DaveL59

26 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

I'm not even sure how to pronounce "electrosucution", but I do know how to spell Van de Graaff. I got hooked up to one in school to make my hair stand on end! It tingled a tiny bit! 🙂🙃🙂

hey my teens woz a long time ago, I just couldn't be a'd to google it for the right spelling on the tablet  😛

Whatever you do tho, DO NOT try to charge a laden jar in one hand while moving a neon in with the other. That big voltage drop over a few CMs between the 2 "experiments" sure wasn't a tingle I can tell you. More like an elephant had jumped onto my chest! 😮  Not sure who was more shocked tho, me or the physics master but for sure that off piste experiment I did, having asked "what happens if..." wasn't allowed again.

1 minute ago, Mandy D said:

Technically, electrocution (c.f. execution) means death by electric shock! Although, thanks to popular culture, today it gets used interchangeably with electric shock and even dictionaries are now including such definitions. This does not make it correct though.

Fair enough, I can certainly attest to surviving a good few electric shocks, even one at pretty high voltage off a vandergraph generator in late teens, so I guess I got lucky and escaped the full electrocution (or is that electrosucution) effect 🙂 

I agree Paul tho having basic equipment like tie-downs unavailable smacks of a poorly run outfit.

Not saying that an inherent safety culture means no incidents. I come from that in the airport sector, safety was everyone's responsibility but things happen. A PIG caught in a jet blast hitting a plane just isn't supposed to happen but I know of one instance where it did. Minor damage to the plane, thankfully, but other than being expensive it could've been much worse had it resulted in the plane depressurizing at altitude.

12 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

Electrocutions (plural) and one death? Does nobody understand English, any more?

hmm well electrocution isn't always fatal. The death was because one eejit decided since they didn't have any tie-downs available to use that he'd sit atop the cargo while the other guy drove the truck. Being foam the wind got it to fly and he ended head first into the road. Doesn't sound like there's much of a safety culture there, big surprise.

600 injuries inc one death. 'elf & safety don't seem to matter 😞 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/spacex-musk-safety/

Makes you wonder about his other companies practises too...

Another vid from Cuiv, imaging the PACman nebula but using the internal LP filter and an external dual narrowband which he says gets better results.

1 hour ago, cimh said:

 

Thank you for the images. Hopefully we will get a software update that will enable us to get wider views of larger objects such as M45 and M31 and enable us the get M81 & 82 easily on one image . I think such an update arrived for the Dwarf so it should be possible?

 

 

 

I'd have thought the limiting factor would be the optical train, you can't make it wider with a firmware update so it'd have to be support for mosaic which some have hinted may be coming on review vids. I have thought to try a video wide/tele attachment but not had time lately with workload other than a quick go aimed at a tree - didn't find focus with the x1.4 tele fitted so perhaps a non-starter.

Agree tho about using a "real" scope and the light hitting the retina, for planets I'd pull one of the scopes out and be quite happy, when the eyes aren't too tired. Still remember my first views of Saturn and Jupiter, that was special 🙂 Mars I didn't really have enough magnification but still nice to see even tho detail was minimal.

1 minute ago, jjohnson3803 said:

I realize there are environmental factors at play and situations vary, but is there an average working range for the S* WiFi?  Curious if I could sit in my dining room with an S* outside on my deck (large glass sliding doors) and still have decent connectivity.

 

You usually find the 2.4G band has a longer range (better penetration) than the 5G band, but lower data rate, tho you can band-spread to help that along. Also the further you are from the WiFi AP the lower the data rate you'll get. Achieved range will depend on the S50 and your device/router and what obstructions (walls, metal objects and interference sources (TV etc) and perhaps the s50's orientation relative to target and device. Quite likely the WiFi aerial is on the fixed part of the S50 so would be facing away from you at times.

Only way to know for sure is to try it. I have mine connecting to my home WiFi router tho being a small house the S50 is only around 25-30ft away from it, seems to work fine running on the 2.4G band.

I'd agree John, when you look at the number of "lightweight grab and go" threads from many I'd almost bet those get the most use once you have one. I know I used the Starsense LT70 a lot more while it was here and prior to that the TAL-M, both very easy to just plonk outside and start using.

The Starsense is now with my daughter - the phone app makes it much easier for them to use tho I'll admit they haven't much what with lots of work to do on the house and garden they're pretty exhausted a lot of the time, plus the kids being young so late nights not so practical for them.

Being interested is one thing, having the time often a bigger issue. For me I've done very little of late what with staring at a screen all day, weekend and some overnight jobs like this morning leaving the old eyes not up to it. Hence I got a Seestar S50, lets me have a compact easy to set up toy that displays to phone/tablet so far less effort on my eyes. Not good for planets tho, but I've "proper" scopes for that when I've the energy 🙂 

3 hours ago, Giles_B said:

Last update for today - there has been a new version of the app released for android and iphone - the newest app version 1.10.1 is available for download from the ZWO: https://www.zwoastro.com/downloads/seestar

 

Seems to be on the google play store already for droid too 🙂 

some more tips n tricks

16 minutes ago, Elp said:

As is the course for this product. Eb is a funny thing. You list an item at buy it now even with offer provision and no one bites, list it as an auction and everyone looses their minds.

So true, tho with cars I've seen a few go for several thousands above what they're worth and of course the listing ends and the buyer never pays up so it gets relisted. Easy to understand why many don't allow bidders with less than a certain amount of feedback etc. Seen too price getting to above what new + post would have cost, my ex did that a few times till I pointed that out to her, and she used to go on about how "money smart" she was... 🙄

1 minute ago, Elp said:

Anyone sitting on the fence as to whether they'd buy it and regret it, not for them purchasers, I've seen two sell recently for 40-50pc higher than RRP, crazy.

Supply and demand I guess, with a bit of ebay bidding fever lobbed in.

12 minutes ago, powerlord said:

Just to be clear, it would see Internet if you'd joined it to yer home WiFi. I assume u mean if you'd not done that and were just connecting direct to seestar hot-spot. Then, yeh depending on phone settings, yer phone may lose Internet at that point. I can't remember how activation works, but it may be that once added seestar, you can flip back to home WiFi to activate app, thrn flip back if yer phone can't use mobile when no WiFi Internet (as I think that was quite a new android thing ?)

Yep, you can only connect to one WiFi at a time so without mobile data turned on you aren't able to see the internet. Of course once you get the S50 onto your home WiFi then the phone uses the home WiFi to connect to it, problem solved.

Not sure you could do that tho if you haven't yet registered...

5 hours ago, badhex said:

Yikes. Sorry to hear that. My home town of Chesterfield which is obviously quite near you has been hit quite badly in places too, and there are certain areas where it basically happens every time there is a storm. These two pictures from family and friends:

 

Yikes, not the best way to hold the car in the air to work under it... 😉

For sure it's been a rough few months with the weather and like others I'm grateful to be near the top of a hill and above the road level. Downside of course when it gets icy and you're trying to reverse up the drive tho that hasn't caused me any issues where neighbours have struggled to just get over the dropped kerbs.

45 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

Yes. I discovered that in order to activate successfully on my Google Pixel 7 Pro I had to have "Mobile Data" set to "ON" even though the phone was already connected to the internet via Wi Fi. I have no idea why that should be necessary!

Ahh that's likely because once the phone connects to the WiFi of the SeeStar it no longer sees the internet via your home WiFi network. 

On my Note-10+ which is an uptodate droid, it seems to store the images under

internal-storage/DCIM/com.zwo.seestar

1 hour ago, cimh said:

Hi all. Picked up my ss from FLO today - For me there is a bit of a learning curve to getting started. Is this an appropriate forum to ask questions - or is there a better place? The android phone I am using is a bit old and does not have 5g wifi so the first hurdle was having to log on with my iphone to change the settings in the SS to 2.4g after that the android phone connected fine. 

1. Testing to look at the sun -ss had the elevation right but was looking in completely the wrong place - at least 90 degrees out horizontally (compass setting and tripod level was good). I read this might be a bug or is it  something I am doing wrong?

2. Managed to manually get to the sun and took 4 photos. But where are they and how do i access the jpgs? The /myworks folder in the SS is empty. I can't see them on my android phone anywhere like DCIM. But when the app is connected to the ss I can see the images so they must be somewhere?

Apols if this is not the right place.

 

If you open a file explorer on the phone you'll likely be able to find them by checking the various folders. If it has a "recents" option then that'll show them also. 

Not had a chance to try solar yet so can't comment there.

Have fun, once you've got familiar with the app and the S50 I'll all seem easy 🙂 

8 hours ago, Stu1smartcookie said:

Hi Guys , Forgive me for not reading back through the entire thread but has anyone printed a lens cover for the SeeStars yet ?

Call it OCD but i hate the idea of that lens being uncovered when its not in use ( yep i can use the solar filter , but i think thats not the best way )

KR Stu 

Not having a 3D printer I bought one of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/276090459472

It is a touch loose in fit but does the job and not expensive at least.

1 minute ago, Ande said:

Thanks @DaveL59  I hadn’t realised that there was a manual focus option in the app. That would make the purchase of a mask a lot more viable. Cheers 🙂

Not sure how or how well it works, it was a recent addition I guess to allow the user more control, say a "pro" or "expert" feature. The app has evolved in the short time the device has been out and overall it seems pretty good and the device itself amazing at this price point.

1 hour ago, Ande said:

Just a bit confused about the implementation of Bhatinov masks?  Does the Seestar have a manual focussing option, or does it automatically incorporate the mask in its focussing routine?

The AF works well on its own but the mask lets you confirm accuracy if you wish to. There is a focus control in the last app/firmware tho I've not tried it so far.

Welcome to the club tho, now we just need some clear nights and in my case nights I'm not working 🙄

Can't swear to it but my EQ5 has that SynScan kit that also says EQ3/EQ5 so quite likely.

Ahh OK, just seen @Cornelius Varleys reply, hadn't realised that, talk about confusing.

11 minutes ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

 

I noticed that the On/off button LED pulses slowly while the device is operating - I'm not sure what this is supposed to indicate.

 

It's just a gimicky "breathing" indication that the device is on and working, doesn't really signify anything other than that from what video reviews said. I guess perhaps it reduces the overall power used by an LED that's always on but probably insignificant with regards run-time.

3 minutes ago, powerlord said:

I'm trying to work out a way of sitting it on my house roof - it would get far better visibility to eagle at that height.. a sort of mount I could screw it onto attached to one of my upstairs windows when open or something...doubt I'll have that for tonight though. still I'll have a think if I can knock something up with the laser cutter and 3d printer...

 

Oh that sounds like it'd be "fun" to have it securely held and stable, esp if there's any slight breeze. an interesting idea tho. A lot of trust seems to be placed in 3D prints to hold loads, not sure I'd want the weight of the Seestar doing that at height tho and for me it wouldn't solve the large oak obstructing the SE-SW view 🙂 

I'll be working from 01:00-07:00 tonight so for me it'll be trying to take decent naps this afternoon so I have a few working grey cells ticking over during the critical bits of the works. Same next Saturday night with the time change, so won't be up to doing much with mine unless we get some clear sky during the midweek window.

3 hours ago, powerlord said:

Draw a circle in th middle of an uncropped frame to the edge.

Draw a square inside the circle to it's edges.

That is your worst case crop.

Buy really, as I've said before the s50 is not designed for long integration times. Be content with 30 mins, and it's fine.

never having tried long periods on one target, in fact had little chance to use mine with odd work hours and weather this month, might it perhaps be better to do as suggested in one of Cuiv's videos to obtain the longer integration times?

As in run a shorter capture 30-60 mins and repeat over several nights?

Of course anyone wanting to do that spanning the next couple weeks would need to consider the BST-GMT time change next weekend and adjust the start time accordingly.