inedible_hulk

Hello and welcome 😊

On the off chance someone with the same question stumbles upon this thread, the end of the diagonal / eyepiece clamp is T2 and the Baader Ultrashort 1¼" / T-2 Eyepiece Clamp makes a nice secure upgrade.

There’s a lot of good posts on here, the other place, and YouTube on modding and upgrading the humble ST80. However, I am finding it difficult to find anyone who has just upgraded the clamp at the end of the focuser draw-tube (it just unscrews). The stock one is rubbish and once I have a diagonal and my Baader zoom attached, things can seem quite precarious. Does anyone know of a suitable replacement, or even just the spec of the thread on the draw-tube please?

Bought a Starfield 102 in late May. It’s barely been out of the box ☹️. Even when it’s been sunny, there’s been a high altitude murk masking everything. On the bright side (no pun intended) though, I’ve had some really enjoyable solar sessions 😊.

And finally. Now if I could just get a chance to use my recent purchases 🙏

Also looking forward to this 😊

A few colour filters (visual) to experiment with.

The owls at the end of the garden, the church clock’s chimes, the dog’s snoring, passing cars, are all louder than my EQ5 slewing. The only way I can see it keeping my neighbours awake is if I’ve inadvertently set up in their bedroom… Go with what you like. If you don’t mind having a little more to carry and set up, or suffer from light polluted skies, go goto. If you like to keep it simple, or enjoy the thrill of the chase, go manual.

❤️ love this 😊

Been wanting one of these for a number of years…

I use both the mobile and desktop versions of SkySafari Pro, though I’m still on v.4 despite numerous hardware and os upgrades and updates. It is very user configurable and has been worth every penny I spent. As previously mentioned, look out for the not infrequent offers.

The nice DPD man arrived with this today… First major acquisition in a long while and to replace my trusty ED80 Pro. I hope it’s half as good as reputed to be 😊.

Absolutely! Nothing better sometimes 😊

Wow 🤩. That’s fabulous. Kinda SciFi 😊

Nice idea for a topic 😊 This image caught at the eyepiece (after much trial and error) on my iPhone, reminds me of why I bother sitting out in the cold. There’s nothing like some quiet time enjoying night sky 😊.

Agreed, Norton is deeply annoying. I take it no one else has experienced the issue with Windows Defender then 🤨. It’s probably time to take the plunge and override the warning.

Hi folks, Long time since I last posted, but I’ve remained a regular reader. I’m setting up a new Windows 11 laptop for planetary imaging and I am having a problem downloading the ZWO Camera drivers executable. It’s being blocked by the Windows Defender Smart Screen in Edge. I’ve found a couple of posts on the subject on Cloudy Nights, which suggest a problem with the site’s security certificate and/or that it’s a false positive. I did some more Googling and there’s a few posts on ZWO’s own website on similar subjects. It appears that can also get blocked and quarantined by Norton. Has anyone else had any problems downloading the drivers or is anyone able to shed some more light on this please? Thanks in advance 😊

I'm not sure I can compete with all this Gucci green and black, but here's my offering [emoji6]. Mainly ES 82s and a lonely Astro Hutech 7mm ortho. I'd like a 6mm and a 9mm to keep it company [emoji4]. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Just a little update. My problem has returned ("Oh no. The problem. The problem Pansy. It's started again!"), so I'll be getting in touch with the suppliers to see if they can help

My 150 in action [emoji4] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cool [emoji41] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cool, I've just done a ten minute test with a 1m patch cable I had lying around and everything seemed ok. The play in the sockets though is shockingly poor, so I think I may have to improvise an improvement with some blue tac. Thanks for the help. In fact, thanks to everyone who responded. SGL really is an invaluable community [emoji4]. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looks like your post arrived whilst I was composing mine [emoji4]. Did you need to do anything to the cable to make it work, or was it just plug in and away you go? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Many thanks for all your help. There's some really useful suggestions here. I'm convinced the power is ok having tried two power supplies with different cables. Kookoo_gr's experience sounds very familiar. Having flexed my Google-fu a bit more, I've found a few topics which suggest you can replace the cable with a standard Cat 5 network cable. Does anyone know if this is true, as it would be a useful test to see if the cable is at fault. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hi folks, I'm hoping to benefit from your collective experience again. I'm having big problems with the handset to my EQ5 Pro. The handset keeps freezing or restarting and sometimes sends interesting commands to the mount causing it to slew wildly. The illumination has a habit of going off at times too. The best I can get out of it is a few minutes normal operation. The first thing I checked was the power supply, but I've checked with a couple of different 12v/5a power supplies and the problems occur with both. The second thing I checked was the firmware. I was on v.3.36 and I'd read that some had had issues with this, so I flashed the handset to v.3.37. Same problem, so I tried the earlier v.3.27 firmware with no success. I'm tempted (perhaps wishful thinking) that it may be the handset controllers cable. There is a little bit of play at the handset end. I'm not sure though. I'd appreciate any suggestions or advice you may have which might help me narrow down the cause of the fault. Thanks and best wishes