Tomatobro

I had a look through my data to see if I had a copy of the water drops but it seems that I do not. I guess Tomato deleted them also.

Hopefully Tomato will pick up on this post to confirm. I modified some ASI178's to fit Pelter Coolers and we had issues of water droplets and ice forming on the front sensor cover. I seem to recall the subs had those circular thingies just like yours.

There was a post on this in Imaging and Stacking using Gimp. Interesting idea

Two and a half hours of 120 sec lights and lots of sat trails but no meteors.

Now this is not the end, it is not even the beginning of the end, but it is perhaps the end of the beginning KBO

is this what you can see? or this

SID or Induction hob at 16:50 (UTC)?

Its the axis your are trying to align so it does not matter where the weights bar end up. Polaris rotates around the true North position

Ran it again this morning and took a picture. I can see one of the stations turning on and off. The down trace is when I unplug the antenna.

I am going to assume that you have some means of navigation such as a phone app or laptop with some sort of planetarium software. Put the lowest magnification eyepiece you have in the scope, point it to some stars and get it in focus. Globular clusters are a good object to start with as they are easy to identify. It does not get fully dark until after 22:30 but Globular clusters are visible a little bit earlier if you want to try. M13 is the brightest and biggest so start with that if its visible where you are.

I have constructed a "SID" antenna and have been using the sound card input as a first look at recording "SIDS" but Speclab just locked up and I lost my first days data. I think there is a BMP image somewhere on the hard drive so will post it here if its recoverable. As I understand it we are looking for a sudden drop in signal strength with a slow recovery?

I have been looking at the UKRAA SID detector so am following your posts with interest. looking forward to the next update

On Ebay you can find a SVBONY Solar Finder Scope for about £12 which is a useful aid. Makes finding the sun a lot easier.

Don't apologise for asking newbie questions. Polar scope dial? Use a polar alignment APP instead its much simpler Don't bother with the Dec and RA circles although if calibrated they are useful for putting the scope into an accurate park position. You don't mention in your list of equipment but a Telrad finder will help a lot in the positioning of the scope.

if it helps ENS Optical have a 2 inch Astronomik UV/IR filter (used) for £60. Most likely post free.

I think mine also will have to go back. The best surface views occur with the quark unplugged! When powered up the surface gradually changes to a bland orange disk. I can see prominences however when its warmed up. My aged Coronado PST gives better views of the surface. A few years ago I won at auction a Kronus 90 for £20 and this scope together with a Wedge gives me excellent pictures

Thanks Dave. I have a Quark Chromosphere which I use with an ED72 and have been disappointed with its performance. I have access to an Altair 102 Triplet but have been a bit nervous about trying it with the Baader UV/IR filter. I will look into the Ha filter you mentioned.

This is from the manual For telescopes under approximately 120mm of aperture, a screw in UV/IR cut filter can be employed in front of the telescope diagonal. The UV/IR cut filter reflects UV and IR light back out the front of the telescope, reducing temperatures inside. Do not use a UV/IR cut filter with oil spaced objective telescopes, or any telescope with an integrated rear field flattener or Petzval lens. The UV/IR cut filter must be the first optical element to receive concentrated light. It does go on to say that the safest use is with an ERF on the front of the scope but this adds £450 to the equipment cost. It would be interesting if someone can confirm that they have used a Quark with this aperture and just a UV/IR filter.

nice wine too

I was looking at the Bepi Colombo flyby of Earth video on Spaceweather and it reminds me of just how far we have come in those 50 years.

With some clear nights beckoning try slackening the screws and moving the motor and the mounting plate on the slots to tighten the belt and move the shaft over to get the belt to clear. You might get it to run ok while waiting for a new belt to arrive

http://www.deepskycolors.com/mastering-pixinsight.html

hi. good advice from rwilkey.

Just needs a 1k pull up resistor and one line of code changing to get it up and running. And the lock down to be lifted........

re the usb comment, I now unplug everything before the equipment goes into storage, and plug it all back in when setting up. Since doing this I have not had a single connectivity failure. Perhaps the contact fingers are allowed to relax a little and are wiped clean when reconnected