upahill

Getting back into the swing of things, first "proper" image processed from the obsy. Struggled a bit with reducing the star field to make the neb pop so may go back on that. It's a suprisingly dense area.

Have just spotted my refund for the pitches, not the food though which was a seperate order so ill assume that will happen later.

Now if only I could remember what card I paid with, and if it still exists? 🤣

Edit: @FLO I have emailed regarding this as im pretty sure now the refund is in the ether, the card/account no longer exists 😛

10 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Its a real shame but Herefordshire has experienced the worst flooding in 20 years. To give you an idea here are two photos showing Hereford yesterday. The height of the river at the old bridge was 5.5 metres. I have never known this bridge closed but the Police and Council were worried about its safety and close it to vehicles and pedestrians.

If anyone wants one of these photos to use as evidence when making an insurance claim then let me know.

Thats incredible, the sheer volume of water is difficult to think about.

We didnt open our shop in Hereford today as we didnt think we would get there from Monmouth, everyone in Ross is warning the water levels are still rising (im guessing it takes a few days to seep through everything and drain in the waterways.)

7 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

Oh wow.  Sorry to hear, that it's had to be called off

Still, I remember last year we spent more time river gazing than star gazing.   And the one night that it was clear for any length of time, a woman decided to go into the river after her dog in the dark, which messed everything up.   He husband went in after her whilst the emergency services came.   Luckily, everyone was pulled out, and carted off by the ambulance crews.

I must have left before that, or slept through it - but yes it was quite unsettling being so close to the river and wondering if we would have to make a mad dash for it.

9 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I hope you can but unfortunately I am £450 down as I can't get the motorhome hire back. Gutted but I guess we can't control the weather (well not in the UK anyway)

Steve

Sorry to hear this, it might be worth checking to see if you have an travel insurance policies that would cover you, sometimes you get policies included with things like bank accounts and it might help.

Hopefully due to the flooding/weather the hire company will show some leniency.

Oh no what a shame was getting very excited, even got the caravan dragged out and clean today.

Probably for the best though, floating is a nightmare for P.A.

Thanks for the notice and sorry to everyone who worked hard putting it all together. 😥

37 minutes ago, lulu57 said:

There's a flood warning in place for Fownhope - I'm not having that! At least there's not a storm coming in from the Atlantic like there was last year. I'm counting on not floating down the Wye in my dad's caravan! 😮😄

Saw a picture earlier of a few hundred thousand apples floating down the river again like last year. At least we wont starve.

Drove past ross-under-wye yesterday and its pretty epic. Hopefully the campsite's flood defenses will keep us all in place.

30 minutes ago, JohnSadlerAstro said:

Complete incompetence in setting up a tent! 😂 I'm probably going to arrive around 5ish, so it will be a race against darkness I fear. 😉

Is anyone going to bring a tractor to pull us out of the mud?

John

If the Wye gets any higher you'll need a tugboat rather than a tractor.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-50199254

Highest in 20 years supposedly, although I seem to remember it being worse a couple of years ago. No heavy rain forecast for this week coming though so dont think it will be a repeat of last year.

Based on the forecast I have now commited to not bringing the imaging setup, but will stick with the LX10. I'll be learning how to use it pretty much from scratch so if anyone is free and able to offer any tips on aligning and using the Magellan unit I would appreciate picking your brains.

Dehumidifier is in and working overtime. If I stick with this one ill need to plumb a hose to it to enable it to never fill.

Next little job was to install some filter on the internal light so I dont screw up my D.A every time I need to change a cable. I do have a red LED head torch but its handy for big stuff to be able to get a little more light.

The mount has dried out, been cleaned a little and some of the sticky stuff removed. I could really do with repainting that counter weight though!

With the cabling done again and a little neater this time I will have to go through a new polar alignment this evening before anything else.

The pier isnt very level up top, and to make it worse this EQ6 is obviously slightly different to the one that was on it previously. The raised lip where it mates to the pier adapter is ever so slightly deeper and wider so its rocking. To fix this temporarily I have raised the whole mount on three washers before clamping down. If I ever get a lathe I shall redo the internal recess on the adapter to offer a little more room.

1 hour ago, Thalestris24 said:

It was printed as seen. I don't think there was any overhang but I had the slicer set to print supports. I thought having it set might have caused a problem. I'll try printing it again.

Thanks

Louise

Ah, if it printed in that orientation then it shouldn't have failed at all. Your top layer infill looked like layer lines, and the cylindrical holes looked very neat so I assumed it was printed with the small rectangle overhanging. You mention that this part is a slider, if thats the case you may want to orient it so that the holes are printing vertically, you will have to tackle the overhang of that rectangle but wont get the stepped edges on the cylinders which could affect the motion of the finished product (Im not familiar with what you are printing but as a general rule I try to print cylinders and holes in vertical orientation)

Good luck with the reprint.

Assuming it was printed on the side facing us then yes an overhang like that will need supports. It would need internal supports too. If enabled your slicer should be able to work out what supports will be needed and where.

1 minute ago, Gina said:

What's wrong with having an SBC mounted on the scope?

Nothing really, just preference, I have tried INDI and couldn't get on with it, would prefer to stick to a windows based setup which would mean buying a SFF Windows PC - more expensive than a hub. I have plenty of systems around me which can run everything already so its just the more cost effective solution.

I might reconsider when I am using a larger scope, or have some disposable income but right now I am WAAAAYYYY over my astro budget

Well the wind the other night blew the aperture clean off the dome and soaked all the gear inside, so its been drying out over the past day or so. I think everything has survived so spending the clear day now sorting out the mess, de-spidering and running some trunking under the deck to get power to the pier without the trip hazard.

Since the sky is crystal and the forecast is looking good for this evening the focus is on reassembling all the gear so I can test it all out later.

I will probably run a seperate trunk for data cables, but not sure yet where I want the laptop/PC set up to be. This is one of the things I will experiment with today - I have custom USB cables to make to keep everything as short as possible but want to ideally avoid having a micro-pc mounted on the scope itself. Instead I am thinking I will just mount a small hub on the dovetail and run a single USB cable back to the computer. I will distribute 12v to the devices in much the same way with a seperate 12v hub.

I have been looking for a Powered USB 3.0 Hub PCB which I can integrate into a custom housing but not had any luck yet. Eventually I will need ports for Mount, Guidecam, Imaging camera, Focuser, Filterwheel and an automated flat/flap of some sort - so at least 6 ports,

Will spend a couple of hours tackling those annoying little jobs that need finishing and see where I get to and hopefully post some pictures.

16 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

The base raft was still attached - I didn't bother taking it off as the part was broken. Here is pic of same part reprinted. Seems fine to me.

Louise 

Looks good.

The problem with weak infill is it can be easily missed, once the top layers go on and cover it up it looks great, but the structural support it was also adding just isnt there. I ripped a picture off the net to demonstrate...

This infill would probably be good enough to support the top layer but isnt going to add much strength to the part, so when you knock it it could break. It's worth dialling in the settings for infill to give you the strongest possible parts. As with this part the external perimeters can look fine too, but the infill will often print using different speeds / overlap so needs to be tuned.

Another tip would be that a part like you printed probably wouldnt need a raft if the bed is nice and level. There is plenty of contact with the bed. You will get a cleaner finish on the bottom surface and save some material.

You must be over the moon to get parts like that though, took me months of fiddling with my first printer to get anything close to it. 👍

Infill looks a bit stringy there and might be printing too fast, can't quite tell but what are your layers looking like, any gaps between them?

Do you have the magnetic build sheet on your model? I thought it was quite flexible and parts should just pop off if you bend the build sheet. Ours was an older model without that sheet so havent had chance to try it.

Like Chriske says I rarely print over 35-40% infill for anything. Infact the majority of my infill is 10-20%.

You set the microns in the slicer as the layer height, so 0.2 - 0.25 layer height for the main body. Smaller layers increase the print time but make the finished output cleaner, larger layers are quick but not so pretty.

Regarding your screen, one of the issues I have had in the past with them is the ribbon cables seem particularly prone to picking up interference if run too close to power/bed cables. Could be worth considering checking for that next time you are having issues with it.

I find the fox screaming pretty un-nerving, it can sound exactly like the neighbour being brutally tortured to death and screaming for help. It's only the fact that we know what foxes sound like that has stopped us from calling the police.

... and were not that keen on the neighbours. 😂

We have also been adopted by a cat, it lives in the barn and uses that as its hunting ground - it doesn't venture into the garden because of the dogs but will late at night. Have been sat at the laptop imaging with a red torch on my head only to turn to the side and see a spooky illuminated cat staring at me from close range. They can be pretty ninja like.

3 hours ago, Grant said:

Lucksall have had a move around as well - updated plan here to bring everyone a bit closer together and nearer to where the marquee will be (at the front of Long Meadow).

Oooh we've gone from quarantine right into the thick of it 🤣

Does anyone know how many parking spots are near the entrance, SWMBO is working for a fair chunk of the SP so will be back and forth, if we can park out of the way it might be better.

Had another go at processing the M45 data last night. One thing really bugging me is the halos around the larger stars. I am assuming these are caused by the UHC-S filter in the T-ring adapter but cant work out if the fact they are not concentric throughout the field is indicative of filter alignment, or just normal.

Eitherway I think im going to move on from M45 until I get a bit better at processing, it seems very difficult to bring out the detail without super long exposures.

3 hours ago, Gina said:

Trying to work out the ASC outer casing and sealing to the Nofan whilst obstructing airflow through it as little as possible.

Meanwhile, I have been searching through all the methods of CPU cooling.  I thought I had found another alternative in liquid cooling (not water cooling) in a compact, all in one, ready made liquid cooler - a sealed unit without a separate reservoir (the main problem with my DIY water cooling system). 

viz.  Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 Liquid CPU Cooler

However is seems the pump is in the "waterblock" which would cause vibration (though how much I don't know).  The main picture doesn't show any wires but the shot of the PC with unit installed seems to show a cable from the "waterblock".

Yes the pump is in the waterblock, and controlled from the CPU fan header usually, if its PWM controlable you could rig something up to reduce the pump speed and reduce vibration.

9 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Their semi-matte black  looks nice - Euros 40/2.2kg not sure if there's a shipping charge? I suppose prices of goods from the Continent are likely to increase,...

If you mean colorfabb I did look and it appears to be free to the UK by DHL

5 minutes ago, Thalestris24 said:

Presumably one could wind from a big drum to a smaller one and keep the bulk stored away in a sealed container?

I would consider a large plastic tub with a hole & filter on the side and a bar for it to rest on inside. That way 99% of it is sealed from dust etc.

1 hour ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

Wow where do you get this from? I must admit I have quite a collection of PLA and so not ordered any for sometime but I think the cheapest I found was around £15 on Amazon.

And Cheapskate, don't forget I am a Yorkshireman you don't get more cheapskate than that, we have a reputation to uphold you know 🙂 

Steve

Mostly eBay, just wait until a good deal comes up and buy as much as I can. Takes some sifting to get through the listings and find the ones that are actually cheap.

7 minutes ago, Chriske said:

The links shows 2.2 kg reels.
I use it all the time, and I'm not the only one on this forum if I'm not mistaken.

https://colorfabb.com/filaments/pla-filaments/pla-economy

and also

https://colorfabb.com/filaments/co-polyesters-filaments/petg-economy

Oooh do like the idea of an 8kg reel And £19 p/kg delivered isnt going to break the bank either.

20 minutes ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

... as easy to print as PLA (so long as you have a heated bed) and is about the same cost ...

Im a cheapskate so rarely spend more than £10-£12 a kg for my PLA delivered. Would love to find a supplier of PET around that price, if I could I would probably switch over to it completely too.

Perhaps its time to stop scrimping and dial in the printer for PET instead, there are a few brands on Amazon that are around the £18-£24 p/kg mark so not as massive jump. Last time I looked it was hard to find for < £30

One of my main struggles was with the heated bed, but I have upgraded to a mains voltage bed heater now so hopefully that will be more consistent and give me better results than last time I tried. Also I think my last PET test was before I had the e3d genuine so that could have been giving me grief too.

7 minutes ago, CedricTheBrave said:

I am beginning to think I really need a 3D printer!

They are great fun, and mesmerizing to watch work - have lost hours in a meditative trance watching designs come to life. 🙂

Hmm I wonder if a clear UV varnish sprayed on printed parts would add a noticeable amount of protection without the need for different materials or changing the dimensions - its never going to give 100% but could help keep colour and provide some blocking.