Tomatobro

That was my first thought that the mount was not designed for northern latitudes. Not the end of the world as it needs a tapered mounting plate under the mount to give it more angle and bring it within the adjustment range

My subscription arrives around the 16th of each month so I guess they have sold out?

Cost of bins plus tripod plus parallelogram would exceed £200 budget.

I am not against binoculars at all as I have quite a collection with my fork mounted 25/40 x 100's being one of my favourite's. I also have 15 x 80's mounted on a parallelogram.

I recently spent a few nights getting to grips with my new portable rig. I kept looking at my observatory thinking I cannot wait to get back into using it.

best investment ever

Looks good to me and the price is reasonable. I prefer the ones that have both volts and amp gauges and voltage output adjustable (like the one that Tomato pictured) but I know that they are becoming rare.  For instance mine is a 30 amp but it rarely is asked for more than 6 amps.

Linear power supplies are big, heavy and not very efficient but are very good at coping with transient loads.

Switch mode supplies are small, lightweight and very efficient but outputs can be noisy and not very good at coping with transients.

Radio ham shops are a good place to look for quality linear power supplies and many have used equipment sections.

They use solid state cooling elements. When a current flows through them one side heats up and the other cools down. The fans carry away the heat on the hot side. The fans run at a constant speed when on.

I agree with vlaiv. Definitely a aeroplane

My Coast HL4 arrived this morning and it is a nice bit of kit. The top strap might save my head a bit when going in and out of the observatory doorway!

The two separate switches (one for red and one for white) means I don.t have to cycle through the various illumination sequences to select or turn the torch off

Here is a picture of the top plate under construction.

19 hours ago, Space Hopper said:

The Coast HL4 . Its used by Trevor Jones over in Canada. And me !! 😀

 

Having worn out three already have just ordered a Coast HL4. looks good💀

3 hours ago, Stuart1971 said:

would like to fit a small solar panel to power a battery for this 12v heater

To answer the question directly............

A small solar panel will just not put out enough power to recharge the battery in wintertime

6 minutes ago, vlaiv said:

Not sure what would efficiency be for simple DC device (charge controller to charge your battery).

About 75% based on measurements I have made in the past.  I agree about the size of the panel required (about the size of the observatory?)

Given the amount of power taken out of the battery over (say) a 10 hour period to put that back during the winter days will require a sizeable solar panel and controller. In the summer months no problem but in the winter a 150 watt panel would struggle.

Here is mine.....

LRGB @ 23 mins total 40 frames each at 8.6 seconds

Ha Oii @ 41 mins total 40 frames each at 30.8 seconds

When the new one is fitted put a plastic tie wrap round the camera body where the black connector comes out to take the strain off the heater connection

If its open circuit then peel if off and fit a new one. £22 plus postage from Flo

there are 34 reviews on Flo's website and some setup experiences have been shared so worth a look

Ebay 265677953137

Not sure what you are looking for but this would be my guess

16 hours ago, nutter241 said:

better solution alltogether for mount control and imageing in an all in one package? 

I tried the Pi route but Intel NUC's i3 or I5 for around £100 to £150 (used) are better. They run quite happily on 12 volts even though the power supply is marked at 18 volts. Get one with Windows 10 pro so you can run Remote desktop. The NUC has very good WiFi range.

I have one that runs the Pulsar dome, NINA, PHD2, focuser and Sharpcap and a GPCAM for remote monitoring using Altair imaging software.

Fast boot up too

male M28. 5x0. 6 thread

In the UK I use a six element Yagi which is tuned for the military radar located in France. The frequency is 143.050 Mhz. This frequency is relatively free from local interference. For reception I use a Funcube Dongle  SDR receiver with PC software.

For your location you need to locate a suitable transmitter before deciding on the antenna. 

I can say that building an antenna is something that has to be done with care if its to work well. If a commercial antenna is used it may not be tuned to the exact frequency of the available beacon. Yes it will work but only up to a point.

There are folks in the USA who are active in this field and I would seek their help and advice if at all possible. I am sure I have seen some online data streams from stations based in the USA so they will be worth a look also

the mount base is threaded but only enough to retain the threaded bar when its disengaged from the mount. The rod is undercut so its free of the threads when its raised. At least that is what its like on every Skywatcher mount I have come across.

If anything the picture suggests that the centre hole in the eyepiece plate is not bored true  and square on. If this is the case if you slacken the thumb screw and rotate the plate round one leg at a time the displacement should follow the rotation.

If that proves to be the case drilling a larger hole in the eyepiece tray would fix the issue.

Attached is an image stack of meteor activity from last night.

Taken by my UKMON camera

last night was the first chance I had to get to grips with my SW GTI. Previous attempts had been hampered by intermittent cloud but last night finally got some results. Does the GTI live up to the hype? Well one version of the Synscan pro software does not work with C du C (mount timeout issues), had to adjust out the as delivered horrendous DEC backlash, its sensitive to wind gusts and draggy USB cables.

But it works well with my phone connected so as a portable mount its ok. I think it needs an ASIAIR pro for field use