The Sailor

Still out, sorted out a problem I had with DSLR focussing, will wait up a bit more and see what comes up Jim

Can't say it cold here Jules, I think maybe I have a bit too much clothing on, althought it's about 2' there is no wing so not too bad. I had a bit of a disaster last nght Shaun, laptop decided to go belly up, thnk I have been overloading it and it was just the start of the night. Done a bit of remedial work today so fingers crossed all wil be well. Jim

Clear skies tonight, not cold and all is well Jim

I have say that I have not used anything to slew the mount except Stellarium thru a USB/Serial cable so can only do a problem solving with that. Am sure there are a few people who are using the Hitecastro and will know better than myself how to solve your problem, so where are they . Jim

Ed, have you used Stellarium to work your mount without the Hitecastro, just thinking of where I would start problem solving. Jim

I have two monitors but use them seperatly, one bit of software I use is Desktop, that gives me eight screens to play with, guiding and Stellarium on one and odds an sods on the others. Jim

Have to say I have never heard of this either, when using infra red or image intensifiers wnich have green screens I always had to keep one eye closed so I could adjust as quickly as possible, the only time this was not possible was using the driver screen on armour so when I open the hatch I was completly blind for a minute or two. Jim

I use the 80ED for DS and the 6" SCT for planetary AP with the ST80 for guiding, have the dual mount system so an easily changeover to DS or planetary with ease, all works quite well. Jim

Nice one Tim Jim

One of the inner pins in my mount socket broke many moons ago but as the mount is spare I have soldiered on and will wait till the other one breaks before doing any remedial work. Jim

James I done it last week, I took an avi of it at about 0300 hrs, probably could have waited a bit more but was tired and cold . Here is a frame from the avi: Not the greatest. Jim

Well the question posed is "Thoughts on Remote Controlled Observatory". For me it worked, sometimes there was a dropout but all in all it worked well but to answer the question I would rather be with the equipment, to look throught the eyepiece and be there to swop and change as necessary. Remoring works but hands on is better . Jim

I dug a slit trench there back in '67, could be still there, plenty of sky to see, no LP and it's free Jim

Well as expected the clouds did roll off to the SW and clear skies all around but after three hours I have had to give up due to the strength of the wind, chucking the scope all over the place so maybe another night . Jim

Already done two hours ago, screen came off the window and the wind is cooling everything down, have a great evening all . Jim Maybe I spoke too soon, after a day of sun I now see that my sky is split by a cloud, it's heading south west so should have a full sky by dark, fingers and everything else crossed.