Craney

......just take a little time to think about the choice of hire car....

Looking at this from afar..... "Customer satisfaction is our utmost goal..." ---------- I'm not totally convinced of that. Making a profit tends to be the underlying principle of most businesses. (huh! cynical me ) "variety of levels of performance versus cost" ------- so why don't they state in their advertisements that the Quark is a cheap entry level device with a significant probability that any two examples will not be the same and consequently will not deliver the same performance. What they actually mean is, "variety of performance at a fixed cost". Surely, customers cannot be asked to stump up £1000 for what is essentially a lottery ticket.....errr.... it looks like it. "allow customers to fish for professional class filters amongst our entry level products" --------- is that not an admission that their output is variable in quality. I feel for all people in this predicament. I hope things work out OK. Sean.

Yes..... just watched it through. Yes.... not conclusive. It would be really nice to see somebody take a uncollimated scope and put it through a Tri-mask collimation routine and quickly arrive at an arrangement that could not be improved upon by any fancy Hotech laser technique or such. Is it my eyes or is there a slight wobble on the middle spike of each cluster as the scope comes into focus ? (How would you get precise and repeatable results if your 'bench-mark' is prone to movement). How do you know whether it is the collimation or the focus that is splaying your lines ?? hmmmm ???

Hello everybody, Have not really posted for a while. Lock-down has impacted my job to the extent I am working more hours than ever. The astro stuff has taken second place to sleep and recuperation....oh and re-decorating the house from bottom to top. ( !!🥴) Anyway, when I do get out, I find that for sake of completeness I like to check the collimation and focus of my SCT. Lots of twiddling of Bob's knobs ensues etc... you probably know the score. When I saw this item I became intrigued and wondered if I could proverbially kill the two birds with one stone. Since they are not mentioned very often I was wondering if they were more trouble than they were worth ? As anybody found long lasting success with this device and use it as their 'go-to' collimation / focus tool ?? ( i followed a thread on CN which started off well and then descended into a technical discussion of how to print them off..... not actually if they were any good !!! ) Many thanks for any experience or insight. Cheers, Sean

Looks very atmospheric......

Very nice image of Uranus. Is that with the ZWO120mm ?? Did you use a barlow ??

There is one on AB&S for £700. ( a year old) As new... ~ £900. hmmmm??........ A sizeable saving, but.enough to pull the trigger ??..... at the moment a sellers market, so I imagine there will be folks interested at that price.

It could be what they describe as "walking noise"..... apparently cured by dithering.. EDIT: Oops!! I should have read your post fully before jumping in...... So, you know it walking noise... and you are dithering..... Sorry. I cannot be much help.

Later this afternoon the Moon should be rising in a (hopefully) blue sky..... it is looking promising here in N Yorks. An easy target to find and is pretty much at 'infinity' for a telescope. That should get a result for you. If not post a picture of your imaging set up and we might be able to spot something. Sounds like you have the software working which is always a bonus. Sean.

ooh errr...... I've had a rush of blood

Yes, I like the "ScopeView" reviews. Really good when comparisons are made between similar scopes that might be vying for the contents of your wallet.

Recently I had two spacing adapters fully welded together. Rubber wrenches just could not get enough purchase on the smaller one.... (5mm extension). A bit cheesed off I left them by the radiator in the kitchen. With the crazy weather recently, the room has been hot /cold/ hot repeatedly. The other day when doing some painting I casually picked up the discarded item to file under 'future project' when amazingly they came apart with finger strength !!!

I used to have one. It had sharp optics and was a very well made instrument. In terms of objects though, I tended to use it for the Moon, planets, double stars or conjunctions like you say. It has quite a high focal ratio (f13 -f14) and so anything other than a very bright object will be dim unless you have properly dark skies. By the way, it makes a very good wildlife lens for a DSLR. If you do consider Astrophotography .... which will enhance the 'seeing' power of the standard eyeball, and you will need to track with a good equatorial mount to tease out any detail in a DSO. I supose with modern CMOS cameras, wide FOV, incredibly sensitive as well, you might be able to do better than I did 10 years ago with a Canon 600D. I think your CPC800 with a focal reducer would be a better bet. Here are a couple of pictures from the 2017 eclipse using the C90. Regds, Sean.

Is it a concrete floor , as in a foundation pad for the whole observatory and the pier sits on top of that ?? ... or are the pier and the floor isolated from each other and you have done a neat job with the flooring to hide any gaps ?? If the former, then it does not surprise me that tiny vibrations will be transmitted. If the latter....hmmmm??....something is bridging the gap between the two.

That is a really nice piece of work. It has that stand-out artistic quality combined with a good scientific underpinning. You have given me a focus for tonight. Cheers, Sean.

I got "Magic Lantern" to work with my 600D. The software loads onto the memory card and so simplifies the faff of remote controls and extra batteries etc.

Well done for capturing Io , just on the limb of Jupiter.

How long before the media name this event....... Jupi-turn or Sa-piter ??

Well, funnily enough you might have been heading towards Bethlehem.......

My gripe is that it is always clear when I have no time to appreciate it... !!!!. Keep the faith. Most of the stars will still be there in a few weeks time ....

"don't show your husband/wife/partner" ........ and Bank Manager..!!!! Yes, looking forward to the 268 Mono. That will keep imagers happy for a few years with the technological advancement it brings, as well as hopefully creating a surge of still very capable wider field CCD's on the second hand market.

Yes, I totally agree. That third ring is such a useful addition. You just cannot get similar and consistent levels of precision with fingers, gloves etc.....

Clear nights !!!!! .......when, 1) I have work the next day 2) It's windy 3) Object of interest is now behind a tree 4) Electronics (which have worked fine on every partially cloudy night)..... now do not work. 5) My partner has obviously not looked at the long term forecast when arranging that "not to be missed" social event...... 6) Greater than 75% Moon 7) ... and so on....

Is that "focusing steps" or "exposure steps" ??

A three-star reply....