Nigella Bryant

Sorry peps, new DC motor, etc for my guidescope. Guess it's going to snow 🌨️🏂🏔️

We amateur astronomers, don't just have to know about astronomy, we also have to be, electrical engineers, computer boffs, engineers, builder's, fiberglass repairers and much much. How many life skills have each of us had to master or at least learnt something about while pursuing our hobby? lol. It would be interesting to see and all besides learning about astronomical objects and specialist area's of interest (for me, our own star, the Sun). I'll start us off, builder, electrician and electrical engineer, computer and software literate, engineer, fiberglass repair expert (well not expert), optical and telescope engineer.

This thread got me thinking. We amateur astronomers, don't just have to know about astronomy, we also have to be, electrical engineers, computer boffs, engineers, builder's, fiberglass repairers and much much. I'm going to do a post on that to see how many life skills each of us have had to master or at least learnt something about, lol. Be interesting and all besides learning about astronomical objects.

You've succumbed to the bright side Jeremy.

I laid two underground armoured cable and cat6 cable from the house to my pulsar dome. You can never have enough sockets in the dome. I've six on the main wall and six on the pier. I use them all.

Welcome Gaz, enjoy the forum and the hobby.

Welcome to the forum and continue to have fun.

Welcome to the forum

Those ADM plates are brilliant, I fitted one to the solarquest mount (solar version of the GTi).

Some reading material for the new lockdown came today, lol.

I've got a space cat.

Of course Sunshine, you have to be in the know, lol.

One of mine.

Thanks for the heads up.

Hi all, not exactly DIY as it just meant taking off the original plate and adding the new one.

I don't understand what you're asking. First you have the blocking filter in the focuser. I find just the first two/three marks on the focuser tube is enough for focus. Into the blocking filter I put the nose piece, tilt plate and Zwo ASI 178mm camera. On computer screen as tooth_dr said, tune by turning the pressure tuner inwards untill features are evident and contrasting. Tweak focus until features are sharp. Hope this is what you're asking.

I use the hi-tech astro usb control unit. I've a few of these motor's on my other scope's, 12inch Orion newt and 70mm Achromatic guidescope. I don't do software control but focus by eye which seems to be good. I usually do solar imaging so the above scope is for white light and Ca-K. Never had any problems with the Lunt and hi-tech astro usb control either. Pic attached from the Lunt from December 2020.

Hope 2021 will be better for you.

Brilliant stuff Jeremy. I did a record amount of solar observation/imaging in 2020. A record 119 days. Best during March to June. Fizzled out July to December due to weather but still an average of 6 day's per month. Mostly solar due to observatory being relocated and revamped but that was another significant thing I did in 2020 plus the solar RoR up and running. Also several observations and images of comet Neowise and the great conjunction recently. Hopefully do more night time observations in the coming months. I did several observations and imaging of Mars too. So it was a good year despite C19. Thanks again Jeremy for the post. Looking back it was good. Also my pre and post processing skills have got better for solar processing.

Mono image has applied false colour in Photoshop to represent the colour of the sun we would normally perceive it.

Yes, mono, I use a Zwo ASI 178mm

Thanks Sunshine. A year of the learning curve. Learnt lots to get the most out of the equipment.

Not sure if you're focused properly and tuned properly. You should be able to get surface and proms. I've not got this type of solar scope but have a Lunt 60mm DS. Attached example of what you should get in a DS system.

Hi all, I've retrofitted a skywatcher autofocus motor to the focus mount of my Revelation 80ed. Fitting took a little work on the metal plate for it to attach the motor but seems robust. VID_20210103_202027.mp4

Welcome to the bright side of Astronomical observation. My solar scope is the most used telescope I've got. Love solar observing/imaging especially as the sun is becoming more active now. Have fun.