I had an LX200 12" some years ago. Unfortunately even if the optics were good the mechanical parts and electronics were poor. I was surprised that they have lasted so long to be quite honest. I do feel for any people who have been affected though. At least baggywrinkle you have a working scope.

Some years ago a certain person stole money from myself and 12 others, by going bankrupt after living an exorbitant lifestyle. none of us ever received any recompense. In total £76,000 was taken by his fraudulent action. This is not including how much he apparently took by deception from the inland revenue.

As I say, at least you have something for your money.

Derek

Columbia Bugaboots Plus.  Best I have ever bought.

Derek

Yes my Canon 5D is awful for Astro imaging due to thermal noise. The newer versions are considerably better so I am told.

I now use  a QSI 683wsg . Very low noise in comparison and the set point allows easy noise elimination to a great extent.

Derek 

Would it not be simpler  to change "Message" to "Private Message" then, just to remove any misunderstandings  and then also  "Profile Message" to "Public Profile Message".

Derek 😀

Hope you get it sorted soon. Best of luck,

Derek

7 minutes ago, Telescope40 said:

Hello Derek. Been in place since I bought it. It’s a polar scope led. 
Mount underwent visit to Darkframe last year for a tune up, so presume mount is ok. 
Im looking to try the dongle as a few gotos are poor of late with this mount, that’s all. 

John 

So not connected to the main board?

Just out of interest what is the device with the red and black wires jammed between the Neq6 plate and body for?

If as I suspect it is carrying 12 volts, or any other voltage  it is a disaster waiting to happen. Very bad practice, a blown main board is expensive!!!

Derek

6 minutes ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

If you have the money, then look out for optically connected devices e.g. HP Storageworks SAN ....  TB\sec systems......

I agree, but the cost is still prohibitive unfortunately especially for longer high quality connections. Lindy do a few.

Derek

Yes I put together  a SCSI raid array when at Uni some years ago. Started with Raid 5 but it was too slow so added another drive to make it Raid 10. Even with 10,000 rpm drives no where near as fast as the present M2 nvme types from Samsung. The main computer I am replacing now was built with water a cooled CPU and Video card on separate circuits,  way back about 13/14 years ago. Over time the drives have been replaced several times, but still way slower than the present HP job I've just bought. I have been struggling on awaiting the next best thing, but how long do you wait?

The latest USB 3.1 Thunderbolt connects are the way forwards for external drives, but what is on the horizon I wonder??

Derek

Before SSD drives became cheap enough and the norm, I had bought several hybrid drives (750 Gb). I set two up in a raid 0 array. Faster than I had had before so OK. I backed these up regularly and kept the backups elsewhere.  Then the inevitable, disk failure and lost all data. OK I had backups so no big deal.

But to be quite honest these hybrid drives are and were awful. Over time they slowed down significantly. The cure apparently was to erase then reformat and start over,,,,, some hope! I dumped the lot.

By then ssd drives were becoming cheaper. So I invested in Samsung 1Tb jobs. Over £400 per drive then for the 850 pro version. 

Today I just bought a spare Samsung 2 Tb 860 EVO to backup my m2 SSD internal drive data for £253. The m2 1Tb drive cost just over £100. A bit different! 

Reminds me that when  I moved from the Tandy Color computer (tape drive) to the   BBC (eprom)  then to the newest thing,  a PC with 5.25 " floppy discs back in the 80s, with a 40Mb HDD, I upgraded to an 82Mb HDD 3.5 inch job at over £170,  how times change. 

Forgot to add, that the latest drive will be used to backup from a USB 3.1 gen2 Thunderbolt port!

I'm too old. 😂

Derek

Yes, you will find that dew tends to form more on a surface pointing upwards. Due to gravity 🙂 So when at some angle it does reduce the condensation, at least that is what I have experienced. Stu is quite correct that upward pointing tends to be the worst case due to thinner air layer as opposed to the greater air layer the energy has to penetrate to escape when at some angle. 

What always amazes me is how two almost identical ( size of optics) scopes can act very differently in the same conditions with respect to dewing up. 🥶

Derek

Stars and planets! two different objectives really. Planets need a higher magnification. Star clusters or nebula's generally need much lower magnification. By that I mean either narrow field of view or wider field of view. A DOB may be the best initial thought. But I cannot recommend enough,  take your son  to a local  astronomy club and ask for their help if there is one nearby. Clubs have a reservoir of knowledge in their members. Most members will have tried and changed their minds upon exactly what they wanted from the start, I know that I changed my mind.  You could always start with a decent pair of binoculars and a tripod or mono-pod.

Derek

Hi Helen, hope this is not trying to teach your granny to suck eggs, but have you shut down a couple of times between and restarted again from clearing the Com ports. Windows can be a law unto itself and can eventually sort things out if repeatedly restarted.  I guess you will say yes but thought it worth a punt. I went through several months of similar problems a few years ago. Any way best of luck.

Derek

Hi, Sorry but this is not quite correct. quote " Dew shields on refractors and SCTs/Maks etc work by shielding the front element from exposure to the sky above for similar reasons. They are ineffective when you are pointing straight up, but work any time you are pointing away from vertical enough for them to provide some shielding from the cold sky above. "

If you view any part of the sky that is not shielded by clouds then you will radiate energy.

The dew shield will only provide some shielding against light and energy from outside the cone of its view. during the night that is why you need to provide some sort of heating to ensure that the objective is above dew point, as you are radiating energy outwards from the scope to the sky.

You can show the effect by filling a bucket with an inch of water and shielded from external influences. By that I mean insulation below and around the sides.  Leave it out on a clear night pointing in almost any direction at the sky. ( yes I know that water will flow to one side if tipped, so it works best if pointing straight up). The water will reduce in temperature because of energy radiation. Eventually if the night is long enough the water will freeze, but  the temperature of the frozen will continue to drop, until the sky is no longer acting as the receiver of the energy, i.e. morning light.

Hope that helps a bit , 😀

Derek

Mmmmm, I found out some time ago that although you are allowed 5 m of USB it can all go wrong if the 5 m is split in two/or three by connections. I.e. you say you use a short USB then a 3 m USB. the interconnect can cause the problem. That could be  why the single cable is working. As these interconnects get older and frequently plugged in and out they can become worn and cause a poorer connection for the signals.

Just a thought.

Derek

Nothing to do with telescopes but many years ago whilst riding a motorcycle (several times) in sub zero temps. When stopping at traffic lights or at the end of a fair journey,  my legs and arms were so cold I found I could not use them and just fell over with the bike. Motorbike clothes in those days were rubbish for the cold.

Same almost at Kielder a few years ago, as the nights imaging progressed into the early hours my legs just stiffened up to the point of not working. Found it dammed hard to get up out of the chair. By 0400-0430 both myself and Robbie Ince  had to call it a night as we both were physically not able to carry on. Ahhh!  the benefits of a warm caravan awning became apparent.

Derek

Look at 

Win 10 had a bad upgrade a month or so ago. It was 1909. Shortly after (within a week I am told ) it was withdrawn. Then re released a few days ago with the bugs apparently removed. The original release of 1909 screwed up ACP. Bob Denny now says it seems OK and works with ACP so far without problems, I hope so. But there could be other bugs. When was your Win 10 updated? If a while ago I would revert to an earlier version then after a couple of reboots reinstal the latest 1909.

Derek

Hi Helen, just a thought. When you tried the camera out on your laptop did you use the same cable or at least the same cable length? I am guessing it is USB?

Yup as Dave said it may also be the Com port problem  and needs flushing.

Derek

Very nice image. Like the color pallet you have used as well. 😀

I tried at Galloway Star Camp but not enough subs as yet. 😡

Derek

For your cabling consider using large bore(3/4") blue fresh water  pipe. It is tough as heck and less likely to leak than drain pipe as there will be no need for joints. Even if hit with a shovel or fork it give amazing protection to any cable. You can buy it in lengths around 100 feet or more quite easilly. It is cheaper than drain pipe as well. You can bury several pipes along side each other each taking one or two cables. Keep the mains separate from the signal cables and a foot or so apart from them. To get cables through them dust with talcom powder and pull through, if they are very pliable, if quite stiff you may be able to push them through, it depends upon your judgement and capabilities. You can blow a small item through attached to a thin cord, or even vacuum it through. Then use that to pull your cables. 

Just remember that mains cable has to be at least 18", or 50 cm  under the ground and have a marker tape along its length buried with it. If you go for above ground mains cable it also must comply and be over 2 metres above ground I believe. Check that one!r

Derek

Have you also got .Net 3.5 loaded. I just found out one of my programs also needed that as well as .Net 4.0. I am running win 10 pro.  Just a thought.

Derek

Soft compared to modern lenses, also very heavy. You hold the lens not the camera. Still have it in its case. But never used. Same as old F2AS Nikon it was used with, put away. Anyway as I said nothing really to do wit the subject in discussion. It was just about the lens spacing or cementing of such.

Derek

Nothing to do with binoculars, but I have a 600mm Solid Cat lens from the early 70s. It is called a solid cat because all the elements are bonded/glued together. It is f8, but light transmission is f11. Weighs a tonne 😀

Derek

I was just about to post a reply, when I saw Olly's answer. Absolutely correct, I would say.

I tried this when I started. Bought a 12" Meade for visual use but after a short while of use decided it was not really what I wanted. I then bought a 132mm William optics frac. I still have this, but have found that for the targets I wish to image that an 85mm aperture frac is more in keeping. The 132 is also not powerful enough for the deeper space targets, so either I fit a 2,3,4x convert or as these  can cause problems for fitting your camera and other devices, buy a bigger frac. Yet more expense !!!  The tracking of targets is important and requires some patience to get right, more so when using bigger scopes with more magnification. Larger targets require many more subs and often stitching together (mosaic). Using a smaller aperture can alleviate this, or even eliminate the need altogether.

If you stay with visual it is another matter as Olly says. 

Try if possible/ask, in an Astro club before you buy and remember, your  bank balance will be the decider, or her indoors 🤔

Do not rush in it is an expensive choice to make if wrong ! I know that now.

Derek