Rusted

Okay. AWR woke up having lost an hour on LST. Corrected in RTC. Reset parking position. Skycharts updated to 4.3 Beta. Set-up site is correct. Telescope still showing + West. ASCOM telescope simulator shows observatory site correctly. - East. Skycharts cursor was well south of the horizon. Corrected by syncing on the sun. It is lucky it was very cloudy. So I had time to play instead of imaging.

Thanks. I had no idea such a thing existed until you mentioned it. I'll be back.

Don't ever have a "hole in the floor" in an observatory. I did and built a solid trapdoor to stand on. It is a miracle I haven't fallen through the big hole in the floor down to the ground floor! I even fitted counterbalance weights on ropes to make lifting the trapdoor completely effortless. It is still far too tempting to leave it open to save time. Or in case I need to go and collect something indoors.

Thanks. I like to keep ahead of the curve in silly nomenclature..

What Sun? Fleeting glimpses do not make a happy imager. Not unless you have a water cooled telescope! I just carried 5 gallons of rainwater out of my interior collection trays. Had I known the problem in advance I could have sloped the base ring outwards. Three Gorges style.

It feels like ages since I was able to image. Strictly between the clouds: Two big filaments and a "scruffy" bit:

Thanks, but I'd rather avoid giving away my exact location on a public forum. I'm using the ASCOM[AWR] telescope driver via AWR[Tech]UK IH2 drives. C-Du-C shows the correct location of the site in Observatory + Set-up. It just can't manage the seemingly simple trick of transferring the same information to Telescope within the same software. Any error of E or west + or - is effectively doubled, of course. Which may well explain why C-Du-C/ASCOM[AWR] hasn't managed a single Goto "hit." Not since I bought the AWR drives kit and commercial ASCOM driver several years ago and later updated at further expense. The mounting is perfectly aligned and checked weekly via drift in SharpCap.

Observatory coordinates show correctly under Setup but Telescope coordinates show positive instead of negative. i.e. West instead of East! I have repeatedly tried re-entering the coordinates under Observatory/Site but Telescope completely ignores the change. Has anyone else noticed this? This problem shows on both my PC and my imaging laptop. Both W10 64 bit. I have just updated my PC to 4.2 from 3 and it still shows me as west instead of east of Greenwich under Telescope. No Telescope is connected. It is impossible to adjust anything in the coordinate boxes under Telescope. Any constructive thoughts? Thanks.

I like the perforated roofing plates for joining and spreading loads into solid timber. Absolute minimum of 2" or 40mm timber. These plates are fairly inexpensive, come in all sizes and are galvanized against rust. I also use the plates inside to reinforce potential security areas like padlock hasps and hinges. Given enough screws you can't tear the plate from the surrounding structure without a JCB. I also like perforated roofing strip. Often used to triangulate structures like roofs and lightweight walls. This comes in long rolls and can provide a very strong fixing if you wrap it around the back of the anchored timbers before fixing all around with screws or nails. A thin tension band is able to travel between widely spaced structures without needing solid [heavy] timber between them. Timber ties don't work well in tension. Always use compression to avoid the nails/screws being literally torn out of the timber. Special nails are supposed to be used with this "steelwork" but I often use lots of suitable Torx screws. This helps to avoid splitting near timber ends and to provide massive reinforcement by using every fixing hole. NOTE: Screws may not match building specs. The strips can be fixed to walls to tie down a fixed roof structure against lift. It is used, as such, on real houses to hold down the rafters/trusses to the walls.

If Gravely didn't keep sending your bad weather over here I might have captured something by now.

When I were a lad.. we were so poor "they" could only afford rockets once a year. Levi jeans hadn't been invented. So teenagers went around in shorts until we were almost "grown ups." Shops were lit by light bulbs and the "supermarket" meant the village coop with ten staff behind the single wooden counter. Blackened miners waked down the high street in noisy boots heading for the galvanised bath in front of the fire. Houses were warmed by the single coal fire in the "living room" and you could scrape ice off the single glazed, iron clad windows. Cars were few and far between in many villages. You could still cross the road without looking. I was half way across when the first city traffic jam was invented. It was safe to use the zebra crossing at last! My first two jobs were in the changing rooms of computers the size of sports halls and tamed by white coated boffins. I remember listening to the first "simultaneous" stereo broadcasts on Dad's 23" valve TV and valve radio. While I watched the moon landing on a rented, 17" Black & Grey, cable powered, valve telly, which constantly broke down. Then came the Sinclair ZX81 and you could write rude words on the same telly which showed the BBC for only two hours a day. Before very long they let you write rude words in colour and so t'Internet took off. The rest is modern technological history. We are already on the last and steepest bit of the curve and not far short of exponential growth in scientific knowledge: While "simultaneously" watching village idiots perform under the terrifying overhangs of public idiocy. Medieval time, as we knew it in my 1950s youth, has completely ceased to exist in our rush towards the stars. Never underestimate the magical acceleration of science and techno to flabbergast us all.

Money is a severe limitation on human progress. Why? This is not a political discussion because politics ceases to exist. Why? Money has worked, up to a point, in highly damaging cycles, but will soon end when AI/robotics eliminates most "work." What then? Does everybody who is "laid off" or retires instantly become a "free-rider" and/or "a burden on society?" We have some major rethinking to do about the value of a work unit [human bod x 40hours+offspring.] What if there really is no productive work for the vast majority. How do we feed them? Or should we just turn them into Soylent Green? They can't all make beads for barter for the new generation of lifetime unemployed "hippies." Nor can they all produce one-off electric cars [for barter?] in the newly empty factories. Without "earners" we have to invent a whole new way of paying for our "toys." What toys? No wages means zero demand from the vast majority for anything except food and shelter. With no "earners" there are no taxes. How do we pay for all the "essential" services? Do we "give" the billions of newly unemployed "work" in manually building barrages against sea level rise using just shovels and wheelbarrows? Just to keep them off the streets? Do they then "earn" their daily ration of bread and water? Or do they "idle" at home and wait to die? A system of barter is extremely inefficient in supporting society [as a whole] and very likely to lead to vicious local warlords endlessly scrapping over "turf." I believe society will rapidly collapse to medieval levels in all meanings of the term. This is a nearly impossible hurdle to surmount with present attitudes and societal control systems. Every technological society must eventually face it. Where are all the aliens? They never overcame this huge obstacle.

If all multiverses are co-located then we couldn't just "nip next door" to take a short cut. This might rule out holidays on distant shores.

You still have to fill it with humans. Humans are mentally fragile and vulnerable to all sorts of psychological problems when isolated and contained. A hollow asteroid might make a roomier vehicle with survival depths of protection from high velocity, impacting particles. It would go on growing by particle accretion during the journey. As vehicle velocity rose, requiring ever more protection to match impact velocity and energy.

I have regularly used my 12" DeWalt sliding mitre saw for aluminium up to 20mm thick sheet. I bought a fine tooth, inexpensive, blade listed specifically for aluminium. Odour free lamp oil [UK paraffin] is a good cutting fluid for ally. I just run a wet brush along the cut line. Repeat the wetting sometimes to stop build up on the teeth. Don't push too hard. Just let the blade find its own pace without loss of revs. As Dave says, you really must clamp the work down for safety. I use Bessey F-clamps with the original plastic 'feet' to avoid marking. The long jaws allow safe clamping under the mitre table casting. It makes a hell of a mess with the swarf flying everywhere! The DeWalt mobile bench saw has a clear warning to use it only for wood. NOT METAL. Which is a shame because it has the potential for much longer cuts. However, if the blade should dig in it would send the work flying backwards and probably slice the user in half! I never stand behind the work on the mitre saw for exactly the same reason.

I'm with iPeace. We may still be centuries from species maturity and morality to leave without cleaning up our mess first. Every sentient species [probably] has to surmount the same hurdles before achieving maturity: In no particular order: End dictatorships, pandemics, obscene inequality, war and nuclear wars, AI, slavery, pollution, other species extinction, advertising, politics. Peaceful removal of all superstition through education and/or repair of faulty genes. Superstition is closely allied to mass sociopathy and built-in aggression towards others. Provide equality, education, reward and respect for all, regardless of ability. Benign global guidance NOT leadership. Power always corrupts. Ironically, we may have to rely on benign Super AI to avoid the corruption trap inherent in all leadership. Achieving global self sufficiency and total equality in food supply, energy, health, lifespan, education, creativity, space, free time, etc.

When I need to lift a lot of weight in a tight space [10' dome] I use two folding, builder's stepladders. The ones with the wide foot braces. The ladders are straightened out and lashed firmly together at the top. Then I use a chain hoist supported from the top crossbars with an 'approved' 1T strop. I may have mentioned this arrangement before but somebody else might find it useful. I lifted my massive mounting up to my second floor observatory and then onto the pier this way. The total cost is quite modest and the folded ladders can be stored compactly for future use in decorating, hedge clipping, etc.. Or they can be hired from better DIY stores and builder's merchants.

No pics? It never happened! You sent your "perfect storm" [of weather] over to us! We enjoyed your thunder but you were a bit mean with the rain!

Well that was interesting: I updated the imaging laptop and PC to 2004 and both had to be reverted!

Thanks Julian. I am just installing the new W10 2004 update. It takes ages! Then I'll download the latest AOC driver. Ever onwards!

Thanks or your patience. You'll have to forgive my ignorance of these matters. I have W10 on auto-update. I presume that takes care of drivers as well? Have never tried an AOC driver update. Something to look into. I have downloaded and installed the latest SharpCap twice after uninstalling. It didn't help. The Data Bar is still there, teasing me on on my PC indoors, but not on the imaging laptop.

Whoops and an apology: I have only now realised that I wrote Noise Robust in SharpCap. What I meant, of course, was Autostakkert. I'll get my coat.

Thanks. I have downloaded the latest ZWO driver but it made no obvious difference to SharpCap. I tried the different resolutions and window sizes but nothing made the Data Bar return to normal. It used to stretch right over to the right side where a green countdown bar was visible. There is nothing there at all even when I do get the Data Bar back below the capture window. But nothing above.

Thanks. Sorry to hear about your bad weather.

Thanks Dave. We are just seeing more cloud now. It has dropped from 87F to 83F in an hour.