hadyn42

32 minutes ago, Adrian Condon said:

I think I will kill two birds with one Guinness Cake.....

Adrian

32 minutes ago, Adrian Condon said:

I think I will kill two birds with one Guinness Cake.....

Adrian

Hello Adrian

You have mentioned about your Guinness Cake to us when you were here last year! Are we going to get a taste, it could be classed a a whisky chaser!

Looking forward meeting up old pal, Christina has been briefed on what cakes to bring along this year too.

Best regards,

Christina and Hadyn

Hello Guys

Is there anyone out there starting to feel excited and getting the urge to sort out what astronomy gear they are bringing along to The Great Galloway Star Party as yet?  We can guess that some liquid refreshments have already being purchased for this event.  I have just mentioned to Christina that we need to bring some homemade cakes with us and just making a list of what type of cakes we should bring.

MIKE:  Don't worry we know you like lemon drizzle cake so we will make sure we will bring one of those mate!  I am sure that I have read somewhere that there is a buffet' being laid on by courtesy of Lesley and Ralph on the Saturday night.  How about everyone baking a cake to bring along this time as well as the various malts,  just an idea folk.  Christina is out in the kitchen as I type sorting out some cake tins by the sound of the clattering coming from within there...

We are very much looking forward to meeting up with you folk again and having a good chat and partaking in various amounts of discussions and of course plenty of banter..

Best regards,

Christina and Hadyn - IOM

16 hours ago, Greymouser said:

Thank you for that. Yes I loosened the three thumbscrews, then attempted to remove the top, but it just turned then stopped. It did not come off, even after completely removing the thumbscrews. It seemed to jamb, no more movement. 🤔 

Edit: I was considering trying some WD40, to see if that helps, but though I would give Rob at FLO more time to answer my questions.

Hello Greymouser

Have you removed the three thumbscrews completely as I had to remove  them to take of my mount head? You will probably find that these screws are not actually the same length!

Regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

40 minutes ago, Mr Flibble said:

Good news. I've managed to get the time off work. So I'll be arriving on the 27th and leaving on the 3rd.

I haven't seen everyone for a while so can't wait to catch up 👍

Hello Dai

Really glad you can make it on those dates, it will be good to do some catch up!

Best regards,

Christina and Hadyn - IOM

Hello Davey

Thank you very much for the info again!

Kindest regards,

Hadyn 

Hello Davy

Thanks yet again the the info!

I cant seem to find a picture of the connections on the back of WR943 at the moment to see what the connections are. Not to sure what a usb b port looks like.

I hope you are enjoying the good weather up there with you, its been very good here for solar viewing, just wish I could turn the temperature down a bit though lol.

Kindest regards,

Hadyn - IOM

Hello Davey

Thank you for your help. I will check out the info over the weekend!

Hoping to catch up with you at the Galloway Star Party.

Kindest regards,

Hadyn - IOM

Hello Guys

Could someone recommend me a 10" or a 12" colour monitor to hook up with my SCB-2000 camera please?  I need it to be a 12 volt dc feed going to power it up. I intend to use it for live views of the Moon for an outreach event that our society will be running guys!

Kind regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

Hello Guys

Could someone recommend me a 10" or a 12" colour monitor to hook up with my SCB-2000 camera please?  I need it to be a 12 volt dc feed going to power it up. I intend to use it for live views of the Moon for an outreach event that our society will be running guys!

Kind regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

Hello All 

We hope all of you are building up yourselves in readiness for the great event accordingly? We will not be bringing with us any of the Manx Firewater this year as it is needed to fuel our entry into the IOM land speed record on a Honda 90cc motorbike....

Just to warn you that Christina and I plan to be at Drumroamin on Monday 28th October and leave on Monday 4th November.

Looking forward to meeting up with you all and have a good chat etc.  Dai - sorry to say that we will miss you this time as you mentioned in this forum that you are arriving quite early and leaving before we get there. I guess some comments could be coming in about this!

Cakes will be baked and brought with us too.

Best regards,

Christina and Hadyn - Isle of Man

18 hours ago, Demon Barber said:

Hi Hadyn, yes get yer finger out, hope you  and Christine are keeping well?

Looking forward to catching up with you,can i put in an order for cake please?

Regards

Mike

Hello Mike

We are keeping fine thank you. The main thing is, How are you keeping old chap, looking forward to meeting up with you again and having a good yarn, I take it you would like some lemon drizzle cake? ha, ha. Adrian has sort of kept me in the loop regarding yourself as we met up with him at the end of May at Heathrow airport for a day out before we headed to Denver.

I know you don't want to comment here on about yourself Mike, my email address is:  hadyn@wimanx.net  should you wish to send me abuse etc, ha, ha.....

Take care Mike.

Best regards,

Christina and Hadyn, x  - the kiss is from Christina by the way.

Take care 

7 hours ago, shirva said:

Contacted Lesley and looking to come down for the Saturday and Sunday.

Hello Davy.

Hope to see you there.

Best regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

PS  I must get around to contacting Lesley about a booking very soon.....

Hello Guys

Just submitting my pennies worth. I live just on the outskirts of Douglas in the village of Onchan Isle of Man.

Regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

On 26/03/2019 at 07:56, steviebee said:

I was wondering if anyone has used a Skywatcher 130PDS on the AZ GTI mount?

Hello Steeviebee

I use the setup that you mention above and it works very well for me indeed. I use the combo for viewing and some astrophotography with my Canon 1100D. I find it a lightweight grab and go setup too.

Regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

Hello Mikeysweet

Sorry to hear that you are having problems. Have you tried updating your Azgti firmware? I had similar problems and solved the issue by updating the mounts firmware. If you would like some further info please let me know.

Regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

8 minutes ago, cotterless45 said:

For those quaking at the thought of taking their iPads outdoors in the dark, there is an easier and cheap solution. I bought a 7" tablet from Argos for £60.

Loaded up free Avast security , then Synscan app and Skysafari pro 5. Go to "settings " get the app wifi up , connect to the mount . Align with the SW app, then connect to Skysafari. It's an easy option and works !

 The app will stand alone with its catalogues and point and go. It's a great advance on using a handset ,as the near limitless info available adds interest to a session. In addition , the downloadable resources can make cheery additions to observe ,as well as listening to the audio commentary. 

Nick.

Hello Nick

Hows things with you? Are you managing to keep away from your dentist.

Please can you tell me the make and model number of the tablet if possible?

Best regards,

Hadyn -  Isle of Man

17 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The motor control firmware uploader can be found here (mc firmware uploader wifi) .

Instructions provided with the uploader

This application is used to update the motor controller's firmware of a Skywatcher telescope mount, which has a build-in Wi-Fi module or an external SynScan Wi-Fi dongle.

1. Disconnect the ethernet cable from your PC.
2. Let you PC join the Wi-Fi network provided by the mount's build-in Wi-Fi or an external SynScan Wi-Fi dongle.
3. Run MCFirmwareLoader_WiFi.exe
4. Use the "Browse" button to load the new firmware file (*.MCF) for the mount's motor controller.
5. Click "MC Version" button to check the version of the motor controller; or,
   click the "Update" button to load the new firmware to the motor controller.
6. Re-try if the updating fails.

Hello Peter

Thank you very much indeed for your reply.

Very good instructions indeed. Sorry if I wasted your time Peter, just this moment extracted the loader and firmware software and seen the instructions there...

Thanks again.

Best regards,

Hadyn - IOM

Hello All

Just opened the box with with my new SW AZ Gti mount and set it up in the lounge last night to test it out. I was using a power lead from my 13.8 volt PSU and all was working well. I was using my Ipad2 with the Synscan app and followed all the instructions posted on this forum. I was using the pro version of the app, it seems like a "great little grab and go mount" I even tried out my HEQ5 pro handset which worked well too. Not tried the Skysafari app on my Ipad2 as I know that there are some problems there...

I was just wondering how do I find out what firmware the mount is using at the moment to see if it needs updating? I have downloaded the relevant firmware (Version 3.10 -
 dated Oct 17, 2017) If anyone can help me please in how to update the firmware etc it would be gratefully appreciated, thank you?

Best regards,

Hadyn - IOM

1 hour ago, stash_old said:

Yep - same on all Goto mounts/software - totally relies on Alignment of some sort - which of course then comes down to clever Maths and hopefully accurate engineering  plus human feed back or Platesolving to keep the Maths/Engineering correct. Simples - LOL wish it was!

Android version number is the only thing to watch out for(i.e. older kit) - assuming its got full networking capabilities. It even runs on my "Smart" TV  - LOL

Hi Stash

Thank you for your reply with the info on Android versions. I know having a go-to mount is great idea, but when it refuses to go-to due to due to too many parameters to setup, ha, ha.

Best regards,

Hadyn - IOM

1 minute ago, Stu said:

Haydn, hope all is well with you?

You don't actually need those functions to be able to use it to control the mount. I never use mine in that mode i.e. Pointing at the sky to see what is there. I only ever use it as, effectively, a star atlas to find targets to look at.

The device, and SkySafari will, as far as I'm aware, get its position data from the Synscan app or handset so it does not need the sensors to do this. When you connect to a scope within the SkySafari app the star map will slew round to the correct position as soon as it syncs with SynScan.

It is certainly worth trying before buying another device?

Hello Stu

Thank you for your reply!

All is well here thank you, I hope all is well with you too?

I use Skysafari 5 plus with both my mounts and have a Ipad 2 that I use the usb skyfi unit which works quite well. I downloaded the Synscan app a few days ago but not used the app in anger as yet. I have just purchased the SW Az Gti mount, which has not come out of the box as yet  and I have been following the threads on here regarding using the Synscan app on my Ipad along with Skysafari and I must say by reading some of the returning answers to the questions asked by folk about using the AZ Gti with the Ipad with Skysafari  and the Synscan app, it looks as if its a "no go" at the moment!

Going to read up on the SW AZ Gti next week to see if I need to update the firmware on the mount etc, so another learning curve for an old chap to get into, ha, ha.

By the way Stu, I am still getting some great use of the 20 x 80 binoculars I bought from you a couple of years ago at Lucksall. My wife and I have been in Scotland doing a fair bit of birding and wildlife viewing with the binoculars and my spotting scope.

I managed to get to SGL2017 in October, there didn't seem to be many familiar faces there this time, I did have a look around the site to see if I could find you, but had no luck.

Take care,

Best regards,

Hadyn - IOM

Hello Guys

I have been following this thread and I must say that there has been loads of great questions and replies go into it!

I too am interested in getting a suitable Android tablet / device to use for driving my heq5 and neq6 mount. Can anyone give some ideas please on what Android tablet etc, that has compass and suitable magnometer built in please? I did buy a Samsung Tab4 about a year ago but it didn't have a magnometer, compass etc or whatever to use with astronomy apps, in other words it wouldn't allow compass or tilt functions. Sorry if I have butted in here guys, so any help on a suitable device would be much appreciated please?

Best regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

2 hours ago, AdeKing said:

I've just got around to booking Friday to Sunday.

Its my first Star Party and am looking forward to it.

Ade

Hello Ade

You will really enjoy the event and will want to go again next year!

Hope to see you there.....

Regards,

Hadyn - Isle of Man

3 hours ago, Stephen Green said:

I have booked look for ward to seeing every one

Hello Stephen

It will be great to see yourself and Caroline this year.

Christina and I will be both there as from the Friday lunchtime. How are you getting on with your Atik Infinity by the way?

Best regards,

Hadyn & Christina- IOM

Hello All

We managed to see the transit of Mercury from two locations on the Isle of Man. There was excellent viewing conditions over here on the island yesterday. I took my ED80, HEQ5 tripod with Skytee2 head attached, with of course a Solar filter fitted.  I found the best views were obtained with a 15mm BST eyepiece and an orange filter fitted.  Port Erin was my first location at 1.30pm and we viewed the transit until about 5pm at a friends house, who had never done any solar observing up untill yesterday.  I then drove home to Onchan where I set up the gear again for my wife to be able to see Mecury for a further hour, before packing up in time for tea.

There were three largish sunspots viewed with around twenty mini sunspots scattered around the main three.

Best regards,

Hadyn - IOM