Thalestris24

No worries! As mentioned earlier, I was toying with the idea of using a small scope as a dual guidescope/imaging scope (in place of my lightweight Travelscope 70 guidescope) using a fast cmos camera with a small sensor. So wouldn't need a flattener but would need an extension tube. I need to dwell on it for a bit Thanks for the info Louise

Yeah, I've seen that, thanks. It's not of any real consequence though I might double check with TS. It's probably right as they offer 85mm clampshells as an accessory. How do you find the Evostar ED72? The business with the non-standard thread put me off a bit... Do you by any chance know much the Evostar tube on it's own weighs? No worries if you don't. Cheers Louise

Thanks, but, um, it's 70ED I need to know the diameter of. The evostar comes with tube rings, the ts 70 doesn't so need to know if I can just put it in place of the Travelscope which appears to be 70mm. Hmm... TS quote 85mm which seems rather big but maybe something to do with the carbon tube? Louise

It's ok, I'll take 1.95kg as the weight. The TS carbon tube at 1.7kg is pretty much the same but is a slightly smaller lens but no rings. It might just go directly in place of the Travelscope though I'll have to check tube diameters. Cheers Louise

Probably why your value came in higher than Ray's ?

Wow! Awesome! Must have been dark skies... Louise

Thanks guys! The youtube video (Ray) says 1.95kg out of the box, with tube rings and dovetail. Obviously need to add the weights of bits. The ts carbon tube 70ED appears to be 1.7kg. I've been toying with the idea of using a 70/72mm as a guide scope that I could also use to image with (using an appropriate camera ) but weight could be an issue so I want to get the lightest I can. At the moment I have a Celestron Travelscope 70 as a guide scope. With extension tube and qhy5l-ii guide cam it weighs a mere 0.8Kg - very light. Hmm... I'll have to think about it. Cheers Louise

Hi Can someone kindly tell me how much just the evostar 72ed ota actually weighs (with or without tube rings)? Oh, and how good/bad the colour correction is when imaging. Also, has anyone compared it with the TS carbon tube 70ed? Thanks Louise

FWIW my 550d showed temps of 12 to 15 deg (filename) in a batch of 14 x 600s darks. The cooler was preset to +4 deg. So a difference in temp of 8 to 11 deg from the internal value. Unfortunately I don't know for sure what the ambient temp was at the time. They were taken indoors in the afternoon in March 2016 so ambient was probably around 15-20 deg. So clearly, with the cooling on, the actual sensor temperature was quite a bit different from the reported internal camera temperature. Louise

Hi What peltier do you have and what power supply? Louise

Hi If you spray a coating on remember to tape over all the cable connectors first I have a cooled mono 550d (sadly not working for a few years) that I used to set the temperature to +5 deg which seemed good enough. I don't know where the set point temperature sensor is located - I imagine it's fitted close to the sensor. Louise

Hi You probably need to spray/coat the pcbs to prevent problems with condensation Louise

Same problem as me ha ha

Yeah, the WO61 has a focal length of 360mm, I believe? It's a bit on the long side for the SA but should be doable with guiding and perfect PA Louise

I think this was the sa strip I was thinking of (a bit more detailed than my concise versions): http://www.astrofriend.eu/astronomy/projects/project-star-adventurer-part2-repair/project-star-adventurer-part2-repair-page02.html Louise

I think you have to use the clutch mechanism to adjust the wedge latitude - pull out/away the lever (can't remember now...). I've adjusted the gears ok and did my best to adjust the worm. I've never stripped down the wedge though mine might benefit from doing something to it. Obviously, with only a RA motor, polar alignment is critical yet hard to do and hard to keep. Balance is also important. Still, you should be able to get decent results with a lens and short exposures. You can guide in RA but you have to figure out how best to fit a guide scope. I've added a qhy mini guide scope via a second ballhead, but not had a chance to try it. Louise

Sorry, I'm repeating myself - senior moment, tut!

Someone else on here documented a stripdown recently, if you search Louise

I've had the impression that some SA's are 'bad' and need to be sent back if under warranty. In order to proper adjustments you need to do a stripdown but that would probably invalidate the warranty... Louise

Hi I think I improved things but I seem to remember it was still far from as good as I hoped it would be. Not done anything with it for a long time. I get very few opportunities to do any kind of imaging here cos of the weather/poor sky conditions Louise

I'm not far from the city centre... It never gets dark here and the atmosphere tends to be poor transparency. I can only see a few constellations naked eye

That's quite darkish. I'd say I'm Bortle 9

Dark skies?

That's pretty awesome for an SA! What camera? Louise

Hi Do you not have a PC to mount cable (eqdir) that you can use to control the mount (without using wifi or hand controller)? That's how I control my heq5. I take it you have Ascom + Eqmod + planetarium software on your PC? If you can control the heq5 via an eqdir cable than that would eliminate any problem with the mount itself. Have you had the wifi working before? I'm afraid I've no experience with wifi connections so can't help with troubleshooting that. Louise