tomato

Thanks Gav, New Mexico it ain’t, but it’s the best I could do and keep Mrs Tomato 100% on board, because without her, I would still be working for a living.

Thanks very much for this, from what I had read on the council website I was hoping that these lights would go off at mid-night. However, you have probably gathered from the photos that it is a new build estate, and I think the lights maybe still be under the developer’s control as they currently stay on all night. According to the link, they should come under the partial lit remit.

Apologies for the rather pretentious post title, it is actually the start of the Tomato and Tomatobro collaborative back garden observatory. I’ve now retired to semi-rural Shropshire and we can now make a start on this long awaited project. Observatory will consist of a second hand Pulsar Dome and separate shed for the warm room in the corner of the garden. The outlook is OK apart from one LED street light directly opposite, will have to see how much of an issue this is for imaging. First lot of materials landed with expert precision by the truck driver using a wireless controller for the crane, I was most impressed. More posts to follow as the build progresses.

Really like the 3D printed components, looks like the technology was made for the AP hobby.

Congratulations to both parties, M & MC jests aside, if I may voice one small regret it is that the number of top notch UK Astro retailers has gone down by one.

Yes, I’ve seen the installed protector bars on the latest mounts, a useful mod as this motor/encoder is indeed quite vulnerable.

Most Astro kit is fragile if you drop it or clatter it in to something solid, and the setting up and taking down is tedious for sure. However, in the quest for the best dark skies in the UK, I will be considering transporting the Mesu and an Esprit 150 to mid-Wales, a 100 mile round trip from my soon to be new home location, I’ll keep you posted!

I’m sorry Olly, but I’m not with you on this one. I might agree if I routinely collected quality subs every session, but until I do, processing for me is very much a ‘trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear’ type of activity, from which I rarely derive much enjoyment. That much repeated phrase from the early programming days ‘Garbage in, Garbage out’ keeps ringing in my ears. There are a number of posts on SGL where very accomplished imagers have said something like “the data made processing a breeze”, or words to that effect, that’s where I want to be. Unfortunately, I still want to do it from the UK, that’s the challenge for me.

Here is my two penn’orth analogy: Who won last year’s F1 Championship, Lewis Hamilton or the CEOs of all the sponsoring companies who sunk money into the team? I think the driver and the team who built and raced the car deserve the credit, rather than those who bankrolled it. Any UK based imager knows how frustrating this hobby can be so if I comment on an image that happens to have been captured from our cloudy climes rather than, say, New Mexico, Arizona or Spain, I try to acknowledge the fact in the post, because in my opinion that makes it that little bit more special.

The Mk1 is portable, I’ve been putting mine up and taking it down every session for 5 years, you just need: 1. A sturdy, large flightcase. 2. A strong back, or some willing helpers. 3. A vehicle with a decent amount of space if transporting it to a dark site. 4. A fair degree of motivation to want to do this.

Hey, I do this all the time at work, and they all think I’m an expert, maybe it’s a good thing I’m about to retire

Just think of all those CCDs and CMOS cameras flooding the second hand market...

Very interesting article, but from my point of view the key point is to define soon. I retire next month, I’m not waiting 5 years to spend some of my pension pot.

I think it’s a bold step to cease manufacture of a design that has been very successful, but Lucas is clearly an innovative engineer so all credit to him for moving the design forward. And why the move to the ver 1 Sitech controller, cost?

Great result, super field of view with amazing detail.

Unfortunately with my current set up location, I have little need to meridian flip as one hemisphere of the sky is almost completely inaccessible. Guiding performance with the Mesu can vary a lot from session to session even though I polar align with Sharpcap to <30” every time (still having movement on the final tighten down). Last night imaging M106 I was getting total RMS of 0.6”, with very few corrections in Dec but RA needing regular corrections in both directions. I reduced the RA aggressiveness setting in PHD (currently at 65%) and this helped a bit as there was an element of over correction happening. But... on nearly every session I get periods of around 60 secs or so with near perfect tracking, with no corrections on either axis. This has to be due to seeing conditions I presume, but my guiding exposure time is 3.5-4.0 secs which should be enough to smooth these out?

Thanks Steve, I have Tomatobro to thank for this, a very competent (now retired) engineer. It really does perform, will go the full auto focus route when the permenant observatory comes together.

Here is another ‘DIY’ take on a motorised focuser. As you can see, provision was made to retain the use of the lock on the focuser, but in practice it is not needed, even with a heavy camera set up pointing at the zenith.

I’m really late to this thread, like others I don’t know how I’ve missed it especially as I am a massive fan of galaxy images. It is quite simply the best M31 I have ever seen. One of my pet projects for when I retire and get a permenant set up is a multi panel detailed image of M31, after viewing this I will be giving it go, but I can’t see me getting anywhere near this result, it is just superb.

First class images, all of them.?

New Pulsar domes are pricey in my view for what they are, so that’s why I went the 2nd hand route, only to discover that the older versions are not compatible with Pulsar’s drive kits. Mind you at £2.5k for the dome and shutter kits, they aren’t exactly cheap either. So will be going the DIY route for this, thanks to the many useful posts on this subject by the SGL community.?

You won’t be disappointed! An Esprit 150 recently purchased by Tomatobro from FLO with the Es Reid inspection is now coupled with my Mesu 200 and imaging results are living up to expectations?? Just be careful lifting it on your own, it’s a heavy weight in all respects.

Wow, certainly a different take on the many, many images of this region. I really like how the detail has come to fore in the surrounding regions and how the horsehead is enhanced by the background curtain of nebulosity, much more than you see in LRGB renditions, IMO. A fabulous image, I’m very glad you posted it.

I have to echo Davey-T's advice, for another £700 or so you can have a Mesu, a proven high capacity, precise mount, which has a wealth of users and hence good community support. I remember similar discussions when the CEM60 came out, not sure how it turned out in the end, as it doesn't seem to be discussed much on SGL?

Olly, a very enjoyable review, and what a nicely engineered solution to the plug problem.