alan potts

43 minutes ago, sloz1664 said:

Hi Alan,

I still have the software available for my now departed Mammut camera, if you still require them.

Steve

Very kind of you Steve, I guess I have the same here somewhere. I bought this last time I was in England which is about 41/2 years ago, and I have never used it. It was new so I guess I too have a disk somewhere, I imagine that is what I am looking for, a disk? Did you guide with it?

Alan

7 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

I run mine all off a £28 PC off ebay, dual core, 2.something GHZ, 160GB HDD, 1 0r 2 gig of RAM.  I think you will be ok.

I have to say having looked at these I have a bit of learning to do, I only have a Brightstar Mammut L429 to use as a guide camera so I may have to look for drivers, still must learn to walk before running.

58 minutes ago, tooth_dr said:

As Lightbucket says it works very well with PHD and this will allow you to 'dither' your exposures, as well as platesolve to find targets.

http://www.stark-labs.com/phdguiding.html

https://openphdguiding.org/

Do you think my laptops will drive both, for outside I prefer to use the T420 with 4 gig of ram, it has an i5 enhanced processor or the T410 which is not quite as quick but also 4gig ram.

.

Now I remember APT is actually developed by a Bulgarian that lives in Sofia, or at least that is what I was told my my Meade Dealer friend. Peter thaanks for the Backyard option, I will try them and buy the one I like the most.

Now just needs to stop raining.

Looking for advice on software to opperate Canon cameras. i have 3, though only one is setup for astro photography at the moment. I want something to give hopefully a live view for focus, and programable to say take 60x 30sec or what ever.

Are there programs that do this as well as guide the scope, Or do you have to have a special program for guiding?

Finally I have several fairly powerful laptops ( Lenovo T420 thinkpads 8&4 gigs ram) will one run two sets of software without issue.

Alan

Great report John and I am very pleased for you, I know you have been looking for a good while, longer than me maybe. I did after thing, is that it. I have a feeling I was expecting the Spanish Inquision or the start of the Grand National, all horses falling at Beech's Brook first time round. Not looked for it since I was so upset.

Alan

Thank you very much I have downloaded the basic as I am only a beginner, hoping for the cloud to clear so I can get back outside.

Alan

Doc

4 minutes ago, Doc said:

Yes Alan I still have them, in fact very pleased with them, love the view through them.

There is a lot of room left so I could increase my collection, but concentrating on increasing my collection of Clave Paris eyepieces at the moment.

Read good things about Clave but I have never seen one, good luck with your hunting.

On 16/11/2017 at 16:41, Doc said:

Here is mine, it consists of the entire Delos range and of course the 31mm T5. 

 

 

Good to see you still have them Doc, but there is much more room in that case to grow the collection you know.

Alan

Yes pictures please. I have an 18 inch made by Michael (Sumerian) and it's a fantastic scope, I always found him helpful too, TS I have not had so much fun with though.

Like John I have Moonlite and Feathertouch though I have owned a Baader before and a TS version, I still have a TS focuser on the back of the 70mm ED piggybacked on my Meade SC. In my humble opinion the two main player Moonlite and Feather are better than the others but also cost a good deal more, I was happy with the Baader on the SC to, it was only a case of money burning a hole in my pocket that made me change it to the one where you can fit the focal reducer, which I never have done, not even sure where it is.

Alan

Some really nice eyepieces there, I have owned all of them and still have afew of them.

Alan

On 26.07.2016 г. at 14:36, Moonshane said:

Here's mine

 

A nice dark site you have there Shane.

Alan

With having been on holiday i have lost track of this thread, what an absolutely lovely scope, I have to say it makes mine look a bit cheap. I love the finish and everything looks so well done, I really hope it is everything that you wished for, it looks as if it will be. Very well done. Just remains for me to wish for good weather for the first trip out with the Mob and look forward to the reports.

Alan 

I like the bit about flash new scopes around. I said that I would not stop using all my scopes but since I have had the 18 inch, which seems to have a truely excellent mirror, the 180mm Mak has been out once, the 190mm M/N twice and the 115mm APO not much more. The Meade on the other hand gets a lot more use now, since it has had its home in the obsey, quick to use I guess.

I did mean to ask you, and sorry, it's right off the subject but did you get the Deep Sky atlas and what did you think?

It's a bit hot here at the moment and the sky is very wobbley so I haven't bothered too much of late, 39 is on the cards for tomorrow and it's 36 now. I watered the grass last night and I am sure steam was coming off.

Alan

Very nice indeed John, two weeks away and look what I miss. From a pretty point of view the APM wins for me but the Tak is a fine instrument I am sure. With having the 115mm I feel that if I were to go for another it is going to have to be a 6 inch which is not cheap as you know, maybe a SW Espirit will be the winner as it is about half the price of the APM, one day.

Alan

John,

Just had a re-read, Antares is a stunning split from the UK even though I know you are in the south. I have done it from here but never with the 115mm APM but with the 190mm M/N which has very good optics for a fair sized 1000 quid scope. I have done Antares with the 18 inch but that is nothing to shout from the roof tops.

Alan

Sounds like buses. I must have missed something in what was a quick run through read, so you have two Lzos type scopes, I must re read the thread now, I have just got greener. You know I have some half decent kit but there is something about a refractor, I don't know what it is but there is without doubt something.

Alan

13 hours ago, John said:

Thanks Alan - hope you had a great holiday

John,

Yes thanks I did, it turned out longer as I got blocked in by some morons and couldn't move the car, all efforts to find the offenders failed, then the hotel manager who is known by the wife offered us an extention so cheap we could resist. The place was Albena here on the Black Sea, a purpose built resort that has just about everything apart from parking spaces for cars, when it was thrown up few people had cars or could afford to go there so visitor mainly came by plane. A good work mate went in 1980 and said it was so cheap it was difficult to spend money, that's all changed now.

On the scope front, I don't know if it is the amount of cuecumbers and courgettes we are eating at the moment but I am turning a little green, that is really a top instrument and I am well pleased for you, I want one. Maybe if I feed it mine will grow 15mm.

Alan

Many congratulations on the new scope, sorry for being late but I have been on holiday for 2 weeks, this is the one I wish I had bought. They are superb scopes and the optics are as good as any on the market.

Alan

Now that is looking nice Mike, it is only when I see in shot something I can relate to that I get an idea of size, you should have the SGL standard tin of beans in shot. I really wish I had got a 20 inch now myself as at the time John Nichol had a 20 inch F4.1 mirror at a very good price, just over 2100 quid, though I forget the exact figure. At the time Sumerian would have built me a 20 inch Canopus and I guess that would not be massively more than my 18 inch which all in was 2506 euros, that was with a Moonite focuser and 60mm finder, so in fact it could have been less.

However he no longer makes large scopes which is a shame. I do have the skills and tools to make one myself but getting quality woods and boards is another matter.

Good luck with the rest of the work and don't forget the beans.

alan

I knew a guy years back that was into boxing but he was not really that great, he would have been able to use them, lovely set of eyepiece you have, I am thinking of a zoom myself, maybe the Pentax.

Alan

Great I will read with interest, which I always do of course. No where here sells the liners for my cases and though not bad they are looking a bit battle worn. The silly thing was the last one I bought only had about a weeks use, then I went on Derek's diet and sold most of my what was full Delos range and about 6 Naglers. Still keep looking at the 4.7mm you have which would be offset by the sale of the 4.5mm Delos.

Alan

19 hours ago, iPeace said:

Sorted. Done. Dusted. Finished. Complete. Happy. Nothing more to Scope can I offer.

What a collection!!!! I very much like the way you have put them in the case. I have a collection of cases which, I guess like a few have been remodelled a fewtimes, this renders the foam lines pretty useless. The other thing is the likes of 41mm & 35mm Panoptic, 31mm Nagler and 21&17mm Ethos are really too heavy for this lining foam, this looks a solid idea can you enlarge on how you did it. BTW Not 4 o'clock in the afternoon and already 2.3 inches of rain today so my eyepiece cases could use a floatation collar.

Alan

Yes of course the other Ethos's are excellent and you have a fine collection. Many say the 13mm is the best of the range, Calvin tends to favour the 8mm and I believe he likes the Powermater as well. I had one but found it a bit too long though I could almost observe from indoors if the scope was close enough to the house. I also found that with having a few more eyepieces than most it didn't really get used, it went to another site member who was very pleased with it.

As for which is best, I think they are all absolutely superb, it could just be a matter of which type of scope the person uses.  

Alan