DaveL59

what concerned me on the theorising about finding a new earth was the idea that we'd lug crop that we use here, clearly not learned from introducing foreign species on our own planet and the effects that can have, we'll happily go do the some on another one too.

or the effect of a memory cell error 😮

in case anyone's wanting one, there's a 100R with wood tripod up on the bay at the moment https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224129836528?ul_noapp=true

not sure if this would help? https://thepihut.com/products/wifi-dongle-ultra-long-range-high-gain-w-5dbi-antenna Best check compatibility with your particular Pi model first, does sound like its a WiFi dongle and not just an aerial. Otherwise a directional WiMAX aerial if you can hook that to the Pi may get you the range to the home WiFi. https://tienda.siliceo.es/en/wifi-panel-antenna/121-alfa-network-apa-m04-7-dbi-gain-sma-directional.html Better solution tho would be run armoured/direct burial LAN cable back to the router and have something more reliable. You may want to put surge isolators on that too tho to give some protection to the end gear in case of spikes caused during electrical storms. edit - seems they've made the aerial integral to the board track print, bummer that'll limit any aerial mods I expect.

Agree Pete, is very hard to find a good lens for the 1080P format sensor. I'm using M12 and CS lenses but you have a view that is clipped top & bottom for what is available at sensible prices. Not so much of an issue here tho given it'd be picking up neighbouring houses. I've purchased "fast" starlight lens versions and they do help in terms of light throughput but the small aperture limits things along with the lack of slow shutter of the module. Not tried any unity lenses tho.

handy to know and a bargain price, what are the specs for resolution? I assume it's USB connected, wonder if sharpcap would pick it up. edit - ah ok, looks to be 640x480, pity as I think that's a bit low-res for a good view with a 150 degree lens

The IR on a webcam or cctv won't be up to illuminating the cloud level, best you'd get would be a switch from IRcut to a clear filter if it has on-board IRcut filter and a black&white image. This won't really improve anything tho in terms of sensor sensitivity. Stripping off the IRcut filter (on the back of the lens or off the sensor if it's the fixed type) again won't improve sensitivity very much and also not switch the camera from colour to B&W. It will tho mean daytime images will have an odd colour cast with foliage showing purple, for example. Also if you have any other IR sources like CCTV their IR will interfere with the image if their beam cuts across or onto the camera. Units that use the Sony IMX (starvis) sensors will do a bit better at low light but the limiting factor is usually exposure times. I've a couple of CCTV modules aimed at the sky and I can get some view of cloud at night so long as there's other skyglow to help, but limited to slow shutter of 1/20s it's not the best but does show the brightest stars. I have considered modifying a Logi C270 and running that via Sharpcap where you seem to be able to run slower shutter but this far I've not tried as I may need it for other things like remove interviews 🙂 A sky-cam using an astro camera would normally use a much longer exposure to achieve starfield capture but then you need to handle sensor temps to cut down on noise. edit - on the camera linked, I'd be real iffy about an ad that claims 12MP and then says its a 640x480 sensor, makes you wonder what else they aren't telling truths about

ahh ok, sounds like maybe you overshot, easy to do. with higher mag you need finer movements to hit the focus perhaps. At least is sounds like you aren't limited by focuser travel. For sure the weather isn't helping at the moment, now it's cleared a bit the planets are behind tree's here plus quite a breeze so I've not played at all tonight.

What sort of star/airy-disc shapes do you get either side of focus? If round then collimation isn't likely to be too far out but in any case I'd expect you to still be able to reach focus. I assume you were seeing an airy disc or image full of fuzz while trying to focus? Or was it just blackness? It's possible that the Ostara needs further in-travel to reach focus compared to the 25mm you have. Perhaps try in daylight on a bright distant target and see if you can find focus at all and where relative to the 25mm the focuser is set to.

I got the impression that Tal scopes were numbered per year restarting at 1 or whatever. My 100RS is 0985 dated 17-Dec-2003 according to the stamp in the manual. The Tal-1 is #0062 (1995) and the Tal-M #0067 (1996) and were both white (ish) paint rather than the grey of earlier ones so I'd be surprised if those serials were a continuous count for those models.

reading this thread makes me wonder if the 100RS came with 2 focuser options? The one I have has a R&P focuser that looks very different to the one pictured.

hmmm it'd not figure on daylight as I doubt the LDR would work that way, but... blinding it with IR may reduce it's ability to see movement across the PIR sensor field and achieve a result in it never turning on 😉

hi Mark you really need the mask set to 255.255.255.0 as the 4x255 setting you have on the Mac there would limit to a single address and could prevent things communicating. The Pi at least has decided on /24 which equates to 255.255.255.0 so it would be able to see the Mac just fine. You at least seem to have it working tho which is good.

yep that'd work Mark so long as you set the mask to be 255.255.255.0 on that interface edit - gotta love dual posts saying the same thing. great minds and all that 😉

Hi Mark if you have an old router then yes that should work, just plug the Pi and Mac into it and the router should assign them an IP each and they'd be able to chat. The problem with back to back connection is you do need to set an IP at each end, manually or neither will be able to use that link, but both ends will report link-up physically since the signal cables are in place. You may need a crossover cable or may not depending on the LAN interfaces, experimentation would be the only way to know if setting the IP's doesn't work then that'd be the next thing to try. If you are running cabled-direct then you have to set an IP manually with each end in the same IP range as the other and each on a unique address. It needs to be a different range than your main home network is using else the computer won't be able to route properly. Doesn't much matter what IP range you use being it is a private connection, but avoid using a known public one else your computer won't be able to reach it later. Should you have a spare router (not a switch tho) then the router would take care of address assignment so long as both Pi and Mac are still set to DHCP and you should be fine with a regular cable. Worth checking tho that the router is operating in a different IP range than your main home network else confusion will follow for the Pi, Mac and yourself 🙂 edit: Looking at the first steps in that linked article I do have to wonder if he's any idea about networking or just got lucky. Cable between 2 computers and leave network to DHCP... hmmm where's the DHCP server? It's on another physical LAN so it's not going to assign an address for a MAC address/LAN connection it cannot see. So it ends up with an APIPA address (169...) which is no use to anyone. Looks to me like in his case both are connected to a network with 192 addresses and the messing about with a direct cable and Bridge100 etc appears to work because of that and not the "knowledge" he's trying to impart and failing to.

So tonight the extender got its first test, very frustrating at the start. Jupiter and Saturn low so just above the fence and playing hide and seek behind the branches of the skeleton oak to the SE. So 25mm Plossl and up to 15mm and barlowed, very nice and clear then realised why they looked small, I was viewing via the finder! DOH!!! Switch to the main scope and that's much better, bigger and nice and sharp. I keep doing that with this scope but I guess that's testament to the finder. So time to try the extender. Manual says... focuser-extender-barlow-eyepiece. All I could get was dark with a bright fuzz and the spider vanes and the obstruction of the secondary. Not possible to focus at all anywhere in the range. Back to the eyepiece/barlow and planet behind branch. After a while trying I was thinking it was just not going to work but then I remembered that for this scope you can use regular 1.25-inch EP's via the barlow so it shifts the focal plane further out, hmmm. Tried again with the extender but this time focuser-barlow-extender-eyepiece and its a success! I got larger image once the focus was adjusted, on this scope I needed to wind the focuser almost all the way in but I got a nice image and could more easily make out the bands on Jupiter but not much fine detail but it is only 80mm being pushed to x139 after all. Saturn was nice and clear but not able to make out the division in the rings, no surprise there either. The refurb has worked well, controls nice and smooth, can't say if flocking has had a huge effect but it can't have hurt either and is a lot darker looking down the tube than the OEM paint that looked light grey. Probably be more noticeable against the moon than the planets. The DIY extender has completed the eyepiece set and allows the scope to reach the max x139 magnification in the spec for relatively little cost or effort so a good overall result I think 🙂

ahh to win big on the lottery and the move somewhere you'd have control of lighting... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-53838761/three-portsmouth-island-forts-go-on-sale-for-9m Tho sea mist and weather would likely still be problematic but what a location 🙂

it'll be best for planetary and moon really and maybe the bright DSO's and get you started in the hobby at least 🙂

the gift - an air blaster Hadn't expected on low cost mail it'd be sent by air as usually goes overland.

just had a call from one of the suppliers of astro bits n bobs about a package I've been anticipating any day, given it shipped some days ago. Seems they'd generously added a freebie that resulted in it being rejected back to sender as it contained an item not legal for air-shipping. Twas a struggle not to fall out of my chair laughing when he explained what had happened 😄

ahh collimation, scares a few off for sure, but isn't so hard once you learn how tho can be a frustrating learning experience 🙂 Thing for now is enjoy using what you have, learn your way around and if it's for you then think about upgrading when you've had a chance to reflect on what you want from the gear. Certainly a couple eyepieces or good x2 barlow may add flexibility and for those buy ones you can also use on a potential future scope, avoid the cheap stuff tho as they aren't worthwhile generally.

as a step up a 70mm or above would be better, 60 won't gain much at all. Depends on your budget but something with a better tripod/mount will add a lot to usability, or perhaps look to a newtonian rather than refractor as you'll get more aperture, say 130mm or above.

Tightening should help a bit as you really don't want the head wobbling that much. You do tho need a tiny amount of slack so that the head can rotate on the tripod so you can pan around to the targets, but only a very small amount of slack. A light smear of grease on the contact area may let you get things tighter but still allow movement that is smooth.

his mate sounds like someone worth knowing for sure 😉 Yeah too far for me and I need to watch spending now else I'd have loved to have the tripod/mount. Just had a couple of bargain 140mm tube rings drop through the letterbox tho, so that means I can pop the TAL-1 onto the EQ5 if I want, which I'll do when I'm ready to overhaul the pier and TAL mount.

a case of not doing the research before listing it at that price perhaps. For sure he got a mega bargain at £30, I never get that lucky! Even so still a bargain for the revised price, I've seen the tripod and mount only go for way more than that.