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Pompey Monkey

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Posts posted by Pompey Monkey

  1. 1 hour ago, CHR15 said:

    I had exactly the same problem as you are facing! The problem for me was bad USB 3 cables. I bought the asiair plus unit and the 585mc new and both came with bad cables (they might even be USB 2 cables?). A quick way to tell is plug the USB 3 cable into a USB 2 slot. When I did this it worked. If this is the case just buy a cheap USB 3 cable off of Amazon. 

    Definitely go for new usb cables.

    But don't go cheap! This is part of the problem.

    The cables don't need to be expensive, just good. I'd recommend Lindy.

  2. 8 minutes ago, SteveNickolls said:

    Thanks for this, I will sign too. However legislation and guidance must be for all locations not just for the countryside.

    Cheers,

    Steve

    Maybe, by supporting the core of the area, could it expand as the perimeter residents realise the benefits? 

    ... I'm way too idealistic \o/

     

  3. Forty+ years ago, I would go to the Portsmouth central library and borrow/read as many books on astronomy as I could get my hands on!

    Apart from the inspiration to build telescopes, I came across an Apple computer magazine with a rudimentary sky simulator program written in Apple basic. I converted this program into Sinclair Basic, which was not always trivial...

    ... but the real work was typing in the coordinates, magnitudes, and names, of as many of the stars from the library copy of the Flamsteed catalogue.

    I do not recall if it was the lack of memory on My ZX Spectrum, the lack of will-power, or my own teenage smelly funk that made me give up at about 1/3 of the way through.

    But the conversion did work! :)

     

    • Like 2
  4. Just remember that although your filters are parfocal,  it is very unlikely that the rest of your imaging train is too.

    Any curved bit of glass has the potential to slightly change the focus at different wavelengths.

    Yes, for the best results, you should refocus at every filter change.

    In practice, due to atmospheric seeing and the sampling resolution of your equipment, you might not notice any difference if you just focus for lum every so often.

    • Thanks 1
  5. 11 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

    Too much software. Why don't you just use the handset, do a star alignment, GoTo your target and take a test sub? You will probably want to nudge the framing a bit so use the handset to nudge it, take another test shot, repeat and then start your autoguider. Because you are trying to use external software to find your target you haven't even got to the stage of running your autoguider.

    A PC mania has overtaken astrophotographers in the last few years. The only way to find your target is to plate solve... etc. This is nonsense. 95% of the images in my gallery were located and framed as I describe.

    https://ollypenrice.smugmug.com/Other

    Olly

    I've done that and I've watched you do it too. It is a satisfying process in itself. 

    However, without the luxury of time that a well situated observatory provides, platesolving is a fantastic tool to increase the total integration time over a session.

    Particularly if switching between multiple targets.

    • Like 1
  6. 5 hours ago, Louis D said:

    That's definitely a case of saying it's so doesn't make it so.  They're just covering themselves legally.  I can assure you they're blinding bright indoors.  Looking at the laser spot's reflection on a nearby wall (to check battery and switch function) will leave you with spots in your eyes for a while, so definitely not recommended if you want to critically observe in the near term.

    The capital M denotes "mega".

    Lower case m denotes "mili".

    But why let a factor of 10^9 spoil our fun! Lol

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  7. On 02/01/2023 at 14:13, Louis D said:

    No idea how powerful my cheap, direct from China, ebay laser sights are, but they're plenty bright to see from multiple feet away in clear skies when aiming my scope.  I'm pretty sure they're not IR filtered, so I'm insanely careful using mine.  I recommend getting the laser sights with the bigger, 18650 battery instead of the smaller, 16340 battery.  I've had much better luck with them in all temperature conditions.

    From the Ebay blurb:

    "Power less than 1MW"

    I should hope so!!! ☠️

  8. I think the idea is to have a universal coordinate system (ICRS) that's independent of the nuances of the earth's motion and to harmonise the disparate (and sometimes less accurate) legacy coordinate systems.

    The article also seems to stress that the computers will deal with with it all, and we (plebs) don't need to worry our little heads about it. I can accept that bit, but I can see how it could cause you headaches, as you are creating a computer program to deal with this very issue!

    The paper also asserts that no algorithmic changes will be necessary to existing astronomical software. From this I assume that there is a relatively straightforward  linear transform between ICRS and the other systems.

    I think.

    • Like 1
  9. You can still drive all the road past the observatories at night, you just cant get in the gates and there are signs (IIRC) asking you to dim your headlights near the top...

    I totally recommend, nay, INSIST that you take a drive up there on a moonless night.

    I did. Words cannot ever describe it! :)

    • Like 2
  10. 3 hours ago, sharkmelley said:

    Relax, I'm pretty certain this is not caused by the hot tub chimney! 

    Instead, it is more likely an artifact generated by the bright star Schedar, outside the field of view.

    Alnitak, near the Horsehead, is another star that typically causes this type of problem.

    Mark

    I concur with @sharkmelly

    If it was the chimmey stack, the artefact would move in relation to the sensor as the scope tracked and would largely be rejected in the integration process. As the pattern is well defined and looks like a bright star artefact,  I also conclude that is what it is.

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1
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