Skipper Billy

I have a presentation on astro-imaging that I have used several times with adult groups and even though I say so myself it is fairly well polished now.

I have been asked to give a presentation on the same subject to the local Scout group who I understand are between 10 and 14 years old.

Its a long time since I had any discussion or interaction with someone that age.

Anyone done anything similar, got any pointers ??

Attention span, what interests someone that age??

Oooohhh - that's almost pornographic .....

Its still a cracking mount - you could spend a lot more money and see only a small improvement.

I would strip it, clean it and regrease it and take your time rebuilding it to get rid of every bit of backlash that you can.

Just follow this guide step by step.  http://www.astro-baby.com/EQ6 rebuild guide/EQ6 Strip Down Home.htm

It will easily carry two of the outfits you are proposing!

Have you tried the park/unpark function in CdC?

Glad you got it sorted.

Thank you for posting a closing post - all too often people post issues and a load of people with extensive knowledge pile in to assist, freely giving their valuable time and expertise then no more is heard which is quite rude but more importantly people with the same issue trawling through don't know if the issue was satisfactorily resolved.

So well done you!

Nice !!!!  😉 

Cant help with the cable question as mine has a different version of the SiTech box - sorry!

Lucas Mesu speaks very good English - drop him an email. info@mesu-optics.nl 

Its still coming down too !!!

The standard NUC has 4 USB ports but you can get an aftermarket replacement lid that has an extra 2 or even 4 extra USB ports - 10 min job to fit.

I got my NUC of eBay - refurbished. Lid also from eBay. Works superbly.

I use an Intel NUC - i5 - 16 gig Ram - SSD - has worked down to minus 20º - 6 USB ports - cant fault it. Controlled by RDP from inside. The bit of heat it generates keeps it dry - its currently running a 'darks' sequence' in this sort of weather.

https://www.davidbanksastro.com/equipment

1 hour ago, Robny said:

I'd forgotten how little they hold...

I remember having to store my course work on those for college.  Before that in my even younger days I remember playing computer games that came o  these:

https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/num/525inch.htm

Before that even I remember bek g sat in front of my Commodore 64 waiting 45 mins for a game to load in a trans watching the flashing screen praying that the TAPE wouldn't stop 3/4 through loading!!!

Remember it well - I had a Vic20 which had a fraction of the power of the Commodore!

There is a very good SpaceX StarLink tracker here - https://me.cmdr2.org/starlink/#1524;

I believe you can get an older version of Photoshop (CS2) legally and free.

Many more people use PS than Gimp and help might be more readily available.

Although its an older version it still has all the tools you will need.

Or you could get a 45 day free trial of Pixinsight ??

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html

Truly outstanding. 

I sometimes forget how old I am and that many members on this site wont have a clue what a floppy disc is!!

https://www.silicon.co.uk/data-storage/storage/tales-tech-history-floppy-disk-209049

It holds a massive 1.2 meg of data - ie you would need 3 or 4 of them to store a single photo from a mobile phone!!

I use a CCD camera and relatively small numbers of long subs so I dont generate massive amounts of data.

I recently helped a pal out with a batch of CMOS data 90 each of lights in Lum, Red, Green and Blue plus a full set of darks, bias and flats. The processing folder reached over 300gb !!!!

Personally, at the end of the season I transfer that seasons data to an external drive - £30 for a terabyte !  No reason not to keep the data. The way this season is going I could fit everything on a floppy disc!

Looks like its working well !!!

Well done - keep going!!

This is awesome !!!

Keep going!!!!

Makes a Mesu look flimsy!!

3 hours ago, Frank the Troll said:

This is the camera im thinking of getting

https://www.harrisontelescopes.co.uk/acatalog/altair-gpcam2-imx224-colour.html#SID=1714

Unless you need a colour camera for something else I would choose a mono camera - much more sensitive.

Finder guider will be more than adequate. A converted finder guider is usually OK to guide a scope of up to about 1000mm.

Pop your details into FLO's calculator and see what it gives you - http://astronomy.tools/calculators/guidescope_suitability

I would think your biggest challenge will be avoiding flexure unless you are planning to change the mounting system of your guide scope??

Lucky you!

Last night was the 67th cloudy night in succession here in NW Scotland !!!

I look forward to seeing your first narrowband image - good luck!

Drop nosed pin ?

https://www.sheridanmarine.com/product/canopy-quick-release-drop-nose-pin

I get focus then use a small piece of gorilla tape to stop the focus ring moving then pop a dew band for a 3" scope on the lens shade. Its powered by a 11.1v 5000maH lipo battery which also powers the camera.

Even after 5 - 7 hours on a damp night there is no dew on the lens - plenty on the camera body though!

Sept to March - outside in a shed.

April to August a nice dry cupboard that backs onto the boiler room (warm and dry).

If you can attach a single unprocessed sub I will gladly run it through CCDI for you which will analyze and report back any tilt or curvature etc.

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Hopefully I've found it - backlash compensation was switched off

What's backlash ??? 😉 (Mesu owner 😉 )

This is what the calculator is giving me - looks like I need a shorter guide-scope or bigger pixels !! Having said that I am VERY happy with my guiding ~0.4" Total RMS and nice tight round stars!

I would agree that a simple traffic light system for bad - borderline - good would be an excellent addition.