DaveL59

9 minutes ago, markse68 said:

haha- I just ordered m4 of the same for the bird jones thing the starsense is attached to- the image isn’t so terrible in the middle with decent eps but the chrome metal focuser tube screws should really be illegal!

Mark

heh yeah I replace these on most things, hence I buy packs of 20/25's longer than needed. Real easy to snip to length with those cutters 🙂

At least that scope is usable, same re the LT70 which is actually pretty good image wise. Be handy to lob in the car and being so light is the easiest to pick up and have a quick peek in the garden too. I've got the Philips SPC900 on it at the mo, was hoping to try get mars but so far cloud, cloud, rain... 😄 

today received some m5x25mm nylon thumbscrews which replace the originals in the 50mm finder holder that arrived a couple days back. The originals were too short to work with the TAL 6x finder I wanted to use it with. Trimmed 6 nylon screws with precision cutters and moved the locator ring on the finder to match the spacing and there it is done.

It'll neatly fit a Synta holder tho it'll likely end up on the vintage 3-inch frac rather than the SW130.

if you can get a buck converter to wire the M18 pack to that should be able to step the volts down to 12v regulated, I do that with a 20AH LiPo car starter pack since that pushes 15+v with no load and I wasn't looking for it to blow my SynScan mount. You'd need to ensure the buck converter is suitably rated for the load, the one I got was 5A and runs just fine. You will need to obtain a suitable flylead with the correct plug for the scope and have that all securely wired up but I can see no reason why it'd not work. Bear in mind the longer the lead the thicker the wire you'd want to use to avoid voltage drop.

Does your scope give an erect image when used in the daytime?

My LT70AZ has a plastic diagonal that is erecting and mediocre in night use so I purchased a star diagonal to use with it instead:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32881221402.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.54138306lLwVpv&algo_pvid=f5587306-8516-4db9-852f-931bbc265a13&algo_expid=f5587306-8516-4db9-852f-931bbc265a13-0&btsid=0b0a555c16039867688276822e75fb&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Also the stock eyepieces I've never used knowing they won't be great but I already have a couple sets of decent Plossls and others. A 3x barlow would be pushing it and as you say is likely poor quality anyway and the 4mm is probably of limited use and won't be viable with a barlow. The 20mm will be usable tho as you've found, well done on the pic 🙂

You might consider buying a zoom eyepiece, something like the Svbony SV135 (7-21mm) would probably work well and isn't too pricey. I have the SV171 8-24mm and it works very nicely but is huge and heavy on this scope. A zoom paired to a reasonable barlow would cover most of your viewing needs and you could then get better single-focus eyepieces for wider field of view etc once you've determined which ones suit best for your viewing.

a 17AH lead battery will underperform a comparable LiPo or LiFePo  and you'll see a significant volt drop once you hit 50% remaining charge or even earlier. Also never run it flat nor forget to charge it back up after a session or you'll soon have a dud battery. As a comparison it's reported that a UPS which uses dual 17AH lead will perform the same with a 10AH LiFePo battery in terms of runtime.

Sadly the LiFePo batteries do cost a lot more but are significantly lighter  and won't suffer if not recharged right away. 

this was the one I bought and it performs very nicely and is solid. No idea how you verify it is dielectric but it compared well against the TAL diagonal I have, couldn't tell any difference. As you said, at that price...
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32881221402.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.54138306lLwVpv&algo_pvid=f5587306-8516-4db9-852f-931bbc265a13&algo_expid=f5587306-8516-4db9-852f-931bbc265a13-0&btsid=0b0a555c16039867688276822e75fb&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_

Also handled the huge Svbony SV171 8-24mm zoom easily and that thing is pretty heavy 🙂 

I recently received an Svbony 1.25-inch diagonal that the ad said was dielectric, seems very well made and at the time was at a reduced price too from their Ali store, think it was under USD30. Mainly got it for the cheapie Celestron LT70 to replace its plastic thing but likely will use it on the TAL at least as much maybe more.

25 minutes ago, globular said:

Nice item Magnus.

You beat me to it when it was posted in the classified, so I got this instead...

and it is surprisingly good.  Nice shake free focusing by running my finger up or down the tie.

Recommended 

(Note to self: repaint garage floor)

Nice idea, just be careful if it ever ends pointed upward that you don't take yer eye out tho 😮 

Temperature controller arrived today so wired up and in a food box (don't have a spare and unfortunately too big to sit in the same box as the LDR one. Upside tho, easy access to the 3 push buttons to maintain settings if needed.

Again an in-line fuse just in case and Y-cabled for the source power. I joined the 2 outputs into a single plug feeding out to the sky dome as I didn't have another Y handy.

Placed the temp probe against the shed glass which should be good enough and set it ti turn on at or below 7C. So hopefully now with darkness or low temp the heating should turn on and keep the dew at bay. None last night but then the shed windows didn't dew up either so no surprise so awaiting a proper dewy night to know if it all works as desired.

Funnily enough when a friend in the US recently asked "Does it always rain there" I replied that sadly a lot, so many scopes and little chance to use them...

Does get frustrating for sure but  then there's other things to fiddle with so I'll just grab opportunities as they make themselves available 🙂

I'd avoid the type that have reversible polarity esp if that's achieved by fitting the tip in one or other orientation, too easy to refit incorrectly if it gets disconnected. Do you know the size of the plug required?

If it's a regular 5.5/2.1mm then a CCTV PSU would do just fine such as the one you linked. At 2A it'll more than handle the load when slewing fast etc and better to have lots of spare capacity than be running the PSU nearer to its limit. I have a 5A one for my SW SynScan mount when powered from mains or a LiPo car starter pack for when I can't and both work fine 🙂 

and for the cat lovers amongst us

given the date approaching tho, something like this might be fun to have

hmmm contemplating last night's image results I'm thinking a knock while it was all apart or being reassembled may have switched the IRcut filter out, the pink-ish foliage in the trees kinda give it away. Did wonder why the IR lighting was being picked up so strongly on the shed roof edge and trees so was figuring that might have been what happened.

The strong flare at the top edge too as that's the direction of the IR floods. Unfortunately being a webcam it doesn't have an IR switch ability so a dismantle will be needed to sort. Will have to check the trigger volts and see if I can just zap across the trigger wires when there's a long enough dry spell. Tho I do like the tree being partly lit up, adds atmosphere to the night sky view 🙂 but it does obscure parts of the sky elsewhere so I'll have to sort it I think, adding flocking to dull the internal reflections will only help a little unfortunately as these sit in the line of fire from the floods. Might be more reliable to glue an IRcut filter on the back of the lens if I still have any left but I'd rather avoid dismantling as far as poss.

it'll be a 12V DC but get a regulated one rated higher Amps than the unit needs, saves having problems when slewing etc, but check the docs or their website for the correct spec.

Are the battery contacts clean and in good order?

Always possible a wire has come loose internally but that'd mean dismantling and so on.

have you run it on rechargeable batteries before? 

They only give 1.2v per battery compared to 1.5v for alkaline cells so may be just not enough voltage to get it to power up. Worth trying a mains adaptor if you have a suitable regulated one of correct voltage.

9 minutes ago, reezeh said:

Nice!

And if I can make a recommendation to anyone who is wondering as to how to keep warm: I suggest a pocket warmer that runs off lighter fuel, such as by Zippo and Whitby. EBay is a good source of them; they have replaceable burners that last and the fuel is cheap. A few times I've had a warmer run for fifteen hours or more even though the maximum quoted time is 12.

The only two downsides are that they can smell like a cigarette lighter and because they use combustion they output water as a byproduct.

 

If interested, just search for Zippo / Whitby hand or pocket warmers on there.

The replacement burners are interchangeable so no worries about compatibility 😉

No, I'm not a seller or dealer; just making a recommendation and suggestion, because I don't believe in ones that are electrically powered and rechargeable as they're probably worse than those that use lighter fluid for the environment and economics. I work outdoors, so I use these things regularly when it gets cold. 

Very neat, I had to go google that to see how it works. The thought of putting something alight in my pocket isn't an idea I'd normally have lol

age old supply and demand thing most likely. Knows he has something that is likely in demand so chancing it to get as much as possible. Seen a lot of ads on the bay of late that are "opened never used" for scopes and gear and asking high prices. Experienced folk will generally avoid as we've got gear we can use but for someone wanting kit that isn't easily available at the moment some may well hit the buy button so they can scratch that itch.

well darkness has fallen and the controller has turned on, so far so good as they say...

tho annoyingly the IR illumination for the CCTV now seems to be adding its own effects 😞

Wasn't getting that circular pattern before so I guess will have to open the lid and pop some flocking in to try damp down any IR reflections and maybe shift the smaller dome over a bit more.

so some new resistors arrived today, 15 ohm ceramic. Got busy assembling a strip of 6 which at 12v should draw 122mA and give around 1.4W. Hooked to a 12v brick and they get warm but not hot, hoping that'll do tho I shrink wrapped, attached a wire and placed in the bottom of the dome.

Yep around the edge may be better but the size of these and space meant this was easier. Note I adapted the carrier for the OEM IR lighting array to carry the camera, which will give holes around the rim for the heat from the resistors to rise so am hoping this idea will work reasonably well 🙂

Couple screws to fix the rim to the main carrier and flock to mask the cable ties and screw heads and we're ready to refit the seal and dome

Managed to pop it back on the side of the shed now it'd stopped raining so just need to assemble the control for it. This will live inside the shed hence the rush to refit the dome, this bit I could take time over. The temperature controller hasn't turned up yet but this is the LDR just sat in a small translucent box.

Added an in-line fuse just in case and then pop into the shed, fit the connector on the end of the wire to the resistor string and hook up. Test and set the LDR trigger level and hopefully it'll fire up as it gets dark and do its work keeping things warm. Worst case I can swap out the resistors to up the heat and when the temp controller arrives it can get wired in parallel to the LDR unit so cold daytime it'll be on too.

Moved the smaller dome when I took this one down so the NW view is less obstructed. You can see the top of the dome along the bottom edge

I guess I may need to trim the LDR once things get dark, will see how that goes.

oh I figured on my LT70 that I can hit zenith via a cludge - drop the tripod leg height on one leg when the scope is as far as it'll go. Not ideal or too stable but then the small  frac is pretty lightweight. Not sure how well that'd work on the light-bucket versions 😉 

Always seems to be the way in a crisis when shortages hit. During the initial wave and after my sudden hospital stay I was looking at cat food on the likes of Amazon, prices were 2x or more what retail should have been via several opportunist sellers and also short on stock levels. Of course prime users who have the option of their grocery service were able to buy direct at more regular prices so I got my daughter to order me a couple large bags. Only just getting to the end of those now.

Anyone recall the great fuel blockade here? Long queues, small stations hiking prices etc. I used to travel round the country visiting clients back then and thankfully had filled the car on the last return just before it all went chaotic. Most visits after that were virtual and we either train'd into the office or worked from home for the duration. Some were auctioning by the gallon on the bay back then and according to the news one person bought 2 gallons for his ferrari at some stellar price. I looked over at my car with a full 17 gallons in the tank and pondered... but I didn't join that party. Of course the crisis ended not long after and I guess we'll never know if mr ferrari paid up or not 😄 

it is quite a surprise how well it works using just a smartphone isn't it 🙂 

looking at the moon earlier just naked eye and there was a huge halo effect around it and a lot of shimmer in the stars, so I've not bothered to set up to observe. With the shed windows already misted I expected seeing wouldn't be great and one kitty came in not long ago all damp so  probably a good decision 🙂 

oh yeah, like jelly on a plate 😄 

Moon maybe isn't helping as that part of the sky is very bright and seems hazy up there tonight too.

edit - any dewing issues? I notice my shed windows are all misted up already.