upahill

Epic equipment fail here, primarily due to poor planning and a big tree so settled for enjoying it with my eyes instead - actually quite nice Now onto trying to get a glimpse of saturn with t'other scope.

Cheers, i suspect that metric replacements were used and too small, will measure the depth and get some ordered, with grips hopefully.

Brain fart, its an LX10 not an LX90 - I keep getting that one mixed up 🤔 The previous owner had 3 short bolts going through those holes, the bolts were only around 1 1/2" long and it didnt feel like they were engaging properly and would become loose if overtightened, I have attached a picture from the original listing, perhaps that plate is already attached but is attached to the mount and not the wedge? It does look like there is a middle piece in place.

UPS man just dropped off a box of rocking horse .... Thanks to @michael8554 for spotting it and thinking of me! All that remains is to hopefully install, configure and fix the bolts that almost let the scope slide off the wedge last night Should be fun!

My heart rate has finally returned to normal and after a close call have decided to replace the bolts that came with the mount. The ones supplied by the seller were non OEM and too short, I also feel the thread engagement is very poor. Has anyone upgraded these to bolt/knob combo and if so what sizes did you go for? Juggling was never my strong point and I really dont want to play catch in the dark again with a 10" SCT I believe it is these three holes that I am using to mount the fork to the wedge. Pic shamelessly ripped from the web so cant confirm until I head out to the obsy again.

I’m going to give PHD ago I think. I did prefer it. I think PA could be way out, or balancing at least - should really switch to a smaller guidescope

Im guiding, but getting used to the new guiding process in EKOS - I was using PHD before and it was simple, this seems a little trickier. Ill have to examine the individual subs a little more closely I think as you said.

A bit out of practice, but the having switched to INDI/Kstars etc I managed to get a few subs last night for the first time, I have stacked them using basic DSS settings and im getting what looks like field rotation/radial banding in the final image. Haven't come across this before and the rotation does appear to be centres on the image itself. Any ideas what causes this, each individual sub looks ok but there were no calibration subs on this, my only thought so far is that maybe the camera was slipping in the focuser during the night but doesnt seem likely. Hopefully the attached screenshot is large enough to see the effect.

Love watching some of Thomas's build videos and livestreams - you kind of get lost in them a little and then poof! 5 hours gone. That rocket is going to be seriously cool at 2m high. I just had to look up its size in comparison to others and suprised its as tall as BFR. How will you be finishing surfaces or just going with as is?

Going to add another washing line at 90 degrees to get even diffraction spikes Haven't given much thought to the wiring, those 6 black splodges of silicone are bolts that hold a board with a consumer unit and sockets, very tempted to just put a caravan power socket on the outside and run an extension when in use. I use similar leads as can be seen for the current mount as I cant really tunnel out with proper wiring underground. The big connectors mean I can unplug for mowing etc too. I wanted to run cat5 buts its messy so just going to improve the wireless in the garden I think.

Well it fits, and have bought some hardware to bolt the sections back together. Going to need one heck of a good scrubbing.

Didn't think it would ever stop raining and then the hottest weekend in ages happens. Managed to put aside the myriad of other projects for the two days and get started on the deck. The gradient was a little worst than I had imagined in my head. Almost 20" on one corner to level up the rear. Since its higher than I planned I splurged on some larger wood so I wouldn't need to prop up underneath as much. This is all temporary and as such there is no major construction going on - just whatever works and is cheap. In this case, 4 bags of postcrete ;) Somewhat askew... That's better... Everyone else was at work this weekend so was left to levelling on myself with what were suprisingly heavy lengths of timber. If anyone asks the slight slant is for rain to run off ;) So you might be thinking it would have made sense to put the pier in first whilst there wasn't a honking deck in the way..... you would be right. I have a plan though. There is only about 2-5" of soil above giant boulders anyway to I can actually dig out via the hatch, shutter up and bury some bolts into the boulder before concreting. All done and tidied up, we spent ages arguing about colour and ended up with a colour called "£10 a tub" - I think it looks pretty good though. Got a couple of braces to add, some weed mat to feed through (i know), and some cladding to tidy up the exposed edges but its basically ready for the dome to be bolted too. Then onto pier base construction, I have a nice metal pier to go in now but may keep the todmorden up as visual scope pier for when im imaging and either put the 10" newt on it, or the LX10. Once the pier is in and mounted the central square will have a filler piece dropped in to seal off the outside and prevent the trip hazard. Stability is a 8/10 - and it can be removed in minutes which meets my main criteria. I have however given myself 3rd degree sun tan burns though, so typing in agony. :(

My fingers are crossed that this will be another processing challenge. It is of course going to have a negative affect on the hobby but not one that put me off (touch wood).

So its a pre-fab dome but im planning some pretty hefty mods so this may well fit here. Just wanted to document it as I go but it will be a long project so no daily updates! After a horrendous drive we arrived to pick up the dome, and started dismantling. The dome would just fit in the luton van on its back if it went in at angle. But the base was too wide for the doors and too tall to go in at angle. Originally the base ring was manufactured in 3 parts and joined so with an angle grinder in the pouring rain I put some quick cuts in and got loaded. Im going to create 3 panels with a rubber seal to allow these three cuts to be rejoined and bolted - but wont repair the fibreglass. As I will likely need to move the dome at some point in the next few years it makes no sense to repair fully and the parts are a lot more manageable as 3. In the back of the van: At the moment we are in rented accomodation so I have a couple of considerations to make. Maintain ability to transport the dome easily in the future (keep seperate) No large concrete slabs in the garden Removeable base with nothing left behind Shielded somewhat from view of neighbours without obstructing my views. We have a great view to the south which I dont want to obstruct by placing the obsy at the bottom of the garden, which would be its best location for sky access, so instead it will be at the north end of the garden. This presents some terain challenges as the ground is dipped and a few inches down are large rocks (several tonnes). This restricts my view to the east/south east but gives me pretty good south, west and semi-good northern views (once the hedge on the north edge has been cut down slightly. Large ferns to the immediate east of the dome will need to be trimmed significantly. My plan for the base is to dig 5 holes, since at best ill get a foot down before hitting rock and the levels are so different ill use a hardcore sub-base, followed by a breeze block pillar in each corner. The pier will be breeze blocks with threaded bar, then the blocks will be back filled with concrete. It's not going to be super sturdy but better than what I have and can be easily pulled out and put in a skip whilst hopefully maintaining the wooden frame that will sit on top. The sleepers will create a square frame that can be decked - isolated from the pier Motorising the dome may proove a bit trickier. An upper and lower set of rollers run along the rim, but I would like to come up with a solution for motorising it without putting the motor in the roof so thats my next design hurdle. The shutter isn't overly smooth on its current rails but could probably be opened and closed using a simple pulley/motor system, that will have to wait until assembly to design.

Into the barn in the morning for a few weeks probably before I can get started, I got the biggest van I could but there was no way the base was going in whole, so its in three sections now ready to be bolted together and reglassed (or I might find a way to make it unboltable again in the future) Didn't have to cut the dome though so im glad about that. Still in rented right now so the plan is a temporary deck with pillar through it. 👍

Cant imagine what keyboard would need better than USB1 Mines a mechanical with LED etc and functions on USB1 fine 🙄 Not sure if it counts as postman, but after a 14 hour round trip with non stop rain, and some angle grinding I just delivered myself this..... bit of a jigsaw now though! I probably need to curb my impulse control........

Looks like a nice bit of kit! How many PC's do you run? I remember those old KVM switches, having to try and recall the top secret key combination to switch systems - trickier with several different brand KVM's in the rack 😆

This drove me mad for ages - too far out in RA and it wont sync. Looking at your screenshot there is quite a difference between your EQMod co-ords and solved co-ords. At that stage I would usually close EQMod and switch off the mount, restarting it in the home position and re solving close to the pole as the quickest solution, after that alignment points would save.

Im not sure about spending half the budget on the mount, but spending as much as you can afford on it would make sense. Its probably the most critical peice of equipment for imaging. You can get a good image with sub optimal scope on a great mount, but its a lot harder to get a good image with a great scope on a naf mount imo. Over spec now and it will last you a long while through your changing setup. I have an EQ6 Pro, im glad I went to this instead of the EQ5's - much better capacity and a lot more solid than the EQ5 I had for visual. I can't speak for the EQ6-R but im sure someone will. One nice feature with the EQ6-R is that its belt driven so no need to do a seperate mod on the mount :) iOptron do a range of mounts that ive been reading good things about, maybe worth researching those too.

Jaw dropping! Absolutely stunning image.

Im no graphologist, but that is about as close a match as you're going to find 👍 Could the 49 relate to thickness in mm I wonder, seems strange to chop between metric/imperial though.

Having been stuck with a tiny frac imaging rig for a long time I finally have a chance to do some visual observing and the evening moon was my target during a break in the clouds. I set up my new to me LX10 8" and headed straight for the only visible object. The last time I viewed the moon it was late at night, full moon, and so bright that without filters I found it quite uncomfortable - but the partial moon was much more pleasant. It took a while to get used to the focusing on the LX10 and I feel it could benefit from some fine focus control so between that and the atmosphere I was getting a few moments at a time with a very rich and clear view. I was amazed at the level of detail I could discern though, this 8" is superior in my opinion to the 11" DIY dob I have. The shadows around the craters gave the view in the 20mm EP a real sense of depth and moving to the 9mm, whilst almost impossible to get good focus, really made me feel like I was flying over. Spent a bit of time focusing on the Mare Crisium, Picard, Peirce and Swift were very clear and prompted me to look up their names later. Managed to get the Mrs out who was as impressed as myself - the LX10 is a much easier scope to view with than the dob for her - although I could do with getting it a little higher myself. I dont have any cameras that would work with this scope so resorted to taking an iPhone pic through the 9mm (potato quality, does the view no justice) The clouds rolled in and stopped play for the next few days I suspect but cant wait to visit again.

Thanks for that, I may have to have a go at some stage. Part of me wants to learn my way around better without adding any sort of push to - but then I get out there look up and I’m lost lol this project looks like it should give me the basics and help me learn where I’m pointing at least as well as find some of the harder stuff