Skipper Billy

2 minutes ago, Dan13 said:

can I ask if I need to grease the bearings on arrival or are they already greased? 

Already greased - no need to do anything to them.

HTH

Absolutely outstanding. Well done.

Aaaaargh - you just spoiled my day by mentioning the RC that I had !!!! The very mention makes my blood run cold 😉 

Happy to run images through CCD for you as often as you wish - just PM me and I will give you my email address to save cluttering up the forum.

Good luck!

David

CCD Inspector suggests that your focus is good and that you have a fairly flat image suggesting that your spacing is good.

It also reports that the likely problem is straightforward collimation.

Welcome to SGL. Cracking wee scope.

The light nights gives you time to make a light shroud for it out of a yoga mat etc and the fettle the focuser by adding a few wraps of PTFE Plumbers tape around the threads of the focuser to remove any slop and give a nice smooth action.

Enjoy it! Mine is my most used scope. 

I have used the Atik EFW1 (no longer made) EFW2  and currently EFW3 with 7 x 2" filters - all of them have performed flawlessly.

53 minutes ago, Alekos said:

May I ask what camera and lens you were using?

Canon 1100D and a Samyang 14mm for the Aurora and same camera and a 400mm lens for the moon.

13 minutes ago, Alekos said:

 I have heard about the 500 rule and the 300 one but I don't know if you are talking about doing this with a modified camera or not.

These were taken with a standard off the shelf Canon DSLR - not modified.  A modified camera could have been used - the moon picture would probably look sharper and the Aurora just the same. 

The 300 rule still applies whether the camera is modified or not.

Ευχαριστώ 😉 

2 hours ago, Alekos said:

I don't think I'm going to buy a tracking mount since they are pretty expensive and I don't need it yet. However am am looking at different telephoto lenses.

There is a thing called the rule of 300 for cropped sensors. (Rule of 500 for 'full frame' cameras)

Divide 300 by the focal length of your lens and that gives you the maximum exposure time you can use without getting too much star trailing.

EG a 14mm lens on a crop frame sensor = 300/14 = 21 seconds exposure

When you start looking at telephone lenses it drops rapidly.

EG 1 200mm lens on a crop frame sensor - 300/200= 1.5 seconds

With a long lens on a fixed tripod the sun (WITH A SOLAR FILTER!) is a good target and there is always the Moon.

The advice that Carole gave you is good quality advice and is maybe worth a second read.

You don't say where you live - if its well North the Aurora is also a target.

These image were taken with a simple DSLR on a fixed tripod IE nothing fancy. But you will soon want some form of tracking mount.

I am no expert but it certainly doesn't look right to me.

This is what I get from the same scope - I am really not into pixel peeping and this is just a Jpeg but to my old eyes it looks like it should look and I dont see the same problem that you have Ken.

Good luck - I hope you get it resolved. 

These are the things I was thinking of.

They are about 52mm long and the hole centre is 32mm up from the base.

The downside is they are a tenner each (£7 to you).

Or add a weight to the front? I had to add 7kgs to the front to get a sensible balance point.

Different scope but same principle.

16 minutes ago, MartinB said:

Of course, it's one thing to have an immaculate calibration,  and very worthwhile, but quite another to expect people viewing your images to be seeing them as you intended!!

I am used to that - no-one has ever thought my images are as good as I think they are!! 😉 

I am keeping my eyes open for a Spyder5 Pro then at least I cant blame screen calibration.

Cheers

Thanks Alan and Julian

I will have a play!

Thanks Alan

Its my two monitors hooked up to my main PC that i use for image editing that really need doing - I will have a look to see if they have seperate profiles. They are identical monitors but an image viewed on one then the other are considerably different.  I couldn't find any info on whether or not the Spyder system can handle two monitors on one graphics card.

1 hour ago, Dr_Ju_ju said:

Yes, but you must use Colour Management from the old control panel, it will even allow you to calibrate printers etc....

Thanks Julian - found it!!

Subtle but noticeable difference and looking at the same image on my different screens it now looks very similar.

Probably not as good as the Spyder kit but better than it was.

Many thanks.

On the (excellent) Zoom meeting last night hosted by FLO the presenter talked about calibrating screens so that an image looks the same on any calibrated monitor.

It makes good sense and I am surprised that it hadn't occurred to me before now.

The bit of kit suggested was the Spyder5 Pro and it looks like it has been superceded by newer models.

I run two monitors from a single graphics card - does anyone know if I can calibrate these two screen independently??

I have emailed the manufacturers helpline but thought I would ask the collective wisdom.

That's suspiciously close to a boats sprayhood mounting foot. I am back at work on Weds and I will have a look to see what the sizes are. I guess marine grade stainless won't be an issue?

On 23/06/2020 at 14:29, RobH2020 said:

That's great! May i ask how you did that? I'm afraid I'm only a beginner in Stellarium.

There are many videos on YouTube etc and this is a good 'how to'.

The main difference between an Astronomer and an astrologer is about 100 IQ points 😉 

1 hour ago, Astro_90 said:

She doesn't specialize in astrology, as I do, but she is already actively promoting her profile.

Wrong hobby buddy 😉 

Or get one of these?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adm-replacement-saddles/adm-vixen-style-saddle.html

Or you could create a photo realistic landscape in Stellarium then you can see at a glance if something is visible or not?

See attached - it tells me that at 0100 tonight Saturn will be briefly visible above my polytunnel - and it was last night - absolutely spot on. It also allows you to change the date and month so you can see what will be visible and when.

As a boat builder/repairer I can feel a retirement hobby business coming on...... 😉