Alien 13

10 hours ago, Dean Hale said:

Browsing Amazon yesterday and a flash deal on the voxelabs 3d printers popped up. Oh go on then. Now for the fun part setting it up. Thanks to this thread for planting the seed.

Hope it wasn't me that planted the idea 🥳 I am loving mine and am sure you will enjoy your new toy..

Alan

1 hour ago, Chefgage said:

Mine arrived a couple of weeks ago. Quite impressed with it. Printed off a couple of astronomy related things along with many test pieces as well.

I am still at the update parts for the printer itself stage, think my first Astro print will be a 77mm screw in solar filter holder for my lenses..

Alan

Never understood why Maks are classified as only useful for certain targets, something the old school long fracs never were. I love mine.

Alan

I have personally found that even an error of 0.1mm is noticeable in an image, have lots of thin shims at the ready..and as peviously mentioned check actual distances with a caliper.

Alan 

11 minutes ago, Mr Spock said:

Standard version. Works just fine. As I said earlier in the thread, it works great for visual but I wouldn't trust it with long exposures.

I dont know though, mine although an EQ3 version is more than good enough for planetary/Luna imaging and would probably run a 50mm lens for 20 mins or more...

Alan

Would be interesting how long after the bang it would be before amateur scopes could resolve it beyond a point of light? perhaps some can now.

Alan

I cant wait, June this year I recon 😋 and as bright as the Sun..

Alan

Not free although Affinity Photo sometimes have half price deals, great processing software that is a match better than Photoshop and includes a full package of Astro routines including stacking..

Alan

No pictures as yet apart from the stock ones, too busy having fun with one of these....

I am printing "fixes" for some of the machines flaws at the moment but have a huge list of things I need for Astro/Microscopy/DSLR and of course the silly things too.

Alan

Yep, a happy birthday to the ninth planet from me too..

Alan

If we ever plan to colonize the Moon then we will need to crash 100s of used rockets into it to supply some raw materials for building..

Alan

Getting accurate focus will depend somewhat on the lens you are using, the old nifty fifty had a very sloppy focus ring that was almost impossible to set so shooting something distant in the daytime using AF with the lens wide open then taping it down and reducing it to between f 4-5.6 for AP at night can be a valid option.

If the lens is the STM version then you have a much more responsive and accurate focus ring so I would use the method similar to what Peter mentioned but instead of the brightest stars in the FOV I would concentrate on the very dimmest which will blink on and off with the slightest adjustment, be aware any dim stars will not show at all if the focus is way off.

Alan

7 minutes ago, Stu said:

It’s my Gitzo GT5542LS, bought it off eBay for a decent price a number of years ago and have never regretted it. It gets a lot of use.

Looks similar to my Artcise 80..

Alan

Not sure a wooden tripod would be better, I cant stop stroking my carbon fiber one, its so smooth.

Alan

P.S. Have to ask what tripod is it..

14 hours ago, Bibabutzemann said:

Maybe im just very lucky with my unit, since i never did any modification or maintenance like putting new grease on the gears. How often should that be done anyway?

 

 

My personal opinion is never, its the sticky black stuff that makes the EQ3-2 work as it compensates somewhat for poor machining..

Alan

10 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Anyone fancy a AV Designhaus Derenville VPM tirntable. 🙂

Costs way more than the average house in the UK. 🙀🙀🙀

You can buy a basic Linn LP12 setup for around 23K if money is tight. 😋

Alan

Buying astro kit can be relatively expensive if starting from scratch but a lot of kit that you may already own can easily be re purposed, a pair of binos that you have for birding, a DSLR you use for daytime snaps, even modern smart-phones can take acceptable AP images..

As to expensive hobbies try HiFi, you can pay more for a cable than the cost of a TAK for example.

Alan

Nice, you might find that even a mobile phone power bank (5.2V output) will work, it certainly does on the Skywatcher versions..

Alan

Only thing I can add is to make sure the mirror lock up function is not enabled as this requires two pulses to make it work..

Alan

A delay is often advantageous if the camera has to write large files to the PC ..

Alan

Sad news, I like satellites, they wouldn't launch them if they were not needed 😃

Alan

It can matter as it modifies the focal length slightly on a MAK and by a larger amount on an SCT. With my scope I normally run it with a 2 inch extension which puts the focus point roughly where it would be with an eyepiece. I have noticed that I just clip the edges of a full Moon in the fov with my DSLR if I have the extension distance wrong.

Alan

22 hours ago, wuthton said:

Same for me!

@ollypenrice Let me give you a budget restraint,  the Samy, DSLR and the HEQ5... or Samy, AZ-GTI /EQ3 pro and a dedicated, cooled camera, with which could you take the most impressive image? I know my answer.

Can I have a go...Give me the Sammy, DSLR and AZ-GTI/EQ3 with single axis motor 😃 Cant be doing with anything that is not self powered or involves a laptop to capture images.

Alan

28 minutes ago, malc-c said:

How else are you going to see the stars....  you ideally need to take the mount outside to use it.... granted they are not designed to be permanently housed outside and exposed to the elements, but should be able to take a bit of moisture from dew forming in during an observing / imaging session

Dont worry, most kit is engineered well enough to survive the UK climate.

Alan

I would doubt any electronics including mounts are designed to be used outside, no sealed connectors. no conformal coating, no sealed nitrogen purged cavities with external heat exchangers etc, most items survive because they produce enough heat to keep the damp away.

Alan