DaveS

With stargazing having become more popular during Lockdown (Witness FLO's sale storm) perhaps more people will become aware of the problem. If enough of them raise a stink perhaps something will be done.

Two things at the moment. QHY have a rather nifty circular dovetail affair that allows the camera to be rotated relative to the filter wheel, and the choice of multiple readout modes. TBH I would most likely stick with Mode 1, but it's nice to have the option. The rotation thing is ostensibly to allow the camera to be rotated WRT an OAG, which I don't use, but ASA mounts being so finicky about balance, it would allow me to balance with the filter wheel in a defined position and then rotate the camera for framing. OK, I would need new flats but it may be better to take new flats, or two sets at 0 and 90 deg, rather than have to rebalance when changing orientation.

The weight and the moment arm. Remember that it's not just the mass that the mount has to control, it's the moment arm of a long heavy 'scope with big lumps of glass at either end. Yes, I'm not all that strong, and age has not been kind to my grip, so even with a top dovetail to get a grip on there's always the worry of losing it. Can't comment on the ZWO kit as I don't have any of it, sorry.

Oh, and I'd probably go for the QHY unless Atik or SX come up with something at a not-far-off price.

I got 31.6mm, hence going for 36mm filters. Could probably get away with 31 in a slimmer wheel but I like to have a bit to spare.

I have a TS 130 f/7, and while it's a brilliant 'scope for the money I wouldn't want to be humping it in and out of a car each time I wanted to use it. As far as autofocus is concerned I run a Sesto Senso which I find does the job.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fusiontokamak-not-included Saw this on my Google feed. For the record, it's NOT cold fusion, and it's not for propulsion but for internal power.

Yes, so do I. Hope it's not just a rehash of old episodes.

On BBC 4 at 10 o/c This is an hour long Mars special looking back over past missions and looking forward to the ones coming up. There is also a two page article by Maggie A-P in this week's RT Following is an old Horizon "The Traveler's Guide to Mars"

Moderately entertaining, but looking at a shot in passing he could have saved himself a lot of grief by not trying to do drizzle integration at this stage, and M101 probably wasn't the best target for his FL. I guess he's got to promote HP laptops but really, saying that the HP laptop was the best thing that improved his imaging was just plain wrong, and could well lead some poor soul astray. The cooled mono camera made the biggest improvement, though why he felt the need to take hundreds of subs is beyond me.

I put the figures in the filter size calculator in astronomy tools, and the SX wheel with 36mm filters is well above the vignetting limit.

Considerable improvements. Much larger sensor size, APS-C rather than 4/3 but still within the bounds of 36mm filters. But most of all, zero amp-glow and 16 bit ADC. Also it's BSI with a higher QE, reaching above 80%.

I think it's 6 at the mo, though two of them use (Wisper it) mirrors. But I'm hearing, at the back of my mind "Tak, Tak, Tak" Must resist...

After looking at the two images side by side I think I prefer the new version as the colours look more subtle, less "in-yer-face", I think the resolution is better too.

Parcelforce delivered the ali angle this morning, and Citysprint delivered the extra cladding from Wickes, so hopefully I can crack on. Got the first two lengths of angle on, not sure it's doing much but can't be asked to order more stuff, it'll have to do. The Citysprint driver doesn't need a sat nav to find his way here. he's been so many times!

Thanks for the replies, I waited rather than replying to each post. I wasn't sure at first so wanted some independent assessments, but I'm coming to agree that [NII} doesn't bring anything to this,and in fact may just be recording the HII bleedthrough from the overlap of the passbands. At least it means I won't be wasting my time or drive space haring after illusory data.

Two completely different images of Fleming's Triangle, but which is better? And does the [NII] bring anything to the table? This one was made in 2017 with the 130 apo, 0.75x reducer and Trius 694 with 6 hours in NHO from Bortle 8 Ruislip This was made last month, 130 apo, TS flattener, ASI 1500 12 hours in SHO from Bortle 4 / 3 Dorset. 3 nm Astrodons and 10 min subs in each case This wa processed in AstroArt 5 This was AstroArt 7 No other processing.

Took the opportunity to add a second PSU to the computer box following the advice from Rupert Smith at Astrograph. Just got it done before the cloud came over and it started to rain. I will be rebuilding this box as it's a bit wobbly and too small really. I will give more room for air to circulate around the various PSUs and also make it strong enough to carry a monitor and keyboard should I need to do anything locally. There is 76mm between the two uprights so that will give a longer spacing, and I found some OSB in the garage which I can use for the back that will carry the gubbins.

But Astrograph do QHY, and their site shows a distinct lack of the Moravian cameras they used to stock.

That's a very nice capture, one that's on my "to do" list. I think the ring galaxy to the lower left, PGC69279 is now thought to be an outlier of the other 4, bringing it back up to 5.

More Delays , this time down to my own stupidity (Plus trying to order from Wickes ) I think "two steps forward, one back" would count as success at the mo, it's more like "two steps forward, three steps back, shuffle sideways, dosey-doe and start again" , yep, it's leading me a right old barn-dance. OK I knew I'd have to arrange some kind of cantilever to be able to put the outer skirt of the roof on the bearers, but my first idea of using offcuts from the 96mm studding sideways on the roof rails to support the roof came up short. OK try putting the bearers on the outside of the rails. That would give me enough width so I could drop the skirting over the walls. Fine measure up carefully, cut the angles to allow for the roof slope, all OK so far. What I hadn't allowed for was droop in the overhang of the roof bearers. It would be difficult to get a good photo, and it's not a lot but it's there and stuffing up the clearances. TBH it had been nagging at the back of my mind, but I'd hoped I'd "get away with it", well I haven't. OH, and don't even count knocking the roof bearer wheels off the rails and have to heave-ho them back on, plus my rubbish coordination making everything take ten times longer than for a normal person. Well, although I could have cheated the lengths of the already cut members, but I've decided to tackle the source of the problem and ordered some angle ali to provide reinforcement to the wooden beams, coming from RS on Tue.

At the amateur level I think development of CCD is effectively dead. Pro CCD might still be being developed but I have my doubts. The APS-C format 2600 looks very attractive, at under half the price of the 6200 cameras, plus being able to get away with 36mm unmounted filters, 7 of which will fit in a std SX wheel, and the file sizes will be more manageable. The image circle will be kinder to the telescope optics too. I wonder if the QHY version will have the multiple readout modes that the QHY 600 has, and that the ASI 6200 doesn't (AFAIK).

Alas not. I think it's just plastic tube with a CF wrap. Ah well, so long as it does the job, and it was under £60 anyway.

In that case, and with a sub £1k price point I would be looking at the ZWO ASI533 for a OSC camera. If you want larger then the ASI294 but be prepared for amp-glow. Beyond these cameras prices get rapidly above the £1k mark.

Some Astro Essentials bits to pimp out my mobile rig with guiding, plus a guide to Affinity Photo.