furrysocks2

Hi @AKB. Unfortunately, I never really got round to having a proper try out. I had hoped to, but I broke my go-to mount and then stopped much astro at all. Have you experimented much in this past month? Matt

If not, it might be possible to 3D print a replacement. The link below won't necessarily be the right part and there may not be a model already for the cog you need, but it proves the point. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1761570/comments The hard bit would be 3D modelling what you need, anyone with a printer could then print a few for you.

Another little treat, Sir J. F. W. Herschel's observation of "Mr. Sixth"... (May 4th, 1837) https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89080139876&view=1up&seq=312

Shame the 12" mirror set never saw light, but for the sake of fitting it all to the length of the light path, as you say better to do it properly from the start. Good luck! Matt

You can appear to get a signal dead-center in the band you're looking at, but I though "Correct IQ" got rid of it, not sure. It may well be that there is no station being broadcast on 98.3 within range of where you are now. Zoom out with the slider top right and perhaps play with AGC/gain in the configuration dialog and see if there's anything visible then.

I happened across https://www.hathitrust.org/ and searched for items in the catalog containing the word "astronomy". https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Home?type[]=all&lookfor[]=astronomy&ft=ft I have spent the last hour or so enjoying portions of https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433090906904 Introduction to practical astronomy, 1841. Author: Mason, Ebenezer Porter, 1819-1840. There appear to be articles dating back to the early 1700s. Other sites such as this exist, I thought this may be of interest to someone.

Great result! Well done.

Lovely pictures! I'd never seen them before, but I was standing out back in my underwear at midnight last night marvelling at the same phenomenon, when my wife returned from a nearby hostelry. She already knows I'm pretty weird.

The graphs are on the "Drift Graph" tab in SharpCap's live stacking. Pretty minimalist set up, yes!

Followed by a comparatively quick 50@5s, gain 50 on the Perseus cluster.

Tonight has been my very first go with an AltAz GOTO mount. I've got my Datyson T7M (ASI120MM) with a 50mm f/1.4 CCTV lens mounted to a couple of 3D printed parts, one of which was a repair to the mount so that I could actually do this. I'm sitting in the warmth, drinking herbal tea. I took a couple of darks for different exposure/gain settings and shot a few targets but ended up selecting M52 for the rich star field in the rest of the frame. Field of view is 5.82 x 4.36 deg at 16.4 arcsec/pixel. 100@32s at gain 2. Field rotation is obvious over nearly an hour. Don't know if I got focus spot on or not, and 30s might be starting to push it.

To try this out, I've integrated with SharpCap through a bit of scripting and a DLL (https://forums.sharpcap.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1141 for details).

That's not my scope, unfortunately. http://members.ziggo.nl/jhm.vangastel/Astronomy/30cmscope/5_30cm.htm

Have you got a design in mind already? I've got a 12" f/5 revelation dob and unless I sell it, hoping to re-mount the mirrors as a lighter-weight collapsible dob. I think I've settled on a design where the struts are attached directly to the altitude bearings. I like the relative simplicity and wider base for the struts which should (I guess) increase stability of the top end.

A stunning fit and finish to your observatory, congratulations! The photographic results you get and post here are most enviable and like the descriptions you post alongside, this video really highlights your passion for astronomy. A wonderfully communicative short film. Valeu!