Tomatobro

I removed my EQ6-r off the pier and put the EQ8-r on and connected it up the NUC using the same FTDI cable I used on the 6r. EQmod worked without any issues in that it did not know that the mount had changed. I would guess that the ASIair would not know that the mount is a 6r or 8r based on that so reading the link you attached it should work ok.

I found this link https://projects-raspberry.com/raspberry-pi-b-power-protection-circuit/ I was lucky to get a 2gb pi 4 just the other day from the PIhut but they were limiting to one per customer.

On the EQ8-r there are a lot of "sticking out bits" such as knobs etc. I usually watched it when meridian flips took place but as it seemed to be reliable cable snag wise I stopped watching it flip until the other night......

If you stay in the dome while imaging then You can manually rotate the dome a little at a time to keep the aperture aligned with the scope but if you operate from (say) a warm room then electronic rotation is better. Its not impossible though. Before I automated mine I set a timer in the warm room to remind me when to go outside and move the dome round. It is not necessary to go inside as you can just grab it and move it round so its not a big overhead.

Before I had my observatory I ran it from a 12 volt battery. Now in the observatory I have an adjustable power supply from the mains the output set to 12.9v. I did some tests once and found that once booted the NUC would still run at 11 volts dc

The NUC's I have are i3 versions with 4gb of ram and 64 gb of memory. The voltage input is marked as 19v dc but all mine rune quite happily on 12 volt (actually 12.9v) All run Remote desktop via windows 10 pro and have excellent WiFi range Runs Sharpcap 4.0 sequencer, Cartes du ciel, PHD, Baader focuser, 2nd version of Sharpcap 3.2 to run observatory camera, Pulsar dome software and EQMOD all at the same time. I did a trial run with NINA and it worked OK but I prefer Sharpcaps Sequencer. The USB port connects to a Startech powered 7 port 3.0 unit The most I paid for a used NUC was £79 and its 8 years old

That was my experience also. Switched to a Minix pc and later NUC's and never looked back. The Minix was new but the NUC's were all purchased used. All had Windows 10 pro.

Reading your method of using the PST I cannot be sure that you are rotating the black ring but here is what I do with mine. Always store the PST with the black ring turned fully clockwise to relive the pressure. Find the sun and turn the focus knob under the eyepiece till the edge of the sun is nice and sharp Rotate the black ring anticlockwise while looking at the suns surface. It will grow darker and before the end of travel is reached the suns surface will start to show detail. Do this slowly a little bit at a time I find that not all types of eyepiece work well with the PST but 12 or 15mm are my favourite choice.

50 RGB @ 80 seconds and 50 Ha mono also 80 seconds used as Luminance. Processed in APP and GIMP

Pulsar Dome That's the biggest green composting bin, a comment made by a delivery driver when he inquired what was it for

I think I read somewhere that the light from each segment is only combined at the very end of the light path so if one segment is out the scope can still function.

Re Tomatoes comments about the SW flex tube base. The problem was that no matter how tight the black winged hand nut was tightened the upper frame was not locked properly to the drive gear and as a result it would not track properly. I took the whole base assembly apart and removed the base centre shaft. When I screwed the hand nut onto the shaft it was clear the the metal insert with the internal thread was not machined square to the clamping face. It had clearly been like this from new. The result of this misalignment was that the face of the hand not was not tightening down square to the clamping clutch but clamping to one side. I screwed the hand nut onto the shaft and mounted it in the lathe and machined the face square to the threads. Now when the base nut is tightened down by hand it clamps on the clutch properly.

I just watched a you tube strip down of this mount and its hard to see what would allow the free movement and stop your video shows. One thing that struck me watching it was if something had dropped into the hole in the shaft ( used for the polar alignment) then that would give the characteristics shown in the video

I had one of these and I never understood its purpose of the cam lever. My suspicion was that it held in place some kind of drive system

But Westward look the land is bright..... (WC)

I just read about a problem called vacuum welding between moving parts in satellites and why designers of such craft hate moving parts and try to avoid them if at all possible. That's it. No more reading for me till its deployed and working.

The best engineers have to know the unknowable and foresee the unforeseeable and I am sure that a lot of folks have done all that they can to ensure success. Space engineering is now a well understood subject but there is still the human factor that can affect the outcome. Its hard to imagine what it must be like for the men and women who have put there whole careers into this project knowing that success or failure is now just round the corner.

taken a while back with a 200mm SW.

just watched an explanation on YouTube which looked to be a honest appraisal of the event and situation. The key issue is that all the monitoring sensors were disconnected when the mounting clamp band deployed so the engineers don't have any hard data on how severe the bang was to the telescope main bus area.

I hope its not a "sorry world it didn't work because we dropped it while putting it on the rocket "

was the mount pointing at the Pole star when you tried to calibrate?

Once the SW adventurer is set up on a wedge you can advance your astrophotography in stages as you add guiding etc. Its a great piece of kit so I don't think you will be disappointed.

I would give the star adventurer a try first with the tripod you have and only then decide if extra stability is needed

to achieve that level of integrity the aggregate sizes and cement ratios and water content are carefully controlled and the forming is done in hydraulic moulds. Not something that can be done in a basic shutter mould unfortunately. I hope the builders can sort it out for you.

This is the best picture I have of the installation of the false floor battens