Merlin66

That's bad....real bad. I hope no lives were threaten by the fire.

Tomasz, unfortunately I sold it some years ago, but it is still in use locally, with upgraded drives and GOTO controller.

Back in the 1970's I built a Disk Fork mount for my 12.5" f5 reflector. It could easily handle 100Kg load and worked very well.

My TSO (Tin Shed Observatory) was based on that 8x6 Argos Shed. I made it a roll of roof and it housed my 12” Meade SCT for a while. It moved with us when we transferred to Brussels and was used with the C9.25 and spectrograph for a couple of years. when the time came to return to Australia, I decided to take the TSO II with me, it worked so well, why leave it behind?? The TSO III worked for some years with the C11/ spectrograph before being sold locally where it is now up and running as TSO IV.

Andy, I’ve just gone through the same issue. I’m in wet and cold Victoria, although I was 100% sure the coordinates were set to Southern Hemisphere, when parking went to Polaris, I had to acknowledge my error. Resetting the EQMOD Ini files fixed the problem.

The transmission curves for most (all?) astronomical filters cover the range of wavelengths used by the CCD and CMOS sensors - 350nm to 1100nm. They are not sensitive beyond these limits. For solar the recommendation is to have ND5 protection in the visible wavelengths. Baader have a dedicated website for their solar products: http://astrosolar.com/en My spectrograph only works with a CMOS, so limited to 1100nm coverage. There is plenty of reliable data available on current solar filters which shows they are safe to use. A UV/IR cut filter is not always a good solution. They also can have high transmission out in the NIR (>1500nm). A KG3 element does suppress the NIR.

The first image, an ED80 is one fitted with the external SM60 etalons for Ha and also the SW motor. No issues with focusing. The last image is a recent acquisition, a Vixen Custom 80M. This replaced an ED80 for CaK imaging. The CaK filter really needs a >f10 input beam so this originally meant stopping the ED80 down to 60mm. The Vixen is an f11.4 so ideal for CaK. I had to replace the Vixen focuser - it was only 1.25" and the CaK filter needed 2". The 2" GSO Crayford with SW motor works well. This now gives me 80mm CaK capability. The image shows AR 2833. The Vixen seems to be pretty good in the CaK wavelength. (To improve the WL capability I actually now use the Genesis 100/500 with the Baader Cool wedge.)

They are all dedicated solar scopes! All fitted with SW focus motors so they can be operated from within the office. 1. Fitted with a DIY CaK filter, x2 barlow and the ASI 1600 2. Fitted with a double stacked SM60 Ha, with SW motor tilt adjust, x 2.25 Hyperion barlow and ASI 174 3. Fitted with a Baader Cool wedge for white light and an ASI 1600

I use three ED80 ‘s for my solar imaging.!!! The standard focuser is OK and with the addition of a belt driven SW motor to the 10:1 knob it’s even better.

Good catch! Looks like a new AR coming into view. Probably AR2833.

Ecuador, OK, I’ll try to download it to My iPhone and give it a trial. I ‘ll let you know how it goes.

Ecuador, Does this work for Southern Hemisphere?

An optimum solution, but not mandatory. If you can image reasonably quickly between set-ups comparisons between the wavelengths would still be valid. I have an ED80 setup for Ha, a Genesis 4” for White Light and a Vixen Custom80 for CaK. These can be quickly interchanged on the HEQ5.

If I went that route, I’d being using the existing GM8 stepper motors. on the Losmandy site there is very little info on these motors. I had assumed, probably incorrectly, that the OnStep software would interface with Cartes du Ciel in a similar manner to EQMod.

The OnStep solution sounds very good, but when you visit the forum you quickly get lost in the “nerdy “ opportunities and alternatives. There doesn’t seem to be a OnStep solution available without getting involved in motor and mount parameters. I’d love to give it a go on an old Carton (TV systems) fitted with GM8 motors, but where do you start?????

I use the Gert Neumann filter drawers. The body I have has T thread connections, and takes 2” and 1.25” slides.

I've also just received a Vixen Custom 80M. Very good condition. Mine takes 1.25" eyepieces. I haven't managed to separate the dew shield, as mentioned, it seem to be fitted to the objective cell, which unscrews from the tube. I intend to use it for solar imaging, particularly with the CaK filter which needs a >f10 input beam. I've replaced the focuser with a 2" Crayford (needed for the CaK filter size) and used one of the original Vixen rings as a support for a focus motor ( which I find mandatory!) So far, the results are very promising.

Another issue.... the zip and unzipped .pdf files are "located" in the "files" App, but the Acrobat App couldn't see or find them !!!!! The iPad is a PITA when it comes to files/ folders etc.

Martin, Thanks for the comments. Adobe Acrobat is a paid App for the iPad but needs a current iPad Air 2 running at least IOS 13.3. It won’t install on my older iPad Air.....bumma.

Hmmmm After all that, it doesn't seem to play well with an iPad. I can get one chart to open - APS101 1.pdf but that's it. No hyperlink etc. The instruction say to select a constellation to move the chart to the centre of that constellation -how? Similarly to select an object type????? Also "clicking the finder map moves the chart to the corresponding location" How do you "click" on an iPad???

Update: Well using Dropbox can be made to work...with some pain!!! You also need an App on the iPad to accept files - "Documents" or "Files". I ended up with folders for scircum. zip and index.zip. Then used WinZip to unzip to scircum and index folders (couldn't seem to get it to unzip to any other option) In Documents, added a new folder Pretty Deep Maps, but found you can't select and move all the pdf files at once!!! About ten at a time....after a couple of hours (!!) I now have a first sample of the .pdf files and the Index.pdf files on the iPad. Next step is obviously to see if after all this effort the result is worthwhile........... stay tuned.

There’s no way to “copy/paste” between the laptop and the iPad. The best I’ve achieved is to email myself a file and open it on the iPad.

Martin, your sample zip downloaded ok. changed to Chrome on the iPad and it looked very promising. downloaded to about 900Mb of a 1.3Gb file, then up came the message “unable to download “ tried three times, with the same result. Running out of ideas.

Hmmmm No feedback guys?

Has anyone had success running PDM on the iPad? I can’t seem the get the zip files to download, just hangs and stops. Works ok with the laptop.