John78

So here's an Andromeda from last night, 120sec x 10. I went to the darkest field I could find locally, literally a field surrounded by trees on 3 sides, and although I can make out the Milky Way with my eyes the light pollution is heinous, I tried 120sec at M33 first and it was super orange, so I moved up in the sky and tried 240sec exposures at M31 and it was still orange out. On the plus side, my 9x50 board cam guide scope performed flawlessly on its first outing So on this months Astro shopping list is a EOS CLS clip filter, and looking at the coma at the edges a baader CC financial controller permitting. I actually have a modded 130P with at 2.5" draw tube focuser, will I need any special adapters to get the CC into my image train?

So this one... http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/astronomik-cls-ccd-deep-sky-light-pollution-filter-canon-eos-clip-fit.html Not this one... http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/astronomik-cls-deep-sky-light-pollution-filters.html From looking at the graphs!

Ah ok - so I'm happy now, rip out the one that's in the YT video only and it'll still block past ~700nm. Sounds like a job for this weeks cloudfest.

I'm going through this decision making process myself, if I simply remove the filter I thought too much IR would get through and give you fuzzy images as the focus would be off for the IR although on nebulous images it might not be noticeable. Astronomik make a clip filter with the same band pass as the baader so you can put it in front of the mirror, or the CLS which blocks the sodium from street lights. So many decisions, I'm confident I could take it apart, remove the filter and rebuild the camera - less confident about fitting the baader in its place ?

How bizzare that's item got removed, yeah I get the idea though https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391530042401 I'll have to make a new project box to make everything tidy once I've got everything all working properly

Me and Amazon don't get on ?? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391530042401 That looks decently priced and it's a reputable brand, suitable?

Yeah like this thing... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HIGH-SPEED-4-PORT-USB-2-0-MULTI-HUB-SPLITTER-PC-LAPTOP-/270692312331?hash=item3f0684e50b:g:wsUAAOxyLN9SjQDC We use them a lot at work for hooking up multiple USB-TTL serial connections to our photocopiers. The arduinos are all 12v powered so it shouldn't overload the USB port, I hope....

Many thanks for this - simple and works - I tried the other focuser project on SF and it crashes APT every time I open the coms to the focuser - I tried this and it works flawlessly out of the box. The challenges facing me to test this out tonight are :- 1) clouds - due to clear 2) only have 1 usb-mini b cable so can only plug in the focuser or the camera hahah - long term I think I'll put a USB Y-splitter inside my astroeq diy box then it will have 1 USB in, split to the Mega2650 and Mini then 3 steppers out...

Its about 30 miles from me, but yes I can see the bit far. I've been eyeing a HEQ5 in Birmingham myself - bit of a drive tough.

I saw this got reduced yesterday - I think its a decent price for a 100ED, I need to sort my mounting out before I pull the trigger on an OTA so I'll let this one pass... http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=108847 What's a bit confusing is there's no difference in price in a 100ED compared to the 80ED as the former comes with the field flattener, and if you add one to the latter you end up at the same price as the former.