DaveL59

17 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

A seat cushion would also be an improvement!

 

worth getting decent foam if you plan on that. I just redid the seat pads on a couple office chairs using this stuff:

FOAMTOUCH High Density Ultra Firm Recon Foam With High Density Bonded Blue Square Upholstery Foam For Seat Cushion Bar Seats Layer Pads 2.5 Inch Thick Cut To Size (27" x 27") : Amazon.co.uk: Home & Kitchen

Harder to cut than regular foam but much more supportive and should last well. Memory foam is worthless in seating I find and even high density firm foam only does so well unless there's a lot of thickness to it. Not sure what your seat base is but a staple gun is handy for tacking the fabric under the base. For a single small job a good hand operated one will do but for bigger jobs an electric (or air driven) will be much easier on your hands 🙂 

since I've seen others swear by it...

Time to overhaul the other EQ5 as it's quite heavy on both axes, always was since bought S/H and why I transferred the SynScan kit off it onto the other EQ5 I have. Now I have a dual-motor kit its time I sorted it properly I think 🙂 

No really suitable place for this post really but thought I'd share in case others have a pair for their little ones to use. This pair is perma-focus and I'd got them for my grandaughter when  she was 3 ish as she was fascinated by the birdies in the garden etc and wasn't really able to focus mummy's DCF pair.

She's really enjoyed them, took them everywhere, even the bath lol. So 3 years on and little brother is now on the scene and not long ago he's lobbed them causing something to break loose inside causing a rattle. That said they still seemed to work. So I collected these yesterday, sounded like a prism had come adrift yet the image was correct even when rotating the bino thru 360 degrees, very odd. Then I noticed at certain angles you could see the image being blocked slightly across one diagonal edge of the view. So I took them home where I have decent fine screwdrivers etc to see if they could be sorted.

Thankfully the front plates are held with 3 screws so I figure there's a chance we can open them and resolve the issue. That front 'lens' is just a protective plain plastic it seems and behind this front plate is another with a lens, again held by 3 longer screws which I assumed had the prism carrier behind it...

Some wee springs allow those screws to adjust the collimation which is good as I hadn't counted turns to undo, oops!

Even better was what's on the flip side:

Nope, not prisms at all, mirrors! The reason for the clunking was that metal block that had originally been glued into a recess above the eyepiece and I guess added a little weight to the back end of the bino. Damned lucky it didn't do more than slightly chip those mirrors tho 😮 

So I cleaned out the debris and reassembled, tweaked collimation and we're good once more. But being me I figure do I glue the metal lump back in, or remove the one from the other side just in case we get a more catastrophic event next time around? Decided to remove the other which took a while and also found that side had 3 springs vs 2 on the other, it hasn't escaped anywhere so I guess one didn't get fitted at factory.

Anyway, all back together, lenses cleaned so it'll be one happy grandaughter when she gets these back 🙂 

2 hours ago, Elp said:

I've got an eyepiece which needs a deep clean. I've taken it apart already and cleaned each of the 6 glass pieces with a micro fibre cloth to no avail, there's black specs on the glass surfaces. When you look at each piece they look clean but when assembled there's a fair few. I'm thinking it's black powder coat or whatever they used to coat the eyepiece barrel. I might take it apart and submerge each element separately in the Zeiss fluid to see if that helps.

that's possible but are the lens edges blackened? Could be some of that paint has flaked off and landed on the lens surface too. I tend to use a black sharpie marker when I've done the edges black since it adds no extra width to the lens as some are a tight/snug fit.

27 minutes ago, Paz said:

I use baader fluid and these wipes below, but the main thing I do to keep eyepieces clean is I always blow them with a blower when I cap them off as bits of dust blow off easily if you do it when they have not been on the glass for long. Once they've been there a while they stick more, and if you let an eyepiece dew up then anything on it at that point gets stuck on even more so I try to avoid letting them dew up also.

I use these too when I'm overhauling optics, very good. I also have microfibre cloths with me when out with the camera etc for the odd occasion when I need to clean things on the move. I currently don't get the scopes out when its windy as the fronds of flower/pollen carriers blowing off the oak tree behind the garden is something I'd rather not have to faff about dealing with, the fake grass in the garden is covered in that so a light bucket would for sure have gathered lots on the mirrors.

One way to clean the glass of course would be to simply dismantle the eyepieces and give then a nice wash in tepid water with some detergent, then follow with lens cleaner on reassembly. But that's not for everyone for sure and can be real fiddly with some of the tiny glass in certain models (old orthos etc). I've done this with a number of my old ones tho and taken the opportunity to black the edges while I had them apart.

They'd probably work just be very gentle when using them. I use the Zeiss ones myself, both wipes and also the spray bottles and have used them on my glasses and also bino, camera and eyepiece lenses with no ill effect 🙂 

32 minutes ago, bosun21 said:

I’m wondering how he changed it from 6v to 12v. The motors are rated for 6v and the tracking speed electronics are also all 6v. If it’s all working fine and the sidereal tracking is accurate then you are onto a winner.

the ciggy plug has some sort of step-down in it to give 6v out. Not opened it up to see what but it does seem to work just fine when I did a quick test. Unfortunately he removed the socket for the original 6v input, probably to solder in the hard-wire from the ciggy plug which means I can't swap over to the battery box it came with, but that's not really an issue. All seems to have been done neatly and works which is the main thing 🙂 

edit: Looking at the plug a bit closer, it's a RING switchable adapter with a tape over the switch to prevent accidental changes:

Depending how this goes I might switch that out and pop a 6v buck converter in-line but for now it works and as the old saying goes, if it don't broke... 😉 

fresh off the-bay, EQ5 dual-axis drive kit for my other EQ5 mount

it's been modified for 12v feed via a ciggy plug which is handy as I can just hook it direct to my car starter LiPo pack which has a ciggy socket adaptor already. Quick test on the bench and shows is all working so will fit it later today, probably 🙂 

ok, in terms of the power adaptor (wall wart etc) pretty sure the one I have is also made in China, most likely are these days, but look for the info label and it should show a solid line above a dotted one as circled in the pic below. That'd indicate that it is voltage regulated.

This one is a 5A one and it'll run my SynScan mount just fine but as I recall a 2A unit would cope too, I just prefer to have the extra capacity in case I want to add other items to the scope that need power.

In terms of a car starter rig, in this thread this is what I put together to run my EQ5 12v SynScan GoTo mount.

I bought the LiPo pack off Amazon during one of their sale/price reduction periods and being lazy bought pre-made plug/lead parts to create the flying leads rather than fiddle with soldering plugs on wires. This give a light weight battery pack that via the buck converter delivers a regulated 12v with up to 5A current draw. There's any number of ways you could go on setting up a battery power unit with different up/down-sides. Lead battery units are likely cheaper but also heavy and the battery needs to be regularly charged else it'll fail quickly. Lithium is more expensive but is light and has less requirement for maintenance charging.

Initially tho for your needs, perhaps a good power adaptor (say 3A or better) would be a start. Then you can establish if there's any other issue before spending further. When I first got the SynScan mount I did test indoors in daylight at first. That meant I wasn't fumbling in the dark trying to figure stuff out and could also observe what the mount was doing. Turned out it had some issues with drag/bearing stiffness on one axis that would have been harder to spot in the dark. No need to concern yourself with if it found the target it was seeking, just go through the fine adjust process as if you were doing it for real, then select the next target and see what the mount does, repeat until it completes the 2 or 3 star alignment and then see if it'll realign when you elect a target you want. That way you get familiar with the process while able to see what you're doing so it's easier when you head out at night to play 🙂

Oh if you are running a mains adaptor outdoors, do keep it dry (pop it into a plastic box for example) and have an RCP on the mains supply line so you don't get any nasty shocks if it suddenly rains or condensation/dew get onto things.

Are you thinking of the porro or roof prism version?

A quick search returned the porro as a zoom which I'd avoid for night sky use. I've not tried either but I expect the roof should give reasonable views but may show the roof edge against a bright target like the moon - or may not depending on how well the prisms are ground etc. I've a very old jagd that are hensoldt wetzlar jagd-dialyt 6x42 circa 1945 and they show nicely when I've used them so a 8x56 pair with modern coatings might perform well too assuming build quality is up to the mark. Some other older (70-80's) roof prism bins I have and tried aimed at the moon tho do show a line in the view from the roof edge but not against the stars unless one happens to be bright and on the roof edge in the view. I tend to check collimation using the stars which is how I noted that trait.

Only way to know for sure with the Bresser I guess would be to give them a try and return if they don't suit. I don't know what the build quality is like, don't Lidl/Aldi sometimes sell this brand and collimation can be lucky or not? Hopefully someone else on here can give better info from hand-on experience rather than me rambling on experience of the ones I have in my collection 🙂 

For the skywatcher SynScan rig I think you need a 12v 2A PSU to drive it so that's probably a good number to start with. No harm getting a PSU that can deliver more amps as the rig will only draw what it needs. When the scope is moving on both axes the power demand peaks. Be sure it's a regulated PSU tho else the off-load volts can spike a bit higher than the electronics might survive.

In my case (SynScan) I either hook a mains PSU or use a LiPo car starter pack with a 12v 5A buck converter to provide a well regulated 12v since car starter packs can deliver >15v off load and I don't fancy frying electronics, the magic smoke doesn't smell all that good 😉 

2 hours ago, Carbon Brush said:

It is worth remembering that for any space muission, there are years spent beforehand getting project approval, then funds, then designing, then building, then testing.
I'm sure the voyager designers are long retired.
It certainly stresses the need for documenting everything. How does this work? Ask......

I expect a lot of the low-level board stuff has changed significantly since then too and a couple generations later it'd be a lot harder to figure even with circuit diagrams, perhaps. Sure principles can be understood but the 'why' something was done a particular way might be harder to discern for those used to large IC/PIC to do the heavy lifting. At least v'ger would have been transistor generation rather than valve tubes, tho I wonder if there's any electrolytic caps in the mix somewhere... the bain of many current boards when they start to leak.

6 minutes ago, Chaz2b said:

No! The postman didn’t bring this one, no way would I let them either!! I just drove nearly two hundread miles round trip to collect.

I’ve owned Tele-Vues, Borgs, Meades, Orions and Celestron, now I’m a Takahashi dad!

Please…please gods of reason, don’t let anything happen that would mean parting with it, it’s….beautifull!

know what you mean re getting things shipped. I drove Kent to Coventry and back to pick up my TAL100RS a couple years back. Long trip but it arrived to my home safe and sound. Nothing like the value that your lovely new Tak has but in the end, vintage and hi-end optics are worth the extra care 🙂 

seems they're having some minor issues ATM, offset in the display of position.

They'd had issues with thrusters on the way there too with one failing, backup kicked in but also failed then the backup backup worked ok, phew!

moving in to docking now... well command-hold points at the mo

Watch Boeing's Starliner dock at the space station for 1st time | Space

well I guess they don't feel the need given you aren't looking at bright colourful targets like you would with binos where the phasing would be more noticeable? 

Can't see tho why their prism wouldn't work ok but an expensive experiment if not, tho I'm sure you'd find other uses for it 🙂 

Could always send you that cheapo Celestron one I have for you to test with, tho I've no idea what the light path length on it would be.

10 minutes ago, markse68 said:

Yes I find it odd that Baader said this given there are loads of finders using amici prisms that seem to work fine without phase coatings. I'm still a little unsure what phase coatings do exactly but have read that they are needed in binoculars as the light path has different lengths on each side of the split. So it is weird to me that Baader would say what they said about their Amici prism which is symmetrical.

Mark

well in effect one half of your viewed image is bounced off one slope edge of the roof and the other from the opposite, so in Bino use the light is out of phase either side of the roof, hence the dielectric coating to correct for that.

But then in bino use it only really makes much noticeable difference above x8. There is of course the possibility you can discern a line in the image where the roof edge is, for sure on some cheaper binos looking at a bright moon you can, but what are you planning to target with the franken-finder?

If it's just regular night sky use then you ain't exactly looking at very bright targets most of the time and could make allowance on those that do show the roof edge. Maybe they're just not wanting a tetchy customer complaint when you do...? 😉 

The only erecting diagonal I have came with the LT70AZ and that's not all that great tbh so I got a proper star diagonal for it, svbony dielectric IIRC. Then again the celestron plastic one is likely at the bottom end of things given the cost of the outfit so not the best example to compare to 😉 

6 minutes ago, markse68 said:

 

Still am left wondering why it’s deemed acceptable to use amici prisms (are they phase coated? unlikely- are they even silvered?) with f4 finders (Baader even sell one!) yet it won’t work at f3.3. At what focal ratio does it stop working?That may well be the case but i’d like to understand why.

Mark

 

Doesn't sound like they are using phase coatings and perhaps not even silvered? Most Binos are in the f5-f4 range I think so perhaps they've no experience of using them in faster optic assemblies, or maybe they've done this in R&D before and found it just doesn't work well enough? hard to say as they didn't seem to want to share much in that reply.

As to why the difference, I guess it's a bit like viewing a scene in a camera with/without a polarizing filter. 

Hi Mark, the phase coating does a slightly different job than simply mirroring the prism and in a bino of x10 or more does make a difference in the brightness and definition of the image you see. As to what Baader are implying I can't say but perhaps they believe that with un-phased reflections you'd get some possible ghosting when the image is re-merged at the eyepiece, perhaps also some loss of contrast?

you also get a spare low-cost scope to use or give to a family member. There's also the LT80AZ now too. The LT models aren't great in terms of the mount but optically the scope isn't bad at all.

Note tho that the phone app isn't as detailed their full-blown camera based unit, less objects to choose from but it works pretty well, just needs a suitable phone.

A few of us on here bought the low-end LT70AZ or similar when they first came out, just to get the license code and swap the carrier over to one of our scopes, or even fab a DIY carrier. There's a thread here somewhere, will see if I can find it. I plan on passing the LT70 along to my daughter once she's moved house and I'll use the phone carrier I made for my own gear.

here you go:

now you best hope the missus doesn't rig a motion activated trigger and a set of red LEDs in their eyes with a soundbox playing some spooky tunes to amuse you one those dark nights 😉 

the downside of using the un-flanged adaptor is that there's nothing to push the aperture pin so you're stuck with fully open, unless your lens has a lever/switch to swap between auto-manual aperture control. If not then you can always remove the lens end plate and fit a short length of wire insulation over the pin to keep it depressed. I've done this on several of my M42 lenses (zeiss etc) to force manual aperture control, regular UK mains ring wire provided the insulation for those 😉 I prefer that to other mods I've seen where the pin is glued as this way is easier to reverse the mod.

where I am it seems the LED street light opposite side of the road is a bit dimmer as night progresses. Dunno if that was intentional or just the unit aging but it was very bright before. Overall tho I'd say skies around here are more grey this past couple years compared to the nice darkness when I first moved here in 2016. Of course the brexit stuff that's been done on the major roads to Dover and lorry park etc haven't helped and there was a noticeable change to grey toward the SE/S during/since that was all done.