Stub Mandrel

Just a suggestion - the hazard is shattering the glass cover and shards breaking the chip wires, is it not?

Why not put a slip of high-strength tape over the glass before trying to prise it loose. That might stop any chip large enough to cause damage coming free.

Gucki 2.3 x 40 widebinos 28°

These arrived today, of course it's been raining with 100% cloud cover so I've no Idea what they're like to look through. Seem very well made, very light, and came with a nice little carry case.

Add a head strap and they would make a great SteamPunk accessory

1. Miyauchi Bj-100 20/37x100

2. Helios Apollo 15x70

3. Oberwerk Ultra 10x50

4. Opticron BGA 10x42

5. Vortex Raptor 6.5x32

6. VixenSG 2.1x42

7. Strathspey 15x70 (actually 15x62.5)

8. Strathspey Marine 10x50 (actually 10x41)

9. Frank Nipole 10x50 (yes that is a hinge-mount tripod adaptor fixed to it)

10. Zenith 10x50 (belonged to my late father-in-law -sentimental value only)

11. No-name (well, would you admit to it?) 12-60x70 (actually ?-??x49) zoom - with "the latest ruby coatings" possibly the worst binocular I've ever had the misfortune to look through. Kept for when I give talks, as an example of everything to avoid. No, I didn't buy it; it was donated.

Ok, I get it - you are the human fly and have compound eyes...

> The guidescope I'm working on (not pictured) is an old 500mm telephoto.

Interesting, I'm thinking of making a t-mount fitting focuser, if tehre's enough room, it would be fun to make my 500mm f8 lens into a very compact grab'n'go maksutov

It's amazing what you can get away with up to 20MHz+, and there are times I suspect the 10D runs at nearer 20 KHz... anyway nothing to lose by trying  ;-)

I doubt you'd be getting good enough conductivity. There is a reason why those wires are made of gold..

If conductivity was the requirement, they'd be made of silver not gold, its so they are easier to attach and don't corrode.

The silver paint has ~ 1/400 the conductivity of gold but as the cross-sectional area will be many times the diameter of the wire and current path will be very short, I don't imagine the difference would be significant (possibly detectable by the people who use gold plated battery clamps for their in-car HI-FI).

Any minor difference should be compensated for by control frames.

I think its actually doing it that's the challenge.

How about this stuff to re-attach wires?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/0-3ML-Silver-Conductive-Compound-Electrically-Paint-Glue-Wire-Paste-Trace-Repair-/381261278511?hash=item58c4f16d2f:g:SRMAAOSwNSxVOvyD

That's pretty much what I had in mind. CPC do one you can wash off if it goes wrong.

If we can work out a wire-reattaching method... I now have a 10D sensor to practice on :-(

Courageous choice. You've avoided the 'owe it to our lads' fallacy!

Keep up the updates!

In every instance, the Canon S110 always falls short of that seen during a live session.

As a spectacle wearer I can vouch for the fact that the eye/brain combination is very good at doing on-the-fly RGB alignment. It can be fooled, illuminated TESCO signs in red and blue and the HSBC logo on a computer screen both show movement of the two coloured parts when I move my head - in fact the red spelling wiggle under TESCO moves side to side as I shake my head! But when the colours are overlaid, the eye correct (e.g. the word TESCO in white doesn't split into RGB except at the extreme edge of my vision, even though the red bit must be moving as much as the wiggle!)

Personally I find the Moonraker overdone, the understated Zeiss says quality that has gone into the optics, not the bling.

Great pic!

I was able to find the moons in photo paint. You might try something like this:

Create a circular mask around the planet (it can have a wide margin)

Invert the mask

Stretch the histogram until the moons appear, the background will become grey

move the black point until the background matches that around the planet.

You can tweak the histogram.

Clear the mask

For images where the moons are more obvious, you can just mask around them and use the same technique. I did this to bring out Mars and Regulus on my shots of this morning's conjunction.

Don't rush. You've got all the time in the world.

A 450D has live view - does anything show on the screen?

 Took me 3 years and £2000+, every time I rushed it went wrong!!!!

LOL! I  made a model boat that took 16 years and cost me about £20   

...or wood effect Fablon

I'm getting this irrational compulsion to spray my cheap 'frac white...

I can't take the suspense...

I must admit I am surprised how many people use 3-4" refractors and have brilliant results. I had always thought 3" was a kind of 'minimum spec'. It's made me look again at my cheap refractor and discover that it is capable of much more than I thought.

Where can I get one of those wall-mounted tripods?

>phew< I was getting nervous...

I think it picks up local time from your system clock? It certainly is giving me times in BST rather than UTC here.

I think both Skywatcher and Bresser give fair impressions of what you might see in their manuals.

Just remember good is good enough - don't chase minute errors that won't affect your viewing!

...and not an umlaut in sight!