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Tomatobro

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Everything posted by Tomatobro

  1. Tomatobro
    I agree. Vane checking is part of collimation so I just used it as a reference. My guess was that Neil did not know that there was some extra information in the picture of the star that might help with his problems.
  2. Tomatobro
    see how those diffraction spikes are split into two on two spikes. That's a hint that your mirrors need collimating.
  3. Tomatobro
    Universal Camera DSLR Hot Shoe to Finder / Red Dot Shoe Adapter (ebay)
  4. Tomatobro
    Whenever I get a new setup I always do a daylight test first. I am fortunate that I can see a top of a tree which is about a kilometre away so I point the scope at this and then play with the focus position etc. Also it allows for experimentation with the camera and software. If insufficient back focus is available you can even pull the camera out and by hand move it to when rough focus is achieved. I then wind in the focuser half way, measure this distance and search the suppliers for a suitable spacer. Its not at infinity but near enough for a first look. When the spacer arrives I redo the test and make a note of the focuser wind out measurement ready for the next clear night.
  5. Tomatobro
    All my laptops are tied up analysing and logging the daytime meteor shower (Arietids) at the moment but as soon as one becomes free will take a look at my SID data for comparison.
  6. Tomatobro
  7. Tomatobro
    I remember getting all excited by this image until I spotted that all the objects had a similar artefact (M87)
  8. Tomatobro
    I am up and running! Two challenges, the first was getting 75 turns on the antenna and realising that the slots were not deep enough for the remaining 50 turns so had to carefully unwind and re spool the copper wire, and the second was to adjust the receiver to get all of the signal range within the 5 volts of the 10 bit A/D converter. I take 10 readings over 30 seconds and then record the average. There is enough memory for 11 days of data. Experience with these EEPROM's indicates that they have two failure modes, one (rare) is that the read write front end fails and the second is that an individual bit will not set to 1. So to erase each byte is set to 255 and then read back to ensure all bits have set to 1. It takes about 15 mins to do this on this size of memory chip
  9. Tomatobro
    you will need an adapter to screw on the focuser and adapt the camera body accordingly. I will have a play with a Canon 40D. Until I try it I do not know if there will be enough back focus but perhaps someone who has tried this can confirm.
  10. Tomatobro
    I am waiting for a dovetail saddle to be delivered and then will try my Skywatcher ED72 plus camera and see how it goes.
  11. Tomatobro
    Nice plot. Very inconsiderate of them to switch off when a SID occurs! I am waiting for a UKRAA antenna tuning unit to calibrate my new antenna. This one has been made according to the instructions in the construction PDF. If I cannot wait I will go into the "stores" and see if I can find some temporary capacitors to get it up and running.
  12. Tomatobro
    I missed the flare due to non availability of the kit. It will be interesting to see if you captured it
  13. Tomatobro
    I updated the information for you.
  14. Tomatobro
    Go to the British Astronomical Association Website and look for recent webinars. There was an excellent talk on spectroscopy recently and its well worth a look. BAA Weekly Webinar - From Kitchens to Comets - Hunting for molecules with a spectroscope
  15. Tomatobro
    I have found that feeding the receiver with the right signal the outputs are correct. I based my antenna design on a website that on reflection seems to be specific to using the sound card rather than the UKRAA receiver. I have ordered some 24 awg wire and will rewind the antenna. The antenna as it stands responds well to the noise generated by the notebook screen. Those bumps in the graph are the notebook waking and turning on the screen when I go look for the current signal data.
  16. Tomatobro
    Having read the BAA advice on sketching I thought I would give it a go. These sketches were made using my fork mounted 20/40 x 100 binoculars.
  17. Tomatobro
    Yesterday was the first real test of my newly constructed UKRAA receiver. Its clearly not working properly based on yesterday's and today's log so will pull it out and take another look at it.
  18. Tomatobro
    Were going to need a bigger server.......right chief?
  19. Tomatobro
    This is a recording of a few hours worth of data taken today using my UKRAA receiver. It seemed to make sense for a while but not from 15:40 onwards. It looks normal enough at the start then it seems they had a problem and shut it down for maintenance. At the restart it looks normal then it was reduced to half power then shut down again and so on. Looking at your 05/07 graph I can see a similar pattern
  20. Tomatobro
    Problem number one is that there is nothing to see. The second is that you mention that all you can see is an orange disc which means you have too small an image to see detail. Posting what you have image wise would help with the advice you seek.
  21. Tomatobro
    The GPS pucks might seem expensive but are worth their weight in gold as they do all the initial data setup for you. Especially if you observe from different locations
  22. Tomatobro
    That's the method suggested in the BAA "beginners guide to astro drawing" that I had a read of this morning. I also like the idea of using some simple forms which are designed to help with the orientation and scale and the comment about allowing the star to drift out of view to determine which way is west.
  23. Tomatobro
    Ahh the delights of programming ............. I am in the process of building the Mk2 data logger computer. It will have a processor with 8k of memory (luxury!). The 15v power supply has arrived so slowly getting ready for the UKRAA receiver kit to arrive. I have dabbled with ardunio boards but its been mainly about modifying scripts that other folks have written so I would not be much help with your issues I am afraid. I tend to stick with what I know well but can see the benefits of your approach as your data processing system is far more powerful. I will post some detail and picture when it is closer to being finished. Not much activity from the Sun........
  24. Tomatobro
    looking at the internet there is quite a bit of use of the band in question
  25. Tomatobro
    best investment you can make is to get hold of a book called "make every photon count". Read it from cover to cover. The mount is everything. A poor scope on a good mount is usable but a good scope on a poor mount is unusable. As time goes by you will add to your kit so try to future proof your mount purchase
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