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craigg

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Everything posted by craigg

  1. Dew heaters use PWM controllers to reduce the power consumption, which helps particularly if out in the field with only battery power. It's more about the dew point than just the temperature. So given the right circumstances dew can, and does become a blight above zero temperatures, particularly if the humidity is high as it often is for us in UK. I would say if your setup works, then stick with that! If it ain't broke, etc. You should give it a try when humidity is high to make sure it works in those conditions. if you take a look at clearoutside.com for your location, it gives the estimated dew point, if that is close to the actual temperature, you're likely to need something to stop your optics dewing up. Refractors and Schmitt type scopes with unshielded glass are most likely to have issues, but can happen to Newtonians and others too if it's bad enough. In summary, once you experience a session ruined by dew, you will see the benefit 🙂
  2. "What's interesting is that whilst high temperatures were recorded in centuries past, they were less frequent." The latest IPCC report predicts exactly what you describe in terms of frequency of heatwave/flood events. Yes, there will be increases in temperatures, but more problematic is once per decade, and once per 50 year heatwaves and floods will become more frequent as global temps increase. Particularly, flood events are more impacted. Anyone older than 30 years old can see the changes since childhood, in my option. "You would have thought that with more and more wind and solar farms appearing in the past decade or so we should see the worlds climate beginning to cool. " The problem is that global temperatures will continue to rise even if we significantly reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, it's a process that has its own inertia. If you have time, I would recommend reading the IPCC report summary from last year: The biggest problem for us for now, is the increase in water in the atmosphere as a result of temperature rise.
  3. amazing FOV. To my taste it's a little over sharpened, hope you don't mind me saying so, but that may just be me. What do you think?
  4. He's also presented "The Secrets of Quantum Physics", also on Amazon Prime. Just started watching it, seems good so far.
  5. That's really impressive, particularly being in such light polluted skies. I've only tried HaLRGB once when I was using DSLR. I like the way it brings out the nebulae in the galaxies. It's easy to overcook the Ha in these and oversaturate them in post processing, but you've done a fine job!! Just for my own education, when you say you used drizzle to crop each galaxy individually, could you provide some more detail on what you did and why. I'm interested in the process, just not sure what this improves or how you do it?
  6. Excellent advice added - like everyone else said, don't be afraid to ask questions. As others have said joining your local Astro club will also help, not only with setup but inspiration. My local club (Wessex Astro) have been excellent. Regarding the North alignment:- once you are setup outside, and you find an object you want to observe, the better aligned to Polaris you are the easier it will be to follow it as the Earth rotates. Think of it like this, if the RA axis is reasonably well aligned to Polaris, it is parallel to the Earth's rotational axis, meaning that to follow an object you are only going to need to move one axis on the mount, the RA axis. Occasionally you may need to move the Dec to account for some innacuracies, but mostly just that one. Where a lot of folks get frustrated is not having the mount aligned even roughly, and having to keep adjusting both axis to keep the object in the field of view, not easy for your brain when the image in the eyepiece is upside down. This will definately cause mashed swede syndrome followed by frustration and giving up. One last point (sorry if someone already mentioned this, not had time to read all the responses), the mount will have a altitude adjustment (straight up and down) and a scale on the side with degrees. Before you take it outside set this approximately to your Latitude, so for Derbyshire you're going to be setting it to about 53 degrees. Once you level it outside it's going to be pointing the RA axis at about the right angle for Polaris, you will then just need to move it left or right to be aligned with Polaris. If you can't see Polaris from your location, use a compass to point it North. Again, don't let perfection be the enemy of the good, just as close as you can get it without raising your blood pressure. Best of luck, let us know how you get on.
  7. Okay, Okay, deep breaths, stay calm!! Best thing to do is start at the beginning, don't try to get it all at once. YouTube is your best friend from herein. Start indoors to get the basics of assemby and balance: 1. Get your tripod roughly level (don't get too wound up about perfect) 2. add the EQ mount to the tripod, add weights and scope 3. balance it. Turn the Declination (Dec) axis so the scope is horizontal. With the dec clutch open, make sure it's rougly balanced (move the scope up or down to get it right). Be careful that the scope isn't so loose it falls off the mount. 4. Open the RA axis clutch and move the counterweights up/down the bar until it balances. OK, when you do this outside you want to make sure the RA axis is pointing North towards the pole star/Polaris This is the first thing to get right. If you don't get the mount pointing North, you're going to have a lot of problems finding/tracking objects. Look up videos about polar alignment, BUT don't get too obsessed with it. A lot of them talk about drift alignment, etc. All this is to get 'perfect' alignment. For visual use you don't need it to be perfect, so don't mash your swede getting it perfect. Is it a GoTo mount, does it have motors/handset?
  8. Just ordered Dave Eagle's book too, looking forward to receiving it!!
  9. Yeah, me too!! Great image, I think I like the original version than the darker one too, but could easily change my mind. It seems the darker one loses some of the fainter nebulosity in the middle?
  10. Thanks Radek, however I think the Hitech Astro controller doesn't have a reliable offset - it doesn't have the position offset stored between sessions.
  11. No I haven't, but that's a good shout, I'll do that, thanks.
  12. Hello everyone, I recently bought a Raspberry Pi and StellarMate. Mostly working fine with my Atik camera, ZWO filter wheel, etc. However, I was hoping to get the autofocus working, but having some issues. I'm using a Hitech Astro DC focus with a Skywatcher Auto Focus motor. This seems to be working in terms of manual focus, but when I try to autofocus it seems to get it knickers in a twist. I have tried various INDI settings (suggestion here: https://indilib.org/forum/focusers-filter-wheels/2793-hitech-astro-dc-focuser-problem/26330.html) but what happens, even if I get it fairly close manually first is that initially it steps in and out by the increment I set (50) and you can see it getting better, and better, but then for some unfathomable reason, when nearly focused, decides to step in or out by a massive amount, so much that the focus star is no longer visible. I just wondered if anyone has this same combination working, or if anyone has any suggestions for solving this? My main reason for autofocus is that I currently have a mismatched set of filters so would like to automate focusing when they are switched. Many thanks, Craig
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