Merlin66

The issue of "burning lenses" has come up before. I prepared a spreadsheet of the "energy balance" across a modded PST ( and any other telescope used for solar). The "do not exceed" energy intensity, after much discussion, seems to be around 10 Kw/m^2. The Baader D-ERF is good at what it does, just passing 27% of the total solar energy....... Solar ignition.zip

Not sure what you mean..... Assuming you have a mount capable of accepting guide commands (i.e with an ST-4 guide port), all you need is a guide camera fitted to some sort of guide scope which in turn is rigidly fitted to the imaging scope and a ST-4 cable between the camera and the mount. PHD2 will take it from there......

I must be one of the lucky ones....... I've used the HEQ5 as my portable mount for over ten years, I primarily do spectroscopy and solar imaging. No issues, no drama, no rebuilds, no grease....... Usually with various ED80 scopes. Did have a C9.25 on it for a while - worked well. I also have a "standard" NEQ6pro in the observatory handing a +/-17 Kg load - C11 plus four cameras, spectrograph etc etc using EQMod. Never felt the need to do anything with it other than use it!

I use a C11 on a NEQ6pro.... I removed the factory saddle and replaced it with a dual Geopik saddle. I "upgraded" to a wider Losmandy dovetail, fitted a safety stop bar and run with the C11 OTA VERY far forward. Had to add a few extra weights to the front of the dovetail to get "best" balance. You can see the new saddle (orange) and the safety bar in the image)

Double stacking etalons reduces the bandwidth - two 0.7A etalons will give around 0.4 - 0.5A bandwidth. This configuration also significantly reduces the light throughput, giving darker images. The benefit of the DS is certainly the improved Ha contrast when viewing surface features. For proms, due to their movements a wider bandwidth is usually much better, up to 2A. I use a SM60 DS on my ED80 - great for surface, but revert to SS for the proms.

Louise, Yes, use the micrometer to change the wavelength, take a reference image, use this to adjust focus, best FWHM (if necessary). BASS can join the calibrated sections together.....

If the laser is pushed to one side of the focuser by the screws.........don’t you think the same thing will happen to your eyepiece? use a Cheshire eyepiece or similar to find / get best collimation.

Sophie, First question to ask....is the front objective lens of the PST a “blue” colour or does it look “golden brown” If it’s not blue then it’s an older version which has NO ITF filter in the eyepiece holder.

Tony, Regularly, every few months run the focuser though full travel back and forth a couple of times. This re-spreads the grease along the baffle and reduces any slop.

Yes, the focus varies dramatically from the UV to the blue in any refractor. Independent of the filter, obviously a narrow bandwidth would limit the focus change

Do you guys refocus for every filter? A narrow band blue filter with good UV-IR cut should help.

The one I use is a "120W laptop car power supply, L40BB", and converts the 12V to 15/16/18/19/20/22/24 V DC. Just select the 15V setting. Maplin or JayCar??

Go for the the 12v to 15v car convertor..... No more problems.

I have both the 1.25” ES and Meade x3 extenders, they are identical. Look like they came out the same factory inChina. I use the x2.5 PM, with the T thread adaptor regularly for solar imaging with the ASI 1600. The tele-extenders are pretty good, but I do prefer the Powermate.

I use EQMod (V2.0.0) all the time with CdC (V4.2). I can Park to Home (pointing towards the Pole) or Custom park (to clear the observatory roof) and Unpark every time - no issues. Dino, what version of EQMod are you using? Is it only the park/ unpark function which is an issue? When you are parked (button showing "UNPARK") do you see the mount position screen flashing "PARKED"? Double check the unpark settings.....

Based on my 50 years experience as a professional mechanical engineer, you don’t need to “pack” bearings with grease. With astronomy gear we are talking about low speed, relatively low loads compared with critical heavy duty industrial applications. No need to over grease.

If they are sealed bearings, then you don’t need to do anything. open un-sealed bearings obviously need to be greased - less is more, don’t overfill them.

I was thinking of reflections from the filters....

Hi!, from the Bellarine..... What Ha filter were you using? Looks like a reflection...

Louise, I think you're trying to do much at the same time..... Forget the spectrograph (for the moment) Set up mount, PA, PHD etc using your eFinder...... chose a bright star - Aldebaran? When you can guide on the star, then move to the next issue. Set up to keep guiding on the bright star in the eFinder and then add the spectrograph to the mix. Don't worry about guiding on the slit ....just get the bright star to show in the slit plate - the eFinder should be enough to hold it there.... Nudge the star (using the PHD arrows?) onto the slit gap - no slit guiding at this point - see if the star continue to sit on the slit under eFinder guiding..... it should be pretty close. When you get to this stage you have two options 1. rely on the eFinder guiding to hold the star on the slit and take a spectral image.... 2. transfer guiding to the slit guider, calibrate a second version of PHD2 (I open a new PHD and call it "slit" - I then end up with two PHD options - eFinder or Slit) this should then hold the star on the virtual slit gap. Take a 5 - 10 sec spectral exposure to check on the height of the spectral band - the tighter the band the better you have achieved focusing of the scope onto the slit gap. Softly, softly........ Ken

Well done, mate!! Shows well the capabilities of the LowSpec. What were the stacking issues? Just interested. Ken

IMHO I'd stick with what you have.... It will probably do 99% of what you want.

Louise, How are going? Any updates? Ken

The current V5 Synscan handcontroller should be a direct "plug and play" replacement. Not sure what you mean by ""Synscan base unit" - I see you have an EQ5, so maybe you refer to the added motors and the control board? All the added Synscan features may not be available to you, depends on the motor control board version and firmware. I'm still using V3.27 on my HEQ5 and NEQ6pro mounts. Works for me.