jiberjaber

On 23/02/2020 at 17:33, MarkAR said:

Before you give up, I think the problem could be the little black square thing.

I think its a bridge rectifier, are there any markings on the sides or under the silver looking stripe?

If the mounting screw is supposed to be -ve then the pin I've marked A should be the -ve and B is the +ve.

Can you do a simple continuity check between A-screw and B-screw. If both are continuous the the rectifier is blown. They are only a few quid if you can find out which one to get.

Maybe email a picture to RS Components or Farnell see if they can identify it.

I'm in a similar predicament - after not touching the astro stuff for about 6 years I decided to take advantage of the clear skies and no need to get up in the morning... anyhow, tonight the scope packed up.  There's a high current draw from it which isn't enough to blow the fuse in my power lead but is enough to trigger the protection on the power supply.  No shorts on the power connector/switch board so I've traced it to the motor controller board also and taken it out to look around it.  Nothing obvious though which is disappointing.

In terms of the picture of the component above, the square one is an inductor (L1 marking on the board) and the SK34 marked on (D1) is a diode.  C3 on mine was showing a short circuit but after removing it from the board it seems OK so there must be something else wrong with the board. Without a circuit diagram it's all guess work!

I guess I'll be ringing around a few shops tomorrow to see if anyone has a spare board in stock... the is quite frustrating! 

All was going well, managed some imaging last night and decided have another go tonight... after 3 hours I've diagnosed a broken telescope mount cable - I've managed to rig a temp on up using a spare FTDI interface and some of the old cable, hopefully will get back to some imaging later this morning!  I'm surprised how quickly it is getting light - almost the same timeframe as I would expect in the summer!

Cheers

On 05/03/2020 at 20:04, prusling said:

Hi, I bought one of these: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B06XSCCLCD/ which I power from a 12v distribution block.  It seems to do the job though I haven't used it much in anger.  This particular brand is no longer available, but there seem to be others that are similar.

Yep - same unit here as well  

Thanks for this, I had to scale the small one up a bit (a few mm) but it fits nicely (not tightly ) around my finderscope  

Well after an extended break (it's not that compatible with a working life!) I'm back and slowly trying to remember how to do things, glad I didn't sell my astro gear though I was tempted a few times over the years of inactivity! 

Quite happy. Got AT solving last night. Takes a while (about 70 secs) but works really well. This is using AT connected to my guide camera on a finder scope. The camera connection is over ASCOM.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I am hoping to use this on my finder scope rather than the main scope, the trouble is I cant find any details for the 50x9 finder scope with my QHY5L-II attached in terms of the resolution.

I've had a bit of a mooch around the net and found somewhere which stated the 50x9 was aperture of 60mm and a focal length of 240mm using this with the 3.75um 1280x1024 QHY5L-II I get 1.15degx0.92deg... 

Does that sound right?

Many thanks for this, part 1 was great, part 2 was too, looking forward to more.

Well I took the plunge, I now have a HEQ5 Pro and a SW 80 ED Pro. Quite happy with it and was lucky to have a good 3 night clear before the rain rolled in for the majority of this week. Currently looking out the window pondering if it is clear enough to get the lot out again

Thanks for the on going warm welcome chaps - I might pop over and see you chaps at Castle Point some time

I was surprised by the part lighting, as I had forgotten about it since I had arrived home from holiday. I popped out to get something out of the car just after midnight that evening and thought there was a power cut.

I was able to make good use of the very clear sky we had here and the lack of lights to enjoy the great views last night - problem was it left me with only 4 hours of sleep for my first day back at work today LOL....

Hi All

I am Jason, currently residing in Essex UK (Chelmsford area).

I've been admiring some of my friends astrophotography on Facebook and I am looking to give it a go, so far I have been taking pictures using my normal lenses but I am thinking of investing in an actual telescope and tracking mount.

Luckily our Council has just introduced part-night lighting, so if I can manage to stay up after 00:00 till 05:00 we have quite a view there is still some light pollution as not all lights can be turned off, but all our street is dark - which is a good start!

I've a Nikon D7000 with some wide (10-20, 30 and 50mm as well as a 70-300 ED) which I have been using so looking to combine that camera with a scope and mount.

Currently looking at the SW 80 ED APO and some form of mount (HEQ5 perhaps).

Cheers Jason