Geoff Lister

I measured the current requirements for some of my mounts. This was with a DVM, and would be an average value. I tend to use a 12V, 1.5A or 2A plug-top mains supply, particularly with the Skyliner 250. Geoff

I get those messages when skies are a bit hazy or there is a bit of a breeze blowing from certain directions. But unless your skys are constantly like that you shouldn't get those messages ' most of the time ' ! You do get some good times though, right ? A couple of nights ago, I found that I was getting too many discarded frames, and found that these reduced if I hit the "AF" button. This sharpened up the focus, very slightly, but dropped the rate of discarded frames. Last night, my display had worked fine for 7 minutes on comet C/2023 A3, and then kept giving me the "Too few stars..." message; the clouds had rolled into that part of the sky. Geoff

I had assumed a stepper motor, but it may well be a straight DC motor. Geoff

It's probably almost a decade ago, so my memory is a bit vague. The 4-way white ribbon cable shows how it is looped through the ferrite ring, although it seems to be long enough. It is possible that mine is of a slightly earlier design, without the plastic surround to the board half of the connector - in my case, if I remember correctly, just a row of pins sticking up from the board. I think the position/speed control loop uses the motor position encoder (this was the one with the poor connection), and the axis encoder registers the "real" position of the OTA. The mount has no idea of position, it just counts clockwise or anticlockwise pulses from the motor assemby. The handset starts at zero (Az = north, Alt = OTA horizontal) from power-up and counts the pulses to calculate position; the rest, including alignment with the stars, is done in handset software. I believe that my symptoms were most severe at the lower slew rates, and made it almost impossible to do a 2-star initial alignment. I had problems with a slipping Alt axis, but I tightened the Nylock nut in the centre of the OTA attachment casting, and added a bit of weight at the primary mirror end of the main tube. Geoff

Some years ago, with my 250PX, I had problems with slewing and tracking in the Az axis. It turned out to be one of the encoder ribbon cable connectors adrift from its position on the control board's pins. The ribbon cable layout may have been defined before the ferrite rings had been added (probably to pass regulatory EMC tests) and there was little slack in the cables. It was difficult to spot the poor connection, as it was under the control board. The problems went away once I had re-seated the plug, and has been fine since. The clutch friction is a compromise between (1) good motor drive, and (2) manual operation without using the handset. Geoff

I found that there is a mechanical stop at about 85 degrees in elevation (altitude), so there will be a "blind" cone within about 5 degrees of the zenith. The "voice" confirms the end stop when you hit it. If clouds permit, you can wait until the target drops in altitude. Geoff

T Coronae Borealis is due to go from magnitude 10 to magnitude 2 at some time this year. This image has T CrB above-right, of IC4587; and Epsilon CrB (magnitude 4.1) is the bright star at the top left of the image. It should be very obvious when T CrB gets brighter.

12P was too low for me too, so I moved up and left and managed 13P with my Seestar S50 and then further left to C2023 A3 The markers give a good idea of position and also an idea of comet brightness (Stellarium gives NGC5400 an effective magnitude of 13.5). I think the bright spot associated with the comet was a background star. I also managed an image of T Coronae Borealis, so when it goes from magnitude 10 to magnitude 2, as forecast for some time this year, I stand a chance of getting a second image (clouds permitting). Geoff

No chance

As a 3rd generation engineer, I agree 100%. I could not decide between the S50 and Dwarf II, so I bought both. No regrets on either purchase - I now have 2 sizes of hammer. Geoff

This evening (29th) from south Devon. There was a short gap in the clouds. Downloaded from my Dwarf II to my tablet and unprocessed. Rain shower, then:- Geoff

I like the way that the S50 shows me things that I would not have considered with a purely visual setup. Whilst imaging a magnitude 9 or 10 faint fuzzy, if I select "Mark" other circles often appear, and these are gradually filled by a magnitude 13/14/15 even fainter fuzzy that I would have little chance of seeing, even with my GoTo 10" Dob. I'm sure that Galileo would have given his eye teeth for an S50 and Android tablet. I think it is going to take many generations of genetic mutation before someone is born with low-light color vision, and a stacking retina - until then we have the S50. Geoff

+1

Another thing to consider is that this comet is now getting close to the setting Sun. The comet will be close to the horizon when the Sun has set and it is starting to get dark-enough to see the comet. The Stellarium view, above, neatly illustrates the problem with houses/fences/trees etc. blocking the view. I have found that I need to mount my telescopes as high as possible to see over my garage and/or adjacent fences. The Heritage 130P's Dobsonian base needs to be on as high a stand as possible to get a clear view towards the horizon. A couple of nights ago, to get a clear view of the comet, I had to resort to extreme measures to clear an adjacent fence, this time with a different telescope, but using a stepladder with a painting platform. With a suitable clamp the Heritage's base could work on something like this. But it was worth the effort to get this view Geoff

I have both the Seestar and Dwarf II. The Seestar is (just) better for astro, but the Dwarf is a better all-rounder for astro and things like birdwatching, because of its dual wide-angle/telephoto setup - effectively a built-in, intelligent, finder. The Dwarf in its bag with accessories is about the same volume and weight as my 10x50 binoculars in their case. The cased Seestar is larger and heavier, but I have added external strapping and D-rings to the case so that I can cary it with the over-shoulder strap from the Dwarf. I find the Seestar's app more user-friendly - with the Dwarf, I have to reset the exposure time after each GoTo. The Seestar gathers 4-times the number of photons. With app/firmware updates for both being released at roughly monthly intervals, this is a race from which we can all benefit. Geoff