m.tweedy

If I remember correctly yes it was some sort of grinder. It was not me who did the grinding. It seemed like a black tar like substance that needed cleaning off.,

Mine is. Cut from the lower section above the hatch area. It was cleaned up before welding the pipe flanges and fins.

I have been waiting for this to come out. Thank you, I enjoyed it on my TV. It seemed to work fine for me.

Dennis is checking how its going there. Our clear nights have now ended. How is it going at your place. Any new stars seen tonight (TV we mean)

here is the discharge curve for Lithium Polymer. Not Great for powering an NEQ6 Pro. THats why i went for the LiPo4 which suited me better.

Thank you for your comments. Sadly the Mesu will be long gone before i get the funds for the sale of my gear. It was one that i wanted but was outside my budget new. I will just have to be patient until i get the funds. 😞

I have my own Observatory in the back Garden and am looking to move my modified NEQ6 (SKF bearings, Rowan belt drive, Geoptik head and Counterweight shaft with their counterweights, Improved home made latitude adjustment-similar to the rail) as despite all of this I am not happy with its overall performance. The new mount would need to handle my 81mm triplet and ccd etc together with (at a future date) a 10 inch RC. My options seem to be Ioptron CEM60 (with or without RA encoder-unsure if needed in an Observatory). New EQ8-R Any other mount-no tripod needed that needs to be a maximum of £3K Looking forward to thoughts on this.

As this post was from January 2015 and Photosbykev has not been on the forum since March unfortunately it is unlikely he will see it.

turn your iphone or ipad red IT WORKS

I think this qualifies as a dual set up (just) as the 60mm has a planetary camera in it

here it is http://ca.skywatcher.com/post/firmware-driver-resources/star-adventurer-advanced-firmware/

I have recently discovered this person who makes these things at a very reasonable price. http://www.astrokraken.fr/skywatcher-or-ioptron-type-polarscope-adapter-for-seagull-right-angle--a129918512 I am in the middle of ordering the combination set he does http://www.astrokraken.fr/set-of-3-adapters-for-skywatcher-star-adventurer-a129517816

It will and does work with an ipad but it is a pain. You need two apple devices the first running the Skywatcher wifi app the second running sky safari with the setting that Skywatcher list in the help section of the app

Very comprehensive reply. Much better than i would have come up with. My basic error at first was not connecting the laptop wifi to the dongle. After that it just worked after i used the telescope chooser ASCOM Driver for SynScan App and SynScan Pro App This ASCOM driver works with SynScan App running on a smartphone, a tablet or a Windows PC, it supports slewing, GOTO and auto-guiding. SynScan App version 1.00 or above is required. After installation, choose "SynScanMobile Telescope" as you telescope in ASCOM Telescope Chooser.

I believe so. However i do not have a Skywatcher AZ mount to test it on. Just been to Observatory and when i switch it on it automatically recognises the mount type. Mine is an NEQ6 Pro. I also tested it at the Club last night and it recognised the EQ5. So it looks hopeful that it should recognise an AZ mount. There is also a brightest star align which i have found tends to be mainly used on AZ mounts (or it was when i owned a Skywatcher AZ mount).

Just to add a little further information. For my static Observatory set up I was pleased to find that this adapter also works on my laptop with ASCOM. I can now use my Planetarium software on my laptop integrated with this meaning only one wire to my USB hub from my laptop now. I hate wires. http://skywatcher.com/download/software/synscan-app/ http://skywatcher.com/download/software/ascom-driver/ it also works like a dream. Tested last night.

I have found that the first star is always off, however the other 2 are nearly always centred (or nearly) in the eyepiece. I cannot comment is improved however as it reads the system information from the phone/pad it is a accurate on the settings as it can be. I guess the enhanced go to is the same as PAE (which incidentally should be cleared before use every time on a mobile set up).

practise first otherwise you will get it running away. NOT THAT I KNOW THAT. from memory you need to tap the screen when you have finished tilting otherwise when you lift it up WOOPS off your scope goes

https://support.simulationcurriculum.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015867607-Scope-Control-View Once your telescope is connected, arrow buttons appear on the sides of the screen (unless you have selected the "Tilt Device to Slew" option in the Settings).

https://support.simulationcurriculum.com/hc/en-us/sections/115004140107-SkySafari-6-User-Manual-for-iOS-and-Android set tilt device to slew to on. It gets a bit of getting used to at first

Aha CdC for me is this https://sourceforge.net/projects/skychart/ it is the skychart software i use instead of Stellarium. ASCOM is the interface between the laptop and controlling your telescope which is very good however not needed unless you are using the laptop and various other bits. I have used sky safari for years on my ipad and iphone and like it a lot however you do not really need it with the new dongle. If you do invest then the plus version is good enough and on half price for the brand new version 6. The selling point as i have mentioned elsewhere is the ability to move the scope just by tilting the phone or tablet without having to keep looking at the device to nudge the scope onto the object.

at the moment it says it will only work with SkySafari (i dont agree with the "being Stuck" as in my opinion it is the best of the bunch out there however i know others may disagree). i use the Bluetooth adaptor from Dew Control wirelessly though Ascom and CDC that works well also.

We were out last night using this firstly on an Android phone. Connected to the wifi network it set up (hands up we forget at first to connect to the dongle and wondered why it was not working OOPS). Polar Aligned through the Polar Scope. (app gives Polaris position so no need for Polar alignment apps) Chose 3 star align (gives a good choice of alignment stars) alignment was very easy (first star slightly out as expected next 2 perfectly centered) alignment successful. fired up Sky Safari 5 plus using the port address in the help menu connected first time. chose first target NO MOVEMENT (scratched head for a few minutes then realised it was at Zenith and Synscan app has limits (75 Degrees i think) to stop potential of scope hitting tripod). Chose another target slightly off centre centred it up and used sync button. now bang on. Got clever on next target and chose a named star near it and synced on that then moved to target (cannot remember what it was now) but 60 second image found it nearly centre. had a drop out when the phone decided to connect to my house wifi. Easily sorted by forget network in phone settings. Re connected and off we went again. we were both very happy with the performance. As i do not have an Android but have an iphone and ipad2 it was my turn next on my Neq6 pro. (We were in my garden with my Observatory mounted Neq6 Pro and Kens Heq5 pro that he brought round for our test). connected dongle with handset cable (not as neat as the Neq5 Pro set up) but still OK. remembered to connect to the dongle wifi this time (lesson learnt from last time). Again chose 3 star align and same scenario as above so very happy. Fired up SkySafari 6 that i am beta testing using the port settings off the dongle wifi on my iphone. played with going to targets using the scope visually which worked very well (I am a SkySafari fanboy having used it since version 3). LOVED the fact that in this version if you hold the ipad flat you can tilt it to move the scope (much easier than trying to find the adjustment arrows on the app and the only reason i could ever see of returning to using the handset). It was no issue to me having both my iphone and ipad in use as i already owned both. CONCLUSION very happy with performance loved not having to set date, time etc and apart from schoolboy user error it performed very well indeed. Android wins on only needing one device but as i have both Apple products it was no issue to me. Does not need SkySafari to function but in my opinion using SkySafari brings it up a level due to it being a very well appointed program. Price made it easy for me to decide to buy it. PS i have used Skywire and more recently the SkyFi connections but as this replaces the handset instead of plugging into it like the others makes it a much neater solution. Hopefully i have not missed anything