Tomatobro

Its not the current but the voltage which has done the damage. Anything that is designed for 5 volts but had more that 7.5 volts is dead. Internally it will depend on the design of the circuit and components used as to what has failed. I just glanced through my insurance cover and this kind of incident looks to be covered under "accidental damage" but has a value cap on the amount that can be claimed.

The idler pulley does allow for the tensioning of the belt but It was incorporated into the setup due to the choice of belt length being dictated by what I had in stock. A slightly shorter belt would have brought the tensioning adjustment within the slots on the SW motor. The samyang lens focus barrel is a perfect match to the belt pitch. The idler does increase the "belt wrap around" on the small motor pulley which means that the tension on the belt is hardly there. Update.....I am planning to upgrade the SW dc motor to a stepper motor (along with the controller) so that Sharpcap V4.0 can do focusing between filter changes during an automated imaging run

This might have been posted elsewhere but for reference a GT2 2mm pitch tooth belt engages with the focus ring and allows for a Skywatcher DC focus motor to be used. Brackets to support the motor are need to be made to suit the mounting rings used

2.1's are rated at 2 amp and 2.5's at 5 amp. I find that the 2.1 centre pin can make contact with the 2.5 mm dc connector as a lot of connector housings use a side contact that will push over the barrel till it contacts the centre pin. You can get away if low current is involved but its not good practice.

Is there a SGL member in the Roundham area willing to have a drive to the industrial estate and report back what they see?

I would not recommend a pier as a DIY project if you don't have access to the equipment you will need. Cutting, machining, drilling and tapping, welding and painting all required. I have access to all this yet mine still ended up costing around £200 in materials and paint.

Setup something like this

welcome to SGL The biggest challenge is finding somebody that has stock but here is my advice For me the mount is everything. A good scope on a wobbly mount is next to useless I would stick with your camera equipment and consider a Skywatcher Star adventurer and a decent tripod (if you do not have one already). These are remarkable mounts and are capable of taking long (ish) exposures but do need to be polar aligned. Later when funds allow something like a SW ED72 can be put on the mount. Imaging out of a bedroom window has two problems, one is that the floor flexes when you move around and second is the turbulent air rising out of the window and off the roof. Can you take a laptop with you? If so then Sharpcap software will assist in the Polar alignment and image capture. Before starting out get hold of a copy of a book Making Every Photon Count and if possible make contact with an astro club in your area.

at 22:15 captured this one which could have been the one you saw

backscatter data from last night

Poor Man's Fine Focuser? Knob Diameter.........Cloudy nights 2007

I am afraid it is. I deal with a wide range of suppliers and all are reporting delays for out of stock items. No retail supplier would want to delay shipping but no one has stock.

Captured 03:34 7th of August stack of 6 x 10 second exposures Self built all sky camera using a pi HD camera, raspberry pi 4 and Meteotux pro software

asi178 mono. Fan and heatsink from Artic (CPU cooler kit) Peltier cooler Temperature control 144109625008

description matches voltage droop causing a reset. malc-c's advice re power supply is spot on

I did not want to get "inside" the mount but just monitor the power supply input. The latest version of Sharpcap has a sequence programmer with an end of sequence command to park the mount. I was looking to take an external action when the mount parked (close the observatory roof).

The folks at SW. Not having the current drop to near zero (which is what I expected) just made my life a bit harder. Now I have to map the current draw by the controller to determine when the scope is parked. I used a Fluke 867B graphical multimeter. The display update averages the current draw but the min/max values were not that different. Apologies if my comment was misinterpreted

To me it shows what happens when the Electronics, Software and Mechanical engineering folks don't talk to one another. There is no need to power the stepper motor to lock the position where worm and worm wheels are employed.

Thanks you beat me to it. Those numbers are milliamps

For the design of some special hardware I had cause to measure the current draw of a EQ6-R mount under various operational conditions. What surprised me was that after connection the highest current draw (other than when slewing) was when the mount was parked. The current measurements were taken in sequence of On, Connected, Tracking (Sidereal), Parked, Unparked, Slew, Tracking and Parked again. I posted this data as somebody might find it useful EQ6-R.odc

its most likely that its you that is building up the charge as you flex and move within your clothes. I note that you suggest it is "more like continuous static" but I am guessing that once you have touched and discharged you are ok until you touch it again after a few minutes. If the tickle is all the time when touched then its a mains leakage issue which needs immediate investigation. If its static build up then one of the antistatic wrist bands worn by electronics assembler's, with one end of the curly cable grounded on the scope mount should kill off the static. Ebay 113989443847

I can report (but perhaps not much help with the ASI) that all my kit, including the Pulsar software runs successfully on a Minix Win 10 industrial computer and is controlled from the house via remote desktop. It runs two versions of Sharpcap, one for imaging and the other for a wide angle view inside to dome so I can keep an eye on things.

my SW 4.5 inch is 130 mm (100 from bottom edge of diagonal to top edge of spider) with your 30mm allowance

30 second exp suggests its a meteor, It has the classic enters upper thin atmosphere (thin trail start), gets to the thicker layer and then is destroyed.

agree with truckstar. Its just the wrong time of the year just need to give it a few weeks. The eyepiece would not be my first choice I guess, with a 30mm giving you a better chance but if the zoom is all you have then stick with it. Greater magnification spreads the light out and makes things dimmer. Double check that the telrad is calibrated properly ie aligned with the scope. Once you see your first faint fuzzy and know how they look then it gets easier. You may have already looked at one but just not "seen" it