DaveL59

gave the scope a quick test pointing at Mars and the Moon a short time ago in a brief break in the cloud. Using the SV171 zoom it performed very well with no false colour on the moon at all. Wobbly as heck when adjusting anything but with the tripod legs extended no surprise there. Nice that it's so light that going for a smoke and seeing a clear patch it was literally seconds to pick it up and pop it into the garden and enjoy the view. My others take much more effort. So not too bad for a very low cost scope really.

No chance to try the starsense tho as too much cloud and wasn't long before the next lot engulfed everything. It does warn about the moon and suggests aiming elsewhere but that side of the visible sky for me was all cloud so it'll have to wait for another night.

my daughter has one of these on order for my birthday

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Telescope-2-1-25-Inch-Eyepiece-Holder-Carrier-Bag-Sponge-Inside-Portable-Case/163754276544?hash=item262083f6c0:g:CfIAAOSw5Z9fNmJ6

Hopefully being close to the body it'll not need any extra heating 🙂 

I've ordered some acetal sheet to make up a rig for the phone using either a prism or mirror but while I wait for that to arrive I thought I'd have a play using some acetate sheet, flock and a prism from a 10x50.

and in the joby phone holder

Not ideal as I had to set the phone low in the holder and of course the power button is pressed if you clamp the holder too far lol.

Kinda works tho 🙂

5 minutes ago, Coyote00 said:

Well I got a deal on this because I bought it as a refurbished scope directly from celestron, but they said they will expedite repair as it arrived broken and not just being sent in for normal warranty work. 

at least you got a result if they can turn it around quickly 🙂

You can always repaint the inner of the tube later on if you want, or flock it which would probably perform better.

easier to take another boxed scope from stock than to have to source a replacement pair of mirrors that likely aren't sat on the shelf for the supplier.

14 minutes ago, Stardaze said:

Ah ha, you got one of those awful boxes too for the filter 😄

yep and it did exactly that, ping, oh WTF!  hmmm oh well 😄 

6 minutes ago, jetstream said:

The way things are going I think I'll keep love and cherish my six telescopes

Edit- oops 7 scopes👍

snap! 😉 

I tried, but new toy = resistance is futile

Sure it's a bit wobbly when adjusting but actually it ain't too bad really. Tripod feels real lightweight so I'm wondering if it'd sit better if I can transfer the mount yolk over to a foto tripod but not too fussed at the moment. The diagonal does appear to be a mirror rather than an erect image prism which was unexpected. Awkward to insert into the focuser tho even with the screws backed right off so tolerances not good. Focuser is plastic but held that huge SV171 zoom fine and gave a fair view of distant tree tops even zoomed to 8mm. Slight CA perhaps but otherwise a pleasant image given the flat grey skies here.

Looks tiny compared to some of my others pictured here 🙂 

So this could be a nifty little lightweight grab n go perhaps...

edit: scrub that comment about the diagonal, my bad I realise after viewing through it that it is erecting after all, doh! I've an svbony dielectric mirror one on order to improve the use under stars.

Hi John

The motor drive would only be for the RA axis unless you got a dual motor version. You'd need to make sure the mount is set up so the RA axis is aimed north and have the latitude set up so that once on target the RA drive will track reasonably to keep the object in view.

For a finder are you thinking something electronic, or a manual unit such as an optical or RDF? Bear in mind that the finder will help you get the target in view for the lower mag (25mm) eyepiece but you'd then need to centre it possibly using a higher mag eyepiece (10mm) so that it'd be on the sensor of the camera you are using. 

Unfortunately making the EP and camera parfocal isn't likely to be easy so you may still have to run to and fro to tweak. You might have some success fitting parfocal rings to the eyepiece so they match the camera without needing to adjust the focuser position, assuming there's only a small amount of travel, or measure how much travel and get an extender tube of the required length. A remote focuser that you can operate from the PC would be easiest but likely won't be cheap if even possible on your scope.

I recently received an SVBony SV171 8-24 zoom eyepiece and it seems good tho I've not done any real testing yet given the poor weather we've been having over here. There's some reports on CN to say it seems to be reasonably good and at that price I thought it worth a look. Very weighty and feels a quality build and the brief test it seems to work well.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001337671438.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.47.38767fb2bhWdu6

Might be a bit heavy for the scope you have tho but they do a 7-12 zoom which is lighter.

Also just ordered an SVBony diagonal but the more expensive metal bodied one and is at a nice price if you can wait for it to arrive:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32881221402.html?spm=2114.12010612.8148356.9.62ae2b74z43HwF

Description says its dielectric so hopefully should perform well.

I was hoping to avoid the expense of more electronics tho John, hence was updating the N3 OS which was a top-line phone back in 2012. The app installed fine but says unsupported but I was hoping that was just because it saw that it wasn't in the supported list from its hardware ID. Seems its a bit more than that, pity. Not a problem really given I have a newer N10 that it is happy with, so far. Might just drop the N3 back to the note-7 ROM port that was droid v6 and get the sPen functionality back and live with this limitation. It'd still run SkEye on that ROM so no great loss.

It's easier to get new cases for the N10 too so I can always get another case to mod for a mirror/prism rig for this setup.

Wonder if I can get Celestron to delete the N3 registration so I'd still have 4 phones to activate on 😉 

ok phone compatibility. I've unlocked the note-3 which I updated to android 10. App reports not compatible but press on and see. Unlocked just fine but the app crashes as you go through the alignment. Saying it is aligned it crashes again, so I guess they may be related to the camera hardware. Oh well, unlocked the note-10 and that goes through the alignment stuff just fine so I guess I'll be using the 10 for starsense and the 3 for SkEye/pics at the eyepiece then.

Such is life, worth a go and I might have a play with other custom ROMs some day and see if another will run it any better on the note-3. Being older but premium hardware and I'm cheating re the android version I was hopeful but ran into the rocks on this so far lol.

perhaps John, tho I did rig something for now...

Only held with 2 screws this way and I had to dig around to find a couple longer ones to suit but here it is piggy back on a tube ring on the TAL-1, seems quite stable 🙂

I'll have a hunt around for a thin plate so it can be more secure but for how this'll work I think. I've opted this route as I can simply transfer the camera bar over to the SW130 or the TAL100RS much as I'd planned on for the SkEye rig using a regular phone holder. Longer term I'll likely rig a prism/mirror onto the Joby holder so I can use that in either Starsense/SkEye mode and return this mount back to the LT70 for when I pass the scope on to my daughter.

Did a quick test using a prism out of an old 10x50 bino and it gives much the same view as the mirror in this mount so I think that may be a workable solution if I can rig some suitable mounting for it later on.

so having just received my LT70 this morning I had a quick explore of the hardware, shame the foot is tapered or it'd be a real simple fix in the joby phone holder. It holds but not ideal to be able to rely on it remaining stable. I guess a rubber band under the phone might work tho.

I notice that the view from the camera with the note-3 is pretty good in terms of corners and edges, but the note-10 clips and the phone itself cuts the view. Different camera arrangements plus I think the 10 has a wider FoV:

The above is with the camera set to 1x, hopefully won't affect function. Will see later if I can register the note-3 also and if that'll work. Would be nice as the plan was to retire the N3 to be a mini tablet and for astro use so that'd be my preferred rig if the hardware can support the app.

Will have a look at the OEM foot and see what I can to to transfer it onto a camera bar in a while.

so today the nice man from DPD dropped this off

and I added a variable polarizing filter which they'd popped inside for me

54 minutes ago, Skipper Billy said:

I can't pretend to understand 90% of the technical aspect of this thread but I do recognise several rare and special things.

People with specialist knowledge that are happy to share it freely

People helping each other because they can

People seeing an issue through to its end

Men asking for help!!! 😉 

Well done all of you.

As an observer this is truly heartwarming.

 

talking of which, did you manage to get the mirror on your 5d sorted in the end?

according to tracking, mine left Dartford, reached Birmingham hub and is now on its way back south to Sittingbourne depot. Delivery supposed to be tomorrow so finders crossed... Pity I couldn't have picked it up myself as they aren't so far away and I'd have had it Friday.

Looking good! 🙂 

yeah I expect it did, had to be worth a few mins and a low cost part to see and it paid dividends 🙂

For a heatsink, something like this should do fine

or if its getting very warm (hot) then something like this

Just be careful when fitting that it isn't in contact with any pins, and be aware that that big metal tab is connected to one of the pins (centre=ground) so any short from the heatsink to another contact point or component risks blowing things again.

I overhauled the Manfrotto 222 I picked up for a song and a nice simple job, works really well and as you say Peter easy to adjust for the load.

Wow that is good news Adam, surprised it survived with 12v hitting the 5v rail but great result all the same, plus you know some options if it barfs again to troubleshoot or build a replacement 🙂 

Out of interest, how warm does that 7805 run? Might be worth fitting a heatsink just to improve its longevity.

2 minutes ago, Steve Clay said:

I've installed on a S9 the app did say beta. It wouldn't install on the J3.

yeah my note 10 seems happy and I've kinda some hopes the N3 might fly as I was thinking it can just be a mini tablet for astro stuff but being it dates from 2012 ish Will have to see when I can enter the code and try it out.

For the J3 what version of android is it running (about and software version) as you'd need to be on at least 7.1.2 I think. From the specs it didn't have a magnetometer so if starsense expects that then there's not much you can do about it. That said, Celestron do list the J3 in their compatibility list
https://starsenseexplorer.simcur.com/

I can't give a definitive answer to your options but I believe a new PIC would need to be programmed.

For the what happened, sounds about right. It's very likely the PIC got fried when the regulator failed, tho it's a simple job to replace it and roll the dice and see if you got lucky. If not it can be removed and put in the spares drawer 😉 I guess the 7805 wasn't heatsinked but then it's a pretty low power circuit so may have been fine like that.

Sounds like the bluetooth module switches the open/close command via relays, effectively being the same as pressing a manual button so the simple circuit steppenwolf describes may well suffice if the bluetooth module holds the relay closed for a long enough duration or the motor controller will operate on a momentary trigger.

edit - having said this, I realised that the relays you replaced are 12v rather than 5v, so I'm not so sure you'd be able to prove function if you did swap out the 7805. Possible your original relays may still be functional so if you swapped those back onto the board as well you might be able to determine if there's life...

hi Astrid

that last short bar is the originally supplied part that comes with the mount. As you already have a long dovetail on the OTA then you can just put this short part aside as you won't need it. It may come in useful later on if you get a short OTA scope or want to run a camera directly on the mount.

For the SloMo control knobs the pic below shows where they are on my mount. You might notice I'm using the short bar here too, to mount the wood carrier for this particular scope which is a vintage one 🙂 

I did reset the clutch levers so they lay "level" or at least within the boundary of the moving part, saves the lever colliding with other parts of the mount as you rotate the axis. Easy to do, lock it tight, undo the screw and lift the lever off, reposition as desired and refit the screw.

I believe this is the one you'd need
https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/non-latching-relays/0369466/

but please do verify before buying 🙂