Grant

Sorted - well spotted! ?

Fixed - I think?

That's awesome ?

Had my four port version in action most of last night - four dew straps plugged in plus 12v power to the mount and 12v to the camera cooler, didn't skip a beat ?

The theme for the 23rd challenge - February 2019 - is the Terminator Challenge! Start Date: 1st February 2019 End Date: 30th April 2019 Rules: The theme this time is 'The Terminator' - we want to see lots of glorious images, videos, sketches and animations of the Moon's terminator. Bonus points for 'Arnie' references! Prize: A personalised mug for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places featuring your image kindly provided by our sponsors FLO and a virtual trophy for your signature. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please start a new topic for each entry. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted. -- To enter please start a new topic with your image in the ‘Imaging Challenge #23' forum (each challenge will have it’s own). Please post as much information as possible - when it was taken, how it was captured and processed, etc. The info won't necessarily be used for judging but will help fellow SGLers looking to learn and improve their knowledge and technique.

Just a little tip if you are having trouble balancing - I found the 'Short' dovetail from here: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dovetails-saddles-clamps/astro-essentials-dovetail-bars.html And a set of these: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/m6-bolts-x2-suitable-for-sky-watcher-st80-tube-rings.html Fits the 72ED rings perfectly and gives a lot more room to get the balancing just right - I was really struggling with the little green dovetail!

I've given up on lead acid batteries - to much hassle and to many that have stopped charging properly over the years, I now use: https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank.html https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank-pro.html Depending on what I am powering. A little more expensive up front but, no maintenance issues, a predictable discharge curve (i.e. flat!) and they are much, much lighter too. Just a thought...

The theme for the 21st challenge - December 2018 - is Comet 46P! Start Date: 1st December 2018 End Date: 28th February 2019 Rules: This is a special challenge to coincide with Comet 46P. We want to see videos, time lapses, diagrams, sketches and anything else you can come up with! Prize: A personalised mug for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places featuring your image kindly provided by our sponsors FLO and a virtual trophy for your signature. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please start a new topic for each entry. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted. -- To enter please start a new topic with your image in the ‘Imaging Challenge #21' forum (each challenge will have it’s own). Please post as much information as possible - when it was taken, how it was captured and processed, etc. The info won't necessarily be used for judging but will help fellow SGLers looking to learn and improve their knowledge and technique.

The theme for the 20th challenge - November 2018 - is Constellations! Start Date: 1st November 2018 End Date: 31st January 2019 Rules: The theme is constellations and asterisms. We want to see images capturing different constellations, perhaps how constellations fit with each other in the night sky, close-ups, widefields, long exposures or short - this one is really open to interpretations. We are really hoping to see some sketches as well as images this time! Prize: A personalised mug for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places featuring your image kindly provided by our sponsors FLO and a virtual trophy for your signature. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please start a new topic for each entry. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted. -- To enter please start a new topic with your image in the ‘Imaging Challenge #20' forum (each challenge will have it’s own). Please post as much information as possible - when it was taken, how it was captured and processed, etc. The info won't necessarily be used for judging but will help fellow SGLers looking to learn and improve their knowledge and technique.

Hmmm it looks like the forum is still caching it - I will need to look into this, it might be a forum bug.

You need to add the https to the bit after [ img ]. Only on phone so will post the full thing tomorrow if you’re still having trouble.

There’s two different things going on here - the image itself refreshes once an hour but, the forum caches ALL external non SSL images for one day so even though the image gets updated hourly SGL only refreshes signatures daily. I think there is now a solution to this - in the image url that Clear Outside provides, change the http:// bit at the beginning to https:// and then the forum software won’t try and cache it so it will update in your signature once an hour.

That’ll teach me to rush to catch up and launch this months challenge! ? I’ll change it to include both planetary nebula and supernova remnants - that should give more objects for people to have a go at...

It’s not static - the image updates hourly - just make sure you’ve linked to it correctly and your browser isn’t caching it. If you downloaded the image then yes it will be static.

I'm sure there will be some others out there that are visible? That's just my quick list of more obvious ones...

The theme for the 19th challenge - October 2018 - is Supernovae Remnants and Planetary Nebulae! Start Date: 1st October 2018 End Date: 31st December 2018 Rules: The theme is supernova remnants and planetary nebulae so we are looking forward to beautiful captures of objects like M1, M27, M57 and the Veil nebula. Prize: A personalised mug for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places featuring your image kindly provided by our sponsors FLO and a virtual trophy for your signature. -- RULES All data must be captured and processed by you (no collaborative entries). Data must be captured during the challenge start & end dates. Multiple entries are allowed but please start a new topic for each entry. Multiple submissions of the same image, processed differently, will not be accepted. -- To enter please start a new topic with your image in the ‘Imaging Challenge #19' forum (each challenge will have it’s own). Please post as much information as possible - when it was taken, how it was captured and processed, etc. The info won't necessarily be used for judging but will help fellow SGLers looking to learn and improve their knowledge and technique.

Scope nights only uses Met Office data from what I am aware and only offers three hourly predictions so it’s not something we plan to use as a data source. I’ve personally not found it that accurate either and have heard similar feedback from others. It seems to me that different forecasting models seem to work better for different people at different locations so one thing we are working on is building in multiple forecasts into Clear Outside so people can see multiple forecasts and also potentially only show their favoured sources. There is already an additional cloud forecast available in Clear Outside (website only at present) - if you turn on the experimental features button at the bottom of the page it will then give you an additional cloud forecast.

It’s physically impossible for the app and website to show different things because the app is still showing the website - it’s all the same ? When this happens it’s usually because you have the website set to Center on midnight and you view it before midday so the display shows the last twelve hours from yesterday in order to show this mornings forecast. You can always check by seeing where the current hour is highlighted on the website - it has a blue box around it and a clock on the hour box - you will then see the forecasts match / line up exactly.

At a fete recently. SolarQuest with Lunt 60 at the back on standard tripod. 72ED white light setup at front on an AZ GTI with the stainless steel tripod. The AZ GTI in comparison, was a pain because I had to keep connecting to the wifi using my phone, it didn't track particularly well (probably due to poor alignment) and every time a kid knocked it, we had to re-align etc..

Put it this way, mine isn't going anywhere and I am contemplating a second for a white light setup with the Sky-Watcher 72ED and Lunt wedge I don't have a lot to say about it really though because it just works, no nonsense, no hassle it does one thing - Solar tracking and it does it extremely well. I've done a number of public outreach events now and the biggest issue is always kids yanking on the eyepiece. Now, I just turn the mount on and off and 30 seconds or so later, it's up and aligned / tracking again - much simpler. I've used it now on the standard supplied tripod and the new Sky-Watcher stainless steel one (https://www.firstlightoptics.com/alt-azimuth/sky-watcher-38-stainless-steel-tripod.html). I found the standard one perfectly fine as long as you didn't have it extended by much but, the stainless steel one is rock solid and well worth the investment. I place a lot of value on things that 'just work' - I don't have the time or inclination to be fettling with things, tweaking them, wandering why something works one day and not the other - I have enough 'projects' to keep me busy already! The SolarQuest mount truly fits that for me, it just works, reliably and consistently.