Grant

It was me you were talking to - we are discussing this among the moderation team. I think I suggested: Video & Live Viewing Astronomy (EAA). This seemed to cover most of the permutations? We are open to changing the name if it broadens the appeal but, we don't want to get caught in some of the infighting that seems to happen with this side of astronomy particularly when it comes down to what to call it.

Very interesting - thanks for sharing ?

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.

Not regular as updates happen on an ad hoc basis so we apply urgent updates as soon as possible. Why do you ask, have you had an issue?

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.

There was an issue earlier tonight between around 9:20-9:40pm which was a result of some very aggressive bots causing some performance issues. Since then everything has been running ok as far as I can see from the front end and server side. We will be adding some additional defences to prevent bots over crawling the site causing these sorts of issues. In normal day to day use the server is only running around 10% capacity.

Some additional tweaks have been made over the past few days so hopefully we have not experienced any more slowness. I am monitoring closely so please continue to let me know of any issues.

It's OK now but we are seeing an issue at peak times particularly when search bots are crawling the forum. We've blocked some particularly aggressive ones and are looking at more long-term fixes.

I'm seeing the same - investigating again

It seems to coincide with when we have multiple search bots active - we've tweaked a few things (again!) and are monitoring...

I'm seeing some slowness again now - investigating

There was a short slow spell yesterday evening but otherwise it's been OK for me.

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...