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Phil Fargaze

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Everything posted by Phil Fargaze

  1. This method is kind of basic but it suits me at the moment. There is a very good web page I came across which helped me get set up and includes some warnings to heed to avoid any fried electrics etc and it goes on to describe the more advanced methods of connection. See here
  2. I have recently connected my Laptop to my HEQ5 Pro via this method. The black curled cable on the left goes to the mount. The grey cable comes out of the RJ-11 port on the handset to a serial plug. Then plugged into that is a USB to serial converter cable which connects to the laptop via the USB plug. I then run my planetarium programme, which in my case is redshift 8, to point the mount to objects displayed on the laptop. This can also be done via WiFi adaptor with my particular programme but I`m not sure which adaptor would be suitable.
  3. I`ve just come back from a short family break at Kelling Heath and it was as busy as what you would expect for the end of August bank holiday weekend. ( The weather wasn`t good but at least we were in a lodge!) The touring fields were full and the lodges and caravans were well populated as well. There is an entry barrier so that they can take party details. The weather improved for Sunday night and there was a singer in the bandstand and some visiting food vendors were parked up, so the square was full of families enjoying a normal night out. However current Covid restrictions obviously had an impact. We didn't use the pools but they were operating a time slot usage. We went to the Forge and Terrace Friday night expecting it to be busy but we were shown to a table straight away. (Although we were told it was very busy on the Monday to Wednesday because of the eat out to help out offer). There was a restricted menu and the play area with pool tables and machines was shut. The September 1940s weekend has been cancelled but after seeing how well the park seems to be operating I would expect the October Star party to be OK to continue unless of course current government guidelines change.
  4. On my quest to visually view the northern Caldwell objects I came up against the challenge to view the Crescent Nebula (C27). From a dark site in Suffolk with my 10" dob I finally bagged it in Oct 2017 after a few attempts. Here is my log book entry:- "Very faint off circular transparent structure. Wasn`t sure if I was seeing all of it or part of it." 25mm eyepiece 48x OIII filter. Conditions were good and the site is really dark and I still struggled to see it, so I would consider it a tough target. It`s definitely going on my list to revisit this autumn.
  5. Regarding planets, you may find it easier to use a dedicated digital colour camera. I havn`t really had much progress with planets with the Watec myself, but give it a try and see what you think. However, I`m confident you will be impressed with it`s deep sky capabilities though.
  6. Hello. Yes you will need a C mount adaptor as shown Here. I Have the long one as well as the short one. I use the long one combined with a focal reducer to provide a larger field of view. I also have the book Macavity recommended and also find it excellent. The book describes using colour filters and processing etc.
  7. Hello and welcome. I`ve been stargazing from my location near to London for over forty years. I found this book to be a good bedtime read when it is cloudy.
  8. If you are stuck for any bits of material give me a shout. I work with metal and I`ve got all sorts of bits laying about.
  9. Without the option of a lathe I would use a flap wheel as Doc mentions. Don't separate the part from the tube. Then I would choose a 50mm dia flap wheel, 40 or 60 grit, and use oil or tallow etc to prevent clogging. Then gradually sand at the hole and rotate the tube to get an even shape. Just make sure the drill doesn't overheat.
  10. I had a prediction from Calsky that the Moon would cross the face of the Moon from my home location at 20:39 BST. I thought I would give it a go even if the sky was still light and there was a large local tree in the way! Anyway, I manged to get something. It can just about be seen moving from top centre down to the left in the Giff.
  11. I’m a bit of an ‘offcut magpie’ at work so if you are stuck for any odd bits of metal, just let me know and I’ll see if I can help.
  12. For a general idea of elevation I sometimes use my mobile phone with the Velux roof pitch app.
  13. Hugh Allen certainly maintained the high quality of the BAA webinars so far and explained a potentially complicated subject in logical steps.
  14. I guess your hand set is the same layout . I’ve attached a picture of mine. When I press ‘user’ which is no 9 key, I get the screen as shown, for example. The bottom line is the RA and DEC which can be changed and is inputted by the number pads. The plus or minus of the dec value is changed by the up or down arrows.
  15. I have an Orion XT10 with the push to system and I remember finding an object before by displaying the RA and DEC. It was a bit fiddley but wasn't too bad. As mentioned before I would think it will be difficult to do at high elevations. Normally if I wanted to find a comet I would input it`s RA and DEC as a `User-Defined Object` then it is a simple matter of just re calling the object and pushing the scope to it.
  16. It’s quite a normal looking shed, but you might notice the two part roll off roof.
  17. I`ve stored my 10" dob in the observatory for many years now. The observatory is quite a well ventilated steel construction. I keep it in a padded scope bag such as one of these here and I put the base next to it, then finally I cover both parts with a shaped tarpaulin such as an outdoor furniture cover. So far I haven't had any problems with moisture affecting the mirrors as far as I can tell. If the scope is damp after using it I will leave the cover unzipped until the scope has dried off. This will usually be by the next day. The scope case has been a good investment and especially useful when I take the scope camping to a dark site etc.
  18. A great introduction to variable star observing, I shall be giving it a try!
  19. I have seen a small round black object travel quite fast through the scope in front of the Moon before, only once though. Difficult to say how far away it was and the scale of things but my best guess is that it was probably a lost helium balloon, otherwise as we know, there is a whole load of stuff flying about in Earth orbit.
  20. That`s bad luck, especially when you`re on course for a positive result! I thought I would monitor this one just in case even though I had a low probability, however when the scope ended up pointing at the Moon I spent the next ten minutes trying to find out what the problem was until I gradually realised the Moon really was in the way!
  21. When I do my two hour journey it is to camp out for at least two nights. I wouldn't fancy going too far on a working week either. I don't usually do short trips because they would not be beneficial enough. So I just have my twice yearly camping trip to look forward to which is timed for a New Moon and the weekend so I can never be sure what the weather will be up to.
  22. In the spring and autumn I take myself off to Suffolk to a dark site with a claim of SQM being 21.75 and located about 3.5 miles in from the coast of the North Sea. I have had occasions of dew and fog but at least I can go prepared for the dew. When the sea mist is about it can be patchy so I usually end up chasing gaps, but also with a bit of preparation I can be ready for this as well. For me, any disadvantage to being near the coast is offset by the convenience of a two hour straight forward drive up the A12 to get to the site.
  23. Got an update for you! I`ve had a clear sky this eve with a well placed Moon so I went out to double check if I could get focus with the Watec. I used my 10" F4.7 dob with a standard focuser and had VirtualDub running on the laptop. I connected my old Watec 120N+ and I could not get focus with a 0.4 focal reducer in place. I removed the focal reducer and used a short nose and I achieved focus! I then connected my Watec 910HX and got no focus with reducer but manged to get focus without reducer as well. I had it in the back of my mind that I tried the Watec with my dob without success but obviously I am mistaken. This was quite a while ago and I think back then I might have been trying to get a DSLR to focus on the dob instead. Anyway, I must express sincere apologies for my mis information, and hopefully the Watec 902 should be OK to focus on a dob as well. The F.O.V could not contain the whole of the Moon, more like about 3/4 of a Moon width. I did a bit of drift timing and got a time of 1 min 21s for a point to drift from edge to edge of the F.O.V. on the laptop monitor. It was a bit fiddly keeping the Moon in view and I need to get the dob bearings running smoother because it was a bit sticky tonight. I`ll give it another try soon on some faint targets when the Moon is out of the way.
  24. Looks like you`ve got all the gear to get up and running. However I`m not familiar with the 902H2 supreme but I`ve had a look at the specs here and it looks like the camera does not do long integration, which is desirable for deep sky. For comparison, my current Watec is a 910HX/RC specs here and looking at the `shutter speeds` the 902 has 1/50 to 1/100000 which is fast. The camera is noted for being suitable for meteor and occultation work. Looking at the 910 `shutter speeds` it ranges from 1/50 to 1/100000 plus up to 256 fields. Which means it integrates the image up to a maximum of 5 seconds, which is good for building up an image of a faint target. Anyway give it a try and see what you think.
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