Mognet

I'll add a vote for TinkerCad as it's really easy to use for basic designs. Blender is very good, and is worth spending some time learning if you want to create more complex designs. Both are visual tools, so you can see how it looks as you work. I'm not sure I would recommend OpenSCad to start with even though I use it. It's great for parametric designs and anything that needs calculations, but it requires a certain mindset. The language is easy enough, it's thinking in design terms and then translating it into code that causes some people problems. If you do want to try it, grab the latest development snapshot rather than the stable version as it has all the documented features.

One cup of coffee later...embossed text in OpenSCad $fn=1; difference() { // Create block translate([-50, -5, -10]) cube([100, 10, 10]); // Subtract text translate([0, 0, -2]) linear_extrude(height=2, center=false) text(text="Stargazer's Lounge", size=5, font="Courier New:style=Bold", halign="center", valign="center"); }

Print in place hinges and joints are very handy. Some of my early design experiments used them It looks like 3D text should be possible. Looking at the cheat sheet and manual I think it would be via a linear extrude of 2D text. I've yet to try it though. Maybe a job for later today

If you are not in a rush, then keep an eye on the second hand market, both on here and Astro Buy Sell. I bought my 127 mak with a SynScan alt-az mount for £250 that way

The D3100 can be used with a cheap (£25ish) intervalometer, as can the D3200 and D3300 I believe. The D3400 can't though, and can only be remotely triggered via IR. They can also be driven by qDSLRDashboard and digicamControl using a mini or micro USB cable (D3100 has an older style mini USB socket) if you want to use a laptop based setup

I have the spiral wrap on my printer too. Looking at the cable chain you linked to before (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3091780) I suspect it works best with particular printers and filaments, and it looks like the author hasn't posted any original CAD files for tolerance adjustment, etc. WIth the right dimensions the links should clip together nicely

Given the size of that print, I'm impressed. I've been considering the Ender 3 as a replacement for my rather basic iMakr Startt.

I like the idea of a clockwork tracking mount, but I'm curious as to how they have damped the vibrations so that it doesn't affect imaging

I'm still wondering how they can do it for that price. I've just looked on Ooznest, and just starting with five of the cheapest stepper motors would cost nearly £50. Then there's the board, screen, hot end, extruder, heated bed, framework, etc. £85 for a printer is very tempting, even if upgrades have to be made later

I thought those brackets looked familar! Postfix is run by Graham, a friend of mine. He also loves his trains and regularly posts photos from his train spotting travels on Facebook

It only has a small print volume, 120x140x130mm but it can be rebuilt for larger volumes apparently

Treated myself to an Imakr Startt 3D printer as a Christmas present to myself. Felt like I was playing with Meccano for the first few hours as it arrives in kit form Doesn't seem too bad for a £99 printer

Looks like the thread title got changed in the move. Confused me after not logging in for a week!

Clouds are the bane of our hobby, but the things we get to see on clear nights make it all worthwhile You may not have noticed, but you captured the Lunar X in your first and fourth photos. It appears on the terminator about a third of the way up from the bottom in the first photo. It's a clar-obusur effect that's only visible for a couple of hours each lunar month. There's also a V shape visible around the same time, but it looks like you were a little early for it. There is more information about the Lunar X, including some photos so you can see what you are looking for on http://the-moon.wikispaces.com/Lunar+X Glad you've got Hershel sorted. Nothing more frustrating that having a clear night and nothing to view it through!

I misread that as freak tomatoes! I blame eating dinner and not paying enough attention But if freak tomatoes really were a weather condition, you could guarantee that they'd happen during an imaging session

Glad you've got it working. You do enter pretty much what it says on the app onto the handset. Fortunately the handset retains the entered coordinates, so you rarely have to change those unless you've taken your scope out to a different site. Usually only the time and date needs setting, and daylight savings when the clocks change. The polar finder isn't really useful for an alt-az mount. It's more for equatorial mounts that need to be polar aligned and shows the position of Polaris in respect to the true PA point.

I'm currently cursing the rain! Clear Outside is saying that my next expected clear night isn't until Sunday

Would fibreglass be a better option? Should be ok for wifi, and would probably be lighter too. Might also be easier to get the shape you want too

Would a 3D printed box structure with internal bracing be strong enough for the job, or is this not an option? I've been thinking about doing something similar for an alt-az mount with coarse and fine controls, but so far the design is only in my head until I get my printer

I'm thinking exactly the same!

I'm itching to use it, but it seems I'm paying a cloud penalty now! Perhaps along with the specs of an item suppliers should now include an estimate of the cloud penalty incurred by purchasing, measured in nights and miles. It's a good mug. My other office favourite says "Another 8 hours of pretending to work"

All the way from Aunt FLO, a 32mm Panaview. Hoping there won't be a cloud penalty for this! Didn't realise how big these get

Not quite as good as Paz's sun, but I got the moon with my phone up to a 5mm eyepiece.

They've had something similar running for a few years. Not sure how long. A friend of mine goes there and she loves it

Conditions weren't great last night, and mist and cloud were beginning to appear when I was packing away. But I did manage to capture Jupiter with the major moons just as it rose above the houses Taken with a SW200P dob, 10mm EP and a Samsung Galaxy S6. Something seems to have eaten one of the moons though. It was there when looking through the eyepiece!