Alien 13

The Nasa one seems to have a 30-60s delay on my PC 

Alan

Quick question, what is the best link to this?

Alan

Not seen the canals for many many years, I guess they got filled in.

Alan

54 minutes ago, merlin100 said:

Is this going to be on YouTube? I completely forgot about it. 🙄

Think its by request only...a timed link.

Alan

I would have just drilled a bigger hole, plenty of hardware such as eyelets etc out there to do this...common practice even on aerospace/military circuit boards.

Alan

Not a fan of modified cameras but "auto colour" in PS should fix it..

Alan

Is there any universe if there are no observers, time would certainly have no meaning..

Alan

Ah sunny Leicester...wot can go wrong 

Alan

Thankfully scopes dont behave as one expects, the naked eye will always gather the most light so even if you could look through a 10M scope you would have less photons hitting your retina due to losses in the optics combined with the pupil size limit. This means any scope of any size is useful, they just show different things.

Alan

The polar finder app is all you need realy but that does require you to set the polar scope view so its vertical, I use the setting circles as a guide for this..

Alan

Oh dear I scored 102...

Alan

As above by Peter, I would add that a full spectrum mod will most likely disable the auto sensor clean and ability to auto focus unless the sensor is re shimmed correctly and may not work at all with camera lenses due to large amounts of star bloat unless an IR cut filter is added. 

Alan

The original image is in fact perfectly focused as seen by the tiny faint stars in the corners, the big issue is that modified cameras are not good with camera lenses or any no full APO refractors... not sure I agree with a previous statement regarding camera lenses being painfully slow due to their smaller apertures (wouldn't call 70mm ish or larger with some lenses small though.) as the f ratio rule/myth works in these examples.

Alan

3 hours ago, gilesco said:

I'd be interested in knowing what power you might use for the laptop. I have a XPS 15 7590, which has a 130W AC adapter, I understand that to power from a car there is no way I could run 130W as the supply is 12V 10A max.

Currently I intend to run all software on a Raspberry Pi, and just do the initial set up via VNC on the laptop, and then monitor it via a Tablet, but it would be nicer to be able to do everything from the laptop. But this is the way I'm going to try and make the power last through the entire night.

Yikes, my laptop adapter is 240W although battery life is around 5 hours....with these kinds of loads I myself would opt for a petrol driven jobbie.

Alan

I had a question that didn't get answered during the live event, does anyone know if Affinity works best when doing small iterative adjustments rather than single larger ones like PS does?

Alan

The 50mm f/1.4 was a vast upgrade to the standard 50mm f/1.8 in both build quality and focus action with its USM motor but the difference is smaller now with the newer 50mm f1.8 STM having upped its build quality with improved AF and with a metal mounting flange. If I was buying for astro I would stick with the f1.8 but also think about a nice Samyang or even a Sigma/Tokina zoom instead.

Alan

Nice result, its good to see the innards of these Maks as I have often thought about doing some mods to mine, have been thinking about making the focus tube inner/outer blacker than a black thing with some of that "Vanta black" type paint which supposedly gives a boost in contrast.

Alan

On 09/10/2020 at 20:11, John said:

I'm not a moderator now Gerry but I think it is OK.

Confused now very disorientating, dont recognize the avatar either....but do remember a John. 

Alan

If you want to play the field then look in charity shops/market stalls etc and pick up various cheap samples of ideally M42 fit lenses even if they have issues (very cheap) and try them out, If you find one you realy like then you can then opt for a better condition one off e-bay or similar...mint condition examples are not cheap though, I paid well over £120 for my 50mm Takumar.

Alan

19 minutes ago, Daf1983 said:

Thanks for your reply.

Which vintage lenses have you found are good for astro?

 

My best one was a 135mm f/3.5 minolta MD mount lens but upgraded to a Canon L lens.

The 135/200mm Takumars are good but modern lens technology means that for shorter focal lengths like 50mm or below the cheap nifty fifty or 40mm STM will win.

Alan

I have a few vintage lenses and some are fine for AP but even those that dont make the grade like my 50mm Takumar (cost an arm and leg as it was a mint early model) are very good for general video use..

Alan

Love it, looks so natural and not overly processed.

Alan

As above but its worth checking the battery door micro switch tab that is easily broken off..

Alan

I have used my DSLR with a 1.25 inch X2 barlow with both my scopes and although it does vignette a little it has no effect on planetary imaging. The frame rate with a DSLR will as said  be quite poor compared to a planetary camera but it does have a big advantage when trying to find the object (I struggle to get the Moon in the FOV sometimes ).

Alan

According to the long running "imaging with a Samyang" thread this fits the 135mm f/2 lens.

The adapter is mentioned from page 11 on.

Alan