Brutha

Thanks all, some good ideas to play with there! I've done a bit of thinking, and for a fun project, I think I am going to build myself a little 3d printed Arduino based inclinometer with a red dot finder, bit like a Telrad but with a LED inclination measure as well as the dot - will post the results here later if I end up getting time to make it!

Hi All, I still don't really know my way around the night sky that well, so I often have trouble identifying which star is which, relative to what I've seen in Stellarium etc. One thing I thought might help is if I knew the elevation/altitude of the star in degrees, I could easily check that against Stellarium. I would like a quick and easy way to do this, without having to get the scope out etc. So, I tried the "Measure" app on my iPhone, and sighting along the side of the phone worked very well! But it's a bit of a pain - you can't see the readout at the same time as sighting on the object you are measuring. Does anyone know of an app which could give me the elevation read out while looking at the front of the phone? Then I'll 3d print a little sight to pop on the top of the phone! Also interested in other suggestions for achieving the same thing! Thanks, Brutha

Do you have the free Stellarium program? You can add the comet (configuration / Plugins / Solar System Editor / Configure - click "Import Orbital Elements". I chose "MPCs list of observable comets". Then you can see for a given time the position in the sky of the comet at your location. It gives both Alt/Az and RA/DEC co-ordinates. BUT - I would be very surprised if a 4.5" scope will show it (I am no expert however!).

One thing you might consider is a 550d 2nd hand from Ebay, I got one for £125 with an 18-55 kit lens earlier this year. I had quite a few failed bids before that one though!

Hi All, In case someone finds it useful, I've put together a small 3d printed adapter to let me fit a red dot finder (Celestron Starpointer in my case) to the hot shoe in my DSLR (Canon 550d / T2i). It's 3d printed in 3 pieces, then you'll need a little super glue and a M3 bolt and nut to fit the pieces together - the STL files are attached below. I also have the FreeCAD file - but since it's a bit of a fudge (due to redesigns as I went along!), I won't upload that unless someone particularly wants it! Basically, glue the M3 nut into the relevant space in the "nut" piece, glue an M3 bolt pointing upwards into the bottom of the base, then snap / glue the rail on top. One note: print the rail with it pointing upwards, rather than lying flat (this means the layers are stronger for the RDF to grip, rather than risking splitting them apart). Cheers Brutha hsbase3.stl hsnut.stl hsrail.stl

As an update, we finally had some clear skies last night so I managed to get the "first light"! Very happy with it, quick views of Saturn and Jupiter (both a bit blurry as close to the horizon, but could see for example the shadow of saturn on the rings at the back). Then onto various deep sky objects, Andromeda galaxy and a number of "M" objects from the "sky tour" option. It was all a bit rushed, and I didn't really know what I was supposed to be looking at in most cases since I hadn't expected to get clear skies! Still, I am hoping for clear skies again tonight, so I've planned things using "Tonight's Sky". If anyone has any particular suggestions for things to see at the moment (from north of UK), please let me know! The 3 star alignment didn't work the first time I tried, so I switched to the 2-star auto. This worked nicely - even if I didn't know what I was looking at, there were clearly grey smudges close to the centre of the view!

Thanks! I guess you’re happy with it? Re: the evolution, I did consider that. But it is an awful lot extra for something that theoretically won’t give much better views (and I have additional issues with the delivery of things with large batteries, due to my location). So, in the end I pulled the trigger on an 8SE! Cheers Brutha

Hi All, I've had a Skywatcher Mak127 for a few years, and have enjoyed what I've seen through it (had less opportunity than I would have liked though!). But will hopefully get a bit more chance this year for various reasons, so I'm thinking of upgrading; the Mak is quite nice, but the goto is a bit fiddly (I use the wifi dongle to connect), and the scope is also pretty much designed for planets. I'd like to get something that will give a bit more deep sky stuff, but be pretty much as convenient as the Mak, meaning I can carry it in and outside easily. From a bit of reading around it sounds like the Celestron Nexstar 8SE might fit the bill, it seems to get pretty good reviews. It seems to be around £1300 new these days in the UK. Are there any other similar options that people would suggest? Thanks! Brutha