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iapa

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Posts posted by iapa

  1. I had a Pulsar observatory installed earlier this year, and had some difficulty insuring it and semi-permanent located equipment.

    My house insurance was happy to insure the observatory and my astro kit in in the house, garden or remote location but not so much for stuff kept in the observatory.

    After some time browsing I found a company that specialised in photography equipment, including that for astrophotography.

    The former increased my premium by <£20pm or there abouts covering some £15K+ of kit over £2K. Under £2K value was ready covered e.g. most of the cameras and some of the mounts and OTAs.

    The latter covers c£10K detailed kit (pier, IT, optics etc.) for £200pa

    Seek and ye shall find :)

     

    • Like 1
  2. 6 hours ago, blinky said:

    Just measured - the obsy will be 2.6 x 2m - the decking is 3.3m long by 3m wide.  So 2m wide should give me space to get round it and 2.6m seems a standard length of cladding - edit, 3.6m is the standard length!  I assume I can reuse the 1m offcuts

    I’m thinking that the gap between fence and obs could be minimise by using that space for pollinator friendly wild flowers - minimal effort required.

    That’s my position for my dome - between fence and base is wild flowers

  3. On 07/07/2023 at 14:15, LDW1 said:

    Based on your last paragraph are you implying that prices for this gear will go down further based on the history that you seem to mention ?  We are still talking the SeeStar 50 and / or similar ?  Right now a low $500 or less !

    I feel I should add to this…

    Since I bought my first desktop IBM PC for c£1700 or so, with a 4.7MHz 8088 cpu, 16K of RAM with no disk drives, you can now buy something the size of a ‘vape’  with 64G RAM, 128G storage for a couple of hundred pounds.

    I did own several other machines such as Dragon, Amstrad 512 and TRS-80.

    These smart telescopes may have a market, particularly in education, which can drive production up and costs down.

    i’m just noting that if a product takes off….. it can develop rapidly.

    Nothing else to add to this thread.

    • Like 1
  4. 21 hours ago, Louis D said:

    Perhaps one of those damp towels used for cooling might work, just over the head instead of around the neck:

    81gcntk4mSL.jpg

    Personally, I've been trying to work out a sunshade around the scope itself so air can still freely move across my body to try to stay cooler.  Perhaps one of those pop-up half-tent beach cabanas with roll-up windows for the scope's tube to poke out of might work:

    d5b0b7fa-9e5f-4494-921f-c4a871dbcd6b.d48

    Looks like an alien shuttle craft.

    Or a parachute

    • Haha 1
  5. The ‘beauty’ of collimating lasers is that they themselves need collimating.

    Here’s one way: 

    I tried this on a couple of these (£+) and it work OK - then I just settled for a Howie Glatter Collimator (£+++) before another company took over manufacture, I can’t comment on the current quality, but the original was excellent.

     

     

  6. 13 hours ago, doublevodka said:

    Think you've hit the nail on the head there, test the market first with a little teaser, then launch a "pro" or similar

    ASIAIR started with a RPi in a plastic case, the progressed to metal case and power management, then added antenna, then an improvement in power management, their own chip and board.

    Progressive improvements.

    • Like 1
  7. On 28/02/2023 at 19:39, 900SL said:

    I've been 100 km off road in Saudi in the desert by myself. 'Fear is the mindkiller', to quote something.    

    I remember that, had to memorise it
    “I must not fear.

    Fear is the mind-killer.

    Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

    I will face my fear.

    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

    And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

    Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

    Only I will remain.”

    • Like 2
  8. 2 minutes ago, Charming Potato said:

    I'm not sure if it transmits data over that port. I've tried looking into the manual but can't find any info. Searching through internet I couldn't find anyone who uses it with a cable. I guess I'll just have to figure out a way to connect it somehow through Bluetooth or Wifi.

    Pg 54 of manual says it is a high speed USB port.

    Apparently Snapbridge can be used for shutter control: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4631473

     

    • Like 1
  9. 32 minutes ago, Charming Potato said:

    2. SA GTi does not come with any sort of plate (I don't know what it is called) to attach the camera with, would it be possible if someone can help me understand what exactly do I need to buy for it? Something from here would be nice just to give me an idea: https://www.astroshop.eu/mountings-accessories/mounting-plates-and-rails/15_55_50?page=1

    On pg4 of the user manual it states:

    Fits standard 3/8 and 1/4 inch tripod/quick release brackets

     

  10. 18 minutes ago, Charming Potato said:

    Thank you everyone for the great suggestions. At this point, I'm thinking I will go with the SA GTi. The kit comes with a tripod and pier extension. And I feel like this is a very good investment that will last me a while, and it is much easier to operate (from watching the YouTube videos at least) and offers a lot of features out of the box. There are a few things that I wanted to clarify if possible:

    1. I use Nikon Z50, and apparently it is a very bad camera in terms of connectivity. It doesn't even feature external intervalometer (at least the wired ones), so there is no way to connect it to a computer or mount to increase the exposure times from 30 seconds. Is there a way I could connect it to a computer/mount to increase the exposure time? I have a RPi 4, and I was planning to connect everything with it using Astroberry, but this seems to be the only problem I am facing. There are no cables available for it as far as I can see.

     

    I see it has a USB port. 

    With my Nikon D90 I used an application called BackYard Nikon, it’s windows only, but if the USB is there it may be possible - I don’t know Astroberry at all I’m sorry.

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