Stub Mandrel

IF Barkis can't help for any reason, I've got a well-equipped workshop, if you want to mark on it what you want taken off with a sharpie and post it to me with the return postage, I'll shorten it for you. PM me for address. I could fit a couple of grub screws as well.

What's the best driver for a Touptek GMOS01200KMB mono cam? In Sharpcap it shows as a GPCAMAR0130M the driver is OK, but the camera seems to be MUCH less bright/sensitive for any given exposure than my ASI120MC - which uses the same chip but with a bayer filter, so it should be LESS sensitive.

Hi David, First, thanks for DSS! Second, I have sometimes struggled to combine data from sessions months or even years apart and get better results than stacking the 'best' of the various nights. I've noticed that if I have three file groups, each with its own master dark, flat and bias, the dialogue offers the median method of combining the flats. I'm guessing its also combining the other control frames across groups. I think this is what's degrading the results. Is there a way to force DSS to only use the darks, flats and bias in each group for the lights in that group? Thanks Neil

Strong tea...

You too! I felt faint after getting out of the bath this morning so I took my blood pressure. Some good news - 102 over 67, I may need to cut down on my pills - hard to believe it was over 190 six years ago!

2.8 Mbs here 😢

Expecting solid cloud, I took my C90 Mak to the meeting this evening just as a 'talking point' - I only took a photo tripod. It did clear at tea break so we looked at the moon in the blue sky, with only the 32mm ep it's about 40x magnification. When I left I noticed the sky had cleared and Jupiter was shining bright. Only a couple of minute to set up again and those of us still there enjoyed nice, but low mag, vies of Jupiter, Saturn and the Moon. All four jovian moons and the two equatorial belts were very obvious, and every so often the seeing settled and the red spot would pop into view. Geoff and I agreed it was at bottom left then I lookedit up on the Sky and Telescope app and yes it was abut an hour away from transiting (the C90 has a 45-degree RACI diagonal). Saturn's rings were really clear, if tiny. The moon looked lovely, and it wasn't to hard to spot the crater Moltke between the upper arms of the three-pointed peninsula in the Sea of Tranquillity and identify the Apollo 11 landing site. Everyone agreed that the C90 is a fantastic grab and go scope with lovely crisp views, plus its cool Celestron rucsack!

You should be able to get sharper by stacking and processing. I did this a year ago April, using a 6" f87 - my 150PL. A good target is to aim to get Aldrin, Collins and Armstrong craters. CXoolins is 2.4km across so resolving it suggests this is pretty much at the theoretical limit for my scope.

I've fitted a length of aluminium section to the 'far side' of the tube rings on mine, as well as providing a handy place to attach a guide scope it's an extra 'grab point' for handling.

Wont it be rather harder to carry the bike lift to the mount than lift the scope ?

very nice pitures Stu, I'm a sucker for pictures with blue sky in.

Not if those figures are accurate.

A 0.25mm hole lets through as much sunlight as the full aperture of a 76mm scope with Baader film on it, but it will be defocused by diffraction and won't come to a point of focus. A typical pinhole will be much smaller. You would need 25 tiny pinpricks 0.05mm across to let as much light through. And how can sticking a patch on your film be less safe than sticking your film into a frame?

How close are the temperatures for your darks? And are you feeling better?

Comment so I can follow this thread 🙂

Perfectly safe if you can fit a patch over the hole that you are 100% happy is secure. No less risky than glueing the film into a card support ring, which 100s of people have done before you.

Congratulations all!

My ASI120MC on my 150PL.

I found I'd uploaded this clip of the moon taken through my 150PL. It's a good example of what to expect - especially the impact of seeing on how (un)steady the image is. The still image below is the result of processing the full length video, rather than just this short clip.

If you use Cura, try the 'experimental tree support' I've used them to print the front half of the top of my LEM and the thrusters came out a bit rough but not too bad considering they are only about 2.5mm long. Vastly better than Autodesk Print Studio's tree supports, much stronger but use a lot more material so slow to print.

Rats, I did a compilation of the Apollo landing sites a few years ago!

This one: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:866068 But with the unsupported base here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2137325 Not sure whether to use the one or two section upper part. (by the way, most of the NASA Saturn V is solid, making it heavy and slow to print, although I suppose you could use a very low fill percentage).

The colour in RGB images is 'real' just typically with the saturation turned up so pale colours become stronger. Like redoing a subtle watercolour in poster paint 🙂 The odd thing is that in general they would look the same if you were closer to them as although closer the light would come from a much more spread out source.

Having a go at the LEM off Thingiverse.

Found it! If you click 'Stub Mandrel Replied to a Topic' you can see some of my other Space 3D prints.