teoria_del_big_bang

I am fairly new to all this but as far as I am aware you are aligning the centre of the RA axis with North Central Pole point (NCP). As Polaris is slightly off this point I guess depending on the FOV of the lens you have attached you may not be able to see polaris at all in your main telescope directly after polar alignment, but it should be pointing roughly towards it. I think sometimes my HEq5 has to move both RA and Dec axis quite a long way to actually get Polaris in centre of view due to where it is in relationship to the RA axis. Somebody more advanced will probably explain much better than I can. Steve

Yes, I remember Steve

Would something like this do? 4 channel 12V relay board Steve

qhy-polemaster-adapter-for-az-eq5 Funnily enough I would agree with both above replies. I would say I am very happy to have a Polemaster on my HEq5 and personally would agree it has been one of my best buys. Really makes polar alignment easy and as much as anything I am very tall and my back is not great so worth the cash not having to bend down to look through the polar scope every session. However it is not cheap, probably around £280 new with mount adaptor, especially when you only use it 5 minutes every session and then that's it, and there are other methods as mentioned above. So up to you if you can afford the outlay then get one or if the £280 could be better spent on other bit of kit then maybe look at other methods that give you just as good result. Steve

Wow, what a discussion this is. I have only just seen this thread and just read from start to the latest post. My passion at the moment is imaging but love to read threads about any aspect of Astronomy on often read observing threads as well as loads of other aspects of Astronomy. I am not experienced enough in any form of Astronomy to say what is right or wrong (if there is a wrong?) but a couple of things I would like to comment on. Congratulations to all for having what sounds to be a fairly heated debate at times from people with a passion for their particular aspect of this hobby without verbally abusing anyone for their opinion. That is what a good Forum is about and believe me I have been on countless others (not astronomy related) where the language does get somewhat offensive. But having said that it does appear a very small minority that use NV are being ostracised from where they feel they want to be included (i.e. as observers) for no other reason than the true observers (which I admire greatly and do read many observing reports despite not being my area of interest) feeling it is not really observing. If it was the small minority wanting to break away then I would say yes a separate section is required and fine as there is still a large section of members left in the observing section, and they can still know where to find any NV reports if they wish and minorities should be catered for. But until there are many more than 3 or 4 that would post in that section I would say it is not required. My thoughts are that often we create too many sub sections and try to get everyone in a defined section. We have some wonderful images in NB showing wonderful colours. But these are not true colours. So as I take images in RGB should I not really want to see NB images in this section ? and probably both would offend somebody imaging in B&W as this is probably more realistic to the true image. Sorry for going on but I think what I am trying to say is leave the small minority in the section they feel comfortable in. They must only contribute a small percentage of the posts in that section so anyone from the majority that are true purists that accidentally opens up a NV thread will soon realise and can soon close it again and move to the next thread. And please nobody take offence to my very simplistic view I do not mean to offend any form of this wonderful hobby / obsession. Steve

Believe me I am with you all the way as in exactly the same situation with the ZWO1600mm and also using APT. I was unaware that you could set different gains in the filter settings dialog of APT and had to use scripts to do it, until I saw this thread. I too am on V3.63 and if I click on settings for the FW when on the Gear Tab I too get the dialog same as above that does not have any gain settings (I believe this is just the Ascom Dialog APT opens). But if I go to the "Tools" Tab and click on "Settings" and then click on the "Filter Wheel" "Tab in Settings" I get the following:- However, I have just seen this so not tried it to see if it works but I guess it should, most things do just seem to work in APT. I don't know if this helps but I have learnt something today at least ? Steve

Hello Miguel and welcome. I often used to work in Valladolid in the Renault factory. You have some fantastic restaurants there, it never did my waistline any good working there but I loved it. Steve

I had read the thread already on this section about 365 Astronomy and it had some very mixed reviews, some saying very good and others not so. So reading these normally I would not order from them BUT it was the only site I could find suitable replacement Latitude adjustment bolts for the HEQ5 from in UK without resorting to Ebay. The price was very reasonable and postage reasonable at £3.85 so I ordered them. And they appeared through my letterbox almost before I hit the return key. Super fast delivery, I can only report my experience with them and had absolutely no issues. Steve

it happens ? Steve

So that is what that is for. You learn something new everyday on this site ? An absolutely marvellous achievement, you well deserve a glass or two ? Steve

You must remember to take her out now and again ? Steve

Nice. Now you just need some sun ? Steve

If that is a first I would be very proud of that image. Nice work I am just about to start using narrowband / RGB for the first time soon (weather permitting) after starting out with a DSLR. If I can manage anything half as good I will be very happy. Steve

Fantastic image, so much detail in there it is hard to know where to look first. Steve

Look forward to seeing the results, hope all goes well. Steve

I was really wanting some items for this weekend as I had planned a full strip down of my mount and replace bearings and do the Rowan belt modification. I ordered the items from FLO and when I had not had an email to say the items had been shipped contacted FLO by email. A response within the hour explained one item was out of stock as their supplier had let them down. Anyway to cut to the chase when I explained I really needed the items for weekend and the out of stock item was not important they had the rest of the items on their way next day delivery (DPD). DPD had the items to my doorstep, despite the snow, by 10:00 am Friday morning. So thanks to FLO & DPD for the great service. Now where are my allen keys? Steve

Thanks for all the help and other advice (much appreciated). I am pretty confident now I have the correct bearings and will order today. All in all cost me about £56 for good quality bearings. I think that is a small price to pay. I have some "SuperLube" for the roller bearings and anything else that needs it, the others bearings are greased for life and sealed so should be okay Will be ordering all but the smaller ones for the worm shaft from www.bearingsrus.co.uk as they were far cheaper than others I found, postage was extra but under £2, and still SKF and Timken for the tapered rollers. The smaller ones for some reason were cheaper from simplybearings.co.uk and free postage. The Rowan belt mod will be ordered from FLO of course. Good point @vlaiv but I hope to at least get a pier built this year if not a small obsy (usually my plans for the year take several though so not holding my breath ? ) Hopefully then I have a good platform for imaging, pity I can't fix the weather in the UK so easily ? Steve