Demonperformer

When it flew past Pluto & Charon, I remember someone describing it as being like sinking a 3500 mile hole-in-one without being totally sure where the hole was when you struck the ball. This is truly remarkable. The image on the right it definately looks double to me, but no mention of that in the article. Artifact? A moon? Anyone know?

Looks promising.

Checked Peak2Valley website and the CCDSPEC is also discontinued.

Well, yes, but at $1500 per user per year for the standard version, one would want it to be fairly satisfying ...

I like it ... except that it gives me one more reason to fork out for one of these new-fangled printers!

Nice going. I keep thinking about buying one of these beasts. Currently trying to learn sketchup - no point spending out on a printer before I can produce the templates for what I need!

Not sure, but my guess would be that it is something to do with the central obstruction of the mak (loss of light grasp).

Also, how far apart are your alignment points? Slight errors on close alignment points result in magnified errors as you move further away. Alignment on my SE mount got a lot better when (1) I started using a reticle eyepiece, and (2) I started using points that were significantly different in both alt and az.

Nice one, Lucas. Do you intend adding any OIII into the mix?

I could do with something like that for my 8" sct when I'm trying to get it onto the EQ6 mount.

New filter ... quite excited to see how they perform in the field (or garden ) ...

I had never used mine, but wanted to check it worked before selling it. Of course, I couldn't find the manual that came with it so went looking on the Internet and found this ... eventually.

Granted this might be of limited interest, but I had a major problem trying to find this this morning as Skywatcher seem to have decided anyone still using one of these can fend for themselves and have removed it from their website. So, in case anyone else is looking - and in case the site I found it on decides to follow SW's example - I am uploading a copy of the SW syntrek manual here so one will always be available. Syntrek manual.pdf

It's only just over six months, Gina

I have the standard one, but would go for the -L if I were puchasing now. Not only useful for really dark sites, but also for directional measurements in more 'urban' sites. Even with the standard one, I get a drop of nearly 2 magnitudes as I drop it towards streetlight level (even with the new 'directed' streetlights), but I think the extra-narrowness of the -L version would provide mroe useable readings at lower altitudes.

You want to know what's really sad ... there are occasions (I'm not going to say how many, but just think of a number and increase it) when it's a clear sky and I can't even make the effort to set up at home. Must be getting old!

It is one of those purchases that I wasn't sure how much use it would get when I bought mine. Would not want to be without it now.

You had me at 'easier to make'!

HI, Lorenzo, & welcome to SGL.

Love the idea of plugging wife adapter into the mount. Ain't autocorrect great.

Well, I guess that is better than wanting to sell-up completely. Also, you got an additional star on the right of the pic (HD 5914 - m6.46?) - I suspect the dot at the bottom is a hot pixel as it also appears on the way-out-of-focus shots. Don't know what your exposure time was like, but I would guess that it was not particularly long for focussing on Polaris. So that would be promising. I used to try to use my 6/8SE mount with a refractor and found that (for some reason I could never fathom - don't you just hate those?) it would only align if I put the scope into the mount facing what I always considered to be backwards. If I put it in "the right way round" it would always say it was aligned and then head off in precisely the opposite direction. Sounds as if it might be a similar problem? No guarantees, but if the same thing happens next time you try it, you could try removing the ota, turning it round and putting it back on the other way round. Stranger things have worked! [This is assuming that the "last time [you] used it" was with the SE scope, not with this one]

My result is 1:1.17 Sorry, got that wrong - it's 1:0.99.

Just had a look at the link and got a message that it is closing. Get it while you can.

I use my old film-camera changing bag for taking darks.

Thanks, Chris. Yes, the weather has been great here as well, but I know some parts of the country have been managing to have some clear skies. I will continue to wait patiently for updates ....