Marky1973

Ha! Yes indeed - arrived today.....clouds...... ?

Just the last thing I thought it would be....kids are angry because they missed it as they are physically incapable of being quiet! ?

Hey Charl, we felt it too in Gloucester....freaky! :-)

Baked beans are off!

So do ! - current forecast suggests two hours clear on Saturday night bewenn 8 and 10!!! and then Sunday morning at 5:00am....11 minutes before sunrise!!! 

Looking forward to getting mine out when the clouds go - all I've managed since it arrived on Wednesday is aligning the finder during the day and building a dew shield! Impressive and hefty beast though! :-)

I was hoping to eat BEFORE sitting down to open the box..... :-)

That's my current plan.... :-) "Well, look it WAS this price... but there is a sale on....." she loves a bargain!

I'll need to sell a child to pay for the filters! Have an IDAS P2  LPF on the way though so will be out again soon! Not much time tonight in all honesty, so a quick play while I check stuff still works! :-) Although there is some annoying wispy cloud around....

One week, just one week.... then the nights start drawing in! :-)

Hope you got the chance old chap! Forecast here was clear from 10pm to 7am.... shame the sky didn't agree. Not too disappointed as the moon was bright and there are so few hours of real darkness these days... think I might have to retire for a month or two from imaging and practice my processing... and maybe get a scope for visual to pass the time! :-)

Yeah, it's your fault for tempting me with it by putting it up for sale! :-)

Yeah and you! I'm nearly finished  - hopefully in bed by 2!

okay, we're up and running again.....

actually - I just read that doesn't help - left it unplugged for a couple of minutes and it looks more promising - it is cooling now. Very odd - don't need that to happen every time I try to take some images....worried that it won't warm up properly either - maybe you were right - I need a regulated bench supply! :-)

Hope you are having more luck than me!

yeah did that, same problem - seen something online that suggests there might be a driver problem - going to download some different drivers and see if that helps.

IT seems to be working - the fan is on - but when I select the COOLER function in ARTMIS, it doesn't let me set the temperture, but it is referring to POWER. Or, if I do try to set the temp, it changes for a few seconds and then says "warming up" and now POWER is 18%???

and then stop working altogether.....

if the ATIK didn't just come up with some sort of POWER 29% alarm and then go into warming up mode....

had an early night last night to make sure I was ready!

Just having a go at M13 tonight - going for an hour of Lum (180seconds) and then think I might do 15 mins each RGB binned, just so I can have a play with the data and see how that goes....walk before I can run! Thought a glob cluster would be easy to get some data on! HAve to get up early again tomorrow, so can't be too late! :-)

Hi Rob

Do you mean like the one's Maplin do - or on the FLO site (Although that is not available at the moment)? Power is one of the things next on my list but, again, something I need to look into before I start trying various options. With your bench supply, can you connect several things to one unit- the ones I have seen only have one pair of binding posts. BUt, presuming you have enough AMPs I guess you can run several items if you can connect them all.

Yeah, hope to get Ha sorted in the next month or two, and was looking at M13 as a possible target to cut my teeth on yesterday when playing around with FOV calculators... so at least I am on the right wavelength with something.

How do you chose your targets? Do you have a "guide" or is it just years of experience, looking up and getting used to the night sky?

Cheers

Mark

Hi Rob

Well, I pulled it - 414EX and power supply coming from FLO, scored a manual (yes, I know) filter wheel from Steve on the forum and sourced LRGB Baader filters from Astro Buy and Sell. That will be enough to get me going and saved me a few quid that I will keep aside to get an IDAS LP filter/Ha filter in the next month or so, once I know what I am doing with the kit.

Thanks again for all your help - I may not have gone with your exact advice, but it has been very helpful in knowing where I am heading!

Clear Skies!

Cheers

Mark

The trigger finger is very itchy..... 

I have found the Baader LRGB set for £191, which is a £20 saving....but when you are spending around £1300, I am not sure whether that is going to have much of an impact! 

:-)

Thanks, Rob. Appreciate you taking the time to humour me and help me out... Time for some more thinking... Might be able to source some filters elsewhere a little cheaper!

Cheers,

Mark

I've been talking to Martin at FLO as well and he recommends the IDAS P2 LP filter - so I could go LRGB and add that one to the mix or go IDAS P2 and Ha and go mono for a bit while saving for some RGB filters separately....if I have understood you right, I can get some decent Mono images then with the IDAS Luminance and the Ha for extra detail? Although that is a little more expensive.....