Rusted

That's a shame Dave. After teasing me for ages the cloud finally cleared completely over here. Not great seeing but I used the 2x Barlow anyway to frame the group more efficiently. I'm rotating the tilt plates independent of the camera. Just by loosening the clamping screws on both. It seems to help to darken the background more than anything else I've tried. I have a sequence of images spread over an hour but the images are all on the laptop in the dome. Hoping the Moon will be visible above the roof around 7pm.

Here's the prom at 2 o'clock on the limb [NW] Huge range of brightness is a teaser during processing.

50% of 2000 frames 120/10 + PST + ZWO120MC + 2x WO Barlow. SharpCap/Registax/PhotoFiltre. A couple of different treatments.

Average 2-4 Gigabytes AVIs. 1-3000 frames on proms in SharpCap. RGB24 640x480. 2x Barlow gives me 2.4m equivalent focal length. ZWO120MC USB3 into SSD gives me around 118-120 fps. EDIT: Checked a few prom videos under Property> Details. It says I am only getting 30 frames per second. But when I look at the SharpCap bottom line it says I'm getting 118-120fps. Who is right?

In Registax I'm Just hitting the Alignment button after Set Alignment Points. Which I usually reduce to save a bit of time. I get regular crashes from the Alignment stage. Not had enough experience with AS!3 to know exactly what I am [or it is] doing.

Blimey! I'm not doing it right, am I?

Well done. Solid cloud here today or I would try for that AR you captured so nicely.

Tried it but didn't like it. The image looks worse than Registax. I have added a 4th attempt [upper] still using Registax and PhotoFiltre.

Do you want our rain as well? It started raining mid-lunch. I had to do my "headless chicken" impression and rush over to close up. I could give you a generous discount for cloud and rain as a package. But only if you are interested. You'd have to take both at the same time.. You won't find it any cheaper elsewhere. Not even online!

You can have our cloud if you like.

Struggling with Registax constantly crashing on Alignment. Best I can manage so far:

A really excellent effort! Until the next gales?

A refractor, with expensive [wide field] binoviewers, mounted on a 2" 45° terrestrial prism might suit. It would required a solid mounting and a serious focuser to support the cantilevered weight. Be aware that finding an aircraft in the sky is a difficult skill even with normal 8-10x binoculars. There is usually nothing to guide you to find the small aircraft against the whole sky. Except vapour trails? It's not like centring a bird in a tree where you have lots of visual clues from the branches. The higher the power [magnification] the smaller the field of view and the greater the image shake from any vibrations. It would be completely impossible to handhold such an instrument.

That is very interesting but the long training period seems rather difficult to believe. Even for one who has only a year's experience at H-alpha viewing. It used to be said that the practised eye could see subtle or fleeting detail which went completely unnoticed by the apprentice observer. Then they invented imaging and live video on a large, high resolution, monitor screen. Even in H-alpha on a colour screen. Does the practised eye see more on a screen than the beginner? I have often wondered about this. My favourite Lunar feature is Plato and trying to see the tiny craterlets. It took a very long time and the correct light to see my first in my 6" refractor. Then the other night, even in appalling seeing conditions, the largest craterlet was continuously and easily visible on my monitor. Even though the thermal movements were making the image gyrate wildly, go out of focus and change shape. I should have removed the camera and tried a few eyepieces but never thought of it at the time. Was the "seeing" too bad for visual confirmation of the same craterlet? Another aspect of the same story: My right eye is dimmer but sees far more detail than my bright, untrained, left eye. Half a century of practice really must make a difference. Now I have binoviewers. Is my left eye now being trained by my right? It does seem that way.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever!

Looking good. External plywood bracing would be really useful to solve the figure-of-8 problem. GRP moulds are usually heavily reinforced and glassed over to maintain stiffness during shrinkage and final removal of the item. The problem then is flexing the mould enough to release the item. Which is, presumably, why they often use compressed air for separation after previously using the same vents for vacuum forming CF. In your case you could have temporary formers in a framework bolted to the outside of the mould. Have the formers in two units so they can be easily separated at the parting plane. Edit: I meant to add that removing male scratches is far easier than female. With the latter you have to reduce the entire surface. With male scratches they are raised above the general surface so only the "scratches" need to be removed. The problem is that any male projections will be carried over to the finished article. i.e: female scratches and dents must be filled. Or the whole surface must be reduced. A bit like producing optics. A tiny scratch needs the whole surface to be worn away.

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I think you mean blue magic.

In a sense. I paid for the latest ASCOM-AWR driver. 7.2. So far so good. Though without any real targets to test it properly. At least the unstable time and location coordinates didn't change randomly. Since they are all interconnected it was inevitable mayhem would ensue. Mostly solid cloud since then.

Let me see if I have this right: Your Arduino has gone all GUI for an Astroberry Ekos? And now it's stuck onboard at the traffic lights somewhere in the Andi. R.P.i.

Isn't that why they invented beards? Don't pull it out. Pull it through!

Well done! Saw it briefly between the clouds. Then the wind picked up and all hope of an image was gone. It's hell being a solar imager!

The power of the Internet and "narrow interest" forum members continue to protect the potential customer. Or at least those who use such means to research their intended purchases before spending serious money. I had imagined, from the many superb images shared here, that my PST mod was greatly inferior to a commercial Quark. Thank you for bringing this product's [apparent] lack of quality control to our notice before I committed myself to the unknown. Even if it means you must continue to <cough> "enjoy" my solar "daubs."

As an insatiable PST modder... I know my place.

Not an easy task to have access from below and maintain fire safety rules, weatherproofing and insulation. I have the same idea in my two storey observatory using a huge, aluminium, warehouse stepladder. The trapdoor is an absolute nuisance in the observatory floor. I would never recommend anything similar. But I wanted to avoid wintry climbs in the dark. So chose an internal ladder for access. Don't use an ordinary ladder because of serious safety issues. You get no feedback for balancing on narrow rungs. You need wide treads and comfortable lean angles for when you are carrying kit up and down. And you will.