Thalestris24

Lentils and veg probably I need something to cover the printer - it will get dusty, otherwise. Louise

I've not powered mine up yet. I'll wait until the morning when I can see better. Still, pretty much ready to go, I think. I've no doubt it will need a few mechanical tweaks. If not, I'll be very happy! Time to cook some grub! Louise

I probably won't ever be in that league, lol. I'll have to get the Lowspec built, tested, and up and running first. Even then, it won't be high res so I've probably no need to worry about minutae Louise

I'm just assembling mine - on and off. Cup of tea time Louise

Depends on the target - imho! Louise

"why would you use x2 barlow and then bin x2 if you get the same sampling rate with regular pixel size and without barlow?" That's true! Ha ha - silly me! These things always catch me out! I tend to be driven by what I might want to achieve rather than how - probably why I make silly errors sometimes! Louise

Thanks, Vlaiv I'll have to try this out for myself one of these days. It would be great to be able to image smaller targets sometimes. Guiding more critical, of course. One thing though - it will obviously depend on the camera. For instance, my Atik383l+ has 5.4um pixels whereas my qhy183m only has 2.4um pixels. However, the 183m has a much higher qe - 84% vs a mere 40% (peak at 540nm). I guess if I were to attempt imaging with a x2 Barlow I'd still be better off with the smaller pixel 183m (but bin 2x2). I wish I had loads more imaging opportunities than I do so that I could try these things out. The proof of the pudding (is in the eating) as they say! Louise

Christian Bull compares a cmos ASI183m and an Atik460 ccc here I have a qhy183m but not sure if there is any difference in response. Both the tested cameras give a reasonable UV response (183 better - I'll check it out one of these days with a UV LED light). There seems to be a rapid rolloff due to the ASI cover glass. Again, not sure if QHY different. He talks about the effects of fringing in other cameras apparently caused by not having anti-reflective cover glass. (Is that the reason for the 'microlense' artifacts reported in the ASI1600mm?) Louise

Um, dare I ask about the converse i.e. adding a Barlow vs imaging small targets with an equivalent longer focal length scope? I have a feeling that using even a high quality Barlow for imaging is never a good idea... Louise ps Think I've raised this before but I've forgotten the answer, d'uh

Delivered today - yay! Won't have time to unpack/build it before Friday, though. Filament due later today Louise

It's not to do with focus - the flattener is to correct for a flat field, especially in the corners. If it's not flat you'll see distorted rather than round .stars. Louise

Not sure, but the above zwo scheme should give you 56mm which is ok because you subtract 1mm for the filter. Caliper measures are a guide. I would just test it to see what your subs are like. Fwiw I think using an oag with an 80mm frac is likely more trouble than it's worth. An ordinary guidescope should be fine but that's up to you. Louise

Distance from reducer to camera sensor is normally 55mm but can need some tweaking ~+/-1mm. A check with a digital caliper is useful. Louise

I was wondering about that - do you just select a file to print from the card and leave it to it? No advantage in printing from a PC? Louise

Um, are you still running Win 7, then? I thought it was no longer supported? I can't remember Win 7 doing auto updates and reboots like Win 10 does? I may have just forgotten - it was so long ago! Louise

That must have been annoying! Can you not temporarily disable updates or disconnect from the net? Hope everything goes well today! Louise

I've had a quick glance at the Fusion 360 Beginner Videos on YouTube - there will be a learning curve! I probably won't be trying to design anything for quite a while. Hope you're design works as expected Louise

I've actually no experience of CAD - yet! Got to start somewhere! Good luck with your design and printing it! Louise

I'll start another thread

Aww thanks!

Ok, thanks for the tip! What does 'Home All' do that I wouldn't want it to? I won't get it before Friday and may not have time to assemble it until the following Friday. Still, something to look forward to - early Christmas ha ha Louise

Oh well, I ordered an Ender 3 Pro earlier and via Amazon I did glance at the slightly more expensive CR-20 Pro but wasn't sure if it was worth the extra plus the search for ideal devices can become never ending! Also ordered some Sunlo (Korean) filament - hope that's ok... Will see how I get on with it all. What's the worst that can happen?? I think my main problem will be finding the time! Plus, I registered with Autodesk for their Fusion360 software but not downloaded it yet. I said I was a student for the next 3 years . Louise

The 'getting the most out of phd2' video tutorial is quite good. Sit and watch it (several times) on a cloudy night!

You shouldn't have any problems with that guidescope provided it's securely/rigidly mounted. Make sure you're properly balanced - the heq5 belt drive is sensitive to any imbalance. Take the time to learn PHD2 properly - there are plenty of video tutorials about. Make sure you choose a suitable guide star and exposure - 2 to 3 secs is usually good. Louise

Yeah, I'm intending to print somebody else's design of a diy astro spectrometer so it would be probably be opening a can of worms were I to attempt to change any dimensions. It's only quite small (of the order of about 100mm on a side, and maybe 70mm deep) - mostly a shaped box/enclosure and fittings for the optical components with telescope and camera interfaces. As long as it stays stiff enough it'll be ok but might end up just being a prototype... Louise