david_taurus83

10 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Got a couple of those, good to see they've reinstated the centre catch which some genius decided to leave off for a while resulting in it gaping open with any weight in it.

Dave

It's tighter than I thought. I'm adding an auto focusser so need to rotate the scope with knobs upwards. Need to move the guide scope forward by adding another dovetail in between to do this. But my motto is "..if it doesn't fit, get a bigger hammer.."

Postie brought me a big empty box.

It's perfect.

1 hour ago, bottletopburly said:

Works great through APT  so easy  best gadget I have bought highly recommend , I use with a DSLR and have just been doing once at Start of session,  don’t know if the sequence differs with ccd and filters , maybe others can comment that use a ccd and apt with a auto focuser, maybe @Yoddha can help there with info ,  I know Pavle @sunka uses it with a zwo ccd and sgp , 

Ok thanks. Pavle uses the same camera as he's answered some of my questions about his DC power box. Looking forward to it now. Should be here in a few weeks!

On 15/11/2018 at 18:59, bottletopburly said:

Have a look at www.deepskydad.com auto focuser  small and light  uses a Nema 14 stepper motor , costs around £120 ish  or make your own plans on his website,  best thing I fitted focusing so easy I use APT , holds rock solid .

 

Ordered! I never thought I'd need one as I used to just focus at the start of the session and it held solid all night. But since switching from DSLR to mono, and checking focus for each filter, it's a bit of a faff to go out each time. How do you find APT works with auto focusing? Or do you manually check HFD and adjust yourself?

Tracking? Guiding? You wouldn't notice any minute movements visually through the eyepiece but a camera will record them.

30 minutes ago, djpaul said:

Yes I found a site that explains how to mod an eq5 mount.

Did it ages ago and it works perfectly ?

Looks great! I kind of wish I had kept my EQ5 now so I had a grab and go. Could double for a refractor and a Newt. Was there much work involved?

1 hour ago, djpaul said:

Is that an EQ5 in Alt/az mode? If so, how did you get it vertical?

Similar to my other thread, I'm interested to know what acceptable curvature is on a flat field. I wouldn't expect it to 0% curved though. With CCDI i think you need to load in around 10 images or so for an average to beat the seeing and variable FWHM values. I'm hoping to do this tonight if it's reasonably clear to try and get the optimum back spacing on my flattener.

23 minutes ago, PaulM said:

1.25" H-beta filter and Dual-Speed Low Profile 1.25/2" Crayford focuser 

I have the same focuser on my 200p. Great for bringing a camera into focus but for visual I need a small extension for all my 1.25" eyepieces. Just so you know!

4 hours ago, Danjc said:

1100d and a few bits. 

Now to find a heq5 as there appears to be no uk stock till the new year ! and then make my mind up on either a ED80 or 130P-ds. 

 

@Wirral manis selling all his AP gear, HEQ5 and ED80 amongst it. Worth giving him a shout.

Yes, I made the perfectly sane choice to go from a working everytime DSLR imaging setup to this mono nonsense! Weather is predictably forecast bad for the week so will at least get it all setup indoors and make sure laptop and USB hubs are all friendly to each other.

Woke up to this email this morning. On a Sunday! Gurpreet you absolute legend!

22 hours ago, stash_old said:

You could of course spend 250GBP on another product that does the same thing and is not any more precise ? 

I have the Polemaster but ironically I use it just for Sharpcaps polar align as it's more accurate! I get sub arc second guiding this way. Have yet to test it's accuracy when used via the guudescope.

As promised:

The previous owner of my 200p fitted a resistor block to the back of the secondary and ran a thin wire out along the spider vanes to be powered by a 9v battery. I've never used it but he said he could stay out till early morning without any build up on the secondary. I will take a pic later this evening.

My first foray into WL solar observing thanks to Gus @Knighty2112

An almost cast iron guarantee that the Bromsgrove Astro star party at Ledbury this weekend will be wet and cloudy!

32 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

It wont be the postman who brings it, but by Sunday i will have Netflix (the all inclusive deal for 10.99 a month). Im sick of friends talking about all the great stuff that ive never seen.

TV is rubbish (all 300+ channels).

Great for tv shows and some movies. I have it on now. Horrid Henry keeps the kids entertained and settled before bed! We have Virgin cable here. I only wanted the broadband but they gave us the TV package for £1 extra. Nothing but rubbish nowadays. Bring back MacGyver and the A-Team! All we ever have on is either Netflix or YouTube on the TV.

Re; your other post about getting it on the TV. You need a smart TV hooked up to the internet and the Netflix app installed or like I used to, Netflix on the laptop and an HDMI cable to the telly. Was a lot better a few years ago. Had a paid VPN service and could change my IP to a US address and get all their content. Alas, they copped on to that one...

If you do have a smart TV but somehow can't get the app you should be able to cast from your phone to TV. The icon should appear on your phone in the top corner like below and give you the option to play through the TV assuming all are on the same Wi-Fi network.

9 hours ago, Geoff Barnes said:

You little beauty! I never ever thought I would have one of these, the EQ6-R Pro arrived today! ?

Just one problem..... I didn't order it!!!

Tasco have sent back my Dob Go-To base unit in one box, and to my surprise they sent a second box (addressed to me).

Upon opening said box there it was, a shiny new EQ6-R Pro mount.

Very nice I'm sure, but of absolutely no use to me at all.

Some poor soul somewhere is wondering why they haven't received their order, well that's cos I've got it!

Tried to phone Tasco at 12.35pm only to be informed they close at 12 noon on Fridays!  ?

I will just have to wait until Monday now to get anything done about it, someone has made a big boob! ?

 

Finders Keepers!!

To replace my Baader Zoom recently sold. My first fixed FL eyepiece purchase. Arrived very well packaged and well priced on ABS.

Looking forward to seeing how I get on with these as I even managed to pull some detail out of the Martian surface the other night using the mighty Skywatcher kit 10mm!!! Also, 25mm BST inbound from a fellow SGL'r!

2 hours ago, Stu said:

This arrived today. Have been wanting one for a while, very lovely ‘chunky’ little thing, feels very nicely made. Focuser is very smooth and it is incredibly compact with the retractable dewshield. It reminds me of a more up to date, slightly bigger version of my old WO SD66 and will hopefully come everywhere with me, to places the Tak dare not go (or rather fit!)

It looks identical to my WO GT71. Rings, screws and grooves on the body are the same!

Should help with back garden imaging. Need to travel otherwise.

8 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

You can rotate the focuser to the top and move it forwards on a longer dovetail which is what I did with the WO Star71.

Dave

 

Good idea, thanks. I have a spare vixen dovetail so I could use that. Will have a play tonight indoors.

8 minutes ago, Lockie said:

I think the one on the scope is to aid in building up a darks library for different temps, but I have no idea why one would be needed on a diagonal? 

I thought the same or perhaps some observers may like to note the weather conditions in their notes. Anyway, it was bought primarily for compactness, weight, "windproof" imaging and nice round stars. The flattener and camera all screw onto the drawtube so it's a nice solid connection. The rack and pinion focuser is nice and smooth and focus doesn't appear to shift when the lock screw is tightened. I persevered last night and done some observing on Jupiter. It is a long way off from the light gathering abilities of the 200p, so I will still keep that for observing sessions. The WO gives crystal clear views and no sign of CA on Jupiter. I need to figure out how to balance it though as it's focuser heavy. Overall I'm well impressed with the build quality. Just need dark, moonless clear skies to go with it!!

They are indeed thermometers. They are for telling you the temperature lol

Postie brought me a nice box of tricks today: