fifeskies

10 minutes ago, The Trubble Telescope said:

👍 Good idea

An LED stop light intended for a car (so runs on 12v also happy on 13.8v which is a fully charged battery voltage) , being LED uses very little power but is very bright on axis.

Nice and cheap from a well known auction site , or any car parts shop like Halfords.

You get the small rectangular screw on type that are intended for DIY trailer board lighting.

Strongly suspect this is just Sirius.

Sirius is a very very bright star and is usually quite low down in the sky.

Turbulance in the sky makes the star "twinkle" and Sirius is very well known for twinkling through the colour spectrum.

The star confuses the autofocus in many cameras so you get a fuzzy out of focus blob , but this actually helps you see the colour flashes better.

Amazon sell many varieties of distilled water

(sold for use with steam irons for the most part)

+1 for adding a highly visible light to the power supply output

I have done the exact same thing but luckily caught it before any damage was done.

A short run of low voltage cable to a red light is the way to go , just make sure it is away from the telescopes and ideally visible from afar.

I can see my "power on" indicator from down the garden.

Just multiply by the reducer value.

600mm with a 0.85 reducer is   600 x 0.85 = 510

715mm with a 0.79 reducer is   715 x 0.79 = 564.85  (use 565)

EDIT Josh beat me by seconds

Spirowrap does a good job , handy if you want to break out cables along the way as well

Available Amazon among other places.

DSO without tracking will be limited, typically these will need minutes rather than seconds to get good images.

However if you use high ISO and stack lots of very short images you will get something for the very brightest targets like the Orion Nebula. (Look up DeepSkyStacker the free software to do this)

Bright planets will be rather more successful with untracked mount, but dont expect to get extensive detail.

The reducer changes the effective focal length of the telescope so in a 500mm scope a 0.8 reducer changes this to an effective 400mm.

The main reason to do this is to allow a camera to see a wider field of view than it would without the reducer.

As this is a photographic function it is common for a reducer to also have a field flattener combined with it.

For visual use you would use a longer eyepiece ie 25mm to view a wider field

(compared to eg a 10mm eyepiece)

Depending on the quality of the Cat5E and the "noisiness" of the environment you may get away with the lower spec cable if it is one of the better quality ones.

If its in the middle of nowhere it could be fine , next to an industrial zone with lots of RFI or under overhead power cables probably not.

available on Amazon, they have a single usb port version and also the more expensive 100m range version.

StarTech.com 4-Port USB 2.0 Extender - 165ft USB Over: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

also direct from Startech in UK , (but Amazon is cheaper)

USB Extenders - Add-on Cards & Adapters | United Kingdom (startech.com)  

For a full 50m they recommend a Cat 6 cable rather than a Cat 5 which works up to 40m, check you don't need to use the higher specified version that works out to 100m.

Datasheet   usb2004extv_datasheet.pdf (startech.com)   

Manual        usb2004extv_manual.pdf (startech.com)

I got mine from ebay and they also come up from time to time either here or ABS in 2nd hand section.

Yes you can

Click settings in bottom box on left , stacking parameters , then set folder under the "output" tab

24 minutes ago, Capt Slog said:

a decent 25mm would seem a good choice.

My first decent scope was the 200 version of your 150 , My very first upgrade eyepiece was an X-Cel 25mm. (2nd hand on Facebook)

It was a chalk and cheese moment , the stock 20mm I got with the scope was the better of the 2 supplied but the difference with the X-Cel 25mm was a "Wow" moment.

First thing I saw in it was the Pleiades, and it was so much clearer and with so many more stars that I had seen in the cluster before, and of course a much wider view of the sky.

I am sure the BST 25mm would be just as good a choice (tho not used one).

It is the eyepiece you will always use first to find where you are , even if you need to swap to higher power once on target.

You have a reasonable telescope with the 150 / 750 , and Bortle 5 is still better than a lot of the country.

Try M31 as it doesn't seem to be on your list (use a low power eyepiece not high magnification on this one).

The big planets (Jupiter and Saturn) are both poorly placed just now but once they return your scope will give nice views of them. 

You would probably benefit from upgrading the stock supplied eyepieces if that is what you are using. They get you started but don't allow the scope to perform to its best capability.

BST Starguiders and Celestron X-Cel are both lower cost but good upgrades and both are common second hand , (on here or other astro site).

You will get much better (wider) field of view and improved contrast which are going to allow you to spot DSO far easier.

For unguided mounts the wider field of view is a big help to find your target. Also consider a Telrad as it is a good match for a scope of this size and can save a lot of time trying to find targets. (Stellarium has a handy Telrad targetting app under oculars).

This will help to get a clear view of the Leo triplet which is well within the capability of your telescope as long as they are not sitting in a bright part of the sky (above a city for example).

It would help us to advise you if we knew what telescope and which eyepiece you were using.

Also how dark is your viewing site , is it in a city or in dark countryside

M1 is a very small target , many other Messier targets are easier to see.

Yes , for a modified camera you would need the CLS CCD Filter , not the basic CLS.

The CCD version has additional IR blocking , but beyond the region that we want to retain, so its not simply replacing the IR filter the camera had originally.

In particular it passes the Ha region, only filtering beyond the frequency that is useful. This should help with star bloat.

That said star bloat is probably needing a star mask in post processing.

The bright star Alnitak is always a difficult part of getting the Horsehead balanced right.

It is a quarter of the area.

1/2 width x 1/2 height is equal to 1/4 the area

4290 x 2856 is 12M (approx)

2145 x 1428 is  3M   (approx)

the matrix is not linear GRBG , but forms as squares , alternate rows being GRGRGRGR and BGBGBGBG

I use the ZWO 290mm mini to align in Sharpcap pro but with an ST80

(ST80 brings out more faint stars but also has a more restricted view.)

With the wider field from a (short) 50mm finder I would think it should be fine.

Some nights are not as good as others for clarity.

It could be that there was some thin high cloud or the jet stream was particularly turbulent overhead which was making the seeing a bit mushy and that was the reason you were not getting pin sharp focus.

Give it another go on a clear crisp night and check what you get.

(Yeah like we get lots of those in the UK 🤪).

You are also going to higher magnification with the 8mm eyepiece so it will start to show up poorer seeing more than the lower powers.

That all said collimation is always worth checking as it can be the reason you are losing sharpness.

Seeing quality can be checked here (set for your own home location)

Astronomical seeing Edinburgh - meteoblue

and here for an easy jet stream visual

Jetstream Forecast - Jetstream Map Updated Four Times Daily - Netweather.tv

Telescopius is also useful, move the hour slider across to see how seeing varies during the night

Weather Forecast for Cupar (telescopius.com)

6 minutes ago, recceranger said:

I forgot about Dark Star! 

But you put "2001" in first place , so all is forgiven. 😎

What 😱 

No-one has put "Dark Star" on their list, how can that be.

who can forget the beach ball alien  

and the talking "Thermostellar Bomb" with the existential crisis

At least "Forbidden Planet" made a list, as did "Silent Running"

More recently I think "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" is a worthy contender (by Luc Besson of 5th Element fame)

1 minute ago, Orange Smartie said:

Thanks both.  @fifeskies, you don't have an issue with moisture causing mildew or fungus?

Pete

Not inside my dry shed no.

I would not leave it covered for months on end however.

Also if it has got some dew dampness on it from use at night , wait for it to dry again before you cover it.

The "umbrella covers" are very loose fit and don't seal totally , in fact if it is still on the mount you cant do the zip up fully due to the pier/tripod, so is partly ventilated.

I tend to let it breathe by only loosely pulling the drawstring round it.

I use my ROR shed at non astronomy times as a workshop so it gets some heating in there from time to time.

Keep my Newtonian in an unheated ROR (ie converted shed).

I recommend using a basic cover to keep dust and insects out.

Those intended for patio umbrellas are cheap and work fine for a scope inside a shed. They are zipped halfway so makes putting them over much easier and you can leave the finder in place. The drawstring at the base means you can close them round the scope once it has been fitted over it.

Hopefully the fault has not reached the motherboard.

If the output side of the adapter (ie low voltage cable and the "aviation" style 2 pole connector) remain undamaged they can be cut from the damaged supply.

These could then be used with any suitable bench type supply BUT be very careful about polarity.

An inline fuse is also a good idea to protect the mount , this can be added to the cable as also shown below.

Something like the Maplin supply shown below. (no longer manufactured).

Astronomik sell a mass produced EOS clip in to 2in holder, I have not used one of these myself so cant comment on how well it actually works.

My CT10L from OOUK with a high quality 1/10 wave mirror is a perfectly good performer. This is purely based on using it and not down to any detailed scientific testing.

That article is 7 years old and refers to a protracted process through various court procedures so I assume the purchase was probably 10 years ago at least.

It is also for a 24 inch mirror , hardly a mainstream product.