upahill

Ender 3 is the one I recommend to everyone. Bought one for my dad and it just works, very few tweaks required. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Official-Creality-3D-Megnetic-Certified/dp/B07J64F5LY/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=ender&qid=1565702172&s=gateway&sr=8-4 At £199 or "230 with the magnetic heat bed sticker and upgraded power supply its pretty reasonably priced too. They have a newer version the ender 5 but I have no experience of that directly. These were taken after about 25 minutes of assembly and calibration:

Welcome Back!

A cursory google suggests maybe its a Paralux Hunter? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paralux-Hunter-F114-900-Telescope-30-5135-1-Blue/dp/B018KE0KP2 Looks to come with an EQ1 mount as standard if it is that one. Pics would be best though, as this is just speculation.

Thanks for sharing, big Linus fan so suprised I missed this, will have to subscribe to Destin's channel as the vids all seem pretty interesting. Funny watching Linus practically shaking waiting to ask about the liquid cooling 🤣

Finally got round to setting the 3D printer back up in the barn and printed a quick handle that will do the job... Now onto printing saturn V.

I was somewhere in Cornwall, wondering what all the fuss was about, seemed just about everyone in the UK had headed down and every field/layby/car park was rammed. I seem to recall getting to see the eclipse through some paper style glasses though, and feeling how eire(sp?) it felt. I was in my early teens though so most of the memories are missing./ muddled

Welcome from across the bridge, im roughly 45 mins from bristol and Bortle 4, not a dark site but better than a city as sheilded from city/town lights on all sides, Blaenavon & brecons have darkish skies too so they can be found fairly close. Depends how dark you want - im hoping to visit Scotland next year and see a Bortle 2 sky for comparison SGL Star Party is in Hereford and a pretty good sky - might be worth considering a few nights camping and bring your new scope

Strike that - resetting the rings to the 'proper' position on the bar gives me a choice of 100mm or 130mm centres - there is no configuration for 120mm, I would prefer 130 over 100 as theres more to grip, back to WDS or SolidWorks I think. The good thing about printing one is I can match the profile on the top of the rings. Could print something like this, if I got some stronger material than PLA, although whenever I carry it will be held underneath too - its just for convenience really. That way it would mate up with the 40x18 tops of the rings, take an M6 socket cap bolt and could be painted to match. I really didn't need another job lol.

I considered it, could print one, or if i ever fix the cnc i could make one on that. But for the sake of a fiver for the one above with a nice moulded grip I might just do that and save myself a job Right sort of style, maybe a bit too bulky around the edges, hard to explain but the area with the bolt holes is quite small and these would protrude around them. Thanks for looking though. I think the end result is this: £5.30 + vat + post, might need reaming for a larger bolt though, need to measure the ones that were in there before, if I go for the 120mm handle then it takes M6 bolts, the 100mm handle takes M5 which would be too small.

Or print something......

Wow WDS is a gold-mine. Maybe ill go for something like this - http://www.wdsltd.co.uk/product/5073/polyamide-bridge-handle-with-stainless-steel-fittings-wds-8505/ It's not round, but should look the part.

Doesnt say what centres those are, just the overal length I assume - nice though and multi-function. Could maybe piggyback using that. Will check this out, thanks. I think the max hole spacing I could get to is 135mm. I don't have access to a lathe, I promised I wouldnt buy one until we move. A promise I have now regretted for many years. I keep hoping some long lost relative will give me one, but I think thats out of the question - would make a nice addition to the workshop. Darn, I digress I like it, easy to shorten (and lengthen i guess) - may be a bit overkill I might need to take off the rings and see what my options are for bolting from underneath if any - if I could do that its problem solved for £1.95 - https://www.handleking.co.uk/d-shaped-kitchen-door-handles-polished-stainless-steel-100mm-centres-p01114p 🤣

I had a few funny titles for this post in my head - but dont want to test the mods patience 🤣 My TS65 has bolt holes in the top of the rings which will now be available since I have ditched the top mounted guide scope afair. I have around 100mm between centres. Im looking for a handle that will bolt to these from the top and give a nice grip. I love the round ones but have only ever seen large ones from AR152's and the like Basically looking for a smaller version of this handle - anyone know a place?

At least its not on xbox - then it would need a 29gig update every week! 🤣 I've always stayed away from VS/VB stuff - most of my coding was for web so PHP etc - luckily never really needed any big bulky editors/ides - largest platform I used was PHPStorm which was very nice at project management, great IDE once it was setup how I liked to work still prefered sublime/vi though

Further to the 13mm which arrived a couple of days ago I snapped these up on Facebook, unfortunately a little too slow to get the 24mm too

Wow thats impressive, I love this look on astro-images will have to give it a go - the most ive braved is slight star reduction in PI but always lose quality when I do.

After settling up with HM Customs another little parcel arrived today. Took about 14 days to get here in total: Its a cute little 30mm guide scope to sit atop my 65mm quad, the guidescope I was using was 80mm so this is a little more compact - just hope it works ok. Also got the mount which is missing off my scope, but it didnt come with screws and will need a spacer block or two underneath it as the legs are a little too short. Will have to work out the thread on the scope and source some small bolts next. The build quality feels pretty substantial, im sure its not carbon fibre but its quite a heavy material and nice feel to it. Screw on end cap, screw locking nut and should look good with the GPCAM

I used these from Travis Perkins - £4.69 each currently.

Glad you said that - just bought 3 more

Thanks to @wookie1965 the postman dropped off my first 'proper' eyepiece today - very well packaged and speedy delivery - and it must have escaped the cloud gods radar because its been crystal clear outside. Had some wonderful views of Saturn and Jupiter and loving how much more is visible than with the meade super plossl. Going to take a bit of getting used to getting my eye positioned correctly. Once dark adapted though I looked up and the view was magnificent without a telescope so settled for enjoying 20 minutes of that before packing up. Very clear outside right now and the best milkyway visibility I have seen all year. Almost long exposure photo clear.

It was looking a little miserable here around 10 but set up anyway, eventually cleared and had some good moments of seeing on Jup/Sat - after about half hour I stepped outside the obsy and its the clearest I have seen all year. Nice bit of milky way drizzled overhead and very crisp sky. Really did seem like I was missing the wood for the trees and a nicer night for viewing the whole sky rather than a tiny section. Unfortunately im traveling at 6am so had to cut short too and pack up Going to have to catch up on your build thread too!

@ScouseSpaceCadet Those books look great, might have to order the Apollo one. The only thing I got in the post today was the customs invoice for my new guide scope £3.50 import tax and a £12 handling fee. Fingers crossed the actual scope will turn up now.

You're not a coder unless it says "Hello World" I use vim when im on linux, but im usually restricted to terminal access. Im sure there must be more modern solutions out there but I just got used to it. My fav editor for a GUI environment is Sublime

Love stellarium for its FOV calculators when planning etc but its best feature for me was being able to take a panoramic photo and add it to the background, now I can really tell when something will appear from behind that tree, or disapear behind the neighbours. Just wish the ascom integration was better. I also use CdC on my imaging laptop as that does integrate better, but the interface I find a lot less intuitive and friendly.

Wow thats quite pricey for the kit, I paid £100 and I thought I was paying a lot! They do seem very rare, but have come up ocassionally, even just as the fork mount when someone converts to EQ. If this one hadn't come up I was looking at some of the Audiostar supported forks as a potential upgrade path. Im really enjoying the LX10 - need to improve my eyepieces as I really think they are letting down the side now. Will also be putting it on the outside pier I think once the imaging rig is in the obsy.