Alien 13

Yes the WiFi on my 80D is very useful, can change all the settings/use live view for focus so all I need now is a SW AZ GTI mount and I would never have to leave the house 😀 Alan

The 60D has a better build quality, lots more features inc the 1:1 video crop mode for Luna/Planetary imaging and it uses the Canon "pro" battery so its life is much longer. The sensors are similar but the 60D version includes dual pixel AF system. Alan

I do agree that a dirty lens pen does not good but its the same with a microfiber cloth, the trouble with fluids is that the dont "magic" the grime away but dissolve it only so spread it everywhere when the solvent evaporates, this requires 10 mins of vigorous rubbing with a cloth to get rid of. The lens pen is a single swipe. Need to buy a decent lens pen though, not one of the e-bay cheapies. Alan Alan

A used Canon 60D is a big improvement on the 600D and not that much more expensive on sites like MPB photographic or WEX, better still if you can push to the 70D. Alan

The SW 6V drives will happily run off the 5.2V from a mobile phone battery bank, each axis will draw a maximum of 400mA but would advise a bank with 2.1A outputs...worth remembering a set of rechargeable D cells will only supply 4.8V. Alan

The two things that fungus doesn't like is fresh air and light so never pack any optics away in a box or similar.. Alan

I would be interested too, dont have the Sammy at the moment but my Son has one which I might be able to borrow. I know the Canon teleconverters push into the lens so cant be used with the EF/S range for example but have a feeling that my Kenko MC7 (X2 TC) might work with the Sammy as I can even uses it with most EF/S lenses like my Sigma and Nifty 50 as well as the full frame Canon 70-200 as detailed in my signature.. Alan

I dont have any eyepieces but do have a lot of camera lenses and I only ever use a lens pen, all liquid cleaners seem to just spread any grease spots etc around rather than removing them in my experience which then requires vigorous rubbing with a cloth rather than a single wipe of the pen Alan

I think it would be quite easy to image provided you can get on target, I remember shooting daylight flats once and forgot the "tee shirt" over the lens and had lots and lots of stars captured in the image. Alan

The 550D and 600D are almost identical in performance but there are some differences, the 550D has a dedicated 1:1 video crop mode that is very handy for planetary imaging, the 600D looses that feature but gains the fully articulated live view screen which was something of a game changer if you are imaging un-tethered.. Alan

Most if not all switch mode power supplies these days have no earth so the 0V output pin will be at around 70V or more, I have never understood why this is deemed safe by regulations. The best fix is to run a "safety" earth directly to the mount and any other metal parts. Alan

I have used a similar adapter for my 80D and it does need both plugs connected i.e. 2.1A +2.1A to function reliably, have tried it with a single plug and it just manages to power up but shuts down if you change the configuration on the camera for example switching in live view... I took some measurements using one of these and my camera needs about 1.2 A to be stable, the available current from the inverter which converts 5.2V to 8V for the camera is 2.1 x 0.65 = 1.36 A which is very close to that requirement so two inputs are a must. Alan

A normal bread knife is very good at cutting foam. Alan

If you want a nice neat hole then use one of those multi purpose hole cutters but run the drill in reverse... Alan

The proposal sounds about right, I use two SSD drives and a HDD in my lappy so that one of the SSD is dedicated to the OS and PC drivers only with the other for the rest of the software and working space, the HDD is for mass storage. Dont forget some fast RAM too, 16 Gb is fine but 32 Gb is better. Alan

Are these batteries for your new EQ5 mount? The reason I ask is that if its the 6V version i.e,. non goto then the mount will run off 5.2V mobile phone power banks, a lead can be made by chopping off one end of an old USB cable and soldering the black and red wires to a 5.5mm connector.... Alan

I use this method with my Mak too. Alan

Might just be me but there is far more detail in the F2 images to my eyes.. Alan

It depends somewhat on how wide you want to go but would say that the Samyang 14 mm and 28 mm are worth a look or perhaps the Canon 200 mm f/2.8 L although its not in the same league as the Samyang 135 mm. If the budget is tight then you could do worse than the 18-55 mm STM kit lens or the 50 mm f/1.8 STM prime. Alan.

Couldn't agree more Frank. I switched from PS 6 to Affinity a while ago because of the lack of camera RAW support for newer models, best thing I ever did. Alan

Thanks, just ordered the kit.. Alan

Me too... Shame they dont have a video editing package also, would have that as well. Alan

Spherical mirrors do have some plus points as previously mentioned, they are relatively easy to figure to a high accuracy and combined in a scope that can correct distortions like the Maks/SCT etc that use additional optics then all is good. The parabolic mirror is not without its own issues too so is not often used in large professional scopes. Alan

Of course you can... Alan

Me too. Alan