nephilim

16 minutes ago, Trikeflyer said:

Good thread. Sorry to hear that you’ve reached this stage. Like many have said, interest seems to wax and wane like the moon but I always come back feeling refreshed and ready for another session.  Hope that feeling never goes away. Weather is a pain here for sure, it gets in the way of significant Astro events that don’t come round that often and you build up your hopes of seeing something, only to be frustrated by the weather.  

What other hobbies do people have? Apart from Astronomy, I’m into fountain pens, scale modelling, cycling - a bit but not much and recreational flying light aeroplanes. My mojo for all these things comes and goes and I think that is normal from what I hear others saying.

Hope the OP either sticks with it or finds a new passion.

Steve 

 

My other hobby is mountain biking. Im lucky to live in the Lake District so I have amazing natural trails right on my doorstep. Its at polar opposites to Astronomy, unless im riding solo (50% of the time) im in a group of friends & its a fantastic fun way to keep fit. Where as with my Astronomy im always solo (i'll sometimes have a friend tag along but their patience doesn't usually last 😂 ) & its not particularly of any benefit towards my fitness, unless you count lugging all the gear around but that tends to only result in a dodgy back 🙄.
 

Unfortunately Mountain biking is just as expensive as Astronomy so with both of them i'm not left with much spare cash 😒 But between the 2 they give me a good balance between physical & mental exercise.

After finally narrowing my search for a suitable remote (away from the mains & imaging sessions shouldnt exceed an optimistic 5hrs) power source I 'had' decided on this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank-pro.html It will be to power my Explore Scientific EXOS-2 PMC-Eight GOTO Mount,  2x dew heaters, HitecAstro four-channel, four-port Dew Controller & a ZWO ASI 120mm 2.0 guide camera & further down the line a dedicated astro camera (this can be powered with the dew controller port). My laptop will need a separate power source. I messged Grant from FLO earlier & he says its suitable for what I want.

Ive now come across this which is vastly cheaper than the above unit (£99 rather than £214) & i'm wondering if it will do the same job as it seems to have the same connectors & actually has more power (17Ah instead of 13.2Ah) I'm useless at working out electrical things, amps drwn/needed etc & asking if anyone knows a reason to buy the much more expensive unit over the cheaper one when they 'seem' to do the same job or am I missing something? https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/skywatcher-powertank-17ah.html

Also FLO told me that the Celestron power cable on the expensive one will fit my ES mount so im assuming it will also fit on the cheaper unit

TIA

Steve

 

I'm the opposite having just started up again.

I've been a visual amateur for over 35yrs but only bought my first scope around 9 years ago after years of using bino's. I then went the way many do & became interested in AP. After a while due to a limited budget, unsuitable kit & terrible weather I couldn't justify spending the money required to buy a new set up for AP &  just gave up completely.

As my financial situation improved over the years, getting back into it was always in the back of my mind (I was still spending a great deal of time researching all things astronomical & found I really enjoyed that & its certainly not weather dependent). I finally decided to bite the bullet & start again, so a few weeks ago I visited FLO's website for probably the 1,000,000th time that month & hit the 'Buy it now' button on an Explore Scientific EXOS-2 PMC-Eight GOTO Mount & that as they say is that 😃 The mounts the biggest purchase i'll make (for now 🙄) & the one I couldn't afford first time around. I'll now be spending the next 3 or 4 months slowly buying kit until im ready to start, hopefully around the same time the nice, crisp, clear winter nights arrive here in the Lake District (that'll be that now cursed😒).

I've accepted that 9 times out of 10.......sorry, out of 100 the skies wont play ball but i'll just make the most of the ones that do. With my new found interest in the research part of the hobby & my new (3yr) hobby of mountain biking, I'll hopefully have a happy balance.....Watch this space (excuse the pun) 🙂

Steve

Thats looking really good mate.

36 minutes ago, ChrisMarsh said:

I’m starting out at Astrophotography with my canon 77d and have taken some photos of the moon and some deep sky with my existing telescope which is a Celestron Astro fi 127 mak and with my lenses that I have 50mm, 60mm and 55-250mm.

im looking at getting a star adventurer once they are available again as I’d like some very portable I’m also looking at getting a small telescope as well.

I’ve narrowed it down to the William optics Z61 or the skywatcher evo 80 both have the fl53 glass which I would like and both are a similar price which would be the better scope?

It all depends on what your wanting to image, the WO has a wider field of view & will also be a lot easier on the mount as its a fair bit lighter than the ED80, its also faster at F5.9. I'm about to buy the WO Z73II but will be mounting it on the equivalent of a HEQ5.

2 hours ago, Lockie said:

Hi Steve, I agree with the above because with the product you've linked you'll be using a battery with inverter to get to mains voltage, then you'll plug your mounts mains adaptor in which will then convert that mains voltage back to 12V DC. 

I'd go for a power tank which is 12v to begin with mate

I'm not saying this is exactly the right thing, but maybe look at something like this?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank-pro/ref/diyastro/

 

Reviews of the above "The tank needed charging upon its arrival and initial charge took more than 10 hours to charge (left it on charge over night). I guess abiut 12 houts in total
I was able to charge both my Neq6 mount and USB hub for 6 hours on an almost frosty night with plenty of power remaining. Recharge was about 4-5 hours
The power cable is for a Celestron mount and has a screw adapter however I found the cable to be a snug fit for the Skywatcher EQ5 and NEQ6 mount. There is another cable available from FLO if preferred.
The tank is light, rugged and can a few several devices simultaneously using mount power feed, cigarette socket and USB sockets.
I recommend this powertank"

 

"t’s very small, and it’s very light. So small and light that mine lives permanently on one tripod leg, with the lead cable-tied up to the top.

My old lead acid battery was rated at 17amp/hour, and would last about 2 hours with my gear. This one is rated at 13amp/hour, but it will power the same kit for 4 hours and still be at half power, according to the built-in battery level indicator.

Yes, it’s eye-wateringly expensive, compared to a car battery, but the massive run-time and the lack of weight, certainly mean you’re getting what you pay for."

It's 13 Amp hours so you would need to check how much power your equipment draws. E.g. if it draws 5 Amps then it will last just shy of 3 hours but you maybe don't want to run the power supply completely flat as I think it effects how well it recharges and it's shelve life. 

 

EDIT: had another look the item you linked and it does seem to have one or two 12v ports as well as the mains sockets, but maybe check if it will be ok out in the damp for hours? It could be fine. 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Chris, I'll do a bit more research on that.

Im a bit late with this one as I bought it a couple of weeks ago. My first astro purchase in 6yrs after deciding to pack it all in & now deciding not too 😃 Explore Scientific EXOS-2 PMC-Eight GOTO Mount.

12 minutes ago, Shimrod said:

How long do you want to run the equipment for - is this just to cover a night away from mains power or multiple nights? The device you've linked to looks interesting. I use a Celestron Powertank Pro at a similar price but half the quoted capacity and have had no concerns on power (although I have not used it for more than 3 hours in a session). I provide power to my laptop with a cheap (£30) powertank which is about the equivalent to the laptop battery. It's worth noting that if you want the solar charger it is another £120 on top, although it looks included on the product photos.

Thanks for the reply mate. It's just for 1 night away from electric point (around 8 hours maximum really) I'm not bothered about the solar charger though.

I'm pretty naff at working out voltages when it comes to individual bits of kit & how that transfers to the power stations capacity & power duration, its probably easily enough but I'd rather it be over specced rather than under 🙂

Thanks

Steve

Hi,
I'm looking at buying a power station to run my AP set up when away from home but there are so many its hard to know which will be suitable (plus I have zero experience of them)
I've narrowed it down to this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DVGYDL5/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3QWR2YMF6QQ93&psc=1

Its pricey ( I'd prefer to buy good quality that will last rather than buying cheaply) but its lithium which is what i'm after with a fair few sockets but im not sure how to work out if it'll run all my gear (the station is 288Wh) My set up will be as follows:

Laptop

ES EXOS-2 Mount (similar to HEQ 5)

2x Dew heaters

1x Single channel, dual port dew control

A dedicated astro camera further down the line

I'm sure there will be something i've forgotten though.

Tia

Steve

4 hours ago, gaz81 said:

Another thing to consider with being in the dark using a laptop.... a backlit keyboard. 
 

My HP Elitebook 820 didn’t have one, but being a business class machine I bought one for £20 and fitted it myself (couple weeks ago in fact). 

Doesn't that affect your night vision (unless its red) ? Mine goes at even a hint of non red light if its close by. My desktop is backlit & is like Blackpool illuminations if I have the lights off 😂. 

19 hours ago, smashing said:

I bought a refurbished lenovo laptop from eBay for £180ish which is small, has an i5 processor and 256gb SSD which obviously runs everything I need and much more.

Processing images is done on a beefier laptop but that's another discussion entirely.

Im going for a refurbished laptop now (thanks to a fellow SGL member for mentioning to me) which will save a fair bit of cash.
My image processing will be done at home on my desktop PC which will easily eat anything I throw at it 😃

1 hour ago, Nigella Bryant said:

I bought a 1tb, 8gb mini pc new for £220. 4usb3, 2coms and lan, also hdmi, etc, etc for my obsy. Really fast and so small.

I'll have to go the laptop route as my setup needs to be portable as I've  access to some good dark skies where I live in the Lake District so a mini pc wouldnt work for me. That is a good price though 🙂

4 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

Here the spec on my mount PC:

A Dell Inspiron 7720, probably released around 2012. Bought it for about £180,- Runs NINA and anything else I need at the mount, no issues.

Thats good to know, cheers mate. With the money I'll save from buying a refurbished one I can now put towards a higher end camera 😃

3 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

Definitely agree with the suggestions to look for a used one. 

£450 sound way more money than necessary on a mount PC.  For NINA, as long as the PC runs Win10 64 bit and has 4+ GB ram you are good.

Avoid the Celeron processor, go for an I3, I5 or better, all will work.

Cheers mate. Yes im going for refurbished, i3/i5 with USB3 & now looking at a budget of £300 ish. 🙂

10 minutes ago, JamesF said:

I'll happily second the idea of refurb kit.  I use it in my observatory without any problems.  I also have a refurb HP Elitebook that I bought over six years ago that is still going strong and was still in daily use by my wife for work until the end of lockdown (I was pleased enough with it that I bought another for me for use outside my office a couple of years ago).

One thing you may need to be careful about with laptops is that they have a UK keyboard layout.  I've seen one or two that have the US layout.  Personally I don't get too fussed about that as I spent a good few years in the 90's switching between US and UK keyboards every day, to the point where my brain just handled the change without me thinking about it, but it might be a pain otherwise.

James

Thanks James,
Thats a good point I would never have thought of. I'm pretty efficient on the keyboard so a US one really would be like starting from scratch with the typing 😬

10 minutes ago, groberts said:

FWIW I got a refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad 500G SSD (really good & fast) + 16GB RAM x 2USB2 & x2 USB3 ports + Windows 10 Pro for just over £400 recently from MicroDream, which has turned out very well for astrophotpgraphy control, capture etc. 

www.microdream.co.uk   

Thanks very much for the link mate, i'll have a look now 🙂

1 minute ago, gaz81 said:

No link really, usually get my laptops off EBay.  I just make sure the seller is good. 
 

my laptop was a HP 820 G3 with a 1080p screen. I5 had 8gb ram at the time, think it was £200. That was a while ago now. 
 

You can usually spot the ex business laptops as they look a bit dull 🙂

Cheers mate, i've just been looking online & there are a fair few suppliers & the savings are massive. I'll spend the next few days doing a bit of research now.

I never thought about going for a refurbished one, you've just saved me quite a bit of cash, very much appreciated 😃

ATB

Steve

4 minutes ago, gaz81 said:

Check out used ex corporate laptops if you want a laptop. 
 

They normal come with licensed Win 10 pro and spare parts a plenty as they are ment to be repaired etc. Ones like HP 820/840 etc can be got for couple of hundred easily enough.

I’ve just ordered an ex business Dell WYSE thin client quad core AMD for £40 off eBay (with full Win 10 pro) that I’m going to run my little set up off (bolted to the rig like a big Pi). Then remote into it with my laptop... iPad... even your phone if you want. Tried that last night with my iPad and laptop and was very cool (and warm)

 

Windows Pro is key if you want to do Remote Desktop. 

Thats great mate, thanks for the info. Do you have a link to the website you used? I've no problem at all using a refurbished laptop if I can use a reputable company 🙂

43 minutes ago, wimvb said:

A bit off topic.

This is where raspberry pi based solutions have an advantage. They're so cheap that I actually have two identical computers. If one decides to kick the bucket, I can just swap it and be good to go in no time. And installing from scratch took me just a rainy afternoon last month, without the need for a keyboard/screen. The down side for most people is being unfamiliar with linux. It does have more of a learning curve than windows. As with anything else in this hobby, the proverbial cat gets skinned in more ways than one.

I can certainly see the advantage of using Raspberry Pi, but ive absolutely no experience when it comes to its applications or how to use it, I also have no experience of Linux.
This will be my first serious attempt at AP & I think i'll have enough to learn to start with without adding further software/ hardware to the mix. It's something I'll be looking into once i've been up & running for a while.

Nice report.
I first found both Neptune & Uranus on the same evening a few years ago through my 8" Newt & although only pinpoints of light, there was noticeable colour & still very enjoyable to see for the first time when you realise exactly what it is your looking at having only ever seen photos for many years.

7 minutes ago, DaveS said:

And I've spent most of the time since my last post finding, downloading, and installing the software that was killed in the crash. Not finished yet, but will finish it tomorrow when it's light.

Hope its sorted quickly mate, i'd forgotten just how much 'fun' 🙄 this hobby can be but it always draws me back in 😬

Thanks for all the advice.
After a bit more research from all your answers, I think i'll up the budget to around £400/ £450 & get a low/mid range laptop. I cant operate remotely as half of my visual sessions (it'll be the same for my imaging sessions) are done away from home. I live in the Lake District (very close to the north Yorks border) & have access to very dark skies which are in the middle of nowhere, where as at home its around Bortle 5/6 (not a problem for narrowband). I'll stay clear of Celeron & probably opt for i3 (I have a very highly specced home desktop PC for image processing) Most modern laptops have 2x USB3 which i'll definitely be wanting plus, a decent storage capability will be a must.
I've spotted a couple in my 'new' price range that even have an m.2 SSD which would be nice as I have one in the home PC & they are lightening fast.
Thanks again
Steve

1 hour ago, Seelive said:

If, in the longer term you want to start using something like Sharpcap to control the camera, then they recommend you use at least an I5 processor, ie something more powerful than a Celeron.

Thanks for the info, I'll be using NINA so I'll have to check whats recommended for that.

Hi,
Does anyone have any recommendations for a reasonably priced, good quality power station. Its for an AP  setup so USB 3, DC (Barrel) output etc.
I dont really want to spend over £200 so lithium battery is probably out but it would be nice if there is one in my price range that any member has used.

TIA

Steve

15 minutes ago, Viktiste said:

Not important at all, I would say. 

Controlling the camera/mount etc. is not processor intensive. But USB3 is nice to have, and the more USB ports the better. I bought an old used one, works like a charm. 

Thanks Viktiste, that's what I was thinking but I just needed someone to confirm my thoughts.

Laptops in the £300-£350 range are all very similar spec wise with 2x USB 3 & 1x USB Type-C., Plus I can just get a port hub if I need extra.

Steve