Hallingskies

I have a 4SE but would not try and use it for astrophotography. At F15 it is too slow and the mount is not up for long exposures. And it doesn’t really have the aperture to give good resolution for planetary photography. It’s fine for visual but for photo work, no.

I did look on the Baader site before I posed the question. Obviously not hard enough. For unmounted filters, “which way round” could be a bit more difficult I suppose. The Cloudy Nights thread on this topic looked a bit equivocal to me...

Just seen two perseids, between 23.00 and 23.10, and between the clouds. First was a first magnitude job zipping through Aquila, reddish and left a faint smoke trail. The second was blue/white, second mag, close to Delphinus. Blink and you miss ‘em....

Thanks to everyone who replied. “Thread towards camera” seems to be the consensus, which certainly seems to be the way the ATIK EFW2 is built to be used. Probably a no-brainer, really. But in the short time since I joined this forum, the biggest thing I have learned is that (despite my best efforts) there are no stupid questions...

Should I have the knurled edge of narrowband filters (the bit you hold to screw it into the filter wheel) facing the camera or the scope? Does it matter? I’ve never thought about it before until my new EFW2 turned up and I realised I could mount the wheel either way round.

The equation for a roll-off roof is a lot easier...

Steve: Once again, many thanks. I wouldn’t have called it “simple” but at least I can work some numbers out if I need a plan B.

Celestron 4SE. Used half a dozen times, now been in my loft gathering dust for the past five years. Bought it as a grab and go but it never really went, as it were.

In an ideal world, the BBC would be looking to educate as well as entertain. Unfortunately, it prefers to dumb everything down and pander to the lowest common denominator, which neither educates nor entertains. I gave up watching anything “scientific” on the BBC soon after Sir Patrick Moore died.

It’s a brave person who tries to set up a telescope at night on their own anywhere near where the “general public” might be. There always seems to be somebody who wants to cause problems, just because they can. Always best to go mob-handed if you have to go out.

And, as ever, when you have a limited number of frames, you can bet a blasted aeroplane/satellite flies through at least one of them! Nevertheless, the image really is well worth the aggravation it seems you had to get it. Certainly a good effort after a three year lay-off. Well done.

A single frame grabbed with PaintShop Pro Animation Shop from a 30 second video shot with my old Sony Cybershot... Taken during the evening of 7th. August 2018...

It was the boxy-looking one, like a smaller EQ6, so must have been the HEQ5? It had been left out in all weathers, amazed the electrics survived, the mechanicals definitely needed some TLC. I suppose it’s not worth carrying spares for rare cases such as that. Not like GEM bearings do a lot of work, really.

Having helped an equally mechanophobic friend replace the bearings in his old and rather abused EQ5 that had pretty much disintegrated, your assurance that things have improved is welcome. Between us we got the job done, should have done the belt mod at the same time as it’s a cinch on the EQ5. We got the bearings we needed from RS, I think they were SKFs.