Aligns the mount. That means it adjusts the mount's star map to match the position of the stars on the particular night. 2) To GoTo a target you then have to use the mount's handset, or a Planetarium on a PC connected to the mount. 3) If tracking has been enabled, the target should stay in view well enough for visual use with an eyepiece. If the target is rapidly drifting out of the eyepiece, then it may be that tracking is not enabled. 4) If you want to take images with a camera attached in place of the eyepiece, you may find that the stars aren't round in the downloaded image. That's because of drift caused by imprecisions in the mount's driving system., which become apparent in the long duration camera exposures. 5) This elongation can be minimised by Guiding - which you say you already have, with a ZWO mini guide scope and a ASI 120MM camera, you don't need another Celestron guide scope. 6) So what software are you using to drive the Guiding ? PHD2 for example ? Michael

Plenty of UK sources, even for the nylon ones I advised against.. Westfield Fasteners, Amazon UK, Namrick, eBay, etc, etc, etc. Michael

I stacked your single Light, Dark, Flat, Bias in DSS. I got a normal looking output - black background, white stars. The Autosave TIFF was 96bit depth 6MB. I did a "Save As", looked the same, that was 48bit depth 118MB. There may be a rogue frame in your images. Michael

"Can See Subjects From Miles Away," My Box Brownie will do that. Who writes this stuff ? Michael

You will need to sort those cables catching on the mount and dragging on the ground, that will mess up your guiding. Michael

They're 10-32 x 3/4" They're available from lots of UK sources. Michael

The Prime Minister's speech hinted at sharing information. A great achievement, but I wonder at the message it sends to the poor masses. Michael

Hi Gost Hope it has a "Shoot the StarLink Trains" option........... Michael

"I've had a look at off axis guiding, and although it would be good, I also want to be able to swap the guide camera between my 8" and 12" SCT's with the minimum of fuss." Why ? Just swap the complete OAG setup between OTAs, focus the imaging camera, and you're ready to go ! Much easier than having to swap the guidescope, or having to buy a guidescope for each OTA. Michael

Yes I'll accept that was a poor example. But my other examples, Dark Matter and Dark Energy for instance, are currently just theories to explain anomalies in our observational understanding of the amount of matter in the universe and why galaxy groups don't expand. Given time all will be explained, like Black Hole are. Michael

"using the Nikon" guess you mean a DSLR, not a Nikon eyepiece ? "I am concerned about focusing the tube as the camera is taking shots." Don't take "shots", use the camera's LiveView to display the star continuously while you adjust the focus. Michael

If it's like my LX, the screws are plastic. I replaced them with steel ones. They make marks on the finderscope, but you can't have everything. Michael

So much of cosmology is unproven theories. Do Back Holes exist ? We don't know, but the evidence suggests they do, but they are unproven. Do Dark Energy and Dark Matter exist ? We don't know, they are just theories. Same with the Big Bang. Michael

"I'm not sure why everyone is so concerned about getting to the surface at the South polar area first, like they will claim it." The deepest craters at the south pole never catch the sun, so may contain water ice, an essential commodity for a moon base. For example, solar panels on the crater rim, electrolysis of the water will give you oxygen. Nobody can "claim it", you could build your base right next to theirs if you wanted to. Maybe a Good Idea, a multinational colony ? Michael

"What do you keep your bits and pieces in?" I'm a M&S briefs guy, I found boxer shorts uncomfortable. Michael Sorry 😆

1) Car exhaust pipe clamps come in a variety of designs, one will suit. Or fabricate your own from steel strip. 2) Drill two holes in the leg and bolt on. 3) Mount the PC on a steel strip that is longer than the PC, and clamp with Jubilee clips. 4) Attach with Zip Ties or Velcro straps, and clamp a Jubilee clip to the leg below the PC to stop it sliding. 5) G-Clamps Etc etc Michael

Your setup does looks sturdy. However western Europe has experienced extremes of weather recently. So perhaps your pier is actually shifting. But how many arcsecs is it shifting, according to Polemaster ? You can get good guiding with a PA error of 5arcmins, so I hope you're not saying it's varying by arcsecs 😆 Michael

I'd say your cables dragging on the ground will be more of a problem when guiding. And they're pulling on the four USB ? plugs on the left, which may cause disconnects. A smooth loop to an attachment point at the top of the tripod would be better. Michael

If the secondary convex mirror has a non-complex figure, then the CC might work as well as it would at the normal location ? Michael

I see elongation in the centre of the image, suggesting tracking and/or PA error. Look at a much shorter exposure, stretched if necessary. Michael

What PA figure does PoleMaster report after you've aligned, and the next time when you start up ? Michael

"the pec check for backlash " Explain what you mean by that. There are fairly regular big spikes in RA (blue trace). And those random big spikes in Dec (red trace) Can't tell from the grab whether those are from guiding or from external sources - grit in RA worm, snagging cables etc. Post a link to the GuideLog. Michael

Separate to the Back Spacing issue, is the ZWO ASI533 mc-pro actually working ? Shine a torch down the OTA, if it's working the laptop dislpay should go white, even if it's way out of focus. Michael

Yes saw that on the news, highly suggestive of a speculator wanting a clear site to build on.