Tomatobro

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

The problem with making concrete piers is that after pouring excess water can migrate down to the bottom which weakens the mix at the base. Its a bit like when the mix is tamped down and water appears on the top surface but in this case gravity does the reverse. Having done a lot of civil engineering I have learnt that there is generally a work around for most problems that present themselves. How about some steel "L" plates, one for each side, drilled and bolted to the floor and the pier using resin bonded bolts. I am guessing that wooden battens will be screws to the floor and a false wooden floor put on top of the base to allow for underfloor cabling etc so the steel brackets would be mostly hidden. Best I can suggest as a solution

concrete takes weeks to go off properly and freshly poured should not be disturbed at all. My pier centre block had 4 weeks before I stood on it, same for the outer standing pad.

I have the newer version and can confirm what tomato has said. What I find is that the metal of the mount and pier has a lot of thermal inertia so will get wet even though the rest of the dome inside will be dry so I check it first thing in the morning to see if the dryer needs switching on. Under these conditions I just set the timer for two hours and it does the job. Mine has the ionizer function which I never use. Just a thought but when looking for the same one as tomato's I found one at a really good price on the net but when I searched on the suppliers address it did not exist. Somewhere in Leicester as I recall

I would use brass as a first choice as its heavy and stiff but it would be harder to run the die down. Less likely to mark up from the CW clamp. If the hole in the CW is a good fit on the bar it could end up sticking where the CW clamp screw has marked the bar.

Starting the die square to the bar is a challenge by hand for larger diameters but for a CW bar its not really critical. I have made bar extensions for EQ5's out of brass with no issues. I would thread both ends so that a safety nut can be added after the CW is on.

You only become less of a one over time.....we have all gone down a path that later on we have thought "now why did I do that?" As to removing the adhesive I have a range at my disposal, everything from Brake disc cleaner, acetone, white sprit, petrol (when I can afford it) and others. I just keep trying one till it softens and comes away.

I just Googled "comm port issues with McAfee and there are a few old reports which seem to relate to Comm port problems. One involved the vendor writing a patch to fix the issue. To prove its McAfee could it be temporarily uninstalled? Then see if everything works ok?

NGC1514 (Crystal ball nebula) SW MN190, camera a ASI178 mono Binned 2 x 2 80 x 37 seconds Lum, 20 x 37 seconds Red, 18 x 37 seconds Green, 20 x 37 seconds Blue and 20 x 60 seconds Ha. Stacked using APP and processed using GIMP. Shot over two nights between clouds using Sharpcap's sequencer software.

Check out Blocklayer on the net for printed protractors. Allows you to print any size on an A4 printer with all kinds of options.

Reminds me of my wheel hub motor in my BionX electric bike. I had it apart to replace the strain gauge and it sort of looked like that except that the magnets were in the periphery with radial coils. From little acorns do mighty oaks grow.

It would not put me off owning one of these cameras as the rectification looks to be a straight forward job. Just needs some careful planning and a well lit and tidy work area.

A few years ago I attended a talk by someone who was promoting remote imaging. The pictures he showed were very impressive but towards the end he let the cat out of the bag by telling us that he enjoyed special privileges with the remote site and could specify what and when etc to image. The last couple of slides he put up were of the Milky Way which he took while driving in Wales. He spent some time on how he set up the camera etc to get the pictures and how they were the best he had ever taken of the Milky Way. Some of us in the audience noted how proud and enthusiastic he became when he described using his own equipment.

I have had great success with both second hand NUC's and a new MINIX. The MINIX has great range with its external antenna with the NUC's requiring and external usb WiFi module. All run all the astro software. Fast boot up and all run quite happily on 12 volts DC even though the NUC's state 18v input. All have windows 10 pro installed and are remotely operated via windows Remote Desktop

6 to 8 medium bulbs weighing a total of 3.8 ounces (105g). Just Googled it🤣

setting circles can be printed out on an A4 printer using Blocklayer. From memory up to 38 inches in diameter. The larger ones are printed in segments and have to be cut out and glued down which can be fun.......... But carefully done produce excellent setting circles