Merlin66

John, OK. It must have been a Firefox (??) issue - rebooted and all's good.

Rusty, I use CdC V4.3.beta4167 and Win 10 64 The screen shots show that the CdC settings are transferred to the Ascom telescope position... Can you upload a screen shot of your problem?

Hmmmm Down again.....

I get an error message on the video "No video with supported format and MIME type found"

I get the impression that it was thought that a PHD guide connection would actually provide a GOTO type slew. As we know PHD (and all the guide software) only adds a minor correction to the tracking rate.

The adaptor for an 50mm FD to EOS body looks problematic.... http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/canon_fd_eos_adapters.html the second option with glass seems to be the better option. Note the limitations stated.

OK, You need to carry out a calibration to give PHD the necessary data to apply appropriate guide signals to the mount.

Lupris, “On camera” should work OK. (The screen showed the camer connected but not the Mount “On camera”) Once both these are connected, the next step is to use a suitable star to do the calibration routine. It’s only after successful calibration that PHD will be able to guide.

Lupris, On your screen shots I don't see you connecting to the mount? If your ST4 cable is connected to the ST-4 port on the mount, Camera connected and mount "on camera" connected, you should be able to move a field star by pressing the PHD manual direction buttons and by choosing a suitable star start the calibration process.

Oleg, The small flip mirror designed into the Spectra-L200 directed a reference beam from the external lamp source (connected to a 12V supply) to the slit gap. The lamp has a diffuser and there's a 6mm hole in the housing to let the light through. Opposite this hole is a 10 x 10mm mirror mounted on a support shaft. The mirror holder has two small magnet inserts. When the mirror is swung out of the beam it's held against the inside of the housing by one of the magnets. When it's flipped down the centre of the mirror sits immediately over the centre of the slit gap at 45 degrees to the reference beam, and again held in place by a magnet. This provides a reference beam wide enough, centred on the middle of the slit height, to illuminate the whole height of the slit. These are some images of the original prototype.

Loosing Raben Maps would be a sad loss to the solar observing community...bumma!

Has anyone been able to open Raben's solar maps website? http://raben.com/maps/index.html It seems to have disappeared, not been able to reach it for the past couple of weeks.

Yes, that's correct.

Oleg, sorry mate, I didn’t upload the actual flip mirror used in the final Spectro-L200 design. I’ll definitely do it tomorrow. Any diffuser between the lamp and the slit centre is good, but the centre of the lamp element should still align with the centre of the slit gap.

I mounted the AC555 Barlow in a T thread housing to give me full disk coverage with my ASI1600MM camera and ED80 for solar imaging. works well for me.

Are you looking for a testing document or a method/ process to analyse the “first light” results?? check out our webpage for some details. http://astronomicalspectroscopy.com/

Oleg, The Spectra-L200 I designed uses a flip mirror to present an external Neon/Relco lamp onto the slit gap as reference. No issues, works well. I’ll get some photos and upload for info.

Robin, I use a 30 tooth XML pulley and a 100 tooth XML belt for most of the motors. Fitting the motor bracket to the focuser can sometimes be challenging (!!) just requires some ingenuity. Under gentle tension, the belt gives sufficient grip to the SW knobs to work very well, I just drop the belt if I need to manually refocus. The set-up on the SCT focuser is interesting, I'm not familiar with a clutch/ toothed pulley option, but it sounds like a good alternative.

Yeah, cold, wet, and windy!!

Rusty, That’s a pretty cool Summers day out here in Oz. I arranged to extend the control cables to the mount to be able to sit in the “office” while solar imaging. Much better than the ol’ ten year grey bin and dark sheet.

http://slittlefair.staff.shef.ac.uk/teaching/phy217/lectures/instruments/L15/index.html worth re-reading.

Stuart, The latest Astroart V7 will see you through all your needs for a long time. Fabio regularly issues free Service Pack upgrades (currently up to SP4) to maintain the cutting edge capabilities of Astroart. He has also been very responsive to making improvements based on user feedback. He listens and supports the growing users base. I'm not sure all the other processing packages are as supportive. I only use Astroart (I do spectroscopy) so I don't know what other packages charge for upgrades? Maybe someone can comment??

This pin seems to be sitting in the hole used by the mirror lock screw. It was recommended before transporting the Meade OTA to insert the (1/4"?) screw to hold the mirror in place. On the MAPUG site there was details of how to re-use this hole to allow a proper mirror lock attachment to be mounted - to reduce mirror slop during use. http://skymtn.com/mapug-astronomy/MAPUG/ImgShift.htm#anchor1445909 The various Model numbers quoted refer more to the mount the OTA was fitted to, rather than the OTA itself. If the main mirror and corrector are OK, check the collimation and enjoy it.

The "normal view" of the Sun has North at top, East to the left. The rotation (East to West) of the Sun brings new activity onto the visible disk from the East edge, and they disappear at the West edge. "Preceding" and "following" is a common terminology to establish E-W on astronomical objects. When the object drifts across the FOV the drift direction is towards the western edge (ie nearest the western horizon). https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/629874-cardinal-directions-celestial-vs-lunar-planetary/

Well done! A very simple but effective way of providing a focuser drive motor. I use a very similar arrangement on all my solar scopes. (I did fit the same to the C11 and later upgraded)