DaveL59

thanks Dave, did wonder too that none of the EPs or diaganol carry the tal mark like yours does, tho the 25mm super plossl does have the lovely purple coating where the other tal one I have is more light green. All seems good just some paint chips on the main tube, tho I did find tonight that one of the rings on the leg that link to the spreader stabiliser has cracked, hopefully I can find a replacement part or do a suitable repair.

oh no!  

Had my own little setback with the new TAL, saw Jupiter and made out 3 moons ok which was nice tho couldn't push the mag too far, so settled with the 10mm vixen NPL and had nice views. Then I noticed one of the stabiliser rings on the main leg had split so decided to play safe and pack it away for now till I sort a repair or replacement, didn't fancy it toppling on its first real use

hi all

recently picked up this scope, in nice condition and on an EQ5 mount rather than the wood tripod. Came in a cardboard carton with wood plank to secure the OTA and a set of EPs. Seller was advised this was a TAL100R tho the box and manual say 100RS, the lens shows a greenish tint rather than the purple that the 100R seemed to have from reading elsewhere. Sadly other than a TAL sticker on the tube there's no ID plate on the OTA itself.

From what I see it has a 2-inch R&P focuser with long travel, the diagonal fits into the 1.25 adaptor ring and is of a regular 1.25 nosepiece so am wondering, is this a RS version , it seems to be but I've no idea how to confirm this?

Am happy with the scope but as yet not had a chance to view the night sky with the weather we've had lately, hopefully tonight...

Any info gratefully received 🙂 
Dave

thought I'd add a comment on the eyepieces after a lucky purchase:

Still not moved the main mirror back to its original location and thinking about the finder issue with newer 1.25 EPs I considered adding a RDF once I get around to the refurb. Then I came across a Meade MA40mm 0.965 inch EP on fleabay and as I was chasing a vintage scope I bought it. Of course that sank the other auction for me and I didn't get the vintage achro, oh well. So this EP arrives, nice solidly made and weighty and it has a lens low in the nosepiece, hmmm wonder if it'll need less in-travel... Offered it up to the TAL-M with the finder in play, no barlow and... lo and behold, it focuses!😄  So I've ordered up an adaptor for it to fit a regular 1.25 tube and see if it'll still focus. Will mean I can return the mirror to original position and use the scope unmodified, with this 40mm and its original 15mm and barlow and have use of the finder too.

A nice accidental result I think, might help others who obtain a Tal-M and find it short on EPs 🙂 

ahh well mine's almost 20YO now, I don't do new cars they just ain't good value 😉

mine are being left alone on the side of the shed, no way I feel like fiddling about with them in this sun. Seems a spider has taken a liking to the smaller one tho, keeps wandering across the dome and I can see signs of a web on the bracket underneath

still clear here but then was pretty ok yesterday too till as light faded there was cloud everywhere. Till just as I was ready for bed of course when it was nice and starry, but by then Jupiter was behind the oak tree. Bummer as I was hoping to test the TAL100RS I went and bought last weekend and the vixen NPL EPs, pretty much rained ever since lol.

Agree re the A/C it sure makes a difference, wouldn't have a car without either, is no fun stuck in traffic on sunny days!

you could try these guys... East Coast binocular repair, they're in Norfolk so may be handy for you too

http://binocular-repair.co.uk/

fingers crossed that works for you Gina 🙂

How you planning to seal the dome to the casing? I used a large flat seal rather than silicone it on mine so I can open it up for tilt/focus tweaks, plus any maintenance would also need it removable being its a cctv housing and that's the only way in.

thinking about it... wonder if water-cooling would work, if you are able to put the cooler part in  permanent shade...?

That way you could seal the in/out hoses with grommets and not have to be pulling moist air thru the unit for cooling.

3 hours ago, Gina said:

Maybe there's something to be said for starting again on the casing as I might have some different ideas.  As I recall, I wasn't doing very well in the past with sealing it.

that's kinda why I went with existing outdoor cctv housings, tho they're not really meant to be set with the dome pointed skywards. The larger housing does work ok but I may order another dome with a wider flange that hangs over beyond the casing. Not convinced that the nitrile gasket I got will cope well in the long run with the existing that is just under the diameter of the main body. So far its ok but one I plan to address down the road as the pressure of the dome bolted down causes it to dish upward, a nice little rain catcher, hmmm not what I planned for.

Cooling tho is a different problem, as the dome is essentially a sealed unit or there'd be risk of condensation otherwise. Of course the camera generates heat plus the heat from the sun just adds to the problem. I did consider finding a way to have the lens side sealed to the dome side and then set up some sort of venting and fan assist with baffling to direct outside air over the heatsink fins to cool the camera module, hopefully that'd reduce the condensation issue inside the dome affecting the image but figured I'd test as-is and see how it fairs. So far mine seems to be coping ok but I did paint the casing white to reduce a little the heat soak from the sun.

49 minutes ago, Rusted said:

At the risk of starting an endless argument:

Modern piping is often plastic. Rural homes are almost certainly fed by miles of plastic hose.
Connecting the indoor metal pipes, if any, as an earth, will be lethal and based on a lack of basic electrical knowledge.

Discussions on forums, which have US members, suggests that the rules for earthing are as varied as the soils on which the building stands.
I claim absolutely zero knowledge and nobody should ever follow anything suggested on a forum.
Your "expert" advisor might be a trolling, psychopathic, serial killer!

ALWAYS seek EXPERT advice from a local, fully qualified electrician with experience of your local conditions.

Your having moved on from your own installation leaves those who follow on in a very precarious position.
Which through their own ignorance, of what they only think they should trust, might easily kill them.
This doesn't even begin to deal with the matter of lightning and adding extra earthing rods to an existing electrical system.

I don't disagree re getting expert advice, that's generally a good way to go if planning some new works and esp so if you've no relevant expertise yourself.

In terms of my past installations, they were all done to building code at that time and in some aspects to industrial above domestic at that, so I've no worries on that front. They all passed inspection by the relevant authority on hand-off or you wouldn't be able to connect to the main supply into the building 🙂 I have however seen several dodgy installs that have been inherited when buying another property too, like main power and lighting cross-connected, regular ring wiring run to outbuildings in garden hose just inches under the edge of flower beds etc, scary the way some have done installs and a new unsuspecting owner is put at risk...

hehe yeah has gone that way here for the most part where apart from "repairs" you're supposed to get someone who is part-P certified to do the work or have them check and certify your work afterwards. Back way back when, I've rewired houses from the meter, laying in new rings and main RCD/MCB distribution board etc. Ran the earthing down into the basement where I installed said spike as it was just a few turns of bare wire around a metal supply pipe (water or gas) in the old setup. Even installed galv trunking to protect the cabling that ran from the distribution board in the garage that was all earth bonded between sections etc. So a couple years after I left the ex had builders in doing other works and to see how they left it all was shocking, just trailed wires around, opened the trunking and didn't bother to re-cap it etc., what a mess. No wonder I'm usually reluctant to get a "professional" in to do works where I know I can do it at least as well myself 😉

ouch 2.5 T&E sure wouldn't cut it for earth  I'd say, is that direct from the fuse board or a spur off the ring? 

An earth spike (4ft) is relatively easy to do so long as the ground isn't littered with rocks under the surface. A 4lb hammer should drive it in ok, maybe easier if the ground is wet. Then fit the clamp on the end and 10mm earth wire back to the consumer unit to bond that to earth and the obsy should be fine.

I would suggest for the ethernet cable that you fit surge suppressors, I used these on the hard link out to my shed which is a lot closer but does have CCTV gear linked back to the house and now the sky cameras.

https://www.ui.com/accessories/ethernet-surge-protector/

that'd require a multi-user license on a server grade OS rather than end-user winwoes. Did used to work with pro till W7 IIRC and as I recall there may have been a trick by substituting a component of the OS software. Server gets 2 users as std I believe but not a cheap option for home use. If you want the remote PC to continue with the console session you have to revert to remote control via VNC etc rather than RDP.

very nice Pete 🙂

Here its been all rain and clouds so not had much decent viewing at all, nor any chance to do much of anything now I'm back in a day job. Doing a road trip at the weekend tho to collect a TAL100R(s?) so I guess that means it'll be occluded skies for quite a while 😄

3 hours ago, Bukko said:

Is there an earth leakage circuit breaker installed? If so, then this should take care of the earthing issue for you. If not, then if you have run armoured cable, the armouring could be used as the earth. Glanding off the armoured cable with a metal gland in your electrical box will do the earthing there too. Have a chat with your electrician and hopefully you have a low cost solution available.

an ELCB won't take care of earthing at all, only has the ability to detect a leak to "earth" from L or N. Problem can be if the earth floats as a result of resistance along the length of the wire which can lead to erronious/late triggering. Far better to drive an earth spike in and bond to that, they aren't expensive and so long as you protect the install with a suitable cover it'll be fine. I'd still install the RCB/ELCB too, safety first and all that. I've come across a few instances where earth has floated and got a buzz off equipment casings and in one case when my hands were under a running tap, not good!

well done to your daughter James, mine used to swim when she was young too 🙂

As for the metal boxes, yep for sure I'd earth them, better safe than sorry esp in an environment where external moisture could well lower the contact resistance when you touch the case. Ideally you should probably have a proper bonded earth too, you could probably drive a copper earth spike under the shed and run  to that as grounding via the power feed cable to the remote buildings isn't really a proper solution unless its a suitable gauge cable you're using.

what type of battery is the 100Ah one and how old is it? If its dropping to low voltage after such a short time it sounds like maybe one cell is failing and then the volts would drop to 11.2v or there abouts. It would be worth using a multimeter and checking the terminal voltage at the battery off load after charging and then while on load and see what is happening. Assuming its a regular SLA battery it should read around 13.6v after charging and settle time, if left a few hours (or next day having sat unused) check again and see how far that drops. If it then reads 11.xv with no load then it'll confirm a cell has failed.

could save yourself a few quid perhaps James and see if this is worth going and collecting...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/garden-observatory/264362617626?hash=item3d8d3d6b1a:g:L7IAAOSw0Z9dA~qR

I'd suggest you use dielectric grease on the LV connections, should help keep any moisture out and maintain a good connection over time. I use Servisol silicone grease on the CCTV LAN+power connections whether inside or out and applied to the connections inside the dome unit that is now skycam-2 before it was finally assembled and sealed up. 

No harm a light smear on any threaded components that might corrode over time too...

1 hour ago, MarsG76 said:

Very cool.. the sky cam is definitely a great tool in our hobby. Is is still a "el-cheapo"?

 

 

thanks 🙂

Well I still consider it cheap, esp considering there's 2 out there and pretty low spend to achieve. Decided this dry morning to tweak the aim and move the smaller one out of view before I head off to family commitments, forecast is v wet this evening so won't be a better opportunity with returning to work Monday. I think results for a while might be tainted with the sky not being as dark as when I started the project so plan to run with the F1.8 2.1mm lens in the 5MP for a while before I test the 2.5mm F1.2 and if I figure how maybe try a few stacks to see how the current setup performs as a reference point.

Could be James, exposure time is set to auto but has to be else it can never reach the slowest shutter as manual mode the slowest is 1/30s or there abouts. Also it'd be totally bleached out in the day. I did try anti-flicker but that seems to turn the sky white and I've not found an adjustment to correct for that. At night anti-flicker doesn't affect it the same way, so could be an exposure related artifact. I was wondering if its a kind of heat haze rising from the module and into the dome above the lens but I don't think that's the case as I don't see the same effect on the other and its a smaller dome housing, or could that be why - less air to circulate?

The IMX291 module is Hik protocol capable, so even less I can tweak on that one via the Hik interface, will have to switch it to onvif mode at some stage and see if that opens more options but as it stands, it makes a fair day-view camera with a nice fisheye view and easier to access remote via iVMS-4200 over vpn with my mobile 🙂 Can't open the IMX335 that way as its onvif only and I'd need the pro iVMS4500 for that, not found a retailer for the license so far but isn't a major priority.

so now its dark and reasonably clear out, looks like an improvement going from F2 1.7mm to F1.8 2.1mm in that more stars are showing, well a couple at least. I can make out the 3 on the handle of the plough and just about the others over time but probably still not enough aperture. Will let it run this way for a while then perhaps swap the F1.2 2.5mm in and see how that does. I think any lens slower than f1.4 and this cctv module is going to struggle given the slowest shutter speed is just too fast. Might get a better result if I stack a video from it which I may have a go at at some stage, will have to figure how to take H265 stream and feed that into the stacking app unless there's a better way, capturing the RTSP stream perhaps?

so first solar body comes into view beside the tree, la luna 🙂

Dunno what's going on with the image tho as its flickering between a nice flat sky and the odd ring noise pattern