Fraunhoffer

Has anyone made an adjustable height / levelling platform for their dob'? 
I'm thinking of making a ply disk with 3 adjustable kitchen cabinet feet so it keeps the skywatcher 'chipboard' base off the damp ground and can also level it up nicely.
Maybe some lockable wheels too...

I had a quick search around on here but thought this might have been addressed before - if someone can post me a link if it has.

Lovely. Thanks.

1 hour ago, AdeKing said:

I have been a photographer for years but have almost given up photography due to the amount of time I was spending "processing" the raw images. When I re-entered the astronomy scene I was determined to observe and learn about what I was viewing, and for me that meant visual only. I am tempted by lunar, planetary and solar imaging and do have an older camera but so far I have resisted and am trying to improve my sketching which for me is challenge enough. I'm not saying this is right for everyone, but it's how I enjoy my hobby. 

 That is a real shame. I really enjoy the social side of star parties and looking through other people's setups to see how the views compare to mine, and sharing views through my scopes with others. 

The imagers that attend our observing sessions tend to be shooting widefield or star trails with a DSLR and once they are set up and shooting they join in with doing a tour of the eyepieces. 

I love drawing what I see, albeit not very well, but it serves as a memory jogger for me. I do love seeing the images that others produce and seeing these images helps me to appreciate what I'm looking at. 

At the end of the day a hobby is a personal thing and from my contact with other astronomers at two local groups I'd say there was a fairly even split between visual and imagers, but most of the imagers I know do enjoy looking through an eyepiece too. 

Good to hear from FLO that they don't appear to be seeing a drop off in interest in visual astronomy. 

Last night was the first time that I managed to track down The Veil visually from my back garden under the Poole and Bournemouth light dome with my ED100. I admit to using goto and an Oiii filter but the joy I got from seeing the Veil from home will stay with me forever. Guess what's top of my list on my next dark sky outing. This is why I love this hobby. 

lovely sketches. I've started sketching. Helps me take time to appreciate what im looking at.

I much prefer being out under the dark sky and 'connecting' with the stars.
I do take pictures from time to time to share with the family and friends or locate some really dim object that my eyes wont be able to see anyway.
I did buy a small 'astro' camera but couldn't stand setting up the laptop and cables etc (I have a background in IT so not an issue) but just got bored with it, sitting while the camera did its thing, getting blinded by the screen and spending hours messing about with the picture after.
Much prefer using my dslr (in spite of the limitations) for 30 -40 mins max for me if its something Im really interested in, but would much rather eyeball it.
If its more difficult than that Id rather dial up a robo-scope in some remote place - but then I might as well look in a book ?
1-2 hours to go to a nice dark place, 20-30 mins to set up - lovely.

'Seven Sisters' by moonlight; 2019-08-07, 2s ISO 1600, 35mm lens.

Moon and night sky over the sea at Birling Gap, 2019-08-07
35mm lens, 3 bracketed exposures HDR processed.

Just in case someone is following this thread Ive found some v useful threads here:

How well does the go-to bit work on these please?
Is it a type of friction drive, or does it have a worm and gear with a clutch?

Great comments, thank you.

- Im thinking it will mostly stay in one place with a roll off shed/ lock down cover over the top so unless there is a month of storms it will have to stay outside anyway. A platform with the big lockable wheels sounds a good idea though. 

- then just thought, If I sell the gpcam cameras I could go up an aperture or two  :-0

= time to flog some of the loft contents I think

Hi all, well after returning to astronomy 9 months ago after a break of too many years I'm having a fab time.

Wow, how things have moved on.

I picked up a nice s/h 4" refractor and a nice SH SCT-8 on a nice EXOS-2 mount which ive modified with goto2 and serviced (I could only dream of these before).

Ive dabbled a bit with the photography side using my DSLR and a gpcam and come to the conclusion that I really prefer observing and taking the odd photo (30 mins max). I might keep the gpcam for some EAA for a bit or faint subjects but other than that setting up the laptop blah blah takes too much time out of my observing window. Id rather sketch what I see and dial up a robo-scope if I want to take a picture of something difficult.

As I live not far from near Heathrow and the skies I suppose are Bortle 6 and (maybe 5 when the lights go off). The refractor and SCT arrangements make nice portable rigs when its worth travelling an hour to a darker place. I like looking at reasonably accessible DSOs, clusters, nebulae, coloured doubles, galaxies etc.

Anyhow to the subject of my question.
I'm considering saving up and getting a big dob' as a semi-permanent arrangement in the garden - with a roll off cover. We have a reasonable view of most of the sky and a flat-ish concrete patch where a hot tub used to be many years ago.

Id be interested in comments about the SW 300P Flex tube goto Dob (or similar) from people that have one. 

A. Will it actually reveal much more that the SCT8 ?
B. Why not go all out for a 14" er ?
C. What are the shortcomings, must-do mods people have done ?

Re C:
-I read that its a good idea to put onto a half barrel/water butt stand to access lower elevations and make more comfortable viewing.
- rigging up some anti-dew device on the secondary
- I'm about 185 cm tall anyway so standing or use a bar stool might be ok.
- many people change the focusser or use an electric kit?
- get a shroud ?
- lacquer the MDF stand to make it more weather proof.
- what to look for in a used one?
- is this going to involve additional expense with 2" eyepieces ?

Thanks for any input. I'm not in a hurry to get one although if a good used one pops up I might bite.

Clear skies all.
PS - sorry for the looooong post.
 

Just an update to my grafting the SW EQ5 goto kit onto the Bresser EXOS-2: It works fabulously.

As other posters have elaborated I needed to trim the plastic cover for the RA drive to fit the slightly wider Bresser castings (I made a template with a 90mm circle as a guide).
I took the opportunity whilst the old motors were off to clean, re-grease and adjust the worms for a v small backlash all the way around.
I did find that the SW RA motor fixing barely spanned the gap in the casting where the old RA motor fitted - so I made a small plate to span the gap from an old piece of aluminium strip 1,5mm thick.
The M5 RA motor bolt needed to be a bit longer. The supplied one is 35mm long and I needed 45mm for this  (checking that it didn't hit the motor if too long). I needed 45mm due to my motor plate, 40mm might be sufficient without.

As a first test, I did a polar alignment using the polar finder, attached the OTA and weights then did a 2 star alignment on Arcturus and Regulus. Then I goto'd to the Moon (Easy and checked the lunar tracking rate)) and then Jupiter (lovely as always).
A few other things and then up to M56 which was approaching the zenith at the time. In all cases the object came near the centre of a 15mm eyepiece (40x).
The SW unit said I had a polar alignment error of about 33". I did also notice when I slewed to polaris that it was a bit out where I expected in the main tube, so I need to check my mount/polar scope alignment a bit.
The old motors (MT1 style) had a noticeable tick every 1/10 second with a 1.5" step under the highest magnification. I could detect no stepping with the SW motors and any 'wobbling' of the image seemed to be a function of the atmospheric turbulence.

I was happy to note that my goto kit included a recent v4 handset with the USB connection.

Overall very pleased.

Finally tracked down a copy of this for a sensible price.
Noooooo here come the clouds and rain.

I guess this makes it 8 years  since the OP 🙂?

After umming ang ahhing the last few weeks, I jumped on the SW eq5 upgrade for my Exos-2.
Being something of a 're-born old school'  and busily star hopping away, I recently got a little lost around Virgo (was the subject too faint or was I in the wrong place). I didn't want the same thing to happen with the various Sagittarius DSOs.
With that and living near the west London 'glow' I was beginning to spend too much time not finding things rather than my passion to actually see them.  When at home I get the chance to pop indoors to check the PC for co-ordinates and nearby star patterns, something that will be more difficult in the middle of a field.

I had thought about a better mount, but thinking I might travel to darker places  and needing something I could actually carry out from the car, decided to stay with the Exos-2 after reading that with its roller bearings and 2" sturdy legs, it was quite a reasonable mount.

The few times I have ventured to a darker site - I find I then have an issue with soooooo many stars - which one is my starting star....

Like some of the other posts, I read some poor comments about the Bresser StarTracker (not clear what functions work and spec details) and although I think it looks nicer with a bigger display and doesn't have an extra box to clip on the mount, the SW kit is well known, tried and proven,  and has a good user base.
Its also cheaper than the Bresser and I was a little reluctant to spend too much on an old mount.

Anyways, Im really looking forward to doing a sky-tour soon.

 

I got back into astronomy about 6 months ago after giving up in the 70's and 80's with a wobbly scope, not knowing what to look at  and not seeing anything anyway when I did try to look..
Strangely my interest was re-awaked after taking a photo of the sky one night with a small Sony zoom  camera (HX90) and capturing a grainy image of M31 from the back garden. I couldn't see it through my old binos at the time. A few nights later I tried the double cluster In Perseus and captured that again.
After that I bought a second hand scope and an out of fashion DSLR and you can probably guess the rest.
My preference is to actually see things myself although what I have discovered is that  quite often the camera is much more sensitive than my eyes in picking up fainter objects from the garden and enables me to visualise objects that I just cant see with my eyes (other than to pack the car and drive for an hour away from west London).

Whilst I have taken a few picture sets and spent hours stacking them and then refining them in various photo editors, I would rather be out under the stars.
I was recently thrilled to 'see' the Owl Nebula on the laptop screen after a couple of minutes live stacking. Something that was just invisible in the scope.

I suppose the conclusion of my waffle here is to say the EEVA, or whatever anyone wants to call it, has helped me regain an interest in an old hobby of mine, actually  find things and be able to either see them with my eye ball or enhance my experience by developing a more detailed image there and then on the laptop.

I have a little GPcam that rides piggy back with a telephoto  lens and is available toi me should I feel the need.  Or, sometimes I just use the small screen on the back of the DSLR after  a longer single exposure.

Pleased to b here.
 

New diagonal prism. It better be good or I'm in deep trouble.
Goodbye plastic unbranded mirror with repaired screw hole.

Now, what happened to those DSO's

Later: Goodness _ I can see a difference just eyeballing through it out the window as some thin wispy clouds, and next doors bricks, brighter and more contrast. The twist focus bit feel lovely and smooth.
 

I think this is a great challenge.

19 hours ago, Allinthehead said:

Arrived last week. Skywatcher Esprit 100. Needless to say cloudy since i got it. I'm like a child waiting for first light.

Here she is primed and eager for photons.

Nice - that's a substantial looking mount too - which model is it ?
Do you find being on the flagstones/patio ok? 

Some bits to make solar filters.
Just love 3d printing.
… oh and some cable clips

20 hours ago, Fozzie said:

A nice bit of teak.. any guesses what it's for?

A bit if brass trim to go with it would make a nice 'steampunk' eyepiece tray.

Bracket to re-use via piggy back my older 58mm f/3.5 (fl 200mm) telephoto for some wider field imaging.

(this has a bigger aperture than my first wobbly scope back in the '70s - ha ha )

3 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said:

What process is that - not fused filament!

MJF - MultiJtet Fusion. Creates a nice surface finish and has low porosity. Good for small bits with reasonable accuracy and lack of shrinkage important (like the camera adapter). Surprisingly strong.
The goggles were created using SLS and a different plastic chosen

2 minutes ago, symmetal said:

DHL delivered this from FLO yesterday. 

Was going to try it out during the day with the DSLR but being M48 rear it doesn't fit the standard T2 adaptor. In too much of a hurry ordering it to read the fine print. Tried with M48-T2 adapter but couldn't get focus. Ordered WO M48-Canon adaptor from FLO but they're currently out of stock. ? Will try with ASI1600 and filter wheel during the day as nothing to see at night at the moment.

Alan

 

Very nice

Like the colour too.

Some nice 3d printed bits:

Bresser / Explore Scientific > SW finder bracket adapter
telephoto lens > eyepiece/camera adapter
Frames for my DIY minions  'sky-goggles'/'owl-eyes'
 

17 minutes ago, jjosefsen said:

Did you install the 32bit version?

Do you have .Net installed?

.NET Framework 4.7.2 or later

Also make sure you go for the latest release candidate..

Version 1.8 RC003

 

Hi
.NET was already installed and had used the x32 version of 1.7
1.8 RC003  starts up ok with the swirly picture and then UI, so will have a play now ?

thanks

Camera remote intervalometer thingybob.
Got bored and blinded when using the phone app.

Lots of test pictures of the fruit bowl so far.

Seems to work fine as long as the 'interval' is set to whatever you want + about a few seconds to allow the camera to write the last file and get itself ready for the next picture.