AlistairW

26 minutes ago, wookie1965 said:

No I have not and not sure how to on a Frac. Reflector easy now.

Checking the focuser is square with the Objective can be done by making a paper mask for the aperture and inserting a collimated laser ( like a Howie Glatter ) in the drawtube. Spin the collimator, and if the laser spot on the paper mask stays dead central - then your focuser is square to the Objective. However, this does not necessarily mean the Objective is collimated. This can be checked by inserting a Cheshire eyepice in the drawtube and looking at the reflection patterns ( that should overlap one another - like a donut ). If they do not, then the idea is to adjust the Objective - which on a triplet is not easy, and quite frankly a lot of fracs today are fixed Objective and can not be adjusted by push/pull screws on the Objective.

I have a question. If you attach an electronic focuser such as a Lakeside to the Moonlite, shouldn't the Lakeside hold it (the focuser) in position, by the nature of the motor drive. Would this not then eliviate the slippage ? - (if you use Bhatinov only and manual focus - this obviously still would have the potential to slip I guess?)

Thanks for replies. Bit more reading and I figure email is not such a good alert anyway, especially if using an iPhone for example. The iPhone only pulls emails every few minutes, and this cannot be changed (unless jail broken). Reason I say email is no good, is that I don't want a rain notification to come through 5 minutes later. So SMS is the way to go, but then you need to sign up for a web-sms service. I have found one such company offering 2.9p per text. I will test this out first to see how instant the texts come through. (Really does make you realise why have an Obsy is a good idea).

Thanks

Alistair

Hello,

So I would like to leave my imaging rig running over night, but I would also like to get some sleep :-)  - so I was thinking what my options are .... (I am on a pier but not in an Obsy).

The way I see it is this. I did build a DIY rain sensor, and it does work, but there need to be enough initial rain to create the circuit and sound the alarm. This sounds too late to me, as a fair bit of rain had fallen before the alarm when off. So now I am thinking of cloud clover (no rain without a cloud right ?) - so would the USB version of this do http://www.modernastronomy.com/shop/accessories/cloud-sensors-accessories/cloud-sensors/ . Perhaps, but the USB version I think is mainly used for 'assessing' conditions, whereas the Deluxe version will give a screen\email warning).

There is one further option from the control software I use (Sequence Generator Pro) - and that is to send an alert if the guide star is lost. But I am wondering if again that would be sufficient warning of rain ?

So how do the automated Observatories work ? - I am sure they must close up before the rain starts. Email is great, but SMS I think would be better as an alert, but I would need to look in to that, as I don't think gmail for example will let you send SMS messages (as there is a cost involved).

Thanks

Alistair.

Thanks Tim - thats a good idea.

I was thinking about leaving my mount outside under a cover, but bring the OTA inside. My question is -, is it ok to leave the counterweights on the bar - or would that put unnecessary stress on the mount ?

More bits added ... someone said this would happen .... :-)

Getting ready for an attempt tonight ....

Hello,

Going to go for a rebuild of my HEQ5 pro mount. Looking to probably buy the belt mod at the same time. Also I have read it's possible to upgrade the bearings, in particular the worm gear bearing. Does any one have any details on the bearings that can be replaced ? -  and am I right to assume the RA and DEC assemblies are much the same. Going to be following AstoBabies details for much of this I expect. Any other tips much appreciated.

Thanks

Alistair