michaelmorris

Look for ASCOM drivers, it will make compatibility way easier.

I have an EQ8 permanently mounted on a pier. I control it via a computer. When I shut it down for the night I always set it to a parked position before powering ti down. On start up, I always first unpark it clear all previous sync points. (reading about this, this step may not be necessary) I then slew it a bit in both axises and repark it to the home position to make sure I am starting off from the correct position. I then slew it to a bright star near the celestial equator (Altair at this time of year), then centre it in the field of view and press 'sync'. After that, it tends to consistently put the target in the field of view. However, if I then GOTO another object some distance away from the first target then 'sync' on it I get better pointing accuracy in subsequent slews. I hope this helps

Doh!

Do the images have to be taken between now and the closing date, or can we submit older images?

I owned a ETX 90 for years. The optics are really nice and it's well suited to imaging the Moon, Sun and brighter planets. Unfortunately, the mount is a bit pants. IMHO the only useful imaging of DSOs that can be achieved with an ETX 90 is mounting it on an equatorial wedge and using it for piggy-backing a DSLR with a wide field lens.

In the end I plumbed for Windows Movie Maker. It's simple to use and does exactly what i wanted it for - to add text and music.

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately the movie maker program won't load on either of my Windows 7 machines.

Thanks Huw Unfortunately it isn't Windows 7 compatible.

Sorry, should have said - Windows 7 PC.

I very occasionally put together astronomical time lapse sequences. What I'm after is some really simple, idiot proof, cheap/free software for adding a title page and possibly some music. Any suggestions welcome. Thanks

Three months ago I remounted the EQ8 in the observatory after my friend Chris made me a pier extension to raise the mount 15 cm. Unfortunately, a combination of cloudy nights, holidays, it not getting dark until early in the morning, and my lovely wife being ill has meant that it took until tonight to get the EQ8 re-polar aligned. SharpCap's polar alignment tool makes this pretty easy. I used my Lodestar x2 mounted on a 60 mm finder/guider. I'll aim to try to see if I can get this even closer with full drift alignment on another night, but my guess that'll be close enough for now.

To the best of my recollection this question comes up every year and (to the best of my recollection) the answer is theoretically yes, as long you book your own separate pitch. However, I can tell you that, being essentially a metal box that will radiate heat like there is no tomorrow, a car is likely to get significantly colder than a tent. I suspect that running a car engine on a camp site for any period of more than a few minutes (day or night) is going to be make you deeply unpopular. Also, I would have thought that running an engine for any period or more than a couple of minutes close to a tent is potentially very dangerous for the occupants of the tent. Have you checked out whether there are still camping pods available?

No such thing as overkill when it comes to telescope piers.

The new combined 12v power hub/focus controller/USB hub is now installed on the mount head and all wired up. I'm pleased as a really really pleased thing with it. A billion thanks to my friend Dave Lloyd for all his help. The wiring to and from the mount now consists of just 4 cables. 12v power to the EQ8 USB to the EQ8 (EQDIR cable) 12v to the new power hub mounted on the mount head USB to the USB hub on the mount head ount body and a 12v power and a USB cable to the mount head

All now (hopefully) finally tested and wired up. I'm pleased as a really really pleased thing with it. It means I now have just two wires coming off the mount head - 1 x 12v power and 1 x USB. A billion thanks to my friend Dave Lloyd for all his help.

The new box of tricks has just passed its final testing and will hopefully soon be wired up to my new scope set up.

Before Christmas I decided to swap my perfectly good HitecAstro DC focus controller for an Ardunio-based system. This would give me the flexibility to swap over to stepper motor-based focus motors at a later date. I also wanted to bring my 12v power distribution up from the pier to sit in the middle of the dual mounting bar with my two refractors on one side and my SCT on the other. This new arrangement should lead to a significant reduction in the cable spaghetti I seem to constantly wrestle with. I have all the eye-to-hand co-ordination a dyspraxic slug, so for me, soldering usually lots of yelling and high car parking fees (for the car park at my local A&E department). With a promise nothing particular at all, I managed to persuade my good friend Dave that his life was really empty and unfulfilled and what he really needed was to fill his days building me a custom-built box of tricks containing a Ardunio DC focus controller with optional hand controller (Thanks to Rob Brown - https://sourceforge.net/projects/mydcfocuserrelativedcfocuser/) and a 6-output fused 12v power distribution box. Last week Dave delivered the finished article to me and this evening, I've just finished testing it all. The last jobs will be to label up each output and switch; mount the 7 port USB hub on the lid; cut all the existing 12v power leads to just the right length and put RCA plugs on them; and finally mount it all on the dual mounting bar.

I booked this morning, but couldn't find the location plan. Thanks to help from other members I now found it. My preferred pitches are pitches 1 -9 and pitches 27 - 36.

Booked. Probably just me being thick but where is the map showing the pitch numbers?

Congratulations to you both. Have a wonderful life and cherish each other.

First off is learning how to use it all! The whole idea is that the new set up is multi-purpose. The 80 mm ED refractor is my main DSO imaging scope. This will be used mainly for narrowband imaging (with some LRGB as well) of DSOs with the new CCD camera and filter wheel. The 66 mm ED refractor serves as a guide scope for DSO imaging, but can be used for wider field DSO imaging with the new CCD camera and filter wheel + a focal reducer as well. In this configuration I could also add my astro-modified DSLR to the 80ED and add a finder guider and do simultaneous colour imaging and narrow band imaging of the same target. The 66 mm can also be used for Ha viewing/imaging of the Sun with my Coronado 0.7Ao etalon with adaptor + BF10 blocking filter. The C 9.25 is my main visual scope, used mostly for double star observing. It also doubles up as my main lunar and planetary scope for both visual observing and imaging. Thirdly, I plan to try out DSO imaging of distant galaxies and planetary nebulae through it with the new CCD camera and filter wheel + an off axis guider. Of course, how on earth I'm going to fit all this stuff in to my life is another matter!

My new EQ8 mount is now back from my mate Chris. Chris made a 15cm high pier extension to raise the whole kit and caboodle so that the observatory walls don't get in the way so much. Because the whole mount + cameras/filter wheel/focal reducer + counterweights weighs in at an estimated 82 kg, the pier extension is made from a solid block of 19cm diameter alumunium! With this concentration of mass, gravitational lensing will now swamp the punny effects of 9.25" mirror on the C9.25". One the subject of counterweights, Chris got hold of a Celestron CGEM 7.7kg counterweight and bored out the central hole to 1.25"so that I can use it as a third counterweight on the EQ8. This allows me to push the two original 10 kg weights far higher up the counterweight bar.