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Helen

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Posts posted by Helen

    Light shrouds for trusstube dob

    in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice

    Posted

    Thread revival time 😁

    I have an Obsession ultra compact dob which also has 3 sets of poles.  When I was in the States a couple of weeks ago I took the opportunity to pick up an Astrosysytems shroud - ordered as designed for Obsession UC.  So have got it home and it is just a standard tubed shroud 🙄. So have been looking at ways to keep it out of the light path.

    I thought I'd share here was looks promising (waiting for first light...). 

    Another thread on here about dewshields mentioned Proplex. At £4 for a big sheet in Wickes it is cheap enough to experiment with!

    IMG_20190901_200844.thumb.jpg.e863b5501c5731498db3b94349f5634f.jpg

    It turns out it is ideal when cut into strips.  It is really lightweight and easy to cut. It seems to be keeping enough shape too.  At the moment I've got two ribs, but will see how it works in practic

    Helen

    IMG_20190901_200910.jpg

    Power supply for go-to

    in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice

    Posted

    No silly questions 😉  it's all about learning 😁

    I'm assuming you currently power your mount from a cable that looks like this https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-mount-power-cable-for-sky-watcher-mounts.html - so has a fitting to go into a cigar socket.  There will be nowhere to plug that in to the celestron powrertank.  The celestron does come with a cable, but for a celestron mount, and the size is slightly different and so it may not work.

    Hope that helps 😊

    Helen

    • Like 1

    Power supply for go-to

    in Getting Started Equipment Help and Advice

    Posted

    56 minutes ago, Adam1234 said:

    Thinking of going for this one? It's a bit pricier than one of the car jump starters, but a lot smaller and lighter which suits me, and at my current stage in my astronomy career I only need something that's going to power the scope for a couple hours and give me some enjoyment. 

    https://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/celestron-lithium-lifepo4-powertank.html

    A nice battery 🙂   Just note it doesn't have a standard cigar socket outlet, so you'll need an adapter https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-silicone-21mm-dc-jack-to-female-cigarette-socket.html or different a cable https://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/lynx-astro-silicone-power-cable-21mm-dc-jack-to-21mm-dc-jack.html to use it  (if you get from FLO just email them to check the connections 😉 )

    Helen

    TeleVue - a VERY brief first light

    in Discussions - Eyepieces

    Posted

    One more thing to think about is field of view.  The eyepieces you have are all relatively narrow field.  So you may be able to still get the framing you like but at higher magnification with a higher power, wider field eyepiece.  And for manual then as you say wider is easier.

    I love my 24 Panoptic in all my scopes.  

    My favourite 16mm is the William Optic/Nirvana UWAN.  I also like the 13 Nagler.

    May be an idea to play around with FLO's five calculator.

    Enjoy the hunt!

    Helen

    • Like 3

    Case for Tak FC100 Class

    in Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, A McEwan said:

    That's the very same case I use.    :) 

    ...and me 🙂 

    I also found the case that my william optics 123 came in works well too when I'd like a bit more protection (eg when I want to be able to put things on top of it without worrying).  It looks like they no longer make them though.... https://www.astroshop.es/bolsos/william-optics-bolso-de-transporte-para-fluorostar-98-110-123/p,22230

    Helen

    • Like 3

    Question for Tak FC100 & AZ GTi owners

    in Discussions - Mounts

    Posted

    I've got mine in parallax rings and use a standard vixen dovetail.  I also use a telrad which is currently attached to a ring via another vixen dovetail and an ADM small vixen dovetail holder (like the ones used for piggy-backing a guide scope.  Seems to work well 🙂   

    I'm actually not that impressed with the finish on the parallax rings, given their price, and I think the WO rings would be nicer and cheaper 😉 

    The Tak 100 and azgti is a nice combination.  

    Helen

    What did the postman bring?

    in The Astro Lounge

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Greymouser said:

     

    @Helen They look like camera film cases and I seem to remember you mentioning something about launching home made rockets at a star party? A link?

    I have no idea what the wire is for

    Just add alka selzer and water (and stand back!!!) 😉

    The cable is may be a snap cable to allow you to control a dslr camera from your mount 🙂  Have fun, they are neat little mounts!

    Helen

    • Like 1

    where was you on Wed. 11th Aug. ‘99 ?

    in The Astro Lounge

    Posted

    On 12/08/2019 at 12:45, Astroscot2 said:

    I was 10 miles north of Verdun right on the centre of the path of totality, I awoke to heavy rain and cloud that morning, drove 1 hour North under clearing skies, It was a spectacular sight.

     

    Mark  

    We were somewhere in northern France.  We travelled the day before, not booked a hotel (not realising how busy it would be!!) and ended up spending the night (I couldn't say 'sleeping'!) in the car in a small town square.  We used the facilities at the local bar (which thankfully opened for breakfast 😄 ).  When it got light it was raining - we thought we'd spent an uncomfortable night in the car for nothing.  So we just drove north following the brighter weather until we found mostly broken clouds, we parked on a track in a field on hill.  The only kit was a camera and a 2 bits of card with a pinhole!  W saw parts of partial, but we were lucky with totality - seeing and feeling the whole thing!  I remember most both the darkness travelling across the landscape towards us and the cheers doing the same.  Another car was parked about 100 yards away, and at the end we felt compelled to go to them.  They were Dutch, we didn't undertsand each other much, but the need was there to just share the amazing thing we'd seen. 

    We then tried to get a hotel room near Rouen that night and failed again - I insisted we keep driving until we found somewhere (2 hours later we avoided another night in the car and without facilities!).

    It was an amazing experience - and definitely got us hooked on eclipses.  I was in China and USA for totals, we were due in Turkey but Mike got taken ill in the airport hotel and so we didn't get there 😞  Thinking of Chile next year, and certainly the next US one.

    It was film only in those days, and Mike hadn't done any prep on settings etc.  So we were interested to see what he'd got.  We grinned a lot when these came out! (sorry about the reflections, but you get the idea 🙂 )

    IMG_20190813_235403.thumb.jpg.bc3d2ac8c23796a90d21c8c333b9b38a.jpg

     

    We then cntinued down to Annecy and had a lovely couple of weeks holiday (we had booked that bit 😉 )

    Helen

     

    • Like 1

    Doing EEVA with tablet computers

    in EEVA - Discussion

    Posted

    The ASI usb3 cameras can be used directly with a tablet (you may need an OTG ) with ASICap.   I used a 224 with an asus 7 tablet and a solar scope at a school recently and it was easy for the kids to see what was happening and take pictures (the 224 was too small a chip for a full disk, so next time I'll use a bigger camera). 

    I haven't tried stacking and processing with the tablet though.

    Helen

    • Thanks 1
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