upahill

As expected there is a 8-6mm reducer bushing running between the two bearings, this is crimped in place by the looks of it, which means my two options are drill off the flange on one side to drop them out, or angle grind them off. No easy feat whilst they are spinning inside so need to give that some thought before attempting it. A pathway has been added to the list of jobs, both SO and daughter have now slipped stepping down to the garden from the house and since im hoping that route will be high traffic during the many clear winter nights 😂 A safer path or step down at least is necessary, as is a small extension to the deck by the door. With a deck extension I will have a bit better footing for getting in and out of the dome, but will need to move the todmorden a few feet as I still want to use that for visual (possible with the meade wedge permafixed) Last few days I have spent tidying up gardens, cutting back hedges etc so not managed to do much on the dome itself - but have been reading a little more about levesdome, redesigning some of my custom flip-flat cover so making small chunks of progress. Few hours part-clear tonight so will hopefully get a bit more imaging in too.

UPS will let you signup and ship without volume. I used to go through Parcel2Go but they have a habbit of emailing me demanding more money as the courier measured the boxes and weighed them and they were over what I said (one parcel was allegedly 54kg instead of 21 - an impossibility) so I dont trust them. UPS billing can be a little weird at times and the website is not the easiest to use but I have nothing but praise for their service and 100% happy customer rate so far.

Welcome to SGL!

Looks like the baud rate is being overriden to 57600? In an earlier post you mentioned 9600. I have had the avrdude: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding error a few times with clones, usually means either a) the lead im using is playing up or b) the bootloader needs burning. I have had some success as well with switching IDE versions or uploading from a different PC. My laptop has real issues with uploading to nanos, until they have had something uploaded from my main PC - they behave after that. 🤔

I used dithering to get rid of that noise on my Canon. Not sure how it would be done without guiding other than just a manual teeny nudge every few subs. How are you capturing, perhaps the software has the option? From what I read with a quick google BYEOS and APT support dithering without guiding. Not sure about others though.

n2yo are now doing predictions for this group, looks like it should be visible 6:20am on the 23rd & 24th, albeit quite low. https://www.n2yo.com/passes/?s=70003

It's easy to hate on Musk, just about anyone who has ever done anything gets their share of naysayers and fanboys. But it's not just him - there are many companies attempting the same thing, Musk is just first, and so far the most likely to succeed. If you watch some of the interviews with him I find he comes across as quite genuine (albeit socially quite awkward), Every project he has got involved in lately has been about progressing technologies, sometimes self funded, sometimes just as the spearhead. Electric cars, solar panels, battery technology, multiplanetary travel, air travel, polution reduction, worldwide internet. He makes money and then spends it on the next idea. Im not exactly getting a Dr. Evil vibe. No ones perfect but slimming down his entire achievements to being fueled purely by his ego is a little unfair in my opinion. It won't - advertising spend is based on R.O.I so if an ad doesn't perform less gets spent on it. The only way to stop the ads, is to not buy the stuff. I think I read that they will be laser linked. Deployment is impressive and brings the costs down significantly (even more so when you consider reusable rockets) The image of the train going overhead shocked a few people, but you would be hard pushed to spot any of those now. The example shown later in the video of his satellite trails through the Rosette is a severe example of what im expecting - and can be dealt with using software.

Yep single rocket, 4th time reused. They didn't catch the fairings though due to bad seas which was a shame as that would have been even more impressive.

I believe you are right that there are requirements for space craft to have active deorbit mechanisms, but I think the first batch of Starlink satellites were at an orbit height that meant they would naturally deorbit at end of life, so it isn't required. That would leave problem debris being satellites that are old and didnt have deorbit tech, satellites damaged in collisions at an height where a passive deorbit was unlikely, satellites put up by people not playing by the rules and rogue satellites where the tech to bring them down again malfunctions. There are some initiatives/designs/ideas for tackling those including grappling cleanup craft, nets and my personal favorite laser beams. We dont even need to "catch" debris, just identify it and have some way to influence it into a self degrading orbit. I have visions of moon bases with giant debris guns, but im sure someone more knowledgeable with come up with a slightly more discreet solution 🤣

This could be a real issue, but im not sure how long it would take the Kessler knock on effect to 'happen' - a month? a year? 100 years? - space junk problem will need to get worse before it get better, when SpaceX start losing million dollar satellites, or wiping out other million dollar satellites and facing the legal hassle that ensues I can imagine they will be the most effectively positioned company to do something about it. If they are generating income from it then it will make sense for them to protect that income. I just cant believe that they are operating in total ignorance to the problem when they have some pretty smart people there and the entire business is fundamentally dependant on launching of ships, rockets, satellites etc safely. If we never cleared up debris from car crashes then the roads would be very hazardous now, but wouldn't have put a stop to us moving from horses to cars. It just required coming up with a solution to clean up after each crash.

4G is a potential solution for me, except for data caps. I would easily burn through most of them. FTTP is £20,000 in roadworks alone. 4G is available in a lot of semi-rural locations primarily due to overflow or road network coverage - but haven't heard of any comms companies going out of their way to install it in low density areas where its not available. There were plenty of petitions against 4G too. If 4G became outlawed tomorrow and you were stuck with dialup speeds (or no internet) browsing would be a very different experience. Truth is, even if they never offer the service in the UK, and I dont directly benefit, I still think its a good solution.

Im sure sigma clipping or something similar will take care of it for astro-photographers. And hopefully the brightness of these objects will have little effect on visual. Either way it will be a mere annoyance and not the end of the hobby. On this ocassion though I think the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages (an unpopular opinion here I know) I saw a very scary looking 3d animation of what 50,000 satellites looks like spinning around the globe, but the reality is if you scale the satellites down to their actual size - its just a photo of earth. Money talks and like the hundreds of thousands of UK residents who have waited 10+ years for faster internet in rural areas I will be signing up the day the service launches. BT Openreach had their chance and failed miserably, its just not a practical solution and stuff like Starlink is. Thats before you get into the 100% coverage, worldwide access, globe changing benefits - the sort of thing that could potentially change the entire economic & educational capabilities of a country. If the price of bringing fast internet to 3rd world countries to provide education in the best possible way to billions is having to lose a few subs during an imaging run then sign me up, the thousands of other advantages it will bring is just a bonus at that stage. There will be petitions going on for the next few decades, after every launch, after every newspaper article. But its a bit like asking Ford to stop making cars because of rising polution - not going to happen, completely impracticle and most wouldn't sign that petition if it meant giving up your own car too.

Yeah, there not going to win any awards for quality but should do the job. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50mm-Swivel-Castor-Wheels-Heavy-Duty-Trolley-Furniture-Caster-Wheel-Rubber-200kg/183931700366 Its a chinese company selling them, but warehoused in UK - took 2 days to arrive.

Some bits arrived in the post today. I have been searching for suitable replacement wheels for some time, with 16 needed in total I wanted a reasonably inexpensive option but with sizes that matched. That meant a 50mm wheel, with an 8mm bore on a mechanical not plain bearing. Checked about every castor and wheel site I could find, but the closest was £4 each and was a plain bearing so not perfect. This little lot arrived Nice cheap castor wheels with brakes, 50mm diameter 23mm wide (curved not flat like the original) They use 608ZZ bearings, so should have 8mm bores, the bolts in them are M6 which is annoying so need to get new bolts, but I believe there is a reducing sleeve inside which if removed will allow me to use a standard M8 Just need to find some spanners in the morning. At £19.99 delivered for 16 if they work, a bargain.

Great result! I have been using the Light Vortex Astronomy guides for calibration and stacking but want to see how others are doing it so will check out the AstroDude videos. I struggle with videos a bit as its sometimes hard to 'follow along' without pausing every 10 seconds

Only a few hours away from the next starlink group of sats going up. https://www.spacex.com/webcast

I seem to remember there was a way you could convert midi files to GCODE to "print" music using those squeaks and burbles, mechanical movements timed to the music. Just had a quick google but can't find it anymore, only ways to control the onboard buzzer

Fantastic, what an impressive vista. Hats off to you sir, not sure I have the patience to try a mosaic yet

That is shocking, given that those two models represent what I expect is a pretty normal upgrade path I hope at the least they have polarity protection built into those mounts. 😡 There really is no excuse for that.

After a succesful nights imaging I have noticed a few issues which are bugging me, 1. Dew / Humidity is a problem. I have a new dew controller and strap to go on which will help during imaging but the humidity needs to be controlled in the dome the rest of the time. The dehumidifier that came with the dome is refusing to run for more than a few minutes so needs replacing, another £150 out of the ASI1600 fund 2. The scope is pretty close to the roof. A combination of having the pier base a little higher than the deck (5") and the pier being pretty tall to begin with. The only practical solution I can think of to solve this is to raise the entire dome by a foot or so. I could do this with a wooden ring between the deck and the dome, but still annoying and should have planned a bit better. It's fine now, but if I ever want to put a big newt on then it will be an issue. Another consideration will be the fact I can only just reach the shutter to pull it closed. 3. Slipped and almost broke my neck stepping out onto wet grass. Going to have to lay some blocks or build some steps up. 4. The red filter looks great on the light, but not very helpful during packup etc as theres just not enough light to work by. 5. Its freakin cold. Uninsulated it seems a bit pointless running a heater in there 24/7 so want to give some thought to how best to add insultation to the dome itself and the side panels. 6. The wheels on the dome are going to need replacing. 7. Imaging near the zenith is next to impossible at the moment, trying to line up everything so that both the main scope and guide scope can see out isnt happening. Food for thought, going to start by desiging some plates to shut off under the dome from the outside and reduce the windage inside.

Strike that, looks like 13th or 14th

Looks like delayed until 12th? They have a bit of tidying up to do probably

Welcome to SGL!

Thanks @tooth_dr - arrived this morning Should help tidy my wiring up and keep the dew at bay.

I used the Light Vortex Astronomy tutorial for stacking and calibration - and I genuinely feel the results are significantly better than when I use DSS. Albeit a lot more time consuming. https://www.lightvortexastronomy.com/tutorial-pre-processing-calibrating-and-stacking-images-in-pixinsight.html I created a quick crib sheet to help me try and remember the process for in the future without having to scroll through the incredibly comprehensive tutorial and load the hundreds of helpful screenshots. Attaching here in case I lose it and want it again in the future. Processing Cheat Sheet.pdf