Skipper Billy

We sell stainless steel 'Jubilee' clips in our chandlery - we get through about 800 - 1000 a year.

Nobody has EVER asked for a worm drive hose clip - its always a 'Jubilee' clip - maybe that says something about the age of our customers!!

https://www.astroshop.eu/collimation-eyepieces/farpoint-2-cheshire-eyepiece/p,16411

https://www.astroshop.eu/collimation-eyepieces/ts-optics-collimation-eyepiece-for-newtonian-telescopes-concenter-2-/p,61902

The one that 'grinds my gears' is folk who put up an advert and stating that they are 'testing the waters'.

What's that all about? They either want to sell it or they don't. Maybe they are hoping someone will offer a crazy high offer in which case they will sell it???

Seems very odd to me.

Welcome back.

I am just down the road from you if ever you need to borrow anything etc !

Thanks for that information - sounds like the 3nm are the ones for me (I am imaging at f5).

So what is the downside to choosing the 3nm ones as the 3nm and the 5nm are a very similar price ??  I dont suffer from any significant light pollution.

I am just trying to be absolutely certain before spending 2.5k on three tiny bits of glass !!! 🙂

Following.

On your choice of material - I would avoid both aluminium and stainless steel.

With both metals almost anything you fasten to it will be a dissimilar metal and corrosion will set in rapidly. You could use isolation paste but its a temporary and partial solution at best.

Also the cost of either will be eye watering.

Plain old carbon steel with a suitable paint scheme will be more than adequate plus its easy to weld and cheap.

Depends on the scope.

What scope are you using???

I fail to see why the lack of UK images is an issue.

My outfit goes into hibernation in April and out again in late August as there is no astro darkness between these times and I am sure I am not on my own. So there is going to be a serious lack of images from the UK in these months.

The mag has to fill its pages and they can only print what people send in! Maybe the OP should send his/her images to the mag for publication.

Personally I enjoy seeing things I can image from my location but each to their own. I can see the day when paper magazines dont exist any more and that will be a sad day. 😞 

Thanks all.

The master bias are from just 25 subs - that's what I usually take for a master bias as my download speed is very slow ~30 seconds per sub.

I will try both bias frames in a real world processing situation (when we get some darkness!) and see if there is an appreciable difference.

I might also try with 200 subs and see if that makes a difference.

It was the posterized look that made me ask the question.

I am getting my library of calibration files together for the forthcoming season and I thought I would try the Superbias routine in Pixinsight. To my eyes it has made the standard master bias look worse (standard on left - superbias on the right) default settings used.

Any ideas or comments??

A few years ago I went through the same pain that you are having.

An observatory doesn't have to be a wonderful all singing and dancing extension to your house. I built a simple wooden box just big enough to house the rig and everything is controlled from within the house.

It didn't cost a lot but it absolutely transformed my enjoyment of the hobby. From spotting a gap in the clouds I can be imaging in 5 mins. If it clouds over I am packed up in less than 5 mins. Polar alignment just once a year - and as its an annual occurrence I can take my time and get it bang on. No carrying valuable equipment about on icy paths etc.

We get similar weather here to yourself - maybe not as cold but certainly as wet.

We are also going to move in the next few years and I designed it so I can take the box and pier with me just leaving a concrete slab which will be hidden by a bench!

There are some photos here  - https://www.davidbanksastro.com/micro-observatory

and here - https://www.davidbanksastro.com/equipment

Its worth thinking about !!

Well done - you should be very proud of what you have achieved. It's a real credit to you.

1 hour ago, groberts said:

If I may also ask: 

1. I presume 80mm is the drawtube that comes with the guidescope (approx 40mm) plus an extension tube then?
2. Do you happen to know what the size and type of threads (make & female) are for the extension tube?
3. What did you make of the Evoguide + Lodestar x2 combination? I already use a Lodestar  x2 on another rig and find it to be an excellent guidescope.

Yes

Again from memory the threads are T2 - it will say on FLO's website - I popped a Baader click lock on the end and got rough focus by sliding the camera in and out then locked it up and used the fine focuser on the scope to nail it down - never neded to adjust it again after that.

It was an outstanding combo - I still use the Lodestar but now its on an ED72 and even more outstanding!! Lets my mount run happily at around 0.2 arc seconds total RMS in decent seeing.

I dont have the same setup any more but from memory I needed about 80mm extension.

I made a temporary extension tube out of the cardboard tube from a toilet roll and sticky tape to find out how much extension I needed. 😉 

Well done mate!

There is a used Mesu on ABS at the moment 😉 

https://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=163606

Leisure battery - clean quiet smooth power - cannot go over-voltage.

https://lakehomeandleisure.co.uk/products/copy-of-exide-er550-115ah-dual-deep-cycle-leisure-battery?variant=34452247150636&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=CjwKCAjwgdX4BRB_EiwAg8O8HaatLuxGGxW_6jQpr_xDhUkUmOZOJgpf3U-h0ohE6cp5HyYrMNqTuBoC7vkQAvD_BwE

PS - if anyone else needs 'International Paints' products I am happy to supply at cost price plus postage.

Well done John. The rollers to use are 'solvent resistant' ones - I should have put a pack in the box with the paint - sorry!

Great job.

2 hours ago, Dan13 said:

Cheers Billy. Yes I am actually contemplating upgrading the mount but still want to complete this. I'll try your advice.

There is a lovely secondhand Mesu on ABS 😉 

Nae pockets in shrouds etc !!

14 hours ago, Dan13 said:

I get to a point where the belt cog spins nicely and there's no rattle but there's always....always a slight bit of stiffness some where! Any advise would be greatly appreciated 

Its because the gears are not quite round - in the end I picked the high point (the point where it is stiffest) and adjust the backlash at that point. That will leave you with a bit of backlash elsewhere but just run east heavy.

Its a compromise but short of replacing the gears there isn't much else you can do - there is no guarantee that a new set of gears would be any better - they could be worse!! Its a fact of life at the price point.

3 hours ago, Dan13 said:

thanks billy, tbh its in my conservatory with both doors open and wind blowing in, dont think the temp is too my different to what it is now. i know it drops over night but i guess thats something ill have to deal with then, there no way im trying to do this for the first time in the dark  

Understood - I don't know what the weather is like where you are - here its about 15 degrees at the moment and I usually image at around zero or well below which makes a big difference. You dont have to do it in the dark - just cold! 

I don't want to upset you but the adjustments should really be made with the mount at the kind of temperature it will be used at.

I spent ages getting rid of the last vestiges of backlash in my nice warm lounge.

First nice cold night out it needed doing again as a fair amount of backlash had reappeared when everything cooled down.