uhb1966

Hi all!

i am looking around for adapters to mount an EQ6 to a pier. This one looks promising: https://www.geoptik.com/en/prodotto/adapter-for-eq6/  Does anybody have experience with that unit?

Best, U.

23 hours ago, M40 said:

Do you think reverse psychology would work? 

I am so pleased we have clouds so I can take many many many pictures of grey clouds; us amateur cloud gazers are so fortunate we dont have clear skies 😀 

I was thinking about entering a cloud video in the nifty 50 challenge

wow.

On 15/11/2023 at 10:16, Space Oddities said:

Something I've wanted to try for a long time, since I looked into a solar telescope during a star party  

I couldn't find any in EU shops, but @FLO had a few in stocks and cheaper than EU prices, after adding VAT and various customs fees. Purchased on Monday, arrived on Tuesday... Thanks FLO!  

Funny enough, the box didn't contain clouds, but sunlight. Which is pretty amazing since we've had so much clouds and rain these pas couple months... I feel I haven't seen sunlight for a while now.

Perfect timing, so I had a chance to test the Quark this morning at sunrise. I didn't even have to go outside, since my windows are facing east. I repurposed my old 72mm doublet refractor specifically for solar viewing (figured a Quark is cheaper than a 72mm solar telescope, and more versatile), and the view was really nice! I used the Baader 8-24 zoom, the whole disk barely fits at 24mm. I could see some nice protuberances and a couple sun spots. I tried a photo of those protuberances with my phone, it's quite ugly, but a good souvenir of my Quark's first light!

I'll try my 120mm StraTravel another day, to have a better look at those protuberances. And of course, try out some solar imaging at some point, with the handy T2 adapter, also courtesy of FLO  

Now, all I need are some binoviewers... 

Daystar Instruments QUARK - H-Alpha ? Wow. Pretty expensive hardware... have lots of fun 👍🏻

On 15/08/2023 at 17:54, JeremyS said:

https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.06396
 

I'm afraid i can't follow

FWIW, there might be a 3-hour cloudless window tonight - fingers crossed!

On 04/11/2023 at 12:56, Nigella Bryant said:

Noooooooo, I'm a solar observer, lol.

H-Alpha, right?

On 28/10/2023 at 17:46, SteveNickolls said:

The outlook for the future is wet and average temperatures for the time of yeaar.

If anyone is interested in weather forecasting this site is worth subscribing to-

https://m.youtube.com/@GavsWeatherVids

Xheers,

Steve

Very interesting !

On 09/11/2023 at 16:33, Paul M said:

I'll keep it in the box! 😁

But seriously, I'm hoping for it to be low maintenance as it will, hopefully, be sited 70 miles away from home in Rural Cumbria. Providing that dew isn't a problem, the dome will reach an equilibrium of everyday grime and the odd bird poop. Copious rain will do the cleaning and I guess the dome will eventually tarnish and weather to the point of needing a replacement.

I have been thinking about some sort of protection film being slowly moved across the dome... like they had in the formula one cameras

25 minutes ago, Paul M said:

So, my all- sky camera project is finally getting some traction.

The enclosure kit, c/w dome, heater and ASI camera cradle has arrived from Dew Control Ltd. Looks like good stuff.

The project is still held up by the rate at which Raspberry Pi 5's are being produced, because I'm waiting for one of those to free up my Pi 4 for this project.

Anyway, this can sit here like test card, probably until early next year as a place holder for future deliveries..

how are you going to keep the plastic dome clean?

Hi @DeannaRose and welcome from rainy Central Europe!!

alright, let's go...

this is a bit stupid, but... well, i got a new lens exactly one year ago. A sigma 150-600 tele. Its performance is better than my grab and go TS70, at least photography wise.

Then, i realised that if i buy a new camera every 10-12 years, i could only buy 2-3 cameras before i join my forefathers. So i immediately got my a canon eos rp.

One year later (!), i finally realize that the rp's performance uncooled is considerably better than my stone age qhy8's performance cooled.

So here i present you my only terrestrial used hardware that's probably better for astrophotography than my astro gear 🤔

On 16/10/2023 at 23:09, Rusted said:

Thanks. After a long running thread on my observatory build, on C&N, they finally got rid of me.
Because I kept mentioning H-alpha telescope mods in answer to queries. Which were banned from discussion.
I was using a 6" f/8 modified PST myself at the time. You can blame Peter Drew for that. 😉
Fortunately H-alpha telescope mods are discussed at great length by some very clever people on SolarChat!! forum.
Where progress and understanding of the safety, limitations and advantages of modding continues to this day.

 

@Rusteddont dismantle your obsy, it's the coolest we got on this forum!!!

On 23/10/2023 at 21:42, Olli said:

Maybe if I sold my soul 😅

I'm afraid there's not a lot of demand for souls  but have you thought about a kidney? 😇

Welcome! 👍🏻

i want a hacienda in vilaflor!!! 😇

23 hours ago, mikeDnight said:

I've sat in my garden on countless cloudy nights waiting for a sucker hole and have been rewarded with some amazing views of the Moon and planets. I've even observed a comet low in the west when it was thick cloud above, and I was so cold I couldn't move my fingers from my binoculars, and it was snowing. Defeatism is for wimps! 😉

fingers frozen to the binos... that's what i call determination👍🏻

On 28/10/2023 at 11:42, vlaiv said:

I had my HEQ5 guide as low as 0.36" RMS.

Better thing to ask would be - which mounts guide below 0.5" RMS on regular basis.

Here are a few that can do it:

Mesu 200

E.fric

10Micron mounts

Astro-Physics mounts (not sure if all, but I'm certain that some will do that)

ASA direct drive mounts

 

You#re absolutely right; i added the word consistent for that but i didnt put it in the heading---

On 28/10/2023 at 12:54, tomato said:

My Mesu Mk1 guides around 0.6 arc sec total RMS but it has a big dual rig on it which is tricky to balance and all up weight is in excess of 100 kg.

OMG what artillery have you mounted? A big bertha probably

On 28/10/2023 at 02:32, John said:

The forecast was rubbish tonight but, as it turned out, there were enough clear-ish patches to make observing worthwhile.

The value of having a setup that can be quickly deployed is really proving itself I think 👍

Yes, there was a small window of about 1,5 hours over here too, but as my son is here this weekend, i needed some qualitity time with him.

Also my eq-6 mount head is so heavy that i dont like to setup for such a short time - you are absolutely right,  a quick setup is so important!!

100kg? Wow, what kind of artillery are you going to get😲?!

Hi all,

i just read on mounts that

- the usual seeing limits us to about 2 arcseconds anyway, and

- only expensive mounts can get down to or below consistent  .5 arcsec even if guided.

Out of curiousity, which mounts would that be? I am getting with my eq-g / eq6 around 2 arcsec with stretches as low as .7 and as high as 3.0 ...

@DirkSteelewe should by a house on the Teide ....

At least its full moon anyway...

On 19/09/2023 at 14:38, Louis D said:

I have one as well as a GSO RACI.  At my age, I'm finding it incredibly difficult and painful to contort my body to use a straight through finder much above the horizon.  Otherwise, the views are very similar between the two.

its even worse when the target is straight up in the zenith...🤔