Alien 13

The EQ3 and EQ5 will happily run off a 5V mobile phone battery bank, these normally supply 5.2 V. You would need an old USB cable and chop of one end and fit a DC power connector (cant remember if its 5.5mm x 2.1mm or 5.5mm x 2.5mm) to the cable, note you only need to use the Red (positive) and Black (negative) wires in the cable. You can get 10A/hour powerbanks very cheap but the latest's smart models (that usually have two outputs) can sometimes shut down if the load is too small (the current drawn for the motor is between 150-400 mA depending if its slewing or not) but this can be fixed by putting a load like a red LED light into the other socket, I would say that I have never had this issue though. The reason that 5V powerbanks work is because the basic 6V system controllers for both single and dual axis motors do not have voltage regulators or protection circuitry which is one reason they are easily killed when used on 12V etc. The other thing to remember is that the standard battery case with 4 D cells has to also work with rechargeable versions that would only give a total of 4.8V. Alan

Good idea, need to get some use out of my DSLR and Mak and camera lenses too... Alan

Its better in my opinion, have used PS CS6 and Affinity and its hard to tell the difference apart from that the latter has more built in features. Alan

IPA at 99.99% is easy to get, mix it with Aloe Vera and you have a hand gel, mix it with distilled water and you have a lens cleaner so its very useful stuff. Alan

I did used to own the Sigma 70-300mm lens although it was the slightly more expensive APO version and it performed well, the "macro" facility was a bonus although it was a pain to get it into that mode. I would say that its reasonably sharp up to 250 mm f/l but softer after that. The only real criticism was the lack of a zoom lock causing the lens to change focal length when pointing up or down but easily fixed with a rubber band. Alan

Its probably fine but will have some limitations with more recent DSLR RAW files and at some point will loose any support, I have CS6 myself but jumped ship and now sailing along with Affinity Photo. If its main use is for AP then CS6 is however all you will need realy. Alan

I have a similar light and regularly give my camera lenses and scopes a blast, prevention is always better than cure. Alan

I use Affinity Photo and believe a lot of Photoshop plugins can be made to work with it, have only been shooting Lunar images recently and its fine with those. I am sure the Astro capabilities of this software will grow over time as its a very popular package now. Alan

Nice shot, I do like to take images of the Moon with camera lenses, the ultimate in grab and go... Alan

Wow, I can see my house from here.. Alan

Adobe DNG converter is you new best friend works with any RAW file and Photoshop version.....or like me just switch to Affinity Photo Alan

Thanks, tried it but wouldn't update. The notes imply that CS6 cant be upgraded beyond ver 9.1.1. Note: If you are encountering Update Error U43M1D204, see Update error U43M1D204. If you still haven't been able to successfully update the Camera Raw plug-in for CC 2017 or CC 2019 Adobe applications, use the Camera Raw 11.0 installer to the left. For CC, CC 2014, or CC 2015 Adobe applications, substitute with the Camera Raw 10.5 installer for Windows or Camera Raw 10.5 installer for macOS. For Bridge CS6 and Photoshop CS6, substitute with the Camera Raw 9.1.1 installer for Windows or the Camera Raw 9.1.1 installer for macOS. For macOS 10.10-10.12, Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, or Windows 10 there's Adobe Camera Raw 9.12.1 (macOS or Windows). Alan

I was fine when I had the 650D but Adobe stopped allowing the latest updates on CS6 and others at some point. Alan

Think my camera needs version 9.5... Alan

I have CS6 but could never find a way to open RAW files from my Canon 80D so used Adobe DNG converter in batch mode, got fed up with this in the end and switched to Afinity Photo.. Alan

It should work but not sure a laptop can supply enough power, the USB type 5 to 8V converters normally need 5V at 2A to run reliably. Alan

Thermal stability can be improved a little by using a battery grip, this takes the battery and the heat developed away from the camera internals.. A;am

Very nice, to stop dew/frost get a camera lens dew strap powered off a small 5V battery bank.. Alan

I personally only keep the stacked files, I did think you can still stack multiple stacked files if you wanted. Alan

There is some software that struggles with the latest Canon RAW files but is eventually fixed with later updates, the easiest way forward is to use the free Adobe DNG converter to batch convert all your RAW files, the DNG format is universally compatible with most image processing packages. Alan

I agree, the sticky grease fills in imperfections/loose tolerances and is exactly whats needed for cheaper mounts. It is also less likely to sheer under load which would cause the bearings to run dry. Alan

If I remember correctly the last non subscription version of PS was CS6 which would have cost around £650 back in 2012 so it could be assumed that the latest version if sold as a one time buy might be anything from £1000-£1500 so the subscription is a bargain if you had to buy today. I however bought Affinity Photo instead as to me its a much better all round package. Alan

I love it, even getting withdrawal symptoms between episodes. I see the series so far as an introduction a bit like the beginning of the "magnificent seven". Alan

I have thought about an external monitor for my laptop but still use the built in one and its fine even for Photoshop use although it has been calibrated with a Spyder 5. Thing is even expensive monitors struggle to produce the whole colour gamut but its not necessary provided certain points are fixed, its a bit like sound studios mixing tracks using tiny bookshelf speakers that have a defined response. Alan

As a general rule a "gaming" laptop will have most of what you need, better still if it has dual SSD and HDD drives. The downsides with a laptop is cost vs performance and the screen colour accuracy with applications like Photoshop although this can be improved if you calibrate it with something like a Spyder 5 or similar. Alan