michaelmorris

Just booked Thursday - Monday. I've also opted for the extra 'fine weather' premium to make sure the weather on our pitch is good.

I had a similar fledgling wasps nest in my garden shed a couple of years ago. I simply broke it up with a stick. The queen kept trying to rebuild it and once a week I destroyed it. After a 5 or 6 weeks she didn’t come back.

I had real issues getting my 120mc to work properly with all sky eye. Now it is working great. Here are my top three tips for using a 120MC/MM camera with Allskeye software. Use new, high quality USB cables Experiment with using the ASCOM rather than the native ZWO driver Create a bad pixel map. I hope this helps

If you're after a very fast lens with a controllable iris, you could have a look at discontinued Computar CCTV lens such as the 2.6mm HG2610AFCS or 2.0mm TG2010AFCS or TG2010FCS-L. These quality f1.0 lenses are amazing, but nowadays rarer than a rare thing on EBay.

I have a (rather noisy) ZWO ASi 120MC. The new 'Bad Pixel Map'' feature on the latest version of Allskeye software has very successfully cleaned up the images. As long as there are ASCOM drivers available for your camera, it should work with Allskeye? www.allskeye.com

The immediate fix seems to be to use the ASCOM drivers for the ZWO ASi120MC. Dark frame subtraction now working. ?

Hopefully it won't clash with The SGL star party again.

I've experienced a number of issues with trying to get this software to run with my ZWO ASI120MC over the past month or two. However, Mike's hard work and superb user support has meant that it now works well. (Solution has been to use the 32-bit version of the software, dial down the USB transfer speed right down to 40 and shoot in RAW 16). I also replaced all the USB leads. I've tried the bad pixel map feature in 9.12.0 and unfortunately the exposure fails when trying to create the bad pixel map (see post in Allskeye community page). However, I'm sure Mike will try his best to sort it out. This guy is a hero!

I have found that one of the great joys of having an observatory is that polar alignment is pretty much a one off affair. Not having a pier will remove this advantage as the tripod is bound to occasionally get knocked.

Yes, but I haven't yet done any processing beyond alignment and stacking in DSS. The colour cast with the D2 is a bit blue/green with more of a colour cast than the P2, but less than with a CLS filter.

I have recently bought an ASI 294 MC and I'm using it with exactly the kit you are using. There is a Male T2 to female 1.25" adaptor in the box which threads into the thick (10mm I think) adaptor that attaches direct to the camera. I've read that when used this close to the sensor, a 1.25" sensor only gives marginal vignetting, which can be compensated for by using flats. However, I've chosen to go down the route of using a single 2" IDAS light pollution filter attached to a FLO focal reducer to 2" adaptor. I attach the 2" adaptor to the focuser draw tube using a Baader Click lock adaptor. https://www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/baader-click-lock-2956256-m56-celestron-skywatcher.html This holds the focal reducer orthogonally and, for all practicable purposes, as firmly as if you had screwed it on. I already had both the FLO adaptor and the Clicklock adaptor and the filter I wanted was only available in 2" https://www.firstlightoptics.com/light-pollution-reduction-imaging/idas-d2-light-pollution-suppression-filter.html , so this solution seemed to make sense.

Delivered today. A lovely shiny new ZWO ASI 294 MC-Pro one shot colour camera. Thank you FLO. ???

Thanks

Ironing stool from Aldi with a new homemade much larger seat fitted and the height adjustment retaining bolt replaced with a large 'pin' made from a coach bolt with the thread cut off.

It sounds like a sensible option to me.

Looks like a great project. I built mine about 8 years ago. The main lesson I learned was - A - Workout how many plug sockets you think you will need B - double it!

Anyone yet tried a Lodestar with an Evoguide 50ED?

Looks great. ?

Thanks, but I'm afraid I don't really understand your conclusions. Which ones come to focus?

I'm toying with the idea of getting a Skywatcher Evoguide 50ED to use as a small guide scope with my Lodestar 2 guide camera. In order to reduce the risk of flexure. I always like to attach cameras using a threaded connector rather than a push fit. So, before biting the bullet I want to make sure of one thing. Can I screw the Lodestar into the rear of the Evoguide using a T thread to C thread adaptor and get the camera to focus?

Looks like a great product. Just one thing, is it just me or is the music in the videos much too loud, almost drowning out the narration?